The voice stopped so suddenly that Bowman froze for a moment, his hand still grasping one of the memory blocks still in circuit. Then, unexpectedly, Hal spoke again.

The speech tempo was much slower, and the words had a dead, mechanical intonation; he would never have recognized their origin.

"Good... morning... Doctor... Chandra... This is... Hal... I... am... ready... for... my first... lesson... today..."

Bowman could bear no more. He jerked out the last unit, and Hal was silent forever.