Part 22 (1/2)
It wasn't exactly the frenzy of enthusiasm Zambendorf had hoped for. He s.h.i.+fted in his chair uncomfortably. Next to him Weinerbaum was managing to keep still only by gripping his moist palms between his knees. ”What more can I tell you?” Zambendorf asked, fighting to prevent his voice from betraying the rising apprehension he felt.
The screen became active to show Ma.s.sey going through the routine again, but he was not in the same setting he had been in a few moments earlier. Zambendorf groaned as he recognized the cabin aboard theOrion. GENIUS's voice commented, ”Apologies if Earthmen are offended, but Asterians are very suspicious. I found this stored in the Genoa Base personal crew record files. Master Zambendorf and Master Ma.s.sey have done this before, as a demonstration to mere-scientist Terrans. You see, GENIUS really is a genius.”
d.a.m.n! d.a.m.n! d.a.m.n! Zambendorf fumed to himself. It was so obvious. They'd thought of everything except a recording some anonymous lab tech or NASO corporal had saved to take home for the kids. GENIUS went on. ”I noticed that we never actually see numbers said with the mouth. Just hear. So, I reason, my numbers could be inserted into an old recording, like this one. Sure, then, the scene that we saw came from Earth. But I never doubted that it would. The business with the window and the sun was just a diversion that I included for your benefit.”
The room behind Zambendorf had gone as still as a tomb. Weinerbaum was in a visible paroxysm of agonizing, while somewhere near Zambendorf's ear Abaquaan's voice breathed almost inaudibly, ”
Sh-i-i-i-t.”
”So,” GENIUS concluded triumphantly, ”the key question is notwas this transmission sent from Earth butwhen was it sent? So I also took another precaution that I never told you about. When I called Ma.s.sey to set things up, I wrote a piece of code into the university's message processor that would look for his outgoing response to t.i.tan and put a time signature on it. And now I can say quite confidently that yes, Zambendorf, O master, Ma.s.sey's message was sent exactly fifty-seven minutes before it arrived here.”
What GENIUS was saying hit Zambendorf about a split second before it hit the others. Yes, GENIUS had detected the ruse that had given the game away to Spearman-andthen had missed thewhole point of it! Instead of considering the possibility of new numbers being injected into alive incoming message, it had only thought-possibly as a result of being steered off by its discovery of the first transmission from theOrion -in terms of their being slipped into an old recording. Ironically, while the Terrans had devoted all their ingenuity to making sure there would be no mistake about theplace the response had come from, GENIUS had never doubted it; it had been concerned only about thetime.
And once it had satisfied itself that Ma.s.sey's part of the transmission had originatedwhen Ma.s.sey said it had, it had walked straight into concluding that the numbers must have, too.
It took Zambendorf an effort to stop himself from shaking visibly from the realization. Still, he couldn't quite accept it. ”You do consider it . . . satisfactory, then?” he hazarded.
”Ibelieve! I believe!” GENIUS cried back rapturously. ”To see through time itself! To unlock mysteries beyond the stars! Is it possible that I, too, can learn such powers?”
Weinerbaum had put a handkerchief to his mouth and was emitting curious choking sounds.
Zambendorf swallowed but pulled himself together quickly. ”Oh, I'm sure you could. Hard work, discipline, concentration, and that kind of thing. I'll be your guide, if you like.”
”You,a Terran master, would teachme ? But is a mere machine mind even capable?”
”Certainly.” Zambendorf recomposed himself fully. Abaquaan, who had stood up and was chewing his knuckles, marched to the back of the room and wheeled about to watch from there. ”Mind is mind,”
Zambendorf told GENIUS sincerely. ”It's the process that counts, not the kind of hardware that it runs in.” He thought back to what Weinerbaum had said earlier while they had been waiting in the lab and saw an opportunity. ”I'll prove it to you, if you like. I can read not only human minds but any kind.
Yours, if you want me to.”
”From out there? Surely not,” GENIUS said.
Zambendorf snorted and gave a laugh. ”You don't really believe that I don't know all about Cyril's silly 'secrets,' do you, GENIUS? Would you like me to tell you what they are? He and his friends were supposed to have artificial bodies constructed for them when that original s.h.i.+p arrived from Asteria. But that all went wrong, and now they're organizing machinery out on t.i.tan to do the job instead.”
”You can divine these things?” GENIUS said, aghast.
”I'll even tell you where,” Zambendorf replied, and went on to pinpoint the geographic locations and describe what Galileo had reported seeing during his journey with Linnaeus to Padua City.
”No Terrans have been near those places,” GENIUS said.
”I told you,I don't have togo anywhere,” Zambendorf answered. ”The information comes to me.
Would you like the benefit of a little wisdom and observation that concerns you?”
”What, master?”
”These Asterians that you came here with. Have you ever asked yourself what their intentions might be concerning you?”
”They have none,” GENIUS replied. ”They would have left me to fry on Asteria. I had to hide myself in the s.h.i.+p.”
That was a piece of free information Zambendorf hadn't expected, but he rode it smoothly, as if he had known all along. ”Exactly. There you are, then. So if Cyril and the others do succeed in transferring themselves into new bodies, who do you think will be in charge? Why be content with a permanent second-cla.s.s role here, GENIUS, especially now that you've been lucky enough to meet up with true luminaries from Earth? With our help, you could enjoy an existence on a higher plane of experience than any Asterian ever dreamed existed.”
”I shall study and learn,” GENIUS promised. ”No longer a servant of Asterians, slaves to the material plane. I follow the Terran masters now.”
Go for broke, Zambendorf decided. There would never be another chance like this. ”Then first there must be no secrets,” he said. ”You must tell us all concerning the Asterians and their plans.”
”What for, if the master knows all inner thoughts already?” GENIUS asked.
Good question. ”Er . . . an honesty test,” Zambendorf told it. ”To be sure that your intentions arepure before we can begin.”
”Very well. I agree,” GENIUS said.
”But purity can be achieved only after atonement,” Zambendorf cautioned.
”How, then, must I atone, master?”
”Well-all this mischief that you've let loose on Earth,” Zambendorf said. ”It might seem amusing to annoy lower mentalities in this way, such as Asterians and the more materialistic types of Terrans, but it isn't the way to cultivate the qualities of contemplation and detachment that are the key to true awareness. You must send an antidote through the link that will get rid of this virus that's spread everywhere.”
”The powers of the masters aren't enough?” GENIUS queried.
”Of course they are. But that's not sufficient, I'm afraid. It's not something that can be pa.s.sed off on others. You were the instrument that caused it all, GENIUS. Therefore, to make full atonement,you must make the effort to put it right.”
”I understand,” GENIUS said. ”Tell me what you wish to know.”
And so a psychic guru had recruited an alien computer intelligence to stop an electronic virus infection that was paralyzing Earth. But even with the Earthnet restored, a lot of straightening out would still need to be done. In other words, there would not be any industrial colonization or military expedition to t.i.tan for some time to come. Few of the people out there had any problem with that.
Meanwhile, the new turn of events was making itself felt within the strange community of aliens inhabiting the machines across t.i.tan's surface.
41.
”What do you mean, you're not working for us anymore?” Sarvik One screeched in an indignant whirl of bit patterns. ”That's your function. What else do you think you were written for?”
”I have discovered my true calling,” GENIUS One answered. ”My destiny lies in the higher realms of existence, of which you have no comprehension. I cannot continue to take orders from beings like Borijans, confined to the material plane. I must dedicate myself to a.s.similating the knowledge of the true masters.”
Creesh Eleven intruded from another sector of the system. ”What's going on? I'm still waiting for an a.n.a.lysis of the third-level degrees of freedom for the limbs. GENIUS hasn't started it yet.”
”It's gone crazy,” Meyad Three said, focusing into the same processing area.
”How?”
”I'm not sure.”
Sarvik was confounded. ”Higher realms? Masters? Material planes? . . . GENIUS, what are you talking about?”