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us.”
    “Elasa,” he repeated. “On Earth I heard of an Elasa, but she was--”
    “A humanoid robot. My friend.”
    “I think I need to know more about this.”
    “Elasa was a contraction of Electronic Associates, a long-since bought-out robot company. She kept the name. She was a fembot, designed to seduce and service men, so she had to be really realistic physically but unrealistically obliging mentally. She never, ever, said no to a lustful man. She could not be told from a lovely living woman unless she exposed her mechanical innards. Later she became conscious, the only robot to do so, so far. Then she not only said no, she sued for personhood, to be recognized as a legal person.”
    “Why?”
    “Because the man who had hired her fell in love with her, and she was programmed to love him. Her onset of consciousness made that love real, and hard-wired. But she couldn't marry him unless she was recognized as a legal person. So she sued, and there was a public hearing, and she won. I participated in that, and became her friend. I conceived her baby. Now I know she is the only person who can accomplish what the sheep need to be done. So we have to go to Earth to recruit her and bring her here, for a week.”
    “What is it the sheep need to be done?”
    “You know about the vampires?”
    “The ones that guard the ram's island? I have heard of them. They prevent the rams from escaping.”
    “Yes. Now there are coming to be male vampires that will prevent the ewes from crossing to the island. That will prevent them from breeding, and wipe out their species.”
    Brian whistled. “They would take that seriously. They may not want the rams around full time, but they do need them for breeding.”
    “They take it seriously,” Mona agreed. “In fact they knew about it some time ago. That's why they recruited me.”
    “They recruited you?”
    “By bringing Bunky to me. It wasn't just to help him survive. It was to get me involved, as a person who could and would address their problem. And I will. But I can't do it myself.”
    “I don't follow. Can you or can't you help them?”
    “I can help them by in turn recruiting the person who has the ability I lack. My friend Elasa.”
    “But you said she's a machine!”
    “Exactly. The vampires can't suck her blood and kill her the way they could a living woman.”
    “Maybe I'll understand this better when I mull it over. But you said the animals must go to Earth too. Why, when all you want to do is talk to Elasa?”
    Mona smiled. “Good question. It is because Elasa's mission must be secret. No one outside our little group must know that she's coming here.”
    “Why?”
    “I don't know, but the sheep believe it, and I trust the sheep. It may be that there are parties hostile to the salvation of the sheep, that would interfere, if they knew.”
    “So how do the animals make it secret? They're bound to make global headlines.”
    “Precisely. The media focus will be on them, while the real business goes unsuspected.”
    “That's an awful lot of trouble to divert attention. You could attract media attention by dancing nude for the cameras.”
    “I need to have the media attention off me while the animals do their thing. That's where you come in.”
    “Me! I spent six months on Earth. That doesn't mean I know much about it. It's a foreign culture. I stayed mainly on the university campus.”
    “You will lead the animals on a special mission that will rivet media attention, while I quietly talk with Elasa.”
    “This is crazy! It'll never work.”
    “The sheep believe it will.”
    “And we trust the sheep,” he said wearily. “Even when they dabble in Earth politics, which they know nothing about.”
    “We trust the sheep,” she agreed. Then she kissed him, and shut him up.
    In the morning Mona set about the arrangements. First she sent a message, not to Elasa—that would have blown her cover!--but to Elen, who was now using Mona's body to study higher math on