The Invincible (16 page)

“Which of us are you setting up camp against—myself or the cloud?” replied Lauda calmly. “I’m not opposed to caution, but this cloud has as much intelligence as an insect, and not even an individual insect, but, say, an anthill. Otherwise we would all be dead by now.”

“Where’s your proof?”

“We were not the cloud’s first human opponents. May I remind you that the
Condor
landed on this planet before us. The microscopic “flies” should have learned then, if they had any reasoning power, that they could penetrate the energy field by simply burrowing through the sand. After all, the energy field reached only as far as the surface of the ground. The flies knew the extent of the
Condor’s
energy field; they could have figured out the appropriate action. Yet they failed to do so. Therefore we must assume the cloud does not have a mind; it acts by sheer instinct.”

Kronotos was not ready to give up but Horpach intervened and suggested that they continue the discussion some other time. He asked for concrete suggestions based on the conditions they had discussed.

Nygren asked whether the men could be equipped with metal helmets in order to counteract the effect of a magnetic field, but the physicists thought this would be useless, since a strong field would produce currents in the metal that in turn would heat the helmets to temperatures so uncomfortable that the men would tear them off. One could easily imagine what the result would be.

It was already evening. Horpach was talking with Lauda and the physicians in one corner of the room, while the cyberneticists formed another group.

“You know, it is strange that the more intelligent ones, the macro-automatons didn’t come out on top of this conflict,” said one of the cyberneticists. “That would be the exception to the rule whereby evolution proceeds toward greater complexity, higher specialization, thus perfecting homeostasis and making better use of available information.”

“These machines didn’t have a chance; they were too complicated and too highly developed from the start,” argued Saurahan, “Don’t forget that they were highly specialized, and had been designed to serve their creators, the inhabitants of the Lyre. Once their masters ceased to exist, the robots were crippled. Like a body without a head. The precursors of the present “flies”—not that they existed at that time; on the contrary, they must have developed at a much later stage—these precursors were relatively primitive. That is precisely why they had such a tremendous potential to develop in many different directions.”

“Still another, even more important factor may have played a role there,” interjected Dr. Sax, who had just joined the group. “We are dealing here with mechanisms, which are incapable of regenerating themselves in the manner of organic beings, or living tissue that can renew and heal itself. Even if a macro-automaton could have repaired a damaged robot, he would have needed the proper tools; probably a lot of complicated machinery. Consequently, it would have sufficed to separate these macromachines from their tools in order to put them out of action. Thus they became the defenseless victims of these tiny flying creatures, who in turn were hardly affected if they were damaged.”

“Very interesting,” spoke up Saurahan. “From what you say it follows that robots should be constructed quite differently from the way we’ve been doing it in order to be really universal: you’d have to start with tiny elementary building blocks, primary units, pseudo-cells that can replace each other, if necessary.”

“That’s not such a new idea,” replied Sax with a smile. “It’s the same way organic forms develop—and it’s no accident, either. Neither is it merely by chance that this cloud is composed of such interchangeable units. It is a question of the proper materials: a damaged robot needs parts that can only be produced by a highly advanced technology. But a system that consists of a few crystals, thermistors, or other simple elements, can be destroyed without serious effects, because it will be replaced immediately by one of a billion similar systems.”

Horpach realized that he could not expect much help. The others were too engrossed in the debate to notice as he left the room. He went to the command center in order to tell Rohan’s group about the hypothesis of “inorganic evolution.” It was already dark when the
Invincible
managed to establish communication with the supercopter far off in the crater. Gaarb answered the call.

“I have only seven people here,” he said, “including two physicians who are tending to our casualties. The others are asleep, except for the radio operator, who’s sitting here next to me. By the way, Rohan’s not back yet.”

“Not yet returned? When did he leave?”

“At about 18:00 hours. He took six engines along and the rest of the crew. We agreed that he would return shortly after sunset. The sun went down ten minutes ago.”

“Are you in radio communication with him?”

“Not since about an hour ago.”

“Gaarb! Why didn’t you inform me at once?”

“Rohan told us he would be out of touch for a while. They wanted to advance into one of the deep ravines, you know. The canyon walls are completely covered by that damned metal stuff. It reflects so strongly that we can’t get any signal at all.”

“Please inform me the moment Rohan gets back. He will have to justify such negligence. That’s a sure way to lose the entire crew in one fell swoop.”

The astrogator had hardly finished when Gaarb began to yell excitedly; “Here they are, Astrogator! I can see their lights, they’re coming up the hill—there’s Rohan. One, two, no, only one vehicle—in a minute we’ll know more.”

“I’ll wait.”

As soon as Gaarb saw the headlights that swept the path ahead, now flinging bundles of light rays on the encampment, now disappearing behind some small elevation of the ground, he seized a flare pistol and fired twice, with the effect that his men awoke abruptly and jumped up. In the meantime the vehicle made a turn, the radio operator in the center opened a passage in the wall of the force field. A dust-covered tank rolled along a runway marked by blue blinking lights. The vehicle slowed down in front of the dune where the supercopter was poised. Gaarb was horror-stricken when he recognized the small vehicle: it was the three-man amphibian scouter, the radio car of the group. Now the cone of their searchlight formed a straight path from the copter to the vehicle. Gaarb and several men ran toward the machine. The vehicle had not yet come to a complete standstill when a man jumped out. His protective suit hung in shreds from his body; his face was so encrusted with blood and dirt that Gaarb recognized him only after the man began to speak.

“Gaarb,” moaned the man, and tried to grab the scientist’s shoulders as his own legs gave way under him. The others jumped forward, held him up and asked anxiously: “What happened? Where are the rest of the men?”

“They’re all—all—,” whispered Rohan and fainted as they caught him in their arms.

Toward midnight the physicians succeeded in reviving him. From the oxygen tent inside the aluminum barrack, he told the story that Gaarb transmitted half an hour later to the
Invincible.

The column Rohan led consisted of two big energo-robots, four caterpillar-track vehicles and one small amphibious car. The latter was occupied by Rohan, the driver Jarg, and Terner, the mate. They followed the order prescribed by alarm procedure three: an unmanned robot rolled at the head of the column, followed by Rohan’s amphibian scouter; then came the four cross-country vehicles, with a crew of two men each. The second energo-robot brought up the rear. Both energo-robots extended a protective force field over the entire column.

Rohan had decided to take this side trip when he discovered traces of Regnar’s group. “Electro-hounds”—as the olfactometers were commonly called—had picked up the track of the four lost men. Unless they were found soon, they would doubtlessly wander through the rocky labyrinth like helpless children and die of hunger and thirst.

The group drove the first few miles along the track sniffed out by the electro-hounds. At the entrance of one of the many wide canyons that they passed in their search, the men discovered footprints in the mud of a small, almost dried-up riverbed. Three footprints could be clearly made out; they had been excellently preserved in the soft ground that had lost very little moisture that day. There was another imprint, but its outlines had grown quite indistinct: it had been nearly erased by the water that trickled gently around and over the stones. These tracks were unmistakable. They were made by the heavy shoes of Regnar’s crew. The trail led into the ravine. They followed it for a short distance, but it disappeared as soon as the ground became rocky again. Rohan did not feel discouraged, for he noticed that the canyon walls sloped steeper and steeper as they advanced. It was most unlikely that Regnar’s men, who were paralyzed by amnesia, would have tried to climb up this sharp incline. Rohan was confident he would find the lost men very shortly. He comforted himself with the thought that only the winding road had prevented him from spotting them so far. After a short consultation, the group continued on its way until they came upon an area characterized by strange dense metal bushes that grew on both sides of the steep canyon walls. The odd-looking “plants” resembled compact brushes, reaching a height of nearly five feet. They sprouted out of narrow rocky crevices filled with black oozing clay. At first they were scattered singly here and there, then became a dense brush that covered both slopes of the ravine almost down to the bottom of the valley with a rusty, bristling matting. Far below an invisible water vein trickled between huge boulders.

Occasionally, the black mouths of dark caverns gaped from between the “bushes.” Narrow rivulets were dribbling from some, while others seemed dry. Rohan’s men tried to glance inside several of the caves that were located fairly close to the ground. They used searchlights to illuminate the black holes. In one of the grottoes they found a considerable amount of tiny triangular crystals, partially submerged in the water that had dripped down off the rocky vault. Rohan gathered up a handful and put them in his pocket. They drove about half a mile into the gorge; the terrain ascended at an ever-sharpening angle. So far the caterpillar chains of the vehicles had done an excellent job in climbing, and when the search party once more found footprints in two places in the dried mud of the brook, they were convinced they were on the right track. As they rounded another bend in the road, radio contact with the supercopter began to fade, but Rohan ascribed this to the screening effect of the metal bushes. On either side of the gorge, which measured twelve yards wide at the base and about twenty at the upper rim, sheer rocky precipices jutted out, covered by the black wiry tangle of bushes. The plants were so numerous that they now formed one uninterrupted thicket that stretched all the way up to the top of the mountain ridge.

The vehicles passed through two wide rocky gateways. This took quite some time, for the technicians had to be very precise when they diminished the radius of the force field. They wanted to avoid touching those rocks that appeared weatherworn and crumbly. Any contact between the force field and one of the pillars of rock might result in a landslide. The men were less concerned about their own safety than that of the missing colleagues, who could be injured or killed by falling stones and boulders.

About an hour had passed since radio contact had broken off, when suddenly bolts of lightning flashed on the videoscreen of the magnetometers. The direction finder apparently was out of order, for when they tried to locate the origin of these impulses they got simultaneous readings from all points of the compass. Only with the help of ampere meters and polarizers did they discover that the growth on the slopes was causing the fluctuation of the magnetic field. Now the men became aware that the thicket looked different in this part of the ravine: no longer did it glisten in a rusty red; and the bushes were taller, bigger and somehow more intensely black, because of strange nodules that adhered to their wiry branches. Rohan did not allow them to be examined more closely; he did not wish to risk opening the protective field.

They drove on faster now, and the magnetometers and peak volt meters indicated constantly changing activity. Whenever the men glanced up, they noticed the air trembling above the black thicket as if it had been heated up tremendously. Beyond the second rocky gate, thin clouds rose from the black metallic tangle like drifting smoke. However, all this was too far away and even binoculars did not reveal the consistency of the cloud. Jarg, who had the eyes of an eagle, maintained that the cloud of smoke looked like a swarm of tiny insects.

Rohan was growing restless. The trip had already lasted longer than he had intended, and the end of the canyon labyrinth was not yet in sight. They were making better time now; the stone rubble in their path gradually disappeared. The stream itself was hidden deep under the rocks; its soft gurgling could be heard only when the vehicles stopped for a moment.

Behind the next turn loomed up a gorge much narrower than the previous ones. On the basis of their measurements, the technicians declared it would be impossible to pass through with the force field switched on. They explained that the variety of shapes a force field could assume was limited to variants of a revolving body such as a sphere, an ellipsoid or an hyperboloid. Up to this point they had managed to squeeze through the narrow straits of the ravine by deforming their force field to a flattened-out stratostat, which was, of course, invisible.

Such maneuvering would be impossible now. Rohan consulted with Tomman, the physicist, and two field engineers. They decided to risk a short partial suspension of the force field. The first to pass the straits would be the unmanned robot with its energy field temporarily out of action. Once on the other side of the rocky gate, it would switch on immediately its emitter and so create once more a reliable shield in front. The men in the four big vehicles and Rohan’s small scouter would only lack overhead protection during their passage through the gorge. The energo-robot at the rear was to connect its shield with its counterpart in front the instant it emerged from the gate, thus reestablishing the uninterrupted force field.