Editing The Lonely (section)

==Plot==
In the space age, an inmate named Corry, convicted of murder, is sentenced to fifty years' [[solitary confinement]] on a distant [[asteroid]]. On the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the fourth year of incarceration, he is visited by the [[spacecraft]] (flown by a Captain Allenby) that brings him supplies and news from [[Earth]] four times a year. While Corry expects that perhaps he and Allenby will have time to play cards or chess, the captain informs the inmate that the ship and crew can stay only fifteen minutes this time; the asteroid's orbit is such that they would otherwise be stuck fourteen days at least, awaiting favorable orbital conditions to depart. Allenby's crew resent being away from Earth because of the likes of Corry.

Allenby has been trying to make Corry's stay humanely tolerable by bringing him things to take his mind off the loneliness, like the components to build an old car. He believes Corry that the killing was in self-defense and sympathizes with him. On this particular trip, the transport crew delights in bringing news that Corry's pardon was rejected and that murder cases are not even being reviewed. This causes Corry to feel that there is no way he is going to last out the years and the loneliness. Before leaving, Allenby orders his men to fetch a large crate which the captain instructs Corry to not open until the transport crew is out of sight—they have no clue what is inside the box.

Upon opening this special container, Corry discovers that Allenby has left him with a [[gynoid]] named Alicia to keep him company. Alicia is capable of emotions and memory and has a lifespan comparable to a human. At first, Corry detests her, rejecting her as a mere [[machine]]; synthetic skin and wires only capable of mocking him. However, when Corry hurts Alicia and sees that she is in fact capable of crying, he realizes that she has feelings. Over the next eleven months, Corry begins to fall in love with her. Alicia develops a personality that mirrors Corry's, and the days become bearable.

When the ship returns, Captain Allenby brings news that the murder cases have been reviewed and Corry has been pardoned. He can return home to Earth immediately but they only have twenty minutes before they must leave; the crew has been dodging meteors and are nearly out of fuel. Corry learns that, because there are seven other passengers from other asteroids on the ship, there is only room for him and fifteen pounds of luggage. He is initially unconcerned as he doesn't have fifteen pounds' worth of possessions that he cares about; then he realizes that Allenby does not consider Alicia human. The fifteen-pound limit is far too small to accommodate her. He frantically tries to find some way to take Alicia with him, arguing that she is not a robot, but a woman, and insisting that Allenby simply does not know Alicia as he does. At that point, just as the transport crew is surprised at the sight of Alicia, the captain suddenly draws his gun and shoots her in the face. The robot breaks down, malfunctioning, her face a mass of wire and broken circuitry which repeats the name "Corry". Allenby then takes Corry back to the ship, assuring him he will only be leaving behind [[loneliness]]. "I must remember that," Corry says tonelessly. "I must remember to keep that in mind."