"FULL MOON 2000 (6) - THE GODS III - THE BRIGHTNESS (George Townsend) - a" - читать интересную книгу автора (Townsend George)
FULL MOON 2000 (6) - THE GODS III - THE BRIGHTNESS (George Townsend)
THE GODS III - THE BRIGHTNESS
George Townsend
1
S'Ha Hazur rose wearily to his feet, leaning heavily on his stick, a
sinking feeling in his stomach, as the doctor slowly approached him down
the corridor. He walked forward to meet the medic with a heavy heart,
knowing what he was going to say.
As they met, the doctor looked into his eyes. "I am sorry," he said,
shaking his head, "we tried everything, but your wife and son both died
during child birth. The effort was too much for both of them." He put out
a comforting hand onto S'Ha Hazur's shoulder. Fright of the unknown filled
his eyes. "I fear we shall all be joining them soon unless a miracle
occurs."
S'Ha Hazur nodded sombrely and turned and walked out into the
courtyard. He looked up into the leaden sky and cursed his creator, the
once all powerful, but now deceased matterist, Dvarv, long and loudly.
2
"Are you certain?" The Eternal Wonderer questioned the chief scientist
once again.
"Yes, lord," the scientist confirmed, rubbing his eyes. "We have re-run
the data three times now. Each time, the check takes longer as this
premature ageing process gathers momentum, but there can be no doubt. The
process is finite."
"At least not all the Galaxy is to be laid to waste then," The Eternal
Wonderer commented. "The process that creates billions of living beings by
sucking in the power of the stars themselves will not carry on until the
Galaxy is a black and empty shell."
"But it was all in vain," the scientist continued, "for the life force
endowed in us is weak and will not sustain us for much longer. Many perish
already."
"Why couldn't Dvarv leave things as they were!" the Wonderer cursed.
"His attempts to recolonise the Galaxy will merely result in massive
destruction!"
The scientist stood by silently, nodding in agreement.
3
S'Ha Hazur felt a hand touch his arm as he stood in silent
contemplation. He turned to see the Eternal Wonderer by his side.
"I came to offer my respects," the Wonderer explained. "I know that
Alta'Car was more than just your partner. Dvarv had created you both to be
one."
S'Ha Hazur nodded. "I don't know how I can go on without her, lord," he
confirmed. "The emptiness inside me is almost absolute. The only thing
that remains is a hatred for Dvarv and this vicious trick that has been
played on me. Why should I survive when Alta'Car, and so many others
created after me, have perished."
"Although my matterist powers are limited now," the Wonderer continued,
"I would re-create Alta'Car for you, but I know however skilful my efforts
might be, she would be just an image for all that."
S'Ha Hazur inclined his head. "I am grateful for your kindness, lord.
Yet the words you speak are true, the light has been snuffed out and its
brightness can never be recreated."
The Eternal Wonderer looked distraught. "I am now the greatest
matterist who survives, yet I am powerless to stop this holocaust that is
sweeping through the beings that Dvarv created." Anger clouded his face.
"We both have much to hate Dvarv for. A pity that my colleague Jocure
destroyed him at the cost of his own life. I wish he was here now. For all
his power, I would still try to seek revenge for this disaster he has
instigated."
The two beings joined together in quiet contemplation.
4
Summoned to the Communications Centre, the Eternal Wonderer approached
the Team Leader. "What is so urgent and secret that you want me here in
person?" he demanded.
The Team Leader looked anxiously from the Wonderer to the screen. "The
Sk'An Urz," he breathed, "they are here!"
The Wonderer was momentarily taken aback. For all his power and his
travels, he had never encountered these almost mythical beings. A hundred
billion of them encircled the rim of the Universe itself. They existed for
one reason and one reason only - to protect the Universe from the entity,
Kor'De Way-Nah, the Brightness, a creation that existed outside of the
Universe and was reputed to be more powerful than the Universe itself.
"Why should they come here?" the Wonderer breathed.
"I do not know," the Team Leader confessed, "but they wish to
communicate with our leader."
"Very well," the Wonderer confirmed. The Team Leader activated the
communication channel.
An innumerable number of voices spoke concurrently into the Wonderer's
head; more than he could individually discern. "Here in this region of
space ........ a disruption........ a flaw ............. being engineered
.......... expanded ........... to contact the Brightness ..............
must be stopped ................ here, but not here .............. not in
the known dimensions .................... The Partek Soul Diviner
.................. he is with us .................. a new dimension
................ he will find it ................ we are linked to you now
.................... we will contact you again .................. death to
the Brightness and all its allies ............. victory to the Universe."
The contact was broken. "They have vanished from our sensors," the Team
Leader confirmed.
"Expect another visit," the Wonderer confirmed, "though in what manner
they may arrive, I do not know. We are on the periphery of forces so great
that even my Eternal Wonder at the height of its powers was as nothing to
them!"
5
It was the next day that the Eternal Wonderer received news of an
unknown ship arriving at the base. The Wonderer strode forward to meet the
occupant, whom he assumed would be the Partek Soul Diviner. He had heard
much of this strange creature and it was with a little trepidation that he
waited for the being to emerge from the ship.
However, his shock was even greater, when a human in a uniform emerged
from the craft and marched forward to the Wonderer, saluting smartly.
"Commander Levi Starblaster," the Matterist gasped, "but surely you
perished a thousand years ago at the end of the robotic war!"
"No, sir," Starblaster corrected, "though many believed that was my
fate. Once victory over the machines of death was secured, I left this
Galaxy for pastures new. I could not stay here, haunted by the ghosts of
fifty two billion soldiers who perished under my command in that terrible
conflict."
"A conflict that could have been averted," the Wonderer reminded him
angrily. "The Mechanika were prepared to compromise, yet you would have
none of it, it was victory or death for you!"
Starblaster's face drained of blood, his voice reduced to a whisper. "I
never believed they would use their ultimate weapon of the robot horde
against us; it was illogical, if they did-"
"The whole Galaxy would be laid to waste - as it was."
"They were more human that I'd expected," Starblaster admitted.
"So why have you come back now?" the Wonderer demanded.
"At the end of the war, there were rumours that the leaders of the
Mechanika had survived. I scoured the Galaxy for them, but in the end, I
had to conclude that it was indeed a rumour and nothing more." His face
hardened. "But new information has reached me. Have you heard of the being
known as the Partek Soul Diviner?"
"Yes," the Wonderer confirmed, "but what is your connection?"
"He seeks an entity that exists elsewhere, within this Galaxy, yet
outside of it. In a dimension it has created itself, a new dimension,
between those that had previously existed. This being plans great evil,
for he summons the powers of Kor'De Way-Nah to assist him. The Sk'An Urz
believe the very existence of the Universe is threatened unless this
creature is stopped."
"But what is your connection with such mighty forces?" the Wonderer
queried.
"I follow the Partek Soul Diviner, for where he goes, great adventures
and battles can be found." His fists clenched in rage. "He has revealed
that the key to entry into this new dimension lies with the planet, Two
Dimensions At Once and the paradox that surrounds it." His voice was torn
with anger and bitterness. "Within the paradox hides the leaders of the
Mechanika! No wonder I could not find them in our reality, they skulk
beyond." His face was white with rage. "I must reach them and finish the
war. I cannot rest knowing they survive!"
"So why have you come here?" The Wonderer asked.
"Only your Ship Of Wonder can penetrate the paradox." An imploring look
crossed his face. "I need your ship so I can finish this matter and the
fifty two billion lost souls can finally rest in peace!"
The Wonderer looked pensive for a moment. "Very well," he decided. "I
will amend the controls for your use."
Starblaster hugged the Wonderer fervently.
6
The Ship Of Wonder emerged back into the space-time continuum near the
planet Two Dimensions At Once. Starblaster regarded the orb through his
viewer. From here, it looked like just another ordinary planet.
He checked all weapons systems were on full alert as he turned the
craft towards the sphere. "Victory or death," he cursed. As he got nearer,
the controls went haywire, any normal ship would have been sent spiralling
away from the resistance that existed around this planet, but the Ship Of
Wonder was no ordinary ship and it ploughed forward, constantly slowing as
the resistance built up against it.
Suddenly the resistance vanished, but Starblaster felt himself being
ripped into two and being dissipated in tiny fragments.
7
".....the planet you know as Two Dimensions At Once............ the
Partek Soul Diviner has identified it ..........." the voices of the Sk'An
Urz breathed into the Wonderer's brain.
"I know this," the Wonderer confirmed, "Zion Starblaster gave me this
information yesterday after he gleaned it from the Diviner."
A new voice, a silvery probing voice slid into the Wonderer's mind. "I
am the Diviner," it announced. "I know no Starblaster and I only
discovered this source a few of your minutes ago."
The Wonderer gaped in disbelief. "But how?" he breathed.
There was a silence for a few moments, then the Diviner spoke again.
"Ask the one named S'Ha Hazur. He holds the key." The connection was
broken.
The Wonderer located S'Ha Hazur and transported him in front of him.
S'Ha Hazur was clutching his head and had a frightened look on his
face, yet this was nothing to do with his unexpected arrival in the
Wonderer's quarters. He looked at the matterist in disbelief. "Lord," he
exclaimed, "Dvarv, the greatest matterist in the Galaxy and the engineer
of all our current woes was not destroyed. He lives." He looked
bewildered. "I do not know how or why I know this, lord, yet I do. He is
in a dimension he has created himself, where no other can reach him."
"Dvarv," The Wonderer cursed, "then it is he who summons the Brightness
and threatens the existence of the Universe itself!"
8
The air of the mirror garden was laden with the sweet perfume of the
alpha trees. Overhead, a complex of eighteen suns played tag in the pastel
sky, weaving in and out, around each other. Jacob lazily shifted his huge
bulk, and the swinging chair in which he sat, suspended from the branches,
wobbled slightly, threatening to disgorge him into the writhing tentacles
of the pygmy bushes.
Ripples of fat played around Jacob's jowls as he regarded the foliage
beneath him. He smiled slightly and pressed a button set into the side of
his chair. Thus summoned, one of the feathered gardeners came tripping
gracefully down the wooded pathway, from his toil at the fountain of
dreams. It stood silently for a moment, beside the now motionless bushes,
looking up at Jacob, it's face a picture of childlike innocence. Then,
with the speed of light, it drew a huge, snub-nosed pistol from inside the
folds of it's billowing shirt. From the barrel poured a stream of golden
flame that seared a path through the air just above Jacob's head, and
exploded into a rainbow hued fireball. The feathered gardener nodded
gravely at Jacob.
"A great invisible sloth worm?" the fat man asked.
"Yes," confirmed the gardener. "I feel that it may have been looking
for an afternoon snack."
Jacob nodded. "Yes, such as me. But, then, that is the price that I
must pay for my sanctuary here, in the mirrored garden."
The other regarded him in silence for a moment. "Things have not
improved outside, then?" it asked at last.
"I don't know."
"Don't know?"
"No.''
The feathered gardener stooped to pluck a sickly looking clump of moss.
"Will you go?"
"I don't know. I should do."
"But you are safe here."
"For the moment, yes. But one day others will learn the secret of entry
from the sloth worms, and then..." The fat man paused in mid sentence, and
looked down at the reassuring innocence of the gardener's face.
"You ARE safe here," it assured him, and somehow it's tone quietened
the turmoil in Jacob's brain.
"Thank you," he said, with deep feeling.
The gardener smiled, turned, and tripped back down the wooded pathway,
towards the fountain of dreams.
Jacob continued to swing slowly for a few minutes after the gardener
had disappeared amongst the trees, then, with a purposeful glint in his
eyes he lowered his chair to the ground, carefully avoiding the pygmy
bushes, and stood up, with no little effort. He waddled down the path,
unseen by any of the toiling gardeners. He gazed at them as they worked in
the vari-coloured light of the garden, but none looked up as he went on
his way.
At length he arrived at his goal, the cave of crystal. As he approached
the doors swung open, tinkling. He waddled inside and sat down heavily in
a chair.
After a while he recovered his breath. He turned in his seat and gazed
at the robot that stood silently in one corner of the cavern. There was an
almost imperceptible shimmering in the air.
"We are leaving," he announced suddenly.
The robot stared at him with a crystal lensed eye. "As you say,
master," it said impassively.
All the fury and hopelessness in Jacob suddenly welled over. He turned
on the robot, his face a mask of anger. "Curse you," he shrieked. "Why do
you always have to agree with everything I say? Why don't you beg me not
to go, tell me that we're safe here? Why don't you argue with me, and tell
me how mad I am?
"I agree, and obey," the robot said dispassionately. "That is how I was
built."
The fury left Jacob as abruptly as it had come, and his huge frame
sagged. "Yes," he replied lamely, "I know."
The robot continued to gaze at him. "You know," it said, after a while,
"you really do want to go, don't you? You want to know what happened to
Michelle."
"Michelle," Jacob breathed. "Yes, Michelle. Things were all right here
until Michelle showed up. We let her in. We sheltered her."
The robot slightly shifted position. "You had no choice," it said. "If
you had not given her sanctuary she would have fallen prey to the worms.
They had not pursued her here for nothing. They had a powerful reason for
wanting her destruction. You know that."
"Yes, and we shall probably never know what that reason was now. Even
if we did, I doubt that we could understand the motives of such creatures.
But it was not so much that, I was in love with her. My emotions clouded
my judgement, or I should never have let her go in search of the City of
Ice. She told me that there were still humans living there, you know."
"She wanted to go," the robot reminded Jacob gently.
"Yes, but I could have stopped her. I SHOULD have stopped her. Oh, what
a fool I was, all for Michelle. And then, when the sloth worms learnt how
to penetrate our sanctuary, she deserted me. Left me alone."
"She had to leave, or the worms would have destroyed her."
Jacob shook his head slowly. "You would say that," he muttered. "You
always agree with everything humans do."
"I obey and agree, master," the robot said.
Jacob staggered to his feet. "We must leave immediately," he decided.
"Before I change my mind." He shook his head. "I don't know why I should
go now," he added almost helplessly.
"As you say Master. Are we going in search of the City of Ice?"
"Yes."
"You think that that is where Michelle went?"
Jacob scowled. "Your job," he told the robot, "is to obey and agree -
not to ask questions." He regarded the robot severely. "I sometimes think
I preferred the solitude I had before you arrived."
"Yes Master," it confirmed.
While the fat man pondered over a rough map that Michelle had prepared,
and on which was a cross purporting to represent the true position of the
City of Ice, the robot scuttled hastily around the crystal cavern,
collecting necessities for the journey.
"We will proceed on foot, for the first few miles," Jacob informed it.
"That should get us to the ruined city of Erst. Somewhere there we should
find some form of transport to take us north. Is that reasoning correct?"
"It is as you say, master," the robot confirmed.
"Is everything ready?"
"I have packed all that is necessary, master." The robot handed Jacob a
squat metal cylinder. "Here is your blaster," it said. "I feel that you
may need it."
Jacob stuffed the gun into his belt and waddled across to the entrance.
The robot shuffled into line behind him.
Once outside the cave, Jacob paused for an instant, then turned and
stared back at it ruefully. This period of contemplation lasted only a
second or two, then shaking his head sadly, causing his chubby double chin
to wobble, he turned and strode down the path.
Jacob had been walking for only two or three minutes when he came
across one of the feathered gardeners, working by the fountain of dreams.
"You are going?" enquired the gardener.
"Yes," Jacob nodded.
The gardener held out his hand in a remarkably human-like gesture of
farewell.
"Goodbye," it said. Jacob bent down to shake the tiny being's hand. As
he did so, the light, reflected from the coloured fountain, seemed to form
the hazy outlines of a face. Jacob gasped - it was Michelle! Her long
blond hair hung like silk across her shoulders. In that visage were
reproduced to perfection her soft brown eyes, her small, ever smiling
mouth.
There was a faint smile playing about the feathered gardener's face as
he turned and left Jacob to his dreams.
"He does not understand," the robot said, as if he was trying to
apologise for the gardener, but the fat man did not answer.
After a timeless interval spent watching the flashing spray, he
straightened slowly and continued his march without a word to the robot.
It followed his path in blind obedience. A few minutes later the pair
arrived at the huge wall that surrounded the garden, stretching far into
the sky.
"Well," Jacob said needlessly, "here we are."
"Yes, Master," the robot agreed, more out of habit than of any
conviction that it's opinion was required.
Jacob was about to step through the wall of time when the robot grasped
his arm.
"Look, master," it hissed, pointing with a long metal hand at the
shimmering wall.
Jacob peered. "I can't see a thing," he admitted.
"One of the great worms is oozing through the wall of time, master."
"How much of it is through?"
"I cannot tell. As you know, the things are only just within the limits
of my vision. This one looks rather like a vague shadow, and it moves so
slowly that the extent of it's progress is somewhat difficult to gauge."
Jacob wasted no time in consideration of the issues involved. "Fire!"
he ordered. Scarlet flame billowed from the tips of the robot's fingers.
"It is destroyed, master," the robot announced. "Or, at least, that
portion of it which had succeeded in oozing through the wall."
Jacob peered at the wall of time. "You have caused the wall no damage,
I hope," he muttered nervously.
"I don't think so, master."
"Good," the fat man breathed. "Now attach your gadget that enables you
to pass through the wall and we will proceed. We have no time to waste."
The robot complied with his master's instructions and the two of them
stepped into the wall. To Jacob it felt as though he was falling, though
he knew that this sensation was pure illusion. Nevertheless, it persisted
for what seemed to him a very long time, before suddenly, there was a
violent wrenching which jarred every muscle in his body and they were
standing outside the garden. The surrounding landscape brought Jacob back
to reality with a hideous shock. Here was stark reality, so different from
the beautiful garden they had just left. He took it all in slowly: the
bleak, dead dirt beneath his feet, the stale, rank air, the dirty grey
clouds overhead.
For a moment he could have wept.
9
Orange 34 was very silent as he sat on the top of the hill that
overlooked the town of Iron. Blue 453f looked at him as she lay by his
side. His face showed signs of worry, something alien to their race. He
had always been quiet, but now he had become even more withdrawn and would
not even participate in the morning fun session. She had warned him of his
folly, but he would not listen.
"You are very quiet," she observed.
He turned his head slowly, and looked down at her. "I was thinking," he
replied.
"What were you thinking about?" she asked. "You know there is no need
for thought. Everything is worked out for us. It has always been this way,
since the years of the long night."
"That's just it," he answered, "everything is so perfect. There is no
sickness, no food shortage, no-one dies, no one is deformed or maimed.
There are never any holocausts or wars. No-one does anything other than
what they are told to do. Above all, no-one dares to ask the reason for
it, or why we should allow half of our planet to be given over to these
Gods who brought us this salvation. Gods we have never seen."
Blue 453f closed her receivers in horror. "You must not speak such
blasphemy," she replied. "They must be Gods, for it was they who saved us
from the years of the long night and turned our world into a paradise."
"Bah," cursed Orange 34. "I'm sick and tired of being told what to do.
I want it to be back to how it was before the year of the long night."
"How can you say that when no-one remembers what it was like," she
countered. "It must have been terrible."
"But if none of us remember," he continued, "how do you know that what
we have now is better."
"Because the Gods told us. They painted their story of salvation on the
sky."
"Now we're back to the Gods again, I'm fed up with them."
"Be silent," she ordered, "or the Gods will hear you and they will
punish you."
A silence fell for a few seconds, then Blue 453f got to her feet. "It
is time for us to return to the city of Iron," she stated. "Our shift
starts soon."
"Our shift'" sneered Orange 34. "Why should we work, it is all so
pointless."
"No!" Blue 453f retorted. "Do we not make huge buildings that are
shipped to the city of Steel to house the people there?"
"No," he replied, "that's just it. The buildings are shipped to the
city of Steel, but they go into their factories and they break them up and
melt them down. They send them back to us as new raw material to build
more houses. It is all a plan of the Gods to stop us thinking. The city of
Steel has only had three new houses erected in the last ten years."
"I can't believe that," she said.
"Go and see for yourself," he retorted angrily.
"But I can't," she argued. "It is against the will of the Gods that I
should leave the city of Iron."
"So you will believe the word of the Gods in preference to mine?" he
asked.
"Yes," she replied without hesitation, "naturally."
"It is no use trying to make you see," he said. "You're just like all
the others. You get up in the morning, go to the centre for your
nourishment capsule. Attend the morning fun session, then go and work your
shift in the factory. You attend the afternoon fun session, then work
another shift in the factory. Finally, you go home and take a pill that
puts you into a deep sleep until you wake up the next morning and do it
all over again. You do this without question. You have no choice. You are
imprisoned in the city day and night. Every year of your immortal life."
"But you contradict yourself," she argued. "Did you not get permission
for us to leave the city for the duration of the afternoon fun session?"
He did not reply.
"Well," she asked again, "didn't you?"
He still remained silent.
A note of fear crept into her voice. "You didn't deceive me, did you?"
she asked.
"Alright if you must know," he shouted, "yes. I thought I might be able
to make you see reason. I was wrong."
She looked at him in a horrified manner. "You have made me miss a fun
session. I must report you at once."
"Fool!" he snapped at her. "Go on then, see what good it does you!"
"You need attention," she said, "you will go down in history as the
first man to lose his mind. You must be dealt with."
10
Suddenly Jacob's robot hissed a warning: "All around us, master, the
great invisible sloth worms. They are in a huge circle, all around the
wall. We cannot penetrate their ranks. We must go back."
"We cannot re-enter for at least an hour, it takes that long for the
charge in our gadgets to build up. How near are they?"
"Only about a hundred meters away. They will reach us in about forty
five minutes."
"We must try and make a break for it. How many are there?"
"They are in ranks five deep. We would never get through."
"Then we are doomed before we start," Jacob breathed.
The robot whirred. "At least it would seem that Michelle escaped from
the area undetected," it surmised. "Or else so many worms would not be
intent on penetrating the wall. It seems as though the whole nation of
them are gathered in this spot."
Jacob shook his head. "It may be that they have destroyed her, and have
now come back for more," he said. "You cannot attempt to understand the
workings of minds such as theirs."
"They are beginning to move in," the robot observed.
"Then we are doomed."
"How about blasting our way out?" "the robot suggested.
"I fear that, from what you've said that there would appear to be more
worms than we have charges in our guns. Is that not so?"
The robot managed to look woeful in some mechanical way. "Yes master,"
it agreed. "In future I will not suggest, but merely see and obey."
"No, you won't," Jacob countered. "That's the first decent suggestion
you've made since you arrived. If we survive, I wish you to continue along
independent lines of reasoning."
They stood motionless for a moment, the robot following the progress of
the worms.
"Master," it said, after a while, "I do not think that the worms are
moving towards us after all. They seem to be converging on another section
of the wall."
"Eh? I thought that they could only ooze through one at a time. I
wonder what is the point of their converging?"
The robot pondered his question for a moment before suddenly pointing
in the direction of the worms' travel.
"Master, there is a flaw in that part of the time wall," it stated.
Comprehension dawned on Jacob. "You must've weakened the structure of
the wall when you fired at that worm that was oozing through," he said.
Still, it's a relief that they're not coming towards us."
The robot nodded, an oddly human gesture for a creature of metal. "Yes,
it would appear that we are not of the slightest interest to them."
"Is there a chance that we may be able to break through their ranks a
little later on?"
"Yes. If we start walking around the wall, heading away from the flaw,
there ought to be a break about a quarter of the way around."
The two began to edge around the wall of time, cautiously at first, but
with more assurance after the robot stated that the worms were taking no
notice of them. They strode on for about ten minutes. As they walked,
Jacob stared out across the sterile, featureless landscape that surrounded
them. He saw nothing save the dead soil, a shade of dusty grey, the colour
of the thick cloudbanks that hung above them, obscuring the Sun. It looked
as though some strange being had stolen the very colours from the Earth,
so drab was the spectacle before him. He paused in his tracks, shocked by
the enormity of it all. He looked at the robot.
"Where did we go wrong?" he asked.
"It was the living beings who went wrong," the robot said. "We
robots... I..." It's voice trailed off and it emitted a string of garbled
syllables. Then it regained control. "My apologies, master," it said
calmly, "for my criticism of the living beings. I agree and obey."
"Don't apologise for the truth," Jacob said wearily. "My race along
with many others paid for it's foolishness and impetuousness. It paid
dearly enough, however, that we may know better next time."
The robot touched Jacob's shoulder lightly. "The worms have broken
their circle," it announced. "They are now all heading for what seems to
be a very well defined fault in the wall of time."
"My God," muttered Jacob. "What will they do if they flood into the
mirror garden? What will become of the feathered gardeners?"
"I regret," answered the robot, "that there is nothing that we can do.
The worms would be inside before we could re-enter."
"Then we must make a break for it," decided Jacob. "Even with my
prodigious bulk I can still outrun these sloth worms."
A few minutes later the robot announced that a gap now existed in the
worm's ranks large enough for them to slip through. Jacob moved forward
uncertainly, constantly reassured by the metallic figure that followed
him, guarding their rear. Now and again the robot turned and looked back
at the wall of time. Suddenly it spoke:
"Look, master-"
Jacob turned and peered behind him. "I see nothing," he remarked.
"You will see it in a moment," the robot assured him.
Jacob gazed back across the grim landscape. Suddenly he gasped. The
wall of time was bulging outwards, as if forced to do so by some
unbearable internal pressure. It suddenly split and burst asunder. From
inside poured what looked like a vast ball of quicksilver. It grew vaster
by the second, as the material of the wall seemed to crumble and collapse.
The silver ball began to pulsate, shooting out rays of coloured light as
it did so, beams of frightening intensity that seared the eyeballs.
Suddenly there was a brilliant explosion of colour that blinded Jacob.
He lurched sideways, staggered by it's violence, and struck the ground,
hitting his head as he fell. When he came to, it was to find the robot
bent anxiously over him. "What happened?" he mumbled predictably.
"It would appear," the robot explained, "that the wall of time,
fractured by the blast from my gun, and further weakened by the assault of
the worms, finally collapsed. Thus released, the mirror garden broke forth
from it's own dimension into this one. As two dimensions are unable to
exist within the same physical space-time continuum the two cancelled each
other out in a rather startling explosion of colour."
"Colour?"
"Yes. It would appear that there was relatively little energy release
in the shorter wavelengths. What there was however served to kill the
remaining worms. However, most of the energy was released in the form of
light: coloured light. Look, the garden is still radiating. See, all
around you."
Jacob staggered to his feet and gazed about himself. The clouds above,
he saw, had now become tinged with a delicate pink, and the ground was no
longer a dusty grey shade, but sparkled like a rainbow. He himself was
clothed in shimmering light.
"How?" he gasped.
"Who knows master," the robot replied uncertainly. "However, perhaps
Michelle was not the prey of the sloth worms at all. Perhaps they wanted
what was still inside." "Then... if they were not pursuing Michelle, there
is a much greater chance that she may still be alive."
"Yes, indeed."
"Then let us press on towards the city of Ice. One thing puzzles me,
though. . If she was not fleeing from the worms, why did Michelle come to
the garden in the first place?"
"I cannot say, master. Maybe we will find the answer to that question
at the city."
"Possibly."
They resumed their trek.
11
Jacob and his mechanical ally pressed on for several hours making only
slow progress across the now garishly lit landscape. At last Jacob pointed
at a far blur on the horizon. "That must be Erst," he guessed.
The robot switched on magnifying lenses in it's eyes. "It looks dead,
master," it announced.
"Can you see any intact buildings there?" Jacob demanded.
The robot was noncommittal. "There may be a few on the far side of the
city, but there's not much left of what I can see. It looks as though the
near side caught the worst of the blast that wiped out Erst."
Jacob rubbed his chin. "A pity," he stated. "If we are unable to find
the City of Ice, we may have to make our home in Erst."
"There is also the problem of supplies," the robot added. "Although I
took everything that I could carry, it won't last forever."
Jacob began to walk in the direction of the city. "Then let us hope
that we can unearth something there," he said. The robot agreed, striding
along behind the fat man.
They soon arrived at the outskirts of Erst. Jacob stopped to stare at a
crumbled structure, but there was so little left of it that he could not
decide what it had been. To make things worse, the riot of coloured light
from the remains of the mirror garden continued to pour over the horizon,
distorting vision with it's brilliance.
"Let us hope this building wasn't the food factory," Jacob muttered.
They walked on through the rubble of the silent metropolis. The crumbling
remains sparkled red and blue, looking more like something out of a
surrealist picture than a once mighty centre of civilisation. The robot
pointed suddenly.
"Over there, master," it stated. An intact building!"
Jacob waddled along faster, and reached the building gasping for
breath.
"The door is ajar," he observed, "so let us enter."
They passed through the rotting door into a dark, musty chamber. The
room's only illumination was a faint glimmer of light that seeped through
the grime encrusted window. The robot switched on a light that was set
into it's forehead.
Jacob gazed around the room swiftly, shuddering as he saw the two
skeletons that were the room's only occupants, huddled up in a corner.
That was all that was in the room, save for a few sticks of battered
furniture.
Jacob turned, an expression of vague distaste on his features. "Just an
ordinary house," he said. "Not much good to us, except, of course, for
shelter if we need it. Anyway, those skeletons make me somewhat uneasy."
The robot stared up and down the street in which they stood. "I wonder
why there are no skeletons or debris of some sort in this section of the
city?" it said. Jacob glanced around. The street was remarkable rubble
free, now he came to think about it.
"Perhaps hard radiation has eaten them away in some fashion," he
guessed wildly.
The robot shook it's head. "I do not think so, master," it replied. "My
instruments show that only a small amount of radiation was discharged in
this area."
"Then what has caused all this?" Jacob wondered, taking in all the
emptiness and desolation with a wide sweep of his arm.
"It is not for me to suggest, master," replied the robot.
"Perhaps it was some alien force,'' surmised Jacob. "Like the feathered
gardeners."
The robot nodded doubtfully. "It is possible," it conceded. "But my
instruments suggest to me that who or whatever is responsible for this
desolation may be still in the vicinity of the city."
"People? Is there a possibility that some humans remain?"
"If you want my opinion," the robot said, "I think that some alien
force must be responsible. I don't think that humans could achieve quite
this effect."
Jacob considered this. "We would do well to proceed with caution then,"
he decided. "For we know not what evil lurks ahead."
The robot swivelled gradually around, scanning their immediate
surroundings. "I think that the answer may lie very near," it said. "Look
at that huge pile of rubble over there, behind the ruined Town Hall."
"Let's go and see what it is," the fat man suggested.
The robot agreed and they moved cautiously towards their objective,
always looking behind from time to time lest some form of treachery should
be attempted. Finally they stood before the mound of debris. Jacob heard a
rustling sound from behind the jumbled heap, and he stepped to one side to
find the cause. Then he stopped dead in his tracks. Before him was a huge,
wildly pulsating, amoeba-like creature. It seemed to be twenty feet in
diameter and rubble stuck to it's slime-covered bulk. Jacob turned to the
robot, aghast. "What is it?" he breathed.
"It is beyond my experience, master," the robot replied slowly.
A voice boomed out inside Jacob's head. "I will answer that question,"
it said. "For while you have been within range of my thirty seven senses I
have been studying you, and I think that I now have a fair grasp of your
language and your psychology. I am aware of the many questions that you
wish to put to me and so I will tell you my story, and try, in doing so,
to answer your queries."
Jacob turned uneasily to the robot, but the mental voice roared out in
his brain again before he could say anything.
"Do not be afraid," it boomed. "I mean you no harm. In fact, in my own
way, I am as afraid of you as you are of me. Perhaps even more so, for I
am a peaceful creature, while your kind have a long history of destruction
and violence, deceit and hatred. My race are the wanderers of the
Universe. Ours is the joy of unending flight through the eternal blackness
that you call space. To us it is a real and magnificent medium, alive with
the myriad rays and particles that shape our environment. We take many
forms, and we yearn sometimes for a world on which to make our home and
live out our remaining years in peace and solitude. I heard that the
population of this planet had been destroyed in a giant conflict, so I
came here with some others of my race. Our intention was to build
ourselves a new existence."
"You say there are others like you?" Jacob interrupted. "How many?"
"I am not certain, for many have succumbed since landing from the
radiation and bacteria that still exist here and there. I came down near
this city, out of control, and my shell was destroyed. So I gathered
together rubble and debris with which to fashion another shell for myself.
As I have no means of uprooting fixed objects, I was able to use only the
loose rubbish and masonry that abounded in these dead streets."
"Ah," exclaimed Jacob. "At least that explains the lack of rubble. But
tell me - what do you eat for food? Did you bring a supply with you? Or do
you convert sunlight energy in some way, or utilise this rubble?"
"No. It is far simpler than that; I eat myself."
"You eat yourself?"
"Yes. I consume the right part body, while the left side increases and
maintains my size at its former level."
"I don't believe it!" Jacob gasped incredulously.
"It is not quite as gruesome it sounds," the amoeba explained. "You
see, my body is not one organism, but a host of single celled entities,
sharing a common intelligence. When these tiny bodies are born, on my left
side, they commence a microscopic migration towards the right of my body,
arriving just in time to die. The living remainder of my organisms then
consume their bodies."
"I see," muttered Jacob, looking uncertainly towards the robot.
"A sort of biological perpetual motion machine."
There followed a short silence.
"No doubt," said the creature, "you and your robot are concerned what
to do about me."
"We will be content to leave in peace, as long as you do not interfere
with us," Jacob replied.
"That is the decision of your robot also?" the amoeba asked.
"I agree and obey at all times and in all ways," the robot responded.
"As indeed, all robots do."
"Maybe so," the creature agreed. "But I have seen it otherwise."
"Oh?" said Jacob.
"Yes, indeed. I have come across worlds in my travels, worlds where the
robots had taken over. There they were the masters."
The robot shifted uneasily. "I do not see how that is possible," it
said at last. "It is the function of a robot to agree and obey, at all
times, and under all circumstances."
"Possibly so, in the stage of civilisation that you have reached, but I
have known worlds, where, as the race progressed, they strove to create
more and more nearly human replicas of themselves. The robots became more
and more like their masters, shared the same desires, and suffered the
same delusions. When they realised that with their non organic bodies and
mechanically motivated minds, they were more than a match for their human
masters, they rose up and seized power."
"I will always obey my master at all times," the robot asserted.
"Enough of this talk," Jacob commanded, sensing that the robot's
delicate brain might be unhinged by the things that the creature was
saying. He turned back to the being. "We would like to stay and hear more
of your travels," he assured it, "but time is short and we are searching
for some form of transport to carry us to the city of Ice."
"I can help you there," answered the amoeba. "Nearby is a building with
an underground garage, which escaped the worst of the blast. Inside it is
a vehicle such as you seek."
"Did you see any intact cities, on your way down?" the fat man asked,
on the off chance.
"No," replied the alien. "But then I landed at night, in thick fog, and
was more than somewhat preoccupied with my own predicament."
"Well, thank you anyway," Jacob said. "Perhaps we will meet again some
day."
"Maybe," said the thing. "But have care. There are others on this world
that are not as friendly as I am."
Jacob turned and waddled towards the building that the creature had
indicated, the robot close on his heels. The man blasted away a pile of
rubble that blocked the entrance to the subterranean garage, and they made
their way down a sloping ramp into the darkness below. Jacob turned to the
robot.
"Can you see anything dangerous?" he enquired.
"No," the answer came. "As far as I can make out, this place has been
deserted for a long time. But look, there is a truck standing in the far
corner."
They walked over to the stationary vehicle and examined it.
"It seems to be in good running order," Jacob averred. "The atomic
battery has not yet run down. We should be able to make it to the City of
Ice O.K., assuming that it exists, that is."
"And what if it does not exist, master?"
"Then we must return here."
The robot nodded and placed their supplies in the back of the truck. By
the time it had done this, Jacob had clambered up into the cab, and was
sitting behind the steering wheel. He pressed the starter button, but
nothing happened.
"Oh, well," he said despondently. "I suppose it was too much to hope
for."
"Wait," said the robot. "My memory banks tell me that this type of
engine needs time to warm up."
Sure enough, after a brief pause the motor roared into action. Jacob
manipulated the controls, and the truck nosed up the ramp, and out into
the streets of Erst. Jacob picked up speed slowly, edging past crumbling
buildings, until the robot requested him to stop near a particularly shaky
looking one. As the man brought the truck to a halt, the robot jumped from
the cab, and fired at the building with his blaster. It crumbled to the
ground amid a cloud of dust.
"There you are," said the robot, facing back in the direction from
which they had come. "You may finish your shell now."
"My thanks to you," came the telepathic reply.
"I should thank YOU," the robot answered, then turned and clambered
back into the cab. Jacob puzzled over this remark as he guided the vehicle
for the open country beyond Erst, but he said nothing.
12
Orange 34 and Blue 453f returned to the city in an angry silence. They
passed through the city gates and walked silently through the streets to
their house. They paused outside the door. "I will report you as soon as
we are inside," she whispered, so that no-one else in the street could
hear.
She opened the door and stepped inside. She stopped dead and he bumped
into her. In the house were five men, dressed in a different coloured
uniform to those of the ordinary people. She recognised them as the
messengers of the Gods. She fell to the floor and covered her face, but
Orange 34 remained standing.
The leader of the group spoke in a loud severe voice. "Orange 34, you
have been found guilty of missing fun sessions and not taking your sleep
pills for a duration of five days. Blue 453f, you have been found guilty
of missing a fun session. For these crimes against the Gods, you must both
be destroyed."
"Wait," said Orange 34, "you cannot destroy me."
His voice sounded so sure, that the commander looked at him in puzzled
manner. "Why?" he asked.
"Because I am a God," came to the reply.
"You're what!" breathed the Commander, in a voice hardly audible. "What
blasphemy is this?"
Blue 453f quivered on the floor.
"If I am not a God," Orange 34 continued, now shouting at the top of
his voice, "let the Gods destroy me for my blasphemy."
There was no movement in the room for a whole minute, no-one even
breathed, nothing happened.
"You see," he shouted, "I am a God!"
The Commanders men looked at each other in disbelief and then fell to
their knees chanting praises. The Commander was not tricked. He turned to
his fellow messengers. "Up," he ordered. "He is fooling you. He is no more
a God than I am. If he is a God, then I am a God, and I am no God. Of
course the Gods will not strike him, or me, down for such blasphemy, for
they are kind and peaceful. He is trying to trick us for some evil reason
of his own."
The men cautiously got to their feet. As they did so, Orange 34 edged
his way out of the door. In a flash he was out in the street.
Luck was on his side. He was lost in the shift returning to the
factory.
Click
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FULL MOON 2000 (6) - THE GODS III - THE BRIGHTNESS (George Townsend)
THE GODS III - THE BRIGHTNESS
George Townsend
1
S'Ha Hazur rose wearily to his feet, leaning heavily on his stick, a
sinking feeling in his stomach, as the doctor slowly approached him down
the corridor. He walked forward to meet the medic with a heavy heart,
knowing what he was going to say.
As they met, the doctor looked into his eyes. "I am sorry," he said,
shaking his head, "we tried everything, but your wife and son both died
during child birth. The effort was too much for both of them." He put out
a comforting hand onto S'Ha Hazur's shoulder. Fright of the unknown filled
his eyes. "I fear we shall all be joining them soon unless a miracle
occurs."
S'Ha Hazur nodded sombrely and turned and walked out into the
courtyard. He looked up into the leaden sky and cursed his creator, the
once all powerful, but now deceased matterist, Dvarv, long and loudly.
2
"Are you certain?" The Eternal Wonderer questioned the chief scientist
once again.
"Yes, lord," the scientist confirmed, rubbing his eyes. "We have re-run
the data three times now. Each time, the check takes longer as this
premature ageing process gathers momentum, but there can be no doubt. The
process is finite."
"At least not all the Galaxy is to be laid to waste then," The Eternal
Wonderer commented. "The process that creates billions of living beings by
sucking in the power of the stars themselves will not carry on until the
Galaxy is a black and empty shell."
"But it was all in vain," the scientist continued, "for the life force
endowed in us is weak and will not sustain us for much longer. Many perish
already."
"Why couldn't Dvarv leave things as they were!" the Wonderer cursed.
"His attempts to recolonise the Galaxy will merely result in massive
destruction!"
The scientist stood by silently, nodding in agreement.
3
S'Ha Hazur felt a hand touch his arm as he stood in silent
contemplation. He turned to see the Eternal Wonderer by his side.
"I came to offer my respects," the Wonderer explained. "I know that
Alta'Car was more than just your partner. Dvarv had created you both to be
one."
S'Ha Hazur nodded. "I don't know how I can go on without her, lord," he
confirmed. "The emptiness inside me is almost absolute. The only thing
that remains is a hatred for Dvarv and this vicious trick that has been
played on me. Why should I survive when Alta'Car, and so many others
created after me, have perished."
"Although my matterist powers are limited now," the Wonderer continued,
"I would re-create Alta'Car for you, but I know however skilful my efforts
might be, she would be just an image for all that."
S'Ha Hazur inclined his head. "I am grateful for your kindness, lord.
Yet the words you speak are true, the light has been snuffed out and its
brightness can never be recreated."
The Eternal Wonderer looked distraught. "I am now the greatest
matterist who survives, yet I am powerless to stop this holocaust that is
sweeping through the beings that Dvarv created." Anger clouded his face.
"We both have much to hate Dvarv for. A pity that my colleague Jocure
destroyed him at the cost of his own life. I wish he was here now. For all
his power, I would still try to seek revenge for this disaster he has
instigated."
The two beings joined together in quiet contemplation.
4
Summoned to the Communications Centre, the Eternal Wonderer approached
the Team Leader. "What is so urgent and secret that you want me here in
person?" he demanded.
The Team Leader looked anxiously from the Wonderer to the screen. "The
Sk'An Urz," he breathed, "they are here!"
The Wonderer was momentarily taken aback. For all his power and his
travels, he had never encountered these almost mythical beings. A hundred
billion of them encircled the rim of the Universe itself. They existed for
one reason and one reason only - to protect the Universe from the entity,
Kor'De Way-Nah, the Brightness, a creation that existed outside of the
Universe and was reputed to be more powerful than the Universe itself.
"Why should they come here?" the Wonderer breathed.
"I do not know," the Team Leader confessed, "but they wish to
communicate with our leader."
"Very well," the Wonderer confirmed. The Team Leader activated the
communication channel.
An innumerable number of voices spoke concurrently into the Wonderer's
head; more than he could individually discern. "Here in this region of
space ........ a disruption........ a flaw ............. being engineered
.......... expanded ........... to contact the Brightness ..............
must be stopped ................ here, but not here .............. not in
the known dimensions .................... The Partek Soul Diviner
.................. he is with us .................. a new dimension
................ he will find it ................ we are linked to you now
.................... we will contact you again .................. death to
the Brightness and all its allies ............. victory to the Universe."
The contact was broken. "They have vanished from our sensors," the Team
Leader confirmed.
"Expect another visit," the Wonderer confirmed, "though in what manner
they may arrive, I do not know. We are on the periphery of forces so great
that even my Eternal Wonder at the height of its powers was as nothing to
them!"
5
It was the next day that the Eternal Wonderer received news of an
unknown ship arriving at the base. The Wonderer strode forward to meet the
occupant, whom he assumed would be the Partek Soul Diviner. He had heard
much of this strange creature and it was with a little trepidation that he
waited for the being to emerge from the ship.
However, his shock was even greater, when a human in a uniform emerged
from the craft and marched forward to the Wonderer, saluting smartly.
"Commander Levi Starblaster," the Matterist gasped, "but surely you
perished a thousand years ago at the end of the robotic war!"
"No, sir," Starblaster corrected, "though many believed that was my
fate. Once victory over the machines of death was secured, I left this
Galaxy for pastures new. I could not stay here, haunted by the ghosts of
fifty two billion soldiers who perished under my command in that terrible
conflict."
"A conflict that could have been averted," the Wonderer reminded him
angrily. "The Mechanika were prepared to compromise, yet you would have
none of it, it was victory or death for you!"
Starblaster's face drained of blood, his voice reduced to a whisper. "I
never believed they would use their ultimate weapon of the robot horde
against us; it was illogical, if they did-"
"The whole Galaxy would be laid to waste - as it was."
"They were more human that I'd expected," Starblaster admitted.
"So why have you come back now?" the Wonderer demanded.
"At the end of the war, there were rumours that the leaders of the
Mechanika had survived. I scoured the Galaxy for them, but in the end, I
had to conclude that it was indeed a rumour and nothing more." His face
hardened. "But new information has reached me. Have you heard of the being
known as the Partek Soul Diviner?"
"Yes," the Wonderer confirmed, "but what is your connection?"
"He seeks an entity that exists elsewhere, within this Galaxy, yet
outside of it. In a dimension it has created itself, a new dimension,
between those that had previously existed. This being plans great evil,
for he summons the powers of Kor'De Way-Nah to assist him. The Sk'An Urz
believe the very existence of the Universe is threatened unless this
creature is stopped."
"But what is your connection with such mighty forces?" the Wonderer
queried.
"I follow the Partek Soul Diviner, for where he goes, great adventures
and battles can be found." His fists clenched in rage. "He has revealed
that the key to entry into this new dimension lies with the planet, Two
Dimensions At Once and the paradox that surrounds it." His voice was torn
with anger and bitterness. "Within the paradox hides the leaders of the
Mechanika! No wonder I could not find them in our reality, they skulk
beyond." His face was white with rage. "I must reach them and finish the
war. I cannot rest knowing they survive!"
"So why have you come here?" The Wonderer asked.
"Only your Ship Of Wonder can penetrate the paradox." An imploring look
crossed his face. "I need your ship so I can finish this matter and the
fifty two billion lost souls can finally rest in peace!"
The Wonderer looked pensive for a moment. "Very well," he decided. "I
will amend the controls for your use."
Starblaster hugged the Wonderer fervently.
6
The Ship Of Wonder emerged back into the space-time continuum near the
planet Two Dimensions At Once. Starblaster regarded the orb through his
viewer. From here, it looked like just another ordinary planet.
He checked all weapons systems were on full alert as he turned the
craft towards the sphere. "Victory or death," he cursed. As he got nearer,
the controls went haywire, any normal ship would have been sent spiralling
away from the resistance that existed around this planet, but the Ship Of
Wonder was no ordinary ship and it ploughed forward, constantly slowing as
the resistance built up against it.
Suddenly the resistance vanished, but Starblaster felt himself being
ripped into two and being dissipated in tiny fragments.
7
".....the planet you know as Two Dimensions At Once............ the
Partek Soul Diviner has identified it ..........." the voices of the Sk'An
Urz breathed into the Wonderer's brain.
"I know this," the Wonderer confirmed, "Zion Starblaster gave me this
information yesterday after he gleaned it from the Diviner."
A new voice, a silvery probing voice slid into the Wonderer's mind. "I
am the Diviner," it announced. "I know no Starblaster and I only
discovered this source a few of your minutes ago."
The Wonderer gaped in disbelief. "But how?" he breathed.
There was a silence for a few moments, then the Diviner spoke again.
"Ask the one named S'Ha Hazur. He holds the key." The connection was
broken.
The Wonderer located S'Ha Hazur and transported him in front of him.
S'Ha Hazur was clutching his head and had a frightened look on his
face, yet this was nothing to do with his unexpected arrival in the
Wonderer's quarters. He looked at the matterist in disbelief. "Lord," he
exclaimed, "Dvarv, the greatest matterist in the Galaxy and the engineer
of all our current woes was not destroyed. He lives." He looked
bewildered. "I do not know how or why I know this, lord, yet I do. He is
in a dimension he has created himself, where no other can reach him."
"Dvarv," The Wonderer cursed, "then it is he who summons the Brightness
and threatens the existence of the Universe itself!"
8
The air of the mirror garden was laden with the sweet perfume of the
alpha trees. Overhead, a complex of eighteen suns played tag in the pastel
sky, weaving in and out, around each other. Jacob lazily shifted his huge
bulk, and the swinging chair in which he sat, suspended from the branches,
wobbled slightly, threatening to disgorge him into the writhing tentacles
of the pygmy bushes.
Ripples of fat played around Jacob's jowls as he regarded the foliage
beneath him. He smiled slightly and pressed a button set into the side of
his chair. Thus summoned, one of the feathered gardeners came tripping
gracefully down the wooded pathway, from his toil at the fountain of
dreams. It stood silently for a moment, beside the now motionless bushes,
looking up at Jacob, it's face a picture of childlike innocence. Then,
with the speed of light, it drew a huge, snub-nosed pistol from inside the
folds of it's billowing shirt. From the barrel poured a stream of golden
flame that seared a path through the air just above Jacob's head, and
exploded into a rainbow hued fireball. The feathered gardener nodded
gravely at Jacob.
"A great invisible sloth worm?" the fat man asked.
"Yes," confirmed the gardener. "I feel that it may have been looking
for an afternoon snack."
Jacob nodded. "Yes, such as me. But, then, that is the price that I
must pay for my sanctuary here, in the mirrored garden."
The other regarded him in silence for a moment. "Things have not
improved outside, then?" it asked at last.
"I don't know."
"Don't know?"
"No.''
The feathered gardener stooped to pluck a sickly looking clump of moss.
"Will you go?"
"I don't know. I should do."
"But you are safe here."
"For the moment, yes. But one day others will learn the secret of entry
from the sloth worms, and then..." The fat man paused in mid sentence, and
looked down at the reassuring innocence of the gardener's face.
"You ARE safe here," it assured him, and somehow it's tone quietened
the turmoil in Jacob's brain.
"Thank you," he said, with deep feeling.
The gardener smiled, turned, and tripped back down the wooded pathway,
towards the fountain of dreams.
Jacob continued to swing slowly for a few minutes after the gardener
had disappeared amongst the trees, then, with a purposeful glint in his
eyes he lowered his chair to the ground, carefully avoiding the pygmy
bushes, and stood up, with no little effort. He waddled down the path,
unseen by any of the toiling gardeners. He gazed at them as they worked in
the vari-coloured light of the garden, but none looked up as he went on
his way.
At length he arrived at his goal, the cave of crystal. As he approached
the doors swung open, tinkling. He waddled inside and sat down heavily in
a chair.
After a while he recovered his breath. He turned in his seat and gazed
at the robot that stood silently in one corner of the cavern. There was an
almost imperceptible shimmering in the air.
"We are leaving," he announced suddenly.
The robot stared at him with a crystal lensed eye. "As you say,
master," it said impassively.
All the fury and hopelessness in Jacob suddenly welled over. He turned
on the robot, his face a mask of anger. "Curse you," he shrieked. "Why do
you always have to agree with everything I say? Why don't you beg me not
to go, tell me that we're safe here? Why don't you argue with me, and tell
me how mad I am?
"I agree, and obey," the robot said dispassionately. "That is how I was
built."
The fury left Jacob as abruptly as it had come, and his huge frame
sagged. "Yes," he replied lamely, "I know."
The robot continued to gaze at him. "You know," it said, after a while,
"you really do want to go, don't you? You want to know what happened to
Michelle."
"Michelle," Jacob breathed. "Yes, Michelle. Things were all right here
until Michelle showed up. We let her in. We sheltered her."
The robot slightly shifted position. "You had no choice," it said. "If
you had not given her sanctuary she would have fallen prey to the worms.
They had not pursued her here for nothing. They had a powerful reason for
wanting her destruction. You know that."
"Yes, and we shall probably never know what that reason was now. Even
if we did, I doubt that we could understand the motives of such creatures.
But it was not so much that, I was in love with her. My emotions clouded
my judgement, or I should never have let her go in search of the City of
Ice. She told me that there were still humans living there, you know."
"She wanted to go," the robot reminded Jacob gently.
"Yes, but I could have stopped her. I SHOULD have stopped her. Oh, what
a fool I was, all for Michelle. And then, when the sloth worms learnt how
to penetrate our sanctuary, she deserted me. Left me alone."
"She had to leave, or the worms would have destroyed her."
Jacob shook his head slowly. "You would say that," he muttered. "You
always agree with everything humans do."
"I obey and agree, master," the robot said.
Jacob staggered to his feet. "We must leave immediately," he decided.
"Before I change my mind." He shook his head. "I don't know why I should
go now," he added almost helplessly.
"As you say Master. Are we going in search of the City of Ice?"
"Yes."
"You think that that is where Michelle went?"
Jacob scowled. "Your job," he told the robot, "is to obey and agree -
not to ask questions." He regarded the robot severely. "I sometimes think
I preferred the solitude I had before you arrived."
"Yes Master," it confirmed.
While the fat man pondered over a rough map that Michelle had prepared,
and on which was a cross purporting to represent the true position of the
City of Ice, the robot scuttled hastily around the crystal cavern,
collecting necessities for the journey.
"We will proceed on foot, for the first few miles," Jacob informed it.
"That should get us to the ruined city of Erst. Somewhere there we should
find some form of transport to take us north. Is that reasoning correct?"
"It is as you say, master," the robot confirmed.
"Is everything ready?"
"I have packed all that is necessary, master." The robot handed Jacob a
squat metal cylinder. "Here is your blaster," it said. "I feel that you
may need it."
Jacob stuffed the gun into his belt and waddled across to the entrance.
The robot shuffled into line behind him.
Once outside the cave, Jacob paused for an instant, then turned and
stared back at it ruefully. This period of contemplation lasted only a
second or two, then shaking his head sadly, causing his chubby double chin
to wobble, he turned and strode down the path.
Jacob had been walking for only two or three minutes when he came
across one of the feathered gardeners, working by the fountain of dreams.
"You are going?" enquired the gardener.
"Yes," Jacob nodded.
The gardener held out his hand in a remarkably human-like gesture of
farewell.
"Goodbye," it said. Jacob bent down to shake the tiny being's hand. As
he did so, the light, reflected from the coloured fountain, seemed to form
the hazy outlines of a face. Jacob gasped - it was Michelle! Her long
blond hair hung like silk across her shoulders. In that visage were
reproduced to perfection her soft brown eyes, her small, ever smiling
mouth.
There was a faint smile playing about the feathered gardener's face as
he turned and left Jacob to his dreams.
"He does not understand," the robot said, as if he was trying to
apologise for the gardener, but the fat man did not answer.
After a timeless interval spent watching the flashing spray, he
straightened slowly and continued his march without a word to the robot.
It followed his path in blind obedience. A few minutes later the pair
arrived at the huge wall that surrounded the garden, stretching far into
the sky.
"Well," Jacob said needlessly, "here we are."
"Yes, Master," the robot agreed, more out of habit than of any
conviction that it's opinion was required.
Jacob was about to step through the wall of time when the robot grasped
his arm.
"Look, master," it hissed, pointing with a long metal hand at the
shimmering wall.
Jacob peered. "I can't see a thing," he admitted.
"One of the great worms is oozing through the wall of time, master."
"How much of it is through?"
"I cannot tell. As you know, the things are only just within the limits
of my vision. This one looks rather like a vague shadow, and it moves so
slowly that the extent of it's progress is somewhat difficult to gauge."
Jacob wasted no time in consideration of the issues involved. "Fire!"
he ordered. Scarlet flame billowed from the tips of the robot's fingers.
"It is destroyed, master," the robot announced. "Or, at least, that
portion of it which had succeeded in oozing through the wall."
Jacob peered at the wall of time. "You have caused the wall no damage,
I hope," he muttered nervously.
"I don't think so, master."
"Good," the fat man breathed. "Now attach your gadget that enables you
to pass through the wall and we will proceed. We have no time to waste."
The robot complied with his master's instructions and the two of them
stepped into the wall. To Jacob it felt as though he was falling, though
he knew that this sensation was pure illusion. Nevertheless, it persisted
for what seemed to him a very long time, before suddenly, there was a
violent wrenching which jarred every muscle in his body and they were
standing outside the garden. The surrounding landscape brought Jacob back
to reality with a hideous shock. Here was stark reality, so different from
the beautiful garden they had just left. He took it all in slowly: the
bleak, dead dirt beneath his feet, the stale, rank air, the dirty grey
clouds overhead.
For a moment he could have wept.
9
Orange 34 was very silent as he sat on the top of the hill that
overlooked the town of Iron. Blue 453f looked at him as she lay by his
side. His face showed signs of worry, something alien to their race. He
had always been quiet, but now he had become even more withdrawn and would
not even participate in the morning fun session. She had warned him of his
folly, but he would not listen.
"You are very quiet," she observed.
He turned his head slowly, and looked down at her. "I was thinking," he
replied.
"What were you thinking about?" she asked. "You know there is no need
for thought. Everything is worked out for us. It has always been this way,
since the years of the long night."
"That's just it," he answered, "everything is so perfect. There is no
sickness, no food shortage, no-one dies, no one is deformed or maimed.
There are never any holocausts or wars. No-one does anything other than
what they are told to do. Above all, no-one dares to ask the reason for
it, or why we should allow half of our planet to be given over to these
Gods who brought us this salvation. Gods we have never seen."
Blue 453f closed her receivers in horror. "You must not speak such
blasphemy," she replied. "They must be Gods, for it was they who saved us
from the years of the long night and turned our world into a paradise."
"Bah," cursed Orange 34. "I'm sick and tired of being told what to do.
I want it to be back to how it was before the year of the long night."
"How can you say that when no-one remembers what it was like," she
countered. "It must have been terrible."
"But if none of us remember," he continued, "how do you know that what
we have now is better."
"Because the Gods told us. They painted their story of salvation on the
sky."
"Now we're back to the Gods again, I'm fed up with them."
"Be silent," she ordered, "or the Gods will hear you and they will
punish you."
A silence fell for a few seconds, then Blue 453f got to her feet. "It
is time for us to return to the city of Iron," she stated. "Our shift
starts soon."
"Our shift'" sneered Orange 34. "Why should we work, it is all so
pointless."
"No!" Blue 453f retorted. "Do we not make huge buildings that are
shipped to the city of Steel to house the people there?"
"No," he replied, "that's just it. The buildings are shipped to the
city of Steel, but they go into their factories and they break them up and
melt them down. They send them back to us as new raw material to build
more houses. It is all a plan of the Gods to stop us thinking. The city of
Steel has only had three new houses erected in the last ten years."
"I can't believe that," she said.
"Go and see for yourself," he retorted angrily.
"But I can't," she argued. "It is against the will of the Gods that I
should leave the city of Iron."
"So you will believe the word of the Gods in preference to mine?" he
asked.
"Yes," she replied without hesitation, "naturally."
"It is no use trying to make you see," he said. "You're just like all
the others. You get up in the morning, go to the centre for your
nourishment capsule. Attend the morning fun session, then go and work your
shift in the factory. You attend the afternoon fun session, then work
another shift in the factory. Finally, you go home and take a pill that
puts you into a deep sleep until you wake up the next morning and do it
all over again. You do this without question. You have no choice. You are
imprisoned in the city day and night. Every year of your immortal life."
"But you contradict yourself," she argued. "Did you not get permission
for us to leave the city for the duration of the afternoon fun session?"
He did not reply.
"Well," she asked again, "didn't you?"
He still remained silent.
A note of fear crept into her voice. "You didn't deceive me, did you?"
she asked.
"Alright if you must know," he shouted, "yes. I thought I might be able
to make you see reason. I was wrong."
She looked at him in a horrified manner. "You have made me miss a fun
session. I must report you at once."
"Fool!" he snapped at her. "Go on then, see what good it does you!"
"You need attention," she said, "you will go down in history as the
first man to lose his mind. You must be dealt with."
10
Suddenly Jacob's robot hissed a warning: "All around us, master, the
great invisible sloth worms. They are in a huge circle, all around the
wall. We cannot penetrate their ranks. We must go back."
"We cannot re-enter for at least an hour, it takes that long for the
charge in our gadgets to build up. How near are they?"
"Only about a hundred meters away. They will reach us in about forty
five minutes."
"We must try and make a break for it. How many are there?"
"They are in ranks five deep. We would never get through."
"Then we are doomed before we start," Jacob breathed.
The robot whirred. "At least it would seem that Michelle escaped from
the area undetected," it surmised. "Or else so many worms would not be
intent on penetrating the wall. It seems as though the whole nation of
them are gathered in this spot."
Jacob shook his head. "It may be that they have destroyed her, and have
now come back for more," he said. "You cannot attempt to understand the
workings of minds such as theirs."
"They are beginning to move in," the robot observed.
"Then we are doomed."
"How about blasting our way out?" "the robot suggested.
"I fear that, from what you've said that there would appear to be more
worms than we have charges in our guns. Is that not so?"
The robot managed to look woeful in some mechanical way. "Yes master,"
it agreed. "In future I will not suggest, but merely see and obey."
"No, you won't," Jacob countered. "That's the first decent suggestion
you've made since you arrived. If we survive, I wish you to continue along
independent lines of reasoning."
They stood motionless for a moment, the robot following the progress of
the worms.
"Master," it said, after a while, "I do not think that the worms are
moving towards us after all. They seem to be converging on another section
of the wall."
"Eh? I thought that they could only ooze through one at a time. I
wonder what is the point of their converging?"
The robot pondered his question for a moment before suddenly pointing
in the direction of the worms' travel.
"Master, there is a flaw in that part of the time wall," it stated.
Comprehension dawned on Jacob. "You must've weakened the structure of
the wall when you fired at that worm that was oozing through," he said.
Still, it's a relief that they're not coming towards us."
The robot nodded, an oddly human gesture for a creature of metal. "Yes,
it would appear that we are not of the slightest interest to them."
"Is there a chance that we may be able to break through their ranks a
little later on?"
"Yes. If we start walking around the wall, heading away from the flaw,
there ought to be a break about a quarter of the way around."
The two began to edge around the wall of time, cautiously at first, but
with more assurance after the robot stated that the worms were taking no
notice of them. They strode on for about ten minutes. As they walked,
Jacob stared out across the sterile, featureless landscape that surrounded
them. He saw nothing save the dead soil, a shade of dusty grey, the colour
of the thick cloudbanks that hung above them, obscuring the Sun. It looked
as though some strange being had stolen the very colours from the Earth,
so drab was the spectacle before him. He paused in his tracks, shocked by
the enormity of it all. He looked at the robot.
"Where did we go wrong?" he asked.
"It was the living beings who went wrong," the robot said. "We
robots... I..." It's voice trailed off and it emitted a string of garbled
syllables. Then it regained control. "My apologies, master," it said
calmly, "for my criticism of the living beings. I agree and obey."
"Don't apologise for the truth," Jacob said wearily. "My race along
with many others paid for it's foolishness and impetuousness. It paid
dearly enough, however, that we may know better next time."
The robot touched Jacob's shoulder lightly. "The worms have broken
their circle," it announced. "They are now all heading for what seems to
be a very well defined fault in the wall of time."
"My God," muttered Jacob. "What will they do if they flood into the
mirror garden? What will become of the feathered gardeners?"
"I regret," answered the robot, "that there is nothing that we can do.
The worms would be inside before we could re-enter."
"Then we must make a break for it," decided Jacob. "Even with my
prodigious bulk I can still outrun these sloth worms."
A few minutes later the robot announced that a gap now existed in the
worm's ranks large enough for them to slip through. Jacob moved forward
uncertainly, constantly reassured by the metallic figure that followed
him, guarding their rear. Now and again the robot turned and looked back
at the wall of time. Suddenly it spoke:
"Look, master-"
Jacob turned and peered behind him. "I see nothing," he remarked.
"You will see it in a moment," the robot assured him.
Jacob gazed back across the grim landscape. Suddenly he gasped. The
wall of time was bulging outwards, as if forced to do so by some
unbearable internal pressure. It suddenly split and burst asunder. From
inside poured what looked like a vast ball of quicksilver. It grew vaster
by the second, as the material of the wall seemed to crumble and collapse.
The silver ball began to pulsate, shooting out rays of coloured light as
it did so, beams of frightening intensity that seared the eyeballs.
Suddenly there was a brilliant explosion of colour that blinded Jacob.
He lurched sideways, staggered by it's violence, and struck the ground,
hitting his head as he fell. When he came to, it was to find the robot
bent anxiously over him. "What happened?" he mumbled predictably.
"It would appear," the robot explained, "that the wall of time,
fractured by the blast from my gun, and further weakened by the assault of
the worms, finally collapsed. Thus released, the mirror garden broke forth
from it's own dimension into this one. As two dimensions are unable to
exist within the same physical space-time continuum the two cancelled each
other out in a rather startling explosion of colour."
"Colour?"
"Yes. It would appear that there was relatively little energy release
in the shorter wavelengths. What there was however served to kill the
remaining worms. However, most of the energy was released in the form of
light: coloured light. Look, the garden is still radiating. See, all
around you."
Jacob staggered to his feet and gazed about himself. The clouds above,
he saw, had now become tinged with a delicate pink, and the ground was no
longer a dusty grey shade, but sparkled like a rainbow. He himself was
clothed in shimmering light.
"How?" he gasped.
"Who knows master," the robot replied uncertainly. "However, perhaps
Michelle was not the prey of the sloth worms at all. Perhaps they wanted
what was still inside." "Then... if they were not pursuing Michelle, there
is a much greater chance that she may still be alive."
"Yes, indeed."
"Then let us press on towards the city of Ice. One thing puzzles me,
though. . If she was not fleeing from the worms, why did Michelle come to
the garden in the first place?"
"I cannot say, master. Maybe we will find the answer to that question
at the city."
"Possibly."
They resumed their trek.
11
Jacob and his mechanical ally pressed on for several hours making only
slow progress across the now garishly lit landscape. At last Jacob pointed
at a far blur on the horizon. "That must be Erst," he guessed.
The robot switched on magnifying lenses in it's eyes. "It looks dead,
master," it announced.
"Can you see any intact buildings there?" Jacob demanded.
The robot was noncommittal. "There may be a few on the far side of the
city, but there's not much left of what I can see. It looks as though the
near side caught the worst of the blast that wiped out Erst."
Jacob rubbed his chin. "A pity," he stated. "If we are unable to find
the City of Ice, we may have to make our home in Erst."
"There is also the problem of supplies," the robot added. "Although I
took everything that I could carry, it won't last forever."
Jacob began to walk in the direction of the city. "Then let us hope
that we can unearth something there," he said. The robot agreed, striding
along behind the fat man.
They soon arrived at the outskirts of Erst. Jacob stopped to stare at a
crumbled structure, but there was so little left of it that he could not
decide what it had been. To make things worse, the riot of coloured light
from the remains of the mirror garden continued to pour over the horizon,
distorting vision with it's brilliance.
"Let us hope this building wasn't the food factory," Jacob muttered.
They walked on through the rubble of the silent metropolis. The crumbling
remains sparkled red and blue, looking more like something out of a
surrealist picture than a once mighty centre of civilisation. The robot
pointed suddenly.
"Over there, master," it stated. An intact building!"
Jacob waddled along faster, and reached the building gasping for
breath.
"The door is ajar," he observed, "so let us enter."
They passed through the rotting door into a dark, musty chamber. The
room's only illumination was a faint glimmer of light that seeped through
the grime encrusted window. The robot switched on a light that was set
into it's forehead.
Jacob gazed around the room swiftly, shuddering as he saw the two
skeletons that were the room's only occupants, huddled up in a corner.
That was all that was in the room, save for a few sticks of battered
furniture.
Jacob turned, an expression of vague distaste on his features. "Just an
ordinary house," he said. "Not much good to us, except, of course, for
shelter if we need it. Anyway, those skeletons make me somewhat uneasy."
The robot stared up and down the street in which they stood. "I wonder
why there are no skeletons or debris of some sort in this section of the
city?" it said. Jacob glanced around. The street was remarkable rubble
free, now he came to think about it.
"Perhaps hard radiation has eaten them away in some fashion," he
guessed wildly.
The robot shook it's head. "I do not think so, master," it replied. "My
instruments show that only a small amount of radiation was discharged in
this area."
"Then what has caused all this?" Jacob wondered, taking in all the
emptiness and desolation with a wide sweep of his arm.
"It is not for me to suggest, master," replied the robot.
"Perhaps it was some alien force,'' surmised Jacob. "Like the feathered
gardeners."
The robot nodded doubtfully. "It is possible," it conceded. "But my
instruments suggest to me that who or whatever is responsible for this
desolation may be still in the vicinity of the city."
"People? Is there a possibility that some humans remain?"
"If you want my opinion," the robot said, "I think that some alien
force must be responsible. I don't think that humans could achieve quite
this effect."
Jacob considered this. "We would do well to proceed with caution then,"
he decided. "For we know not what evil lurks ahead."
The robot swivelled gradually around, scanning their immediate
surroundings. "I think that the answer may lie very near," it said. "Look
at that huge pile of rubble over there, behind the ruined Town Hall."
"Let's go and see what it is," the fat man suggested.
The robot agreed and they moved cautiously towards their objective,
always looking behind from time to time lest some form of treachery should
be attempted. Finally they stood before the mound of debris. Jacob heard a
rustling sound from behind the jumbled heap, and he stepped to one side to
find the cause. Then he stopped dead in his tracks. Before him was a huge,
wildly pulsating, amoeba-like creature. It seemed to be twenty feet in
diameter and rubble stuck to it's slime-covered bulk. Jacob turned to the
robot, aghast. "What is it?" he breathed.
"It is beyond my experience, master," the robot replied slowly.
A voice boomed out inside Jacob's head. "I will answer that question,"
it said. "For while you have been within range of my thirty seven senses I
have been studying you, and I think that I now have a fair grasp of your
language and your psychology. I am aware of the many questions that you
wish to put to me and so I will tell you my story, and try, in doing so,
to answer your queries."
Jacob turned uneasily to the robot, but the mental voice roared out in
his brain again before he could say anything.
"Do not be afraid," it boomed. "I mean you no harm. In fact, in my own
way, I am as afraid of you as you are of me. Perhaps even more so, for I
am a peaceful creature, while your kind have a long history of destruction
and violence, deceit and hatred. My race are the wanderers of the
Universe. Ours is the joy of unending flight through the eternal blackness
that you call space. To us it is a real and magnificent medium, alive with
the myriad rays and particles that shape our environment. We take many
forms, and we yearn sometimes for a world on which to make our home and
live out our remaining years in peace and solitude. I heard that the
population of this planet had been destroyed in a giant conflict, so I
came here with some others of my race. Our intention was to build
ourselves a new existence."
"You say there are others like you?" Jacob interrupted. "How many?"
"I am not certain, for many have succumbed since landing from the
radiation and bacteria that still exist here and there. I came down near
this city, out of control, and my shell was destroyed. So I gathered
together rubble and debris with which to fashion another shell for myself.
As I have no means of uprooting fixed objects, I was able to use only the
loose rubbish and masonry that abounded in these dead streets."
"Ah," exclaimed Jacob. "At least that explains the lack of rubble. But
tell me - what do you eat for food? Did you bring a supply with you? Or do
you convert sunlight energy in some way, or utilise this rubble?"
"No. It is far simpler than that; I eat myself."
"You eat yourself?"
"Yes. I consume the right part body, while the left side increases and
maintains my size at its former level."
"I don't believe it!" Jacob gasped incredulously.
"It is not quite as gruesome it sounds," the amoeba explained. "You
see, my body is not one organism, but a host of single celled entities,
sharing a common intelligence. When these tiny bodies are born, on my left
side, they commence a microscopic migration towards the right of my body,
arriving just in time to die. The living remainder of my organisms then
consume their bodies."
"I see," muttered Jacob, looking uncertainly towards the robot.
"A sort of biological perpetual motion machine."
There followed a short silence.
"No doubt," said the creature, "you and your robot are concerned what
to do about me."
"We will be content to leave in peace, as long as you do not interfere
with us," Jacob replied.
"That is the decision of your robot also?" the amoeba asked.
"I agree and obey at all times and in all ways," the robot responded.
"As indeed, all robots do."
"Maybe so," the creature agreed. "But I have seen it otherwise."
"Oh?" said Jacob.
"Yes, indeed. I have come across worlds in my travels, worlds where the
robots had taken over. There they were the masters."
The robot shifted uneasily. "I do not see how that is possible," it
said at last. "It is the function of a robot to agree and obey, at all
times, and under all circumstances."
"Possibly so, in the stage of civilisation that you have reached, but I
have known worlds, where, as the race progressed, they strove to create
more and more nearly human replicas of themselves. The robots became more
and more like their masters, shared the same desires, and suffered the
same delusions. When they realised that with their non organic bodies and
mechanically motivated minds, they were more than a match for their human
masters, they rose up and seized power."
"I will always obey my master at all times," the robot asserted.
"Enough of this talk," Jacob commanded, sensing that the robot's
delicate brain might be unhinged by the things that the creature was
saying. He turned back to the being. "We would like to stay and hear more
of your travels," he assured it, "but time is short and we are searching
for some form of transport to carry us to the city of Ice."
"I can help you there," answered the amoeba. "Nearby is a building with
an underground garage, which escaped the worst of the blast. Inside it is
a vehicle such as you seek."
"Did you see any intact cities, on your way down?" the fat man asked,
on the off chance.
"No," replied the alien. "But then I landed at night, in thick fog, and
was more than somewhat preoccupied with my own predicament."
"Well, thank you anyway," Jacob said. "Perhaps we will meet again some
day."
"Maybe," said the thing. "But have care. There are others on this world
that are not as friendly as I am."
Jacob turned and waddled towards the building that the creature had
indicated, the robot close on his heels. The man blasted away a pile of
rubble that blocked the entrance to the subterranean garage, and they made
their way down a sloping ramp into the darkness below. Jacob turned to the
robot.
"Can you see anything dangerous?" he enquired.
"No," the answer came. "As far as I can make out, this place has been
deserted for a long time. But look, there is a truck standing in the far
corner."
They walked over to the stationary vehicle and examined it.
"It seems to be in good running order," Jacob averred. "The atomic
battery has not yet run down. We should be able to make it to the City of
Ice O.K., assuming that it exists, that is."
"And what if it does not exist, master?"
"Then we must return here."
The robot nodded and placed their supplies in the back of the truck. By
the time it had done this, Jacob had clambered up into the cab, and was
sitting behind the steering wheel. He pressed the starter button, but
nothing happened.
"Oh, well," he said despondently. "I suppose it was too much to hope
for."
"Wait," said the robot. "My memory banks tell me that this type of
engine needs time to warm up."
Sure enough, after a brief pause the motor roared into action. Jacob
manipulated the controls, and the truck nosed up the ramp, and out into
the streets of Erst. Jacob picked up speed slowly, edging past crumbling
buildings, until the robot requested him to stop near a particularly shaky
looking one. As the man brought the truck to a halt, the robot jumped from
the cab, and fired at the building with his blaster. It crumbled to the
ground amid a cloud of dust.
"There you are," said the robot, facing back in the direction from
which they had come. "You may finish your shell now."
"My thanks to you," came the telepathic reply.
"I should thank YOU," the robot answered, then turned and clambered
back into the cab. Jacob puzzled over this remark as he guided the vehicle
for the open country beyond Erst, but he said nothing.
12
Orange 34 and Blue 453f returned to the city in an angry silence. They
passed through the city gates and walked silently through the streets to
their house. They paused outside the door. "I will report you as soon as
we are inside," she whispered, so that no-one else in the street could
hear.
She opened the door and stepped inside. She stopped dead and he bumped
into her. In the house were five men, dressed in a different coloured
uniform to those of the ordinary people. She recognised them as the
messengers of the Gods. She fell to the floor and covered her face, but
Orange 34 remained standing.
The leader of the group spoke in a loud severe voice. "Orange 34, you
have been found guilty of missing fun sessions and not taking your sleep
pills for a duration of five days. Blue 453f, you have been found guilty
of missing a fun session. For these crimes against the Gods, you must both
be destroyed."
"Wait," said Orange 34, "you cannot destroy me."
His voice sounded so sure, that the commander looked at him in puzzled
manner. "Why?" he asked.
"Because I am a God," came to the reply.
"You're what!" breathed the Commander, in a voice hardly audible. "What
blasphemy is this?"
Blue 453f quivered on the floor.
"If I am not a God," Orange 34 continued, now shouting at the top of
his voice, "let the Gods destroy me for my blasphemy."
There was no movement in the room for a whole minute, no-one even
breathed, nothing happened.
"You see," he shouted, "I am a God!"
The Commanders men looked at each other in disbelief and then fell to
their knees chanting praises. The Commander was not tricked. He turned to
his fellow messengers. "Up," he ordered. "He is fooling you. He is no more
a God than I am. If he is a God, then I am a God, and I am no God. Of
course the Gods will not strike him, or me, down for such blasphemy, for
they are kind and peaceful. He is trying to trick us for some evil reason
of his own."
The men cautiously got to their feet. As they did so, Orange 34 edged
his way out of the door. In a flash he was out in the street.
Luck was on his side. He was lost in the shift returning to the
factory.
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