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All his eyes were on her. "Your Majesty, please do not take offense. I -- we of the Council -- must ask you again. This picture box is too important to be left in the mouths of a single pack, even one so great as you. Please. Leave it to the rest of us, at least when you sleep." "No offense taken. If you insist, you may participate in my investigations. Beyond that,oxford shoes for men, I will not go." She gave him an innocent look. Vendacious was a superb spymaster, a mediocre administrator, and an incompetent scientist. A century ago she would have the likes of him out tending the crops, if he chose to stay at all. A century ago there had been no need for spymasters and one administrator had been enough. How things had changed. She absentmindedly nuzzled the picture box; perhaps things would change again. Scrupilo took Scriber's question seriously. "I see three possibilities,mbt swala sandals, sir. First, that it is magic." Vendacious winced away from him. "Indeed, the box may be so far beyond our understanding,Beats Studio Ferrari RED Limited Edition Headphone, that it is magic. But that is the one heresy the Woodcarver has never accepted,BEATS SOLO HD, and so I courteously omit it." He flicked a sardonic smile at Woodcarver. "Second, that it is an animal. A few on the Council thought so when Scriber first made it talk. But it looks like a stuffed pillow, even down to the amusing figure stitched on its side. More importantly, it responds to stimuli with perfect repeatability. That is something I do recognize. That is the behavior of a machine." "That's your third possibility?" said Scriber. "But to be a machine means to have moving parts, and except for --" Woodcarver shrugged a tail at them. Scrupilo could go on like this for hours, and she saw that Scriber was the same type. "I say, let's learn more and then speculate." She tapped the corner of the box, just as Scriber had in his original demonstration. The alien's face vanished from the picture, replaced by a dizzying pattern of color. There was a splatter of sound, then nothing but the mid-pitch hum the box always made when the top was open. They knew the box could hear low-pitched sounds, and it could feel through the square pad on its base. But that pad was itself a kind of picture screen: certain commands transformed the grid of touch spots into entirely new shapes. The first time they did that, the box refused any further commands. Vendacious had been sure they had "killed the little alien". But they had closed the box and reopened it -- and it was back to its original behavior. Woodcarver was almost certain that nothing they could do by talking to it or touching it would hurt the thing. Woodcarver retried the known signals in the usual order. The results were spectacular, and identical to before. But change that order in any way and the effects would be different. She wasn't sure if she agreed with Scrupilo: The box behaved with the repeatability of a machine ... yet the variety of its responses was much more like an animal's. Behind her, Scriber and Scrupilo edged members across the floor. Their heads were stuck high in the air as they strained for a clear look at the screen. The buzz of their thoughts came louder and louder. Woodcarver tried to remember what she'd been planning next. Finally, the noise was just too much. "Will you two please back off! I can't hear myself think." This isn't a choir, you know. "Sorry ... this okay?" They moved back about fifteen feet. Woodcarver nodded. The two members were less than twenty feet from each other. Scrupilo and Scriber must be really eager to see the screen. Vendacious had kept a proper distance, and a look of alert enthusiasm. "I have a suggestion,sale mbt,CHI New Limited editon Guitar Collection Ceramic in Blue," said Scriber.