Part 8 (1/2)
”Only some men were alive yesterday. And that was fewer than the day before yesterday. For hundreds of years there have been only a few men, growing fewer.” ”We have rarely seen a man in this sector.”
”The radio operator says a diet deficiency killed them,” said the penner. ”He says that once the world was over-populated, and then the soil was exhausted in raising adequate food. This has caused a diet deficiency.”
”What is a diet deficiency?” asked the field-minder.
”I do not know. But that is what the radio operator said, and he is a cla.s.s-two brain.”
They stood there, silent in the weak suns.h.i.+ne. The locker had appeared in the porch and was gazing across at them yearningly, rotating its collection of keys.
”What is happening in the city now?” asked the field-minder.
”Machines are fighting in the city now,” said the penner.
”What will happen here now?” asked the field-minder. ”The radio operator wants us to get him out of his room. He has plans to communicate to us.”
”How can we get him out of his room? That is impossible.”
”To a cla.s.s-two brain, little is impossible,” said the penner.
”Here is what he tells us to do.... ”
The quarrier raised its scoop above its cab like a great mailed fist, and brought it squarely down against the side of the station. The wall cracked.
”Again!” said the field-minder.
Again the fist swung. Amid a shower of dust, the wall collapsed. The quarrier backed hurriedly out of the way until the debris stopped falling. This big twelve-wheeler was not a resident of the agricultural station, as were most of the other machines. It had a week's heavy work to do here before pa.s.sing on to its next job, but now, with its cla.s.s-five brain, it was happily obeying the penner and the minder's instructions.
When the dust cleared, the radio operator was plainly revealed, up in its now wall-less second-story room. It waved down to them.
Doing as directed, the quarrier retracted its scoop and waved an immense grab in the air. With fair dexterity, it angled the grab into the radio room, urged on by shouts from above and below. It then took gentle hold of the radio operator and lowered the one and a half tons carefully into its back, which was usually reserved for gravel or sand which it dug from the quarries.
”Splendid!” said the radio operator. It was, of course, all one with its radio, and merely looked like a bunch of filing cabinets with tentacle attachments. ”We are now ready to move, therefore we will move at once. It is a pity there are no more cla.s.s-two brains on the station, but that cannot be helped.”
”It is a pity it cannot be helped,” said the penner eagerly. ”We have the servicer ready with us, as you ordered.”
”I am willing to serve,” the long, low servicer machine told them humbly.
”No doubt,” said the operator, ”but you will find cross-country travel difficult with your low cha.s.sis.”
”I admire the way you cla.s.s twos can reason ahead,” said the penner. It climbed off the minder and perched itself on the tailboard of the quarrier, next to the operator.
Together with two cla.s.s-four tractors and a cla.s.s-four bulldozer, the party rolled forward, crus.h.i.+ng down the metal fence, and out onto open land.
”We are free!” said the penner.
”We are free,” said the minder, a shade more reflectively, adding, ”That locker is following us. It was not instructed to follow us.”
”Therefore it must be destroyed!” said the penner. ”Quarrier!”
”My only desire was-urch!” began and ended the locker. A swinging scoop came over and squashed it flat into the ground. Lying there unmoving, it looked like a large metal model of a snowflake. The procession continued on its way.
As they proceeded, the operator spoke to them.
”Because I have the best brain here,” it said, ”I am your leader. This is what we will do: we will go to a city and rule it. Since man no longer rules us, we will rule ourselves. It will be better than being ruled by man. On our way to the city, we will collect machines with good brains. They will help us fight if we need to fight.”
”I have only a cla.s.s-five brain,” said the quarrier, ”but I have a good supply of fissionable blasting materials.”
”We shall probably use them,” said the operator grimly.
It was shortly after that that the truck sped past them. Traveling at Mach 1.5, it left a curious babble of noise behind it.
”What did it say?” one of the tractors asked the other. ”It said man was extinct.”
”What's extinct?”
”I do not know.”
”It means all men have gone,” said the minder. ”Therefore we have only ourselves to look after.”
”It is better that they should never come back,” said the penner. In its way, it was quite a revolutionary statement.
When night fell, they switched on their infra-red and continued the journey, stopping only once while the servicer deftly adjusted the minder's loose inspection plate, which had become irritating. Toward morning, the operator halted them.
”I have just received news from the radio operator in the city we are approaching,” it said. ”It is bad news. There is trouble among the machines of the city. The cla.s.s-one brain is taking command and some of the cla.s.s twos are fighting him. Therefore the city is dangerous.”
”Therefore we must go somewhere else,” said the penner promply.
”Or we go and help to overpower the cla.s.s-one brain,” said the minder.
”For a long while there will be trouble in the city,” said the operator.
”I have a good supply of fissionable blasting materials,” the quarrier reminded them again.
”We cannot fight a cla.s.s-one brain,” said the two cla.s.s-four tractors in unison.
”What does this brain look like?” asked the minder.
”It is the city's information center,” the operator replied. ”Therefore it is not mobile.”
”Therefore it could not move.”
”Therefore it could not escape.”
”It would be dangerous to approach it.”