City of the Cyborgs (12 page)

“Crying is part of being a human being,” Josh
agreed. “That’s one thing the Peacemaker robbed you of. All emotion. Feelings are a part of what we are. If we don’t have them, we’re pretty well nothing but animals.”

“So what are we going to do now, Josh?” Rainor asked. He looked discouraged again. “So far, everything we do comes out wrong.”

“Yes, that seems to be the way of it. There was a saying in Oldworld. I can’t remember it exactly,” Josh said. “Something like ‘It’s always darkest just before the dawn.’”

“Well, things are pretty dark right now,” Abbey said.

Jake spoke up. “I remember one time when every one of the Sleepers was captured except me. I was all alone—one person—but Goél showed me what to do.”

“That’s right, Jake!” Josh exclaimed. “And this time there are still
five
of us for Goél to use. We’re going to beat the Peacemaker, no matter what happens.”

Rainor seemed encouraged by Josh’s words. “I can see why Goél made you the leader,” he said at once. “You just never give up, do you?”

Josh dropped his head. “I did once,” he murmured. “But I hope I never will again.”

Jake said, “The five of us have to think of something. We can’t just stand around and do nothing.”

“Yes,” Josh said quickly. “We’re either going to get the Peacemaker, or he’s going to get us. And I’m not giving up, so let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with.”

J
ake was alone in the semidarkness. The others were all asleep. He alone had not been able to find that relief. “I still don’t know what we’re going to do,” he muttered to himself, then stopped suddenly. “Well, that’s all I need. Now I’m talking to myself. I must be losing my mind.”

Lying on his sleeping pad, he locked his hands behind his head. He tried to close his eyes, but they would always fly open again. “Maybe I ought to count sheep,” he said. “Or maybe I ought to count something better looking than sheep. What’s better looking than a sheep? Peacocks! I’ll count peacocks.”

Counting peacocks did not seem to help in the least. He groaned and tossed and turned, trying to think of possible solutions. “We’ve thought of all the sensible things,” he muttered. “Now we’ll just have to think of nutty things.”

Indeed the survivors had talked and talked, trying to figure out some way to get to the tower. Cee Dee had told them that was where the Peacemaker kept the control station, but it was impossible to get there! The annihilators patrolled the streets heavily in that area, and every floor was heavily guarded.

On and on Jake thought until at last he did grow sleepy. He dozed off partially, half awakening, but then dropping off again. Eventually he began to dream.

It was one of those strange dreams in which he
knew
he was dreaming but could not seem to come out of it. In the dream he was struggling along through a swamp. His feet were sticking in the mud. All around him were snapping alligators and other beasts. He was yelling in the dream, and he knew there was no escape. Then suddenly something picked him up out of the mud and set his feet on dry land. He looked down and saw that his clothes were not even muddy. And when he looked up, he saw the shadowy figure of Goél. It gave him a start that was much like fear.

But even in a dream, Jake was happy to see Goél. “I’m glad to see you, sire,” he said. “Thanks for saving me from the alligators. You’re always around when I need you.”

“The alligators and the beasts were in your own mind.” Goél’s voice was soft but firm, as it always was. “Most of the struggles you have with doubts are useless, Jake. Most of the things that you fear will never come to pass. You wear yourself out fighting against things that will never happen. And that means you waste your strength on things that are not real.”

Jake laughed in his dream. “Well, sire, I know you’re always right. But back when I’m not in this dream, I’ve been worrying a lot about your servants. The ones that are captured by the cyborgs. Don’t tell me I shouldn’t worry about that.”

“You do not feel able to solve that problem, do you, my son?” Goél asked patiently.

“I’ve thought until my brains are fried, sire, and I don’t even have any ideas to try.” Jake knew his voice was filled with despair, though he hated to let Goél hear it.

“That is true. Sometimes I do let you go through
dark and trying hours. If you think back to some of the missions that I have sent you on, you can remember other times when the situation looked hopeless. Can you not?”

Now Jake was rather enjoying the dream. He did not want to wake up to reality. It was pleasant just talking to Goél in a shadowy world where nothing was really clear or firm.

“Yes, I can remember quite a few of those times. But this seems worse.”

“And what was different about the other times?”

Jake thought hard. “Because you always appeared to one of us and told us exactly what to do!”

There was a long silence, and at last Jake said, “If this is one of those times, Goél, tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. How can we get to Sarah and the others?”

Then, still in his dream, he simply stood and listened.

When the voice of Goél faded off to nothing, Jake suddenly realized with a start that he was awake. He also realized that he remembered every moment of the dream and every word!

Jumping to his feet, Jake yelled at the top of his lungs, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

His shouting awakened the others, who all came stumbling to him from their sleeping places. Some of them looked irritated.

“What’s wrong with you, Jake? I just finally dropped off to sleep!” Josh said.

“Listen! Listen! I know what to do!”

“Is this another one of your crazy ideas?” Abbey asked. “We can always depend on you for that.” She was trying to comb her hair with her fingers. It was falling about her face, and she was always irritated when she was in such a condition.

“Just listen! Let me tell you about a dream I had.”

Everyone groaned, even Rainor. “You woke us up to tell us about a
dream?”

“This is a different kind of dream, Rainor. You don’t understand.” His eyes were bright, and he told them his dream.

“And so Goél told me what to do,” he finished, and he looked around triumphantly.

Rainor looked skeptical, but Josh was excited. “I’ve been expecting Goél to visit us, but I thought he’d come in person. So what’s the secret? How do we get to the control tower without getting caught? Did he give you any answer for that?”

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of it,” Jake said, disgusted with himself. “It’s real simple. How are these annihilators finding us?”

“Because we’re the only people here not wearing antennas,” Abbey said. “We all know that.”

“Then what we’ll do—” Jake paused and looked around, grinning broadly “—we’ll have antennas.”

Everyone was quiet, and then Josh laughed aloud. “It’s funny how things are simple once they are explained. I should have thought of that myself a long time ago.”

Rainor said, “Wait a minute. You say we can make antennas and all this equipment like Cee Dee’s wearing?”

“Sure,” Jake said. “Then we walk along like the cyborgs walk, all slow and looking miserable. Then we can go anywhere.”

“But can we do that?” Rainor asked. “I’m not very good at making things.”

“That’s
my
specialty,” Jake said. “You just watch my smoke. First, we’ve got to start getting things together.”

∗ ∗ ∗

Rainor touched the box on his forehead. He felt it gently, then ran his hand up the antenna that extended over his head. “How do I look?” he asked.

“Looks good to me. But ask Cee Dee. She’s the expert.” Josh grinned. They each had on an imitation antenna.

Cee Dee admired Jake’s work. “It’s a marvel, Jake. It looks exactly like the real thing!”

“Well, I don’t want to brag,” Jake said, “but I think I’ve done a pretty fair job myself.”

It had taken a day and a half of feverish work. Jake and the others had rounded up materials from the city trash heap. Some parts were hard to find, such as those needed for making the antennas. But Jake had finally found heavy wire that he wound into a spiral. Then he put a tiny bulb on the top. It did not work, of course, for there was no electronic device inside the boxes on their foreheads—but it
looked
good, and that was what counted.

Josh nodded his approval. “OK. It’s time to make our move.” He turned to Cee Dee, saying, “You’re sure that the Peacemaker has all of his equipment in the tower?”

“I’ve never been there, but everybody knows that,” Cee Dee said soberly.

“All right, then.” Josh took a deep breath. “Goél’s given us a chance. We’ll get in there, and we’ll take over the control center. It’s the chance we’ve been waiting for.”

“Sure,” Jake said. “If we can just get to the control board, we can send out orders. We could tell those annihilators to beat their own brains out, and they’d do it.”

But Cee Dee at once cried out, “Oh, don’t do that,
Jake! They only obey orders. They don’t have any choice any more than the rest of the cyborgs.”

“That’s right,” Josh said. “We’ve been sent here for more than rescuing Mayfair and now our friends.” He took a deep breath and added solemnly, “All these people need freedom.”

Cybil knew that Makor was tired of her nagging. He had tried to satisfy her by giving her gifts, but she had locked him out of her chambers.

However, now she was back, saying again, “We’ve got to get away from this place, Makor. That’s all there is to it.”

“What would happen to our kingdom!” the Peacemaker exclaimed. “All the slaves. They would be helpless without us.”

Cybil had seen much earlier that Makor himself was very unhappy. He had been caught up in the cyborg system by the commands of his father and his grandfather. She was sure there was a better side to him somewhere. “Makor, my husband,” she said,
“you
are the slave.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“I mean exactly what I say, husband. Your chains are so heavy that you cannot even leave this place.”

“I certainly can. I’m the master here.”

“Good,” Cybil said. “Then let us go.”

“Well … I can’t leave right now.”

“No, and you never will,” she said sadly. “I’m sorry. I thought I had begun to see something in you other than a cruel tyrant. Some gentleness. But now I think I must have imagined it.” She hesitated a long time. “I’m leaving, Makor. I’m going back to visit my parents for a long, long time.”

The Peacemaker cried out in alarm. “You can’t leave!”

Cybil said quietly, “Would you make
me a
part of the One, Makor?”

“Of course not!”

“I believe you would. You have made slaves of everyone that has ever come into your kingdom. Why should I be any different?”

“Because—because I love you!”

“Then you must show me that by becoming another kind of person.”

“I must do what my father commanded. It was his dying request.”

“He was not a good man, nor was your grandfather. I know you honor them, but look around your kingdom. Do you see any happiness? You call yourself the Peacemaker, but the cyborg people do not have peace. They are less than human. I am going.”

“You can’t! You can’t do that!”

“What kind of life do we have? We are no happier than the cyborgs themselves!” Cybil cried. “You’ll never leave here, Makor. You have become like a cyborg yourself. Good-bye.”

The Peacemaker stared dumbly after Cybil. He could not believe what was happening, and he was confused. He walked up and down. Then he went to the top of the tower and walked back and forth there. The city was spread out beneath him, acres of buildings. He could see cyborgs walking in their leaden, slow fashion. Makor had exceptionally good eyesight, and he could see the expression, or the lack of it, on their faces. Cybil’s words came back to him.
You’ve become a cyborg yourself
.

Angrily he left the tower, unable to bear the memory.

He was walking down the corridor when a cyborg approached. “Peacemaker, we have captured several insane units.”

Ordinarily Makor would have taken steps at once to be sure that the captives were transformed into cyborgs. This time he said, “I’ll make the adjustments tomorrow.”

“Yes, Peacemaker.”

Makor started to walk on, then suddenly had a thought. “Place 6r9g with them.”

“Yes, Peacemaker.”

He walked away, but then stopped suddenly in front of another cyborg. “Come here,” he said.

The cyborg obeyed instantly. “Yes, Peacemaker.”

“Are you glad you’re a cyborg?”

“I am part of the One. I am One.”

“I know, but are you happy?”

“I do not know. I am part of the One.”

Turning away, Makor felt sick. He had seen as if for the first time the blankness in the eyes of his creation. Nothing was there. It was as though the cyborg’s eyes were windows that opened onto a large empty room with absolutely nothing inside. He kept thinking of Cybil’s words,
You’ve made mindless slaves out of human beings
.

She was breaking beans into small pieces when the word came.
6r9g, report to location r11/q3
.