Shepherd by Piers Anthony Page A

lawyer. We knew we would need someone competent to handle our interplanetary marriage. Now it seems that need has magnified.”
    “Yes. You will meet my father this afternoon,” Mona said. “Now we must get our personal business aligned.”
    “Whether you really want to exchange to a woman who is five months pregnant, and birth her baby,” Shep said. “I will understand if you don't.”
    “Oh, but I do. My closeness with Elasa has impressed on me the joys of motherhood. This is a way for me to experience them without permanent commitment.” She glanced at Elasa, still nursing. “I am jealous. I want to bear and nurse my baby. But I can't if I am to pursue my career. This is a unique compromise that allows me to have the best of both worlds.”
    Shep shook his head. “I am not a woman. I don't face that particular choice.”
    “There is more,” Mona said. “Just as Elasa will watch over my body while I am away, we want your wife to watch over Elasa's body, since I will be unable to do it.”
    Perplexed, Shep looked at Elasa. “You have a medical condition? I'm sure Elen will help in any way she can. But she will not be familiar with Earth, and she will be taking math courses. She may not have much time.”
    “Not exactly,” Elasa said. She handed the baby to Mona, leaving her breasts exposed. “But I am not the way I appear.”
    “You appear to me to be a complete woman.”
    Mona kissed Bela, who evidently liked her company. “Oh, she is, she is.”
    “Observe, please.” Elasa put her fingers to her cleavage, pulling against the inner slops of her breasts. Then the breasts swung outward as though hinged, showing a metallic chamber where her lungs should be.
    Shep stared. “You had reconstructive surgery? But your chest is hollow!”
    “More than that,” Elasa said. She put her right hand on her left hand, and twisted. The left hand came off, leaving a bloodless stump for a wrist.
    “I don't understand,” Shep said. “Were you in a terrible accident, and have prosthetics?”
    “Worse,” Mona said. She was holding Bela to face his mother, and he was not at all disturbed. He must have seen this before.
    “Worse?” he asked blankly.
    Elasa put her left hand back in place and twisted it on. It functioned; she spread her fingers and made a little fist. Then she raised both hands to her head. She took hold of her ears, twisted, and lifted. Her head came off.
    Bela laughed. He must have seen this show before too.
    Shep thought he was going to faint. Then at last he caught on. “You're a robot!”
    Elasa made the head nod. Then she set it back on her neck and twisted it into place. She took a breath, as she had been unable to speak with her head off. “I am,” she agreed. “A conscious female humanoid robot, or femdroid. My details are subject to change without notice, which can amuse my husband.”
    Shep could imagine why. “But—but how could you nurse?”
    “My breasts are separate functioning units.” She put her hands on them and closed her chest. Once again she looked like a living and quite sexy woman. She closed up her shirt.
    “On rare occasion her awareness vacates,” Mona said. “Then she is no longer a legal person, and her baby and husband reject her. It is a crisis.”
    “A crisis,” Shep agreed, awed.
    “If it happens while I am away, Elen will have to help. To cover for her, hold her baby, and get her safely isolated. With luck it won't happen, or if it does, won't last long. As with a computer glitch; resetting can often fix it.”
    “The reset switch is under my chin,” Elasa said. “But this is a private matter best attended to by a friend.”
    Shep was bemused. “Are you sure you want to be away?” he asked Mona.
    “Oh, yes. The risk to Elasa is small, and I must take this opportunity. But we felt it was necessary for you to know, and for your wife to know, just in case.”
    “Just in case,” Shep agreed weakly. He had thought the sheep were strange?
    “Now on to