"I didn't say it did. I just wondered if you'd heard anything."
"No more'n I've heard about you--who are in exactly the same position!"
"Exactly," Mike agreed. "That's what I wanted to know. Pete, if you've got it to spare, I'll join you in that toast."
Pete Jeffers grinned. "Comin' right up, buddy-boy."
He poured two more cups of coffee, spiked them from a small flask of brandy, and handed one to Mike. They drank in silence.
Fifteen minutes later, Mike the Angel was in the little office that Leda Crannon shared with Dr. Fitzhugh. She was alone.
"You look beautiful," he said. He wasn't lying. She looked drawn and tired, but she still looked beautiful.
Mike the Angel pulled up a chair and sat down. "Where's Doc Fitz?"
"He's still trying to get information out of Snookums. It's a weird thing, Mike--a robot with a soul."
"All right, answer me a question," he said. "Can Snookums read English?"
"Certainly. And Russian, and German, French, Chinese, and most of the other major languages of Earth."
"Yes. But not unless it was given to him and he was specifically told to use its contents as data."
"Good," said Mike. "Now, suppose Snookums was given complete data on a certain field of knowledge. Suppose further that this field is internally completely logical, completely coherent, completely self-consistent. Suppose it could even be reduced to a series of axioms and theorems in symbolic logic."
"Now, further suppose that this system, this field of knowledge is, right now, in constant use by millions of human beings, even though most of them are unaware of the implications of the entire field. Could Snookums work with such a body of knowledge?"
"What if there was absolutely no way for Snookums to experiment with this knowledge? What if he simply did not have the equipment necessary?"
"You mean," she asked, "something like astrophysics?"
"No. That's exactly what I don't mean. I'm perfectly well aware that it isn't possible to test astrophysical theories directly. Nobody has been able to build a star in the lab so far.
"But it _is_ possible to test the theories of astrophysics analogically by extrapolating on data that _can_ be tested in a physics lab.
"What I'm talking about is a system that Snookums, simply because he is what he is, cannot test or experiment upon, in any way whatsoever. A system that has, in short, no connection with the physical world whatsoever."