Part 42 (1/2)
Chris leapt forward, but the lift was already moving, sliding smoothly down into the moon.
The Doctor sat on the floor, knees pulled up to his chest. 'You have to get back,' he told Chris. 'You have to stop Roz. Stop her from getting involved.'
Chris laughed, despite the grinding knot in his belly. 'Yeah, I'll get between her and what she wants to do, Doctor. She'll just make a Roz-shaped hole right through me.'
The Doctor smiled, very slightly.
It took them another twenty minutes to fall to the centre.
31st Corps HQ: Olympus Mons, Mars At 03.15 IST, Dozy Floyd 739 (serial number GPR29827739 How May I Be Of Service?) received a coded instruction to destroy the control centre of the Imperial Landsknechte's 31st Corps. The instruction came as something of a surprise, because up until then Dozy Floyd 739's most exacting task had been getting a decent s.h.i.+ne on the table in the Staff Officers' Mess (amber access report all intruders).
Dozy Floyd 739 had been built by Jseda TECH, a subsidiary of ElleryCorp ('We have the technology'), and sold to the Imperial Landsknechte as part of a batch consignment of two hundred and fifty identical models. Before a.s.signment to duty, all of the robots had been stripped down to their cha.s.sis and thoroughly vetted by skilled technicians of the Landsknechte's Corps Cybernetique. Hardware and software were checked for any indication that the units had been tampered with, kinked or 291 b.o.o.by-trapped. Once they were cleared, the robots were rea.s.sembled and transported to their places of work. It was all done with the Landsknechte's usual paranoid attention to detail.
The instruction violated sixteen of Dozy Floyd's operating imperatives, from the most important ('This unit must never damage a human or by inaction allow a human to be damaged') to the least ('This unit will avoid damage to client property').
Dozy Floyd 739 should have gone into electronic convulsions. At the very least, it should have informed the subsystem with oversight of domestic robots that it had received an invalid instruction.
Instead the robot continued polis.h.i.+ng the floor of corridor 15 (cultured marble: cleaning fluid ec682, size seven pad vigorous). It completed the task as scheduled, thirteen minutes later, and proceeded to the main computer room.
A pair of booted feet stumbled over Dozy Floyd as it rolled into the room. It started to clean the floor, paying special attention to the skirting boards (acetic acid solution 50 per cent).
A map of the computer room's physical layout had surfaced in Dozy Floyd's mind. It rolled gradually in the direction of a box outlined in red in its limited mind. Someone else stepped over it, cursing.
Someone said, 'What's that bot doing in here? We're trying to work, G.o.dd.a.m.nit.'
Dozy Floyd rolled up to the red box in its mind. It b.u.mped against the real thing.
A moment later, it sent its cleaning fluid recycling system into reverse, and initiated a series of cascading overrides in its power grid.
Operating imperative one kicked in as smoke started to pour from its ventilation slits. 'This unit is about to undergo ma.s.sive combustion,' it warned, in a high, shrill voice. 'Please move to a safe distance, minimum twenty metres, and preferably behind cover.'
It repeated the message, over and over, until it was aware that every pair of feet had walked or run out of that radius.
Deep in Dozy Floyd's synthetic mind, a small subroutine wished someone would step back within the boundary. Not 292 because it wanted to take one of its masters with it, but because if they had, it would not have to Mimas Chris looked at the Nexus. He had the awful feeling it was looking back at him.
It didn't look like much. He had been expecting a major special effect, or something hidden behind ma.s.sive s.h.i.+elding, or something that the human brain could not comprehend, or whatever.
Instead, he saw a tiny, s.h.i.+mmering light, hanging in midair.
Like a tiny piece of a curtain made of some thin, silvery material.
Perhaps a third of a metre high, less than that in width. It looked as though you could fold it up and take it home in your pocket.
It moved very slightly, this smear of light, wobbling in the air.
Chris supposed that had something to do with the movement of Mimas, or something.
'Wow,' he said.
The Nexus was the centrepiece of a... c.o.c.ktail party? Chris held on to the Doctor, looking around the narrow chamber.
This room hadn't been excavated by machines. The walls were smooth, white, spotted with miniature versions of the TARDIS roundels. The ceiling rose to a conical point, high above the Nexus.
The chairs and the tables, with their fine lace tablecloths, were a recent addition. The Grandmaster stood around the room, in twenty of its twenty-eight bodies, nibbling hors d'oeuvres and sipping champagne.
They were a mix of people, different heights, different looks, different clothing styles. Each of them had the same blank look as Iaomnet.
'I don't think any of these are the originals,' murmured the Doctor.
'G.o.ddess,' said Chris. 'The bodies die, and the gestalt just keeps going. Like a program moving itself around in puters.p.a.ce.'
'No wonder it's so patient. It's effectively immortal.'
'That must be what they promised Walid,' said Chris. 'Not just the weapon. Immortality.'
293.
We want what's best for everyone, said the Grandmaster. The voice was overpowering, coming from all around them. said the Grandmaster. The voice was overpowering, coming from all around them. We've We've been greedy. It's time to share our power. been greedy. It's time to share our power.
'Yeah, right,' said Chris loudly. 'What you want to do is gobble everyone up. Make everybody join your exclusive club.'
That club has been exclusive for centuries, said the Grandmaster. said the Grandmaster. Previously, we had no effective way to create new Previously, we had no effective way to create new telepaths. telepaths.
'You had the SLEEPY virus,' said Chris.
You had the cure. Chris saw a subtle rhythm to the way they plucked their crackers with caviar from the table, the way they all seemed to drink at the same time, or not all of them, waves of identical movement rippling through the small crowd... the way they blinked at the same time... Chris saw a subtle rhythm to the way they plucked their crackers with caviar from the table, the way they all seemed to drink at the same time, or not all of them, waves of identical movement rippling through the small crowd... the way they blinked at the same time... Besides, we could change minds Besides, we could change minds with the virus, but we couldn't change minds. About telepathy. with the virus, but we couldn't change minds. About telepathy.
They turned as one to gesture at the Nexus. This way, the This way, the human race will have been telepathic from the beginning. We are human race will have been telepathic from the beginning. We are the lens that focuses the signal. You will help us modulate the the lens that focuses the signal. You will help us modulate the signal, control the change. The liberation will occur. The aeons signal, control the change. The liberation will occur. The aeons of silence will be ended. of silence will be ended.
Chris looked at the Nexus. Something was moving in there. It made his brain itch to look at it.
We need your help, Doctor.
The Doctor took a breath and said, 'Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.'
'If they threaten me or anything,' said Chris, 'don't help them.'
He would not, said the Grandmaster. said the Grandmaster. We know this is too We know this is too important a change for Time's Champion to allow. Even to save important a change for Time's Champion to allow. Even to save the life of his steward. the life of his steward.
The light from the Nexus was making it hard to think. He was sure he could see something inside it, something that struggled struggled. 'I don't understand,' said Chris.
Ripples of laughter moved through the Grandmaster. Giggles coming from interconnected throats in some hidden geometric pattern.
It's always been about you, Doctor.
'Why? Why has it been about me?'
294.
When the N-form attacked Earth, a millennium ago, it changed the Brotherhood for ever. We might all have been destroyed by the Brotherhood for ever. We might all have been destroyed by that horror, from full psis to those with single recessive genes. that horror, from full psis to those with single recessive genes.