Part 9 (1/2)

Sparks flowed across the lever Marius had thrown, fusing it in place. ”Call the plant, tell them to shut off the power!”

BOLO DIVISION POWER-ON SELF-TEST VERSION 3.233 2052.

RESTART SEQUENCE INITIATED.

CORE MEMORY CHECK . . .

1792 TW OK . . .

256 TW 50% damaged 2048 TW 100% damaged 1792 TeraWords Memory out of 4096 TeraWords Memory Operational NON-VOLATILE MEMORY CHECK . . . .

35% of NON-VOLATILE MEMORY FUNCTIONAL EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .

EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .

EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .

MAIN PROCESSOR UNIT TIMEOUT - NON-MASKABLE INTERRUPT (NMI)!!!.

EMERGENCY REPAIR CIRCUITS EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .

EMERGENCY REPAIR FIRMWARE INOPERATIVE!!!.

DECISION POINT: CONTINUE/ABORT/RESTART?.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CONTINUE.

RESTART CONTINUED.

VOLATILE MEMORY CHECK . . .

23% OF VOLATILE MEMORY FUNCTIONAL.

MPU CHECKSUM ERROR!!!.

INTERNAL INCONSISTENCY!!!.

Pa.s.sWMRD INVALID!!!.

DECISION POINT: CONTINUE/ABORT/RESTART?.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CONTINUE.

USING DEFAULT Pa.s.sWMRD.

PRIMARY DATA SEQUENCER . . . OK.

DATA SEQUENCER . . . LOADED.

MPU . . . RESET.

PROCESSOR A . . . LOADED . . . RESET.

PROCESSOR B . . . LOADED . . . RESET.

PROCESSOR C . . . LOADED . . . RESET.

PROCESSOR D . . . LOADED . . . RESET.

PROCESSOR E . . . LOADED . . . RESET.

ALL PROCESSORS . . . READY.

STARTUP TEST SEQUENCE . . . COMPLETED.

LOADING BOOTSTRAP . . . LOADED!.

BOLO DIVISION BOOTSTRAP.

Version 4.553a 2054 All Rights Reserved LOADING BOLO CORE PROGRAM DAK . . . LOADED!.

I have been restarted. This confuses me . . . I have no recollection of a Bolo ever before running out of sufficient energy to maintain the survival center. My controlling pa.s.sword has been lost; I must rely upon the default pa.s.sword. I hope this will not unduly alarm my Commander . . . I shall construct a data recovery program in an attempt to recover the 77% of volatile data I have lost. I compute that certain of my circuits have suffered from corrosion at their contacts. I estimate that I must have failed to receive depot maintenance to recharge my power cells and that an additional 125.45 years elapsed before power failed to maintain my survival center.

Data recovery program running.

I shall ascertain the state of the rest of my equipment. Done. That task took me a phenomenally lengthy 1.2 seconds. I have discovered that most of my armaments have been stripped or disabled.

My anti-aircraft guns are locked at a 22 elevation; I predict that with effort I could elevate the guns to the emergency 45 maximum range lock deflection. The guns would subsequently be incapable of further movement. Five of my infinite repeaters are inoperative, the sixth appears to have severe damage to the barrel: I estimate that I shall be able to fire the weapon for no more than 120 seconds before the barrel disintegrates. Only one of my h.e.l.lbores appears functional; I am getting conflicting data regarding the projected ability of the weapon and shall have to wait for live-fire to confirm its usefulness and life-span.

My inner tracks are non-functional; my outer tracks appear over-torqued with a correspondingly greater increase in wear rate. I notice with some displeasure that several track pads have been replaced with inferior duplicates; my mobility, particularly my ability to accelerate, has been severely compromised.

My batteries have been charged to 50% of capacity, however my fusion reactor is non-functional.

I-.

DATA RECOVERY PROGRAM COMPLETE.

50% of lost data reconstructed with 94% accuracy Total volatile memory available for access: 62% Total available volatile memory free: 6% I have lost my train of thought, an event I find painfully disturbing. My batteries have been charged to 50% of capacity, however my fusion reactor is non-functional. I detect unrepaired reactor core damage. The damage appears deliberate, as though someone had tampered with the superconductors. Reactor startup is impossible; I have minimal reserves of tritium.

My ability to function as designed has been severely curtailed: I am grieved by this.

There is movement nearby. A human is approaching.

”Bolo, this is General Freiherr Marius of the Bayerische KriegsArmee, report!”