Part 33 (1/2)

”Excellent. We shall activate it when the contract is ready.”

A slot opened below the k.n.o.bs. Inside a little drawer was a lentil-sized b.u.t.ton. ”No need. This will activate itself when the occasion is proper.”

So they weren't gambling overmuch on the good faith of the other party, either! Tamme took it and filed it away in a pocket. ”Good. Now we must proceed.”

”We shall provide you with your material needs if you will explain them.”

She hesitated, then decided to gamble. Why should the machine poison them when it already had them in its power? More likely it would do them every possible little service in the hope of getting them and its unit safely to Earth, thus making firm contact. So she described the type of vitamins, proteins, and minerals that life required.

After some experimentation, the machine produced edible, if unappetizing, food synthesized from its resources. Tamme and Veg were hungry, so they ate and enjoyed. She kept Veg silent while she gave advice for future cuisine. Though she did not regard any human beings that might follow as her friends, the common enemies were a greater threat; let the humans settle their differences in private. Also, let some other Earth be taken over if that was the way of it.

”You understand,” she said at the conclusion of the meal, ”we can not guarantee when we will reach our home-world, or if we will. Alternity is complex.”

”We understand. We shall conduct you to your projector.”

”Thank you.”

A truck appeared. The bars lifted. Tamme gestured Veg inside, at the same time touching her finger to her lips. She did not want him blabbing anything while they remained within the hearing of any machine, which she now knew to be no more than a unit of the hive.

They rode out of the giant complex, and she felt a very human relief. Shortly they were deposited at a platform. Set on a pedestal was a projector.

Tamme wasted no time. She activated it. And they --

-- were standing in mist again.

”Okay -- now can I talk?” Veg demanded.

”Should be safe,” she said. She had considered whether the lentil-signal could overhear them but decided not. If it were sentient, it would lose its orientation away from the hive-frame, and if it were not, it would probably be inactive until activated. Why should Machine Prime care about their dialogue when their world of Earth was so near its grasp? Calculated risk; she was not ready to throw it away yet but did not want to keep Veg silent forever.

She forged through the mist toward the next projector.

Veg followed her with difficulty. He had to crawl on hands and knees, taking deep breaths from air pockets near the ground. ”That pidgin English you were jabbering -- sounded as though you made some kind of deal -- ”

”The machine culture wants permission to exploit Earth,” she said. ”Apparently they have very limited alternate-transfer capacity, hardly ahead of ours, and unless the whole hive goes, the machines become wild. So they want to place an identifying beacon on our alternate -- they call it a 'frame' -- so that they can zero in with a full self-sustaining enclave. That means a hive-brain. They say they need a contract between alternates, but I don't believe that. Who would enforce such a doc.u.ment?”

”Yeah, who?” he echoed.

She found the projector and activated it.

They stood within the closing walls.

”I don't think it's smart, showing them where Earth is,” Veg said.

”Don't worry. If there's one thing I'm not going to do, it's take their b.u.t.ton to Earth. I'll find a good place for it -- somewhere else in alternity.”

”Yeah.” He was right behind her as she moved toward the next projector, avoiding capture by the walls. ”But what was this about a common enemy?”

”The sparkle-cloud. They can't handle it, either. It is the ultimate alternity traveler. But the fact that we have a mutual enemy does not necessarily make us allies. I played along with the hive-brain only to get us out of there. Which it probably knew.”