"I hope you'll make him a moth instead of a bedbug," Len said as he got
up. "Kujack's just beginning to see the light. Be a shame if you give
him a negative tropism to it instead of a positive one." He turned to
Kujack, wobbling a little. "So long, kid. I'll pick you up at seven and
we'll drive into New York to have a few with Steve. He's going to be
very happy to hear we've got the whole thing figured out."
I spent two hours with Kujack, getting him used to the extremely
delicate push-button controls. I must say that, drunk or sober,
he's a very apt pupil. In less than two hours he actually walked! A
little unsteadily, to be sure, but his balance will get better as he
practices and I iron out a few more bugs, and I _don't_ mean bedbugs.
For a final test, I put a little egg cup on the floor, balanced a
football in it, and told Kujack to try a place kick. What a moment! He
booted that ball so hard, it splintered the mirror on the wall.
* * * * *
_November 27, 1959_
Long talk with the boss. I gave it to him straight about breaking up
the lab into K-Pro and N-Pro, and about there being little chance that
Goldweiser would come up with anything much on the neuro end for a
long, long time. He was awfully let down, I could see, so I started to
talk fast about the luck I'd been having on the kinesthetic end. When
he began to perk up, I called Kujack in from the corridor and had him
demonstrate his place kick.
He's gotten awfully good at it this past week.
"If we release the story to the press," I suggested, "this might make
a fine action shot. You see, Kujack used to be one of the best kickers
in the Big Ten, and a lot of newspapermen will still remember him."
Then I sprang the biggest news of all. "During the last three days of
practice, sir, he's been consistently kicking the ball twenty, thirty
and even forty yards farther than he ever did with his own legs. Than
anybody, as a matter of fact, ever has with real legs."
"That's a wonderful angle," the boss said excitedly. "A world's record,
made with a cybernetic leg!"
"It should make a terrific picture," Kujack said. "I've also been
practicing a big, broad, photogenic grin." Luckily the boss didn't hear
him--by this time he was bending over the legs, studying the solenoids.
After Kujack left, the boss congratulated me. Very, _very_ warmly. It
was a most gratifying moment. We chatted for a while, making plans for
the press conference, and then finally he said, "By the way, do you
happen to know anything about your friend Ellsom? I'm worried about
him. He went off on Thanksgiving and hasn't been heard from at all ever
since."
That was alarming, I said. When the boss asked why, I told him a
little about how Len had been acting lately, talking and drinking more
than was good for him. With all sorts of people. The boss said that
confirmed his own impressions.
I can safely say we understood each other. I sensed a very definite
rapport.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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