The Greatest Commodity (First Draft)

The Claytronic Man

A year passed, during which Nevil learned how to cope with his loss of Humanity. With the guidance of the robots, Nevil gradually learned how to function as a robot.

It was high noon. The bluish-gray sky was littered with fluffy clouds.

"CAW!" Nevil crowed. In his mind he was laughing. But outside, he was a Raven. "CAW! CAW! CAW!" He was perched in a tree. He'd learned to give up the notion of having a human body as an absolute necessity, though he was planning to use it continuously while raising the new population of Earth.

It was so long ago, already, since he'd been Human; and even longer since he was the commander of a warship. He remembered those who once served under his command, and silently cursed himself for having failed them.

It was interesting, Aquila's story. Apparently, as Nevil lay nearly dead on his bed. Harvey had attempted treason and murder, only to be subdued by Aquila and erased. Nevil's mind now occupied what was once Harvey's body. Nevil didn't feel too bad about this. Harvey had been insufferably arrogant and convinced of his own superiority -- not to mention that he betrayed Nevil and attempted to kill him. Harvey reaped what he sowed, and he had sown trouble.

A gust of wind blew through the trees -- exactly what Nevil was waiting for. He lifted his wings and took off, riding the breeze through the air, flapping occasionally to keep himself up. He flew in the direction of his Estate, zigzagging slightly to the left and right so he could see ahead of him as the eyes of a Raven are mounted on the sides and thus can't see directly forward.

His Estate, a large mansion maintained by robots, grew larger in his vision until he flew over the stylized brick wall surrounding the property. And soon he came in for a landing on the porch railing. "CAW!" He called. Then spoke in English. "I'm home!"

He morphed back into his default human form and entered the building.

Inside, there were numerous robots working discreetly to maintain the huge structure. Nevil left them to their work.

He went to his library. A massive room lined with bookshelves of epic proportions. A Cathedral of books. Nevil had personally raided thousands of libraries over the years and used his robots to raid millions more. He had more books than he could ever have read in a human lifetime -- a good thing for him, that he was no longer restricted by a human lifetime.

He perused the shelves, picking a genre and searching for a book to read. Somewhere on these shelves were copies of his own books, works he wrote during his long stay on Luna.

Nevil was surprised to find Aquila waiting for him. The gray blob -- in human form -- sat in a large armchair. Aquila had a small book in its lap. It closed the book and turned to Nevil. "I was trying to see what you find interesting in these."

Nevil picked up the book. He read its cover, Bear, an old Canadian erotic novel about a relationship between a woman and a bear. Nevil winced at the thought.

Aquila eyed his reaction. "I read most of the book while you were out." It said. "I find the content to be highly explicit, James. And socially unacceptable by human standards."

Nevil threw the book out the door. A robot came and picked it up. "Can you take that thing outside and burn it, please?" Nevil asked the robot. It made no reply other than to depart with the book, hopefully, to destroy it. As it left, it glanced at the cover, flicked through the pages, and afterward held it with two fingers as if it were a dirty rag.

Nevil turned back to Aquila. "I assure you that most books are not like..." He reddened. "that." He said, somewhat embarrassed.

"It doesn't matter," Aquila said, brushing it off. "I was wanting to ask you about gravitics."