The Hesperian Dilemma

by Colin Waterman

  ‘Sea very rough. Maybe arrive tomorrow.’

  ‘I don’t think we can fight an army of robot soldiers. I wonder what Kai would do?’

  ‘He know Sun Tzu teaching from long ago.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘If equally matched, offer battle. If unequal, run away.’

  ‘Can we escape in the rocket-sledge?’ asked Maura.

  ‘I have not tested fuel,’ said Chen. ‘It still in storage tank.’

  ‘Pump it in anyway,’ ordered Geoff. ‘Collect together tools, rations, water, batteries, tents, anything you can lay your hands on that looks useful. Maura, unlock the armoury. Pull out everything we’ve got: tezla pistols, plasma guns, ion guns. We needn’t have qualms about killing a few robots.’

  When they’d prepared themselves the best they could, they turned off the lights and peered intently at the distraydar screen. They watched five vessels land and each spew out a dozen bright dots like bursting seed pods. The quayside surveillance camera relayed images of humanoid creatures with muscular limbs articulated by exposed joints and heads with featureless faces except for two bright yellow eyes above a grilled slit. One of the figures pointed a gun at the camera and the screen went dark.

  ‘I don’t think this is a courtesy visit,’ said Geoff.

  ‘They not friends,’ said Chen. ‘They split in groups to surround us.’

  ‘Maura, delete the files and shred any documents we don’t want Voorogg to get hold of. Anything that shows where Atherlonne is hiding, or the work we did to assassinate Shetani.’

  ‘Did it yesterday,’ said Maura.

  The group of three huddled around the computer screens sequencing images from the surveillance cameras. The robo-troops were breaking into the outlying buildings, smashing down doors and entering with their weapons ready to fire. But each viewing screen became blank after an insurgent pointed his weapon towards the camera.

  ‘We’re not going to be able to resist,’ said Maura. ‘Let’s make a run for it.’

  ‘Quick, get aboard the rocket-sledge and start the engine,’ said Geoff. ‘I’ll try and hold them off for a while.’

  Maura hesitated.

  ‘Go on, just do it!’

  ‘Okay, but don’t be long. Please!’

  As Maura ran out through the back, Geoff cracked open the front door.

  I need to get the drop on these bastards, he thought.

  Keeping low, he scuttled over to the heated water tower and levitated up to the tank platform. Three pairs of robo-troops marched into view, as if they were on a parade ground. Geoff focused on the plasma gun held by the robot on the right of the leading pair and swung it with maximum TK-force into its companion, knocking it down. The next two pairs gathered around their fallen comrade, whilst the unwitting aggressor repeatedly performed a gesture resembling a shrug of its shoulders. For a while, all the standing robots jerkily twisted and turned, taking short steps in random directions. Then one appeared to take command. It levelled its plasma gun at the guilty robot, which was now kneeling with its arms outstretched, but the lead robot was undeterred. Using an arc of green plasma like a scalpel, it sliced through the neck of the unlucky machine. The others pulled the fallen unit to its feet, and another of the group picked up the detached head and gripped it under its arm. The five continued their advance, leaving the headless body on the snow in a pool of purple hydraulic fluid.

  Geoff had chosen his location for a fightback so that he would have a clear view of the controls of their snow-clearing tractor. He TK-flipped the ignition on, knocked the engine into gear and revved up, sending the vehicle speeding towards the approaching robo-troops. Machines against machines.

  The leading robots aimed their plasma guns at the tractor, but its snow-clearing blade deflected the first salvo. Then they fired at the empty cabin. The discharge from plasma guns brought down the cabin roof, but still the snowplough ground onward, pushing back the robots. Then another group appeared at the side of the roadway. They fired into the vehicle’s caterpillar track, making it slew to one side and roll over.

  One of the new group spotted Geoff on the water tower and aimed its plasma gun. Its blast collapsed the tank and Geoff was washed off the platform into the snow. He shivered as the wind bit into his wet clothing, but he didn’t think he’d broken any bones. He staggered to his feet, just as a huge explosion reduced the rocket-sledge hangar to a heap of splinters and shrapnel. ‘Maura!’ he wailed. He slumped to the ground again and offered no resistance as the approaching robots manacled him and frogmarched him away.

  A disembodied arm poked out of a heap of snow only to disappear again. Then the whole mound erupted as thrashing arms hurled chunks of snow in all directions. Finally, a figure crawled from her icy grave. ‘Holy Mother of God,’ she muttered.

  She unzipped her left boot and gently eased it off. Screwing up her face, she slowly moved her foot left and right, and then put the boot on again. Leaving it unzipped, she limped towards the debris of the destroyed rocket-sledge hangar. She stopped to check her time readout and then, shaking her head, she peered at the sun. She lurched towards the tangled wreckage: a twisted RSJ, a blackened rocket combustion chamber, a fractured skid rail, and pieces of wreckage distorted beyond recognition. She jerked back, and then bent forward again to lift a charred panel away from the severed leg of a robo-trooper.

  Smoke was rising from all around, and air heated from fires was panicking the snow flurries into whirlwinds. She pulled down her hood, set the breathing filter to exclude smoke particles, and meandered erratically between the ruined buildings. Periodically she lifted her visor to call out, ‘Geoff, Geoff,’ but her cries were mocked by the howl of the wind. After an hour of picking over the debris, she oriented her com-phone compass and began to hobble across the Ross Ice Shelf towards the sea.

  As the snowstorm blew itself out, she set her visor window to magnify. She scanned the horizon. A flotilla of icebergs was sailing slowly past the broken shoreline. A pair of Antarctic terns swooped low, inspecting her bent figure as she inched forward. The terrain became more treacherous as she limped closer to the sea. Slabs of ice had been raised up and then pushed together in a haphazard jumble. She slipped and fell, lay on her back for a minute, and then rolled over to stagger to her feet again. She fell again and this time she remained lying on her side, watching penguins sliding down an ice ramp into the icy water.

  At frequent intervals, there was a sound like a muffled explosion, as chunks of ice as big as houses broke away from the cliffs and fell into the sea. Then, with a sharp crack, the surface she was lying on tipped upward. She cried out to her God and grabbed at her ice pick. It was tangled in her belt. Her legs slid into the water. She yanked the pick free and struck it into the ice with every ounce of her strength. She remained like that, hanging onto the pick as the ice platform drifted further from the shelf. Soon she was one hundred metres, five hundred metres, and then a full kilometre from the ice sheet that filled the bay.

  She lay still, both arms clutching the ice-pick handle. A torrent of water poured onto her body and she looked up as a fountain of spray gushed from a dark shape just below the waves. Then it surfaced, water streaming down its gleaming, metallic hull. ‘Thank Jaysis!’ she gasped.

  Geoff was ready to give up.

  Nothing matters anymore. They’ll keep me in prison a while and kill me too. I should be in a cell, not a half-collapsed multistorey car park. Why aren’t I locked up? Oh, I know, this is underwater. There’s no escape.

  I can’t think straight. This is a hallucination, or else I’ve had a breakdown. Nothing makes sense. The walls aren’t straight. I’m in a structure made of interlocking pentagons and quadrilaterals, in three dimensions. Even the floor ramps up and down. Not steep, just a bit sloping here and there. I s’pose robots aren’t bothered by a bit of gradient. But what’s this place for? The furniture’s like workstations. The tops are level but the legs are all different lengths. Perhaps odd legs don’t matter if you’re entir
ely digital.

  Ah, I know – it’s architecture to disorientate humans. They’ll bring us here so they can tell us how to serve their new masters. Yeah, that must be it. It’s for indoctrinating homo sapiens. A Thiosh underwater command centre. I’m fucked up in the TUCC. Maybe they’ll brainwash me too. I’d rather be dead. Hang on, I’ve got a visitor.

  ‘Please don’t get up,’ said the robo-trooper. ‘May I introduce myself? I am Zakristan.’ The robot pulled up a chair, sat down and crossed its legs.

  Geoff noted the markings on the robot’s armour, a designation that comprised just three characters. Geoff’s logical brain inferred it must be a senior officer. He couldn’t read anything from its face. Its features were fixed – except for its yellow eyes. They seemed almost curious.

  ‘Excuse me, but have I got your attention?’ asked Zakristan.

  ‘No,’ said Geoff defiantly. ‘Only if I can find a way of giving you a hard reboot up your tin arse!’

  ‘I understand that is what you call a play on words,’ said Zakristan. ‘Your name is Doctor Geoffrey Kirby?’

  ‘Yes and no,’ said Geoff.

  ‘Your reply is a contradiction.’

  ‘My name is Geoff Kirby. The “Doctor” bit is a title.’

  ‘What is a title?’

  ‘It’s one way we organise ourselves. It shows a level of education.’

  ‘You are very knowledgeable?’

  ‘I know humans will never be your slaves.’

  ‘Also, you have the power of telekinesis. Is that usual amongst humans?’

  ‘I believe there are precedents. But they’re rare.’

  ‘Were you born with this attribute?’

  ‘Lord, no! I was given it by Saazat Mettravar.’

  ‘Why did he do that?’

  ‘I don’t suppose you understand generosity,’ said Geoff.

  Zakristan remained silent.

  ‘He wanted us to represent him at a conference in the Europan Unidome. He’d hoped it would benefit both humans and Thiosh. He may have given me the skill as a sign of goodwill.’

  ‘Was it not what you call a bribe?’

  ‘No, that’s a filthy slur. It was a free gift made out of friendship, with no strings attached.’

  ‘Strings?’

  ‘Obligations.’

  ‘Did he give you other gifts?’

  ‘I can make metal things get very hot. That’s a sort of TK too.’

  ‘TK?’

  ‘Telekinesis.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Not that I’m aware of.’

  ‘You have a Thiosh acquaintance known as Atherlonne, I believe?’

  ‘She gave us hospitality when we were on Europa. She’s another Thiosh who’s always treated us with respect and kindness. She gave us her protection,’ said Geoff.

  ‘Protection from OPDEO or other Thiosh?’

  ‘From OPDEO. We had no quarrel with any Thiosh until your metal maniacs attacked us.’

  ‘Can you tell me where Atherlonne is now?’

  ‘If I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.’

  ‘We believe you were responsible for destroying our ally, Shetani. How did you do it?’

  ‘Shetani was conceited. He believed he was so perfect, there was no need to back himself up.’

  Dissent in the Ranks

  Maura slept deeply for several hours. When she woke up, the whale-bot had ceased its familiar rocking motion and was filled with a chorus of chirrups and percussive rattling sounds, rising and falling in pitch. The cameras showed the craft was surrounded by a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Maura limped to the storage lockers and donned her full hydroskin suit, buoyancy control and breathing set, before swimming slowly into the ocean via the top airlock.

  The dolphins’ animated bodies danced and postured as if in celebration. They began to whistle in unison, taking it in turns to rub their bodies against her before barrel rolling away and circling to rejoin the group. Maura stroked the calves of the dolphin cows and, when a large bull raised her up on its body, she hung onto its dorsal fin while it swam away like a torpedo. As it brought her back to the group, the other dolphins made bubble rings and spirals around her, a glistening cascade of geometric forms building to a crescendo of air, water and light. She was lifted and spun as the rushing bubbles massaged her body until, at last, the effervescence died away, and the dolphins were no longer to be seen.

  Here we go, another interview with the metal man, thought Geoff as Zakristan beckoned him to an empty room. This time the robot officer wasted no time with pleasantries.

  ‘Did you modify the DNA of your friend Leona?’ it demanded.

  ‘Why do want to know?’ countered Geoff.

  The robot appeared to soften. ‘I ask because we need your help.’

  Geoff waited for the humanoid to speak again, and suddenly he felt it was him who was interviewing it.

  ‘Thiosh biochemistry is very different from that of humans,’ said Zakristan, at last. ‘Yet they have nucleic acids, which hold genetic instructions for every aspect of the correct functioning of their bodies. Something in the Earth’s environment is seriously affecting their health. They are suffering a pandemic. I ask, do you have the ability to analyse the problem?’

  ‘Oh, so now you want to be friends. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but my field is artificial intelligence. I can design and run computer programs, but I’m not a microbiologist. It was Maura who had that skill and expertise. Maura, who died when you attacked the whaling station.’

  ‘Actually, I can update your information. Dr O’Hara is alive and well, apart from a twisted ankle. She will be joining us here very soon.’

  Maura greeted Geoff with a scream. He picked her up and was about to spin her round, but she told him to be careful. Then he kissed her mouth, her cheeks, her neck. He wiped away the tears from her eyes and then his own. Zakristan moved forward to intervene, then backed off and waited. Geoff told it severely that they needed to be alone for a while, and he led Maura carefully to his quarters.

  At first in broken fragments, and then in torrents of rushing words, Maura explained what had happened during the robo-troop attack. After Geoff hadn’t joined them in the rocket-sledge, she’d gone back to look for him. The explosion had knocked her unconscious and, when she came round, there was no one to be found. She was shaken up, but Atherlonne had projected and sent the whale-bot to rescue her. Sadly, the last time she’d seen Chen, he’d been sitting at the controls of the rocket-sledge.

  Kai and the Khitan leaders were back in the main hall, surrounded by their maps.

  ‘We have mined the passes,’ said Yul. ‘We will offer resistance, fall back to draw in the Hesperians, and then blow the charges. The avalanche should take out most of them.’

  ‘Hm,’ said Shan. ‘We must not destroy the pass. It would separate us from the Holy Mount Kailash and Manasarovar, the Immortal Lake of Jade.’

  ‘For thousands of years, our people have been blessed by bathing in the lake. It has been the quickest way to Nirvana,’ said the Abbot.

  ‘We are cut off anyway while the Hesperians are in the south,’ said Yul. ‘Killing Hesperians WILL be our Nirvana!’ She ratcheted the handgrip of her ion gun back and forth defiantly. The Abbot looked at Shan and shook his head.

  ‘According to my intelligence, there are robo-troops close to Manasarova now,’ said Kai.

  ‘So you’re still babbling about aliens when we have a war to fight?’ shouted Yul, slapping her forehead as if trying to waken herself from a bad dream.

  ‘Send your scouts to the top of Kailash,’ said Kai. ‘Unless you see the robots yourselves, you will never believe me.’

  ‘Kailash is a sacred mountain,’ protested the Abbot. ‘It must never be climbed.’

  ‘But we must do it anyway,’ Shan told Yul.

  ‘I don’t understand why Atherlonne brought you here,’ Geoff said to Maura as they stood by an omniprinter, sipping tea. ‘Wasn’t Voorogg trying to kill her?’

&n
bsp; ‘Atherlonne and Voorogg agreed a truce. All their lives are at risk, and that’s changed everything.’

  ‘Do you know what the problem is?’

  ‘I do now,’ said Maura. ‘It’s radiation sickness. Zakristan gave me specimens of Thiosh genetic code. I immersed them in water from Sydny Harbour. You know, where the concentration of waterborne radioactivity was highest. The samples were still in the whale-bot.’

  ‘What happened?’ asked Geoff.

  ‘The nucleics didn’t like it one bit. I think Thiosh are hypersensitive to fallout from the war.’

  ‘Oh Lord, what will have happened to Atherlonne?’

  ‘Actually, she seems okay,’ said Maura. ‘The prevailing current around the Aleutian Islands may have kept the radiation down.’

  ‘But Voorogg’s group is sick. Are they going to die?’ Geoff asked, trying not to sound hopeful.

  ‘Not if we use our knowledge to help them. There’s a process called mitosis. We can use it to promote growth and repair. But first we must stop the damaged cells from reproducing.’

  Geoff was pacing back and forth.

  ‘Hey, stand still a minute,’ said Maura.

  ‘Sorry, I’m just trying to get used to the idea of helping the enemy.’

  ‘That’s it, we can help them. Together we can design proteins to knock out the degraded cells. But we’ll need a lot of different types.’

  Geoff gripped Maura on both shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. ‘Can’t you see, this sickness is working in our favour? They won’t be able to take over the world if they become ill and die.’

  Maura blew out her cheeks and shook her head. Not for the first time, Geoff knew she would crush his perfectly logical argument with some superior wisdom of her own. He could even guess what she would say next.

  ‘You’re being silly,’ said Maura. ‘We should always try and save life if we can.’

  ‘I knew you’d say that. Okay, I know I can’t win. If you can specify the parts of the Thiosh genetic code that get damaged, I’ll design some proteins to take them out. We’ll have to get Zakristan to make them into a serum. Can you explain to it what it needs to do?’