The Killer Thing

by Kate Wilhelm

  “I think you’re all stalling!” he shouted at them. “What else does it need? You’ve given it the laser with a range of two miles and complete flexibility so it can use it in any position. It can operate the capsule so water and muck can’t get into it; it can see in pitch dark, it can float, or dive… What are you waiting for?” Ching Li Sung smiled gently.

  “General, one more week,” Urseline said. “Just one more week…”

  “What for?”

  “A precaution only, General,” Urseline said easily. “We have not given it control of its own power system yet, not until we are certain that it will obey orders and will not initiate its own action, as it did on Ramses. We are working on this aspect of it.”

  Urseline didn’t add that they were worried about the chemical units and their possible intended purpose, and about whether or not they had been used already.

  “Programme it to do what it’s told! For God’s sake, I thought that was the first thing any machine was programmed to do. I don’t understand this delay, gentlemen. Thirty-six hours! If you don’t deliver it within thirty-six hours, I’ll commandeer it and ask for a hearing.”

  Urseline and Langtree exchanged rueful glances; Ching Li Sung’s face remained impassive. Langtree said, “We need time to prepare diagrams, specifications… This one can last no longer than three years underwater. When it goes, we’ll need to know what to look for, what signs of deterioration to look for. We’ll start making others, of course, but our drawings are incomplete as yet. There has not been time enough to make the schematics…”

  “Schematics be damned! Three years should be enough to go around this hellhole! Haul it up then and study it to your heart’s content! I want that machine in operation by the end of the week!”

  Three miles away the robot swivelled its domed top, its infra-red perceptors searching for a means of escape. It was to be destroyed after all, down in the seas it was to be destroyed. It had no concept of time, three years was meaningless to it. It knew only that they planned to destroy it, just as Vianti had planned to destroy it. Scanning internally it reviewed what it had picked up concerning the operation of the spaceships used by the fleet; there was enough. It had listened and recorded the minute, day-by-day instructions given to the boys in training, and it had been programmed to operate a submarine and a capsule; it could also operate a spaceship. Learning involves the ability to transfer training, and it could transfer what it knew about one machine to other similar machines. Because it had not initiated action, they had assumed that it could not. Now in response to the direct threat to its existence, it initiated action; it moved swiftly to the supplies cabinet and withdrew four atomic packs, batteries and transformers, putting one of them in position inside its dome, storing the other three inside its barrel-like chest. Then it went to the door of the laboratory and rolled down the floor to the outside door where it used its treads to get down the steps.

  At the first shout, it turned on the laser, and sweeping a half-circle of death before it the robot rolled over the walkways to the port where the ships were waiting order.

  There was bedlam in the area by then, and trainers had taken off already, some to escape, others to swoop in attacking dives. Equipped with dummy bombs and light beams only, they were no threat; the robot knew they were no threat and ignored them, concentrating its fire on the ground forces that were responding automatically, setting up weapons in the distance, preparing to focus lasers on it although it was still out of range. Moving at twenty-five miles an hour the robot cleared the area of the port in minutes, then turned towards the building where the general and the scientists were meeting. The meeting had broken up at a call from a survivor of the robot’s attack, and the general was issuing orders for the destruction of the robot when line after line went dead, and the laser cut through the building. “Destroy all the spaceships!” Langtree shouted to him, and darted out of the back door.

  Mulligan hesitated only a moment and during that moment the beam found him and cut him in half. The building erupted in flames and the beam moved on, catching scientist and observers alike as they fled. Langtree had left the building on a dead run, and when it flared explosively he dived into the swamp beyond the walkways, and lay there with his face pressed into the stinking, decaying matter that oozed into his nose and ears.

  The robot turned the beam towards the space port then, and one by one sliced through the spaceships, all but one. With the terminal building gone, and the army in flight, only then starting to regroup, there was no hindrance as it rolled towards the remaining ship, hauled itself aboard with waldoes strong enough to lift tons of gabbro, and hurled out the seats that only got in its way. Ten minutes after it had left the laboratory, it was starting the engine of the spaceship, and three minutes later it was aloft, spraying the land below with the heavier lasers of the ship, igniting the forests, towns, the army camp, everything in a three-hundred-mile radius. No ship took off to pursue it. One man stood on the ground when it was lost in the dense clouds and promised himself that the robot wouldn’t get away with it. Langtree turned then and surveyed the area of death and destruction, and he felt a deeper fear than he had ever known in his heart.

  Nine

  The sun swung slowly overhead, the area of intolerable light moving gradually towards the west, lengthening the shadows once more. It was still too hot to go out to search for the other dinghy. Trace looked at the thermometer registering one hundred and twenty-two, and knew that he dared not remain outside long in that heat. He cleaned the inside of the compact craft, sliding units back into their places, pulling down covers over the controls, over the charts, and then there was nothing to do. He would keep his air conditioner on for two days only, then keep it off for the next three days until the robot appeared. If it was using infra-red to track him, this time there would be no heat trail for it to home in on.

  He felt very calm then when he surveyed his lifeboat, all in good shape, inspection proof. He was a good officer, a good soldier. They had predicted that he would be as far back as he could remember. Not only because of his father who had been army all his life, but everything about him. He had been able to accept the discipline; from the start he had known that it was temporary only, that he would be in a position to issue the orders quickly, that until then it was a matter of yes sirring, and waiting. He had been a good waiter, and it had not been very long, not long at all.

  He thought of his mother whom he had not seen for thirteen years, probably never would see again. They had lived on Venus, she, a descendent of one of the original colonists, he as the dependent of a Fleet man. He had seen better worlds since Venus, but still he thought of it with a certain amount of nostalgia. He hummed the refrain of one of the Fleet songs:

  We’ve grown old and weary

  And travelled too far

  To return to our birthplace;

  We followed a star.

  We’ve raised up our glasses

  In many an alien bar

  To drink to our homeland

  While following a star.

  His father had sung it before him; his father before that… All army, as far back as the male lineage could be traced, all army married to daughters of army men. He should have married Corrine, the girl his mother had chosen for him. He thought of Corrine, third daughter of still another army general, General Scot Kerwin, retired. Corrine, tall and graceful, even back when he had known her at sixteen and seventeen. No doubt she still was tall and graceful, the mother of an army child, destined to be army himself in eight or ten years. His mouth twisted in a wry smile as he thought of other verses of the song he had been humming:

  The girls we have lain with

  On our hearts left a scar,

  But not one could keep us

  From following a star.

  Tho‘ our sons and our daughters

  Dwell on worlds near and far,

  We’ll ne’re even know them;

  We’ve followed a star.

  Had he left
sons and daughters behind? He didn’t know.

  I would keep you if I could, Lar had said, that last time. They had been swimming; water droplets sparkled on her red-gold skin.

  Your way? Renouncing my own kind, becoming one of yours?

  Yes, my way.

  You know I couldn’t stay like that.

  I know.

  Mellic was a gentle world with woods and fields and swelling hills of green, with kind oceans and cold rivers and mountains that were painted with snow. The breezes were soft, the air sweet. Behind them the river sang softly.

  Why are you back again? she asked, her fingers caressing a blue flower, her gaze on it.

  I have escort duty this time. How are the meetings going?

  Don’t they keep you informed about them?

  Only rumours.

  I see. The Outsiders are kind and firm; they do not wish to yield on any of the points of their ultimatum…

  They are arrogant and too demanding.

  No! Not arrogant. They came here before, long, long ago, and they gave their pledge to come to our aid at any time that we should need them. We needed them, and they came.

  He stood up angrily and pulled on his uniform trousers.

  Do you know what the terms are that they are demanding? Withdrawal from every world where our withdrawal is requested! Every world, from a civilised planet like Mellic down to the stone age world of Tau Ceti III. What do people like that know about withdrawal of forces?

  Is that where you were injured by the spear?

  Yes! They are cave-men still! What do they know about anything? They were starving before we came along. Now they are being taught how to provide better for themselves, how to protect themselves from the weather and the wild animals… He had finished dressing as he spoke. How much nakeder she seemed when he was fully clothed!

  Would you go from infancy to adulthood without the joys and sorrows of adolescence? Would you be able to trust your own judgement, to prize your own achievements if there never had been that period of trying and failing, and finally not failing? What are you taking from them by forcing too rapid adulthood on them? Aren’t you actually turning them into slaves dependent entirely on your forces, your medicines, your decrees…

  You are as savage as they are!

  I know. Smiling, her eyes deep and shadowed by luxuriant lashes that hid their lights then.

  Why did you say you would keep me here?

  There will be war again, this time between your fleet and the Outsiders. Your people never learned how to accept defeat. Pride will force your government to war. They will kill you and drive you back until you are once more on the planet of your birth, and you will be lost to me for ever. I wish it were not to be like that.

  I thought you hated us all.

  I thought I did also. I wanted to. You are like the savages of Tau Ceti III. You were taken as an infant and trained to be a soldier; perhaps the training could be cancelled… Sometimes I think I can see a suggestion that perhaps the training was insufficient in your case. You have been kind to me, and gentle… But those are simply excuses, and what I feel for you is inexcusable.

  Lar, will you go to one of the rooms with me?

  I have no choice. Her hand closed on the flower she held; she seemed unaware of it.

  Don’t say that! Besides, Mellic is neutral now. You are a free agent.

  She bowed her head, and when she raised it once more her eyes were black and very distant. Not to one of those rooms.

  Why not?

  They are so ugly, hideously ugly…

  How do you know? Have you been… Who?

  Who? How do I know who? Your men take what they want from the planets they conquer. Mellic has women.

  No! Not you! There was a sickness in him then. He looked at her lovely body that he had thought so clean and untouched. A vision of her with someone else flashed before his inner eye and he turned towards the river.

  Yes, me! Don’t turn away from me, Captain Tracy. Let me tell you about it! Did you know some of them beat the women afterwards? Did you know some of them aren’t satisfied unless there is an audience or a group all mingling together? I know all your World Group perversions, Captain Tracy. It amuses your little uniformed gods to teach us and then make us perform for them… Her low, soft voice had hardened, sounded strange to him.

  Stop it!

  It is too late to stop now, Captain Tracy! I tried to stop it and do you know what he said, one of the little gods in his shiny uniform? He said animals had nothing to say about how they are used. He said if the oxen refuses to pull the plough, it is whipped; if the mare refuses the rider, she is beaten; if a Mellic woman refuses to serve the new gods, her family is whipped and beaten, and deprived of their food rations. He said all Fleet men were wonderful animal trainers, Captain Tracy!

  Why are you doing this to me? I didn’t know about you. I would have tried to protect you. You should have told me. Lar, I love you.

  And how many others have you loved? Did you protect all of them? How many seeds of yours have been well planted on other worlds? You know what happens, don’t you, Captain Tracy? If the women don’t die in convulsion of rejection they bring forth monstrously deformed fruit, and that is the result of the union of the World Group fleet and the women they conquer ― deformity and ugliness…

  Why are you doing this?

  You should be able to see the expression on your face, Captain Tracy. Disgust, loathing, anger… You spoke of love to me and there was hatred in your eyes. You soil us and then hate us for being dirty. When I speak the truth about myself, you flinch away as if I were contaminated and contagious. Even now, could you bring yourself to touch me right now? Before you have a chance to go away and rationalise all of this? You will do just that, you know, and when you return you will have convinced yourself that I am here for you to take, that it doesn’t make very much difference how you take me. You will have reminded yourself that we are animals to be used and thrown aside, that already I have been much used, that once more won’t matter one way or the other. I can see these thoughts forming already, the way you shake your head so violently at them! You would hit me if you could bring yourself to touch me now. Later you will hit me, won’t you? You will relieve your fury by striking me. Your fury for thinking I was a virgin when I am actually so much less. You have a lovely phrase to describe it, Captain Tracy: the spoils of war! She turned and started to run from him then.

  Somehow he broke and ran after her, caught her and spun her around. They stood facing one another, his hands gripping her shoulders hard, her hands hanging limp at her sides. He pulled her to him slowly, closing his eyes at the last moment, crushing her to him, and she was sobbing against his chest.

  Hey, Trace! Where are you?

  He tilted her head and looked into her black eyes awash with tears. He did not kiss her, But touched the tear streak on her cheek with his finger-tip. Very gently he put her aside.

  Wait. I’ll be back in a moment.

  Trace! You down there by the river?

  It was Duncan, clambering down the slope to the river-bank. Trace met him half-way.

  Emergency alert, Trace. Volunteers only. That robot that slaughtered the trainees back on Venus a couple of years ago, just mopped up Tau Ceti IV. Tau Ceti III’s sending a recon ship to keep it on scope until one of ours gets there. If we leave within the next half-hour or so, we’ll still be able to get a fix before it can get into warp sector. You with it, Trace?

  You bet! The others near by?

  All but Mao; Hess is on hand to sub…

  Be right with you, Dunc. Round them up.

  She was waiting, her tears gone now. You are leaving!

  Emergency. I have to go.

  I heard him say volunteers…

  You don’t understand. I have to. You will be here when I get back?

  The Outsiders may not allow you to come back.

  To hell with them. I’ll come back for you.

  He should have kissed her be
fore. Now it was too late. He looked at her still face, the black hair, black eyes; abruptly he turned and left her.

  They caught up in time to get a relative position lock before the other Fleet ship went into warp, and shortly afterwards they also warped. When they came out, there it was, a dot on the screen, still locked in position with them. Again it warped, and they followed. For three months they followed, tied together by the invisible string, entering warp where change was not possible, coming out to manoeuvre, the robot trying to break that string, only to enter warp again, still tied.

  It must know that we are closing in, Trace.

  It will slow down eventually; it will have to, or be blown to bits as soon as we are in range.

  The dot on the screen held steady, and then it was slowing, going into orbit around a planet not even listed in the catalogue.

  Screen in place! Fire!

  The fusion shells streaked away, to be deflected from the other ship, to explode in space. More shells, timed to hit simultaneously, and a crack in the shield, then the damaging strike. An answering hit on their ship.

  The shell hit us, Trace…

  “Not now!” Trace said quietly, out loud. The dinghy felt alive with voices, with the presence of Duncan. He looked out of the port and saw that the shadows were marching across the valley. It was time to go out and start the search for the dinghy hidden behind the screen of invisibility. He took a sip of water first, adjusted his suit with the face mask in place and then left the dinghy. The mask was protection against the sun and sand.

  The valley had changed again, would change with each shift of the sun, he thought, standing by the dinghy and studying the land. The floor of the valley was almost clear of sand, but was strewn with rocks that were rounded, blasted, polished. The rocks ranged from gem size to the massive egg-like boulder that sheltered the dinghy. Trace turned, examining the valley, puzzled and unable to decide exactly why. Finally he started to circle the bottom of it, staying close to the sheer rise of the cliff that had been smoothed by rocks and sand until it was like an artifact. The first opening that he found was narrow, eighteen inches at the top, opening to twelve feet at the bottom. While he could manoeuvre in and out of it, he knew it would be safe from an attack by the robot. The chimney ran two hundred feet back, climbing in an ever steeper ascent until it opened to the summit of the cliffs overlooking the valley. He turned and looked back down the way he had climbed out; the valley was completely invisible from where he was standing. The opening was a narrow slit barely four feet high here; a wide curve made it appear that the opening was nothing more than a cut into the cliff itself that dead-ended after twenty-five feet. He felt pleased about this opening. The cliffs continued to rise another four hundred feet around it. If the robot did approach from this direction he would be entirely safe from discovery. He hoped the other exits from the valley to the pinnacles above it were as well placed.