Whatever Helda’s misgivings were, and she had not explained them very precisely, she evidently had decided to put them on one side for she got to her feet and followed Colin as he silently crept out of the cave and surveyed the night.
Nothing stirred. There was only the warm wind, the misty stars, and the eternal blaring of the raucous loudspeakers.
“It’s safe enough,” Colin’s voice whispered, as he took Helda’s hand. “Let’s move…”
Like shadows they headed across the crater and to the top of the rise, then suddenly Colin saw something and abruptly pulled Helda down flat beside him. Silent, filled with the fear that they would be detected, they lay watching a most extraordinary scene in the moonlight…
Heading towards them, but fortunately at some little distance away, was an army of robots—mechanical beings of metal who walked with the absolute precision of the apparatus governing them. Probably it was electrical, radio remote-controlled, for as they passed within a dozen yards of the watching pair the lensed “eyes” of the creatures remained frontwards. They were not in the least deflected towards the two who crouched close by.
The army was considerable, probably close on a thousand automatons, and they were heading towards the city. At last they had passed, leaving a haze of dust behind them from their rhythmic feet.
“What do you make of it?” Colin whispered, as he and the girl stood up and gazed after the retreating army. “What kind of an invasion is this? Never a living soul…”
“Invasion by remote control is the only answer,” Helda replied. “And I know I’m right.”
“How do you know?”
“That’s difficult to say. I sort of feel it.” Colin studied Helda for a moment in the moonlight, trying to fathom the depth of her mind and emotions. He was convinced—and had been for some time—that she knew something she would not admit.
“We’d better carry on,” he said rather brusquely, and Helda kept a hold of his arm as they fled across the rubbly ground, moving like wraiths in the moonlight, but constantly moving in the direction of the underground headquarters of General Harrison. They knew just where they were for they had made it their business to let it be known they were sympathisers of his resistance movement and wished to join it.
It was around midnight when they reached the smashed ruin of a one-time emporium which marked the site of Harrison’s headquarters. Immediately armed guards appeared from concealed points, their guns levelled.
“State your business,” a voice ordered harshly in the moonlight
“Friends,” Colin replied quietly. “Colin and Helda Brook. We’re fugitives of the invaders and wish to join General Harrison.”
“Your names are known and all is in order,” the guard replied. “Come this way.”
Under his direction Colin and Helda presently found themselves in the one-time basement of the store. Most of it had been restored and was supported by massive pillars of teak driven into cross-beams. Here, in the midst of bright light from atomic generators, General Harrison sat at an operations desk, maps in front of him, his aides around him. He looked tired but determined as he studied the two new arrivals.
“Thank you for deciding to join my ranks,” he said, as Colin made the purpose of the visit clear. “Nothing can be gained by bowing before these invaders—You would care for food and drink perhaps before we talk further?”
“Definitely, thanks,” Colin responded, and without further delay it was brought.
Harrison continued his planning with the map, discussing with his aides, whilst Colin and Helda satisfied their gnawing appetites and thirst—then the General came suddenly to business.
“We have many in the ranks now,” he explained, perching on the edge of the desk and measuring the two with his keen eyes. “The only thing I ask of you is unswerving loyalty and obedience to orders. I am telling you this now so that if you do not care for the tasks I intend to delegate to you, you can withdraw.”
“No question of withdrawing.” Colin gave a shrug. “If we don’t side with you, General, we follow a hole-and-corner existence until the invaders catch up and destroy us. You’ve only to name the service you want performed.”
“Good! First, then, it will mean separating you. You, Mrs. Brook, will join the ranks of the women workers who, underground, are busy night and day manufacturing scientific weapons with which we hope finally to launch a counter-offensive. You, Mr. Brook, on the other hand, will be required to accompany one other man into space.”
“Into space!” Colin gave a blank look. “I didn’t even know we’d still got spaceships!”
“We haven’t, my young friend, but the enemy has! Our intelligence department has discovered that at regular intervals one or two of these machines, which brought the robot invaders, leave Earth, apparently under remote control, and fly into space. Exactly where we don’t know. The only way we can find out is for one of our number—or rather two so one can still act if the other be killed—to journey in one of these machines and see where the journey ends.”
“And that,” Colin asked seriously, “is what you want me to do?”
“It is. You can withdraw if you feel the danger is—”
“Not at all. One cannot think of sidestepping danger when a state of war exists. I’ll do it, though I can’t imagine how I’ll ever get into a spaceship without being detected.”
“That has all been taken care of.” The General stood up and paced about as he explained. “It is perfectly clear to us that these invaders are all mechanical robots and that their spaceships are remote controlled. Somebody somewhere has produced push-button warfare on the grand scale, taken the initiative in attack, and so for the time being has won the day. What we shall do, when we know the source of the spaceships, is attack the planet concerned with everything we’ve got in an effort to destroy the guiding mind behind everything. Obviously a living race must be back of everything.”
“You have no idea why this invasion happened, I suppose?” Helda asked. “What the purpose of it is?”
“No idea at all. On the face of it, it would seem to be an effort to inflict robot dominion over living beings. In any case the purpose of the invasion does not signify; it is the destruction of it which matters.” Harrison turned and came back to his perch on the edge of the table. “I said, Mr. Brook, that everything has been arranged for you. By that, I mean that we know which two machines will next depart into space, and when. It will be tomorrow night at eight o’clock, the time they always start off. I have one man willing to make the trip into the void, but a second man is essential. We have had several dummy robot suits constructed, so made that with men inside them they look exactly like these invaders. Inside one of those suits you and your companion can very easily enter the selected space machine, particularly as the space grounds are not very brightly illuminated.”
“I understand,” Colin nodded. “No guarantee where we are going, and even less that we’ll ever get back? “
“No guarantee at all. I’m afraid it’s a case of take it or leave it. If it’s any consolation to you it’s the most important assignment I’ve given any man so far—excepting the man who will be your colleague.”
“And why select me?” Colin asked. “Aren’t there hundreds of other men to choose from? I’m not backing out, sir: I’m just curious.”
“When I heard that you and your wife were anxious to join my ranks I had your histories investigated. Fortunately we have most of the statistical files. What I saw in the records satisfied me that you are both strong, able to endure physical hardships without untoward results, That is why I selected you, Mr. Brooks—and also why I shall delegate you, Mrs. Brooks, to work more arduous than that delegated to most women. At a time like this great physical strength is rare: seventy-five per cent, of the people are weak and suffering from malnutrition.”
“It occurs to me,” Colin said, thinking, “that if my colleague and I add ourselves to the robots on the departing spaceship the increase in numbers by
two will be noticed. Or will it? Can these robots notice anything?”
“Of themselves, no. One we have captured proves to be a kind of walking camera as far as seeing is concerned. The eyes are lenses connected to a radio photo-electric cell. That can only mean that whatever images the lenses pick up are transmitted back by radio waves to the living being in control. Therefore two extra robots would be noticed by the controller, who would obtain the information through the other robots’ eyes. The answer to that one is clear: two of the robots must be put out of action.”
“How?” Colin looked troubled. “They seem pretty intricate to me, or am I wrong? I haven’t had a close look at one yet.”
“You will do before you set off on your mission tomorrow night. You will be shown the robot’s vital point and how to put it out of action by a simple electrical circuit, generated by a special gun which you will take with you, and then throw away. You must not carry anything which a robot does not carry.”
“And provided this hazardous mission is successful, General,” Helda asked, “what happens then?”
“All your husband has to do,” Harrison answered, turning to her, “is survey his destination when he reaches it. We must have a detailed report on the kind of headquarters these invaders have—and we can take it as pretty certain that the returning space machines will land fairly close to the centre of operations. You must take no personal action,” Harrison explained, looking back to Colin. “Just scout the situation and return when the robots do. I think their reason for going back home is to collect further supplies which are needed on Earth here for their mysterious campaign…Well, that is the position. Are you prepared to volunteer for the job? If so, I’ll make immediate arrangements for you to meet your colleague.”
“I’m against it,” Helda said abruptly, before Colin could answer. “I think it’s tantamount to sending my husband to his death.”
“I am not sending him anywhere, Mrs. Brook. He is volunteering.”
“And I’m accepting,” Colin stated, giving Helda a puzzled look. “It’s just the kind of job which, properly done, can start to kick the foundations from under these invaders.”
Helda was silent, her face white and strangely troubled.
“Honestly, Col, I wish you’d refuse. I feel you’re walking into the most frightful disaster and—”
“I’m going,” Colin interrupted flatly. “Let there be no mistake about that. Just show me the next move, General.”
*
Colin found himself allowed six hours respite in which to sleep or do whatever he chose, and he spent most of it trying to convince Helda of the rightness of his plans. In the end she was compelled to accept his decision, but it was plain from her expression that she was the prey of a myriad doubts and fears. Colin put them down to natural anxiety and let it go at that, even though he found it hard to reconcile with Helda’s normally courageous nature.
His parting from her when the six hours were up he made as brief as possible so there could be no harrowing moments—then he placed himself entirely at the disposal of Harrison’s directive staff and was promptly put through all the necessary moves in order to gain entry to one of the invaders’ spaceships.
At the end of the brief but well planned training he was tired but still willing, and it was at this point that he made the acquaintance of the man who was to be his partner in the venture. His name was Saunders and he proved to be a short, thickset, jovial veteran of the war, afraid of neither God nor man.
“It’s something new in assignments,” he admitted, when he and Colin had warmed up to intimacies. “Beats all the old time frogmen, commandos, and what-have-you. Playing at robots and travelling to another planet is the real thing! Puts ginger in your blood.”
“Uh-huh,” Colin admitted, knitting his brows. “Any idea which planet we’re going to head for? Could be any in the System, and if it’s one of the big fellows the atmosphere will probably poison us in the first few seconds.”
“We’ll think of a way round that if we run into it. Our robot suits will carry artificial air supply against such a contingency. The main thing is we’ll look like robots from the outside. What is inside the suits, such as weapons, air conditioners, and the like, is our business entirely…You asked me which planet? I’d gamble on one of the nearer ones because these spaceships come back too quickly to have gone very far.” Saunders paused and gave a hard grin. “We’re privileged, y’know, you and me. If we can get the goods on the headquarters of these invaders we can smash the whole damned oppression from top to bottom. Seems to me we’re due for a rest-up, too, until we set off tonight. We’d better go and see what the C.O. has to say.”
Saunders’ assumption was correct. With the training now complete relaxation was permitted for the whole of the “day”, even though no daylight was ever visible in this basement. Colin spent it by himself, catching up on some of the sleep he had lost in trying to argue reason into Helda—but this time his sleep was again disturbed through wondering why Helda was so abnormally afraid of him striking what might be a master blow for liberty. She had spoken of a “strange feeling,” of a premonition…
“Nerves,” Colin told himself finally. “And I never thought she had any. Certainly I never thought she loved me that much. S’pose I should feel pleased about that…”
He fell asleep debating the issue, awakening again when the alarm, specially set for his cubicle, sounded. From that moment onward he experienced nothing but hurry. He was given a meal and then fixed inside one of the artificial robot suits. Since he had already made acquaintance with the suit and its uses during his training this was no novelty. Within it were all the essentials he could possibly need and specially stiffened sleeves to the suit made it that he could withdraw his own arms if need be and use his hands inside the suit for food, air regulation, or use of weapons. The eye lenses were plain glass, pin-sized portholes, but patterned on the outside to exactly resemble the eye-lenses of the normal robots.
Then presently Saunders, similarly garbed, joined him. They tested the air-wave vibrator, by which they would be able to communicate with one another without the robots—and hence their controller—being able to pick up the messages; then they clumped out of the big underground laboratory into the headquarters of General Harrison himself and were given his final blessing…
And so to the outside, both of them with an exact knowledge of what they intended to do. The darkness cloaked them as they moved silently, deliberately using the manikin-like walk of the robots. As yet the moon had not risen which made their task easier, though neither of them feared detection so complete was their disguise. And since robots were everywhere on the face of the Earth, presumably following out the orders of their unknown controller, why should two more excite any suspicion?
“Got everything ready?” asked Saunders’ gruff voice over the air-wave apparatus as they began to approach the city.
“Everything, yes, including the electric gun. We give a shot of juice into the control circuit on the back-plate—that projecting knob which is on every robot—and that puts them out of commission.”
“Right. We do it at the approach to the space grounds when we see which particular party is heading homewards. Won’t be difficult. Doesn’t matter if the robots are found afterwards because we’ll be in space by then, and our main concern is not to have two additional robots in the party…And it won’t be long now,” Saunders added, as they came within sight of the great marshalling area where the main body of spaceships were kept
Here, within five hundred yards of the main open space—which led between the “parked” rows of space machines, the two men settled down on the hard, tumbled ground to wait. Harrison’s Intelligence had said the departure would be at eight, that six robots would leave, and that they would use spaceship number seven from the gateway end. This was the only means of identifying the particular machine since none of them had recognizable numbers on their prows—only weird symbols which, to an Earth mind, did not mean a
thing.
“Ten to eight,” Saunders murmured at length. “Maybe we’d do better if we went nearer the machine in which we’re to travel?”
Colin’s “robot head” nodded in the dawning moonrise and they moved on again, finally coming to a halt under the shadow of the mighty jet-tubes of the vessel. They were hardly in position before they beheld the six robots who were to make the journey. They were advancing with their mechanical tread down the wide vista, the faint moonlight from the east reflecting from their metal bodies.
“This is it,” Saunders muttered, slipping his electric gun through his sleeve until it came to the exterior of his suit. “Don’t miss, or it may mean our finish. Pick the last two.”
Colin did not need any directions: he knew exactly what to do. By pre-arrangement he left the penultimate robot to Saunders and tackled the last one himself. Both robots, impelled by mechanical reflexes, made a brief effort to lash out with their heavy arms as the vital back mechanism was attacked—but the electric current was far quicker than their movements and they dropped heavily, put right out of commission. To drag them under the shadow of the vessel’s jets was only the work of a moment, then Colin and Saunders followed the other robots into the control room.
There was a tense pause, the eye lenses of the robots glinting as they looked about them. Presumably they were activated by the unknown master and their eyes were studying the layout and transmitting it back to headquarters. Saunders and Colin stood perfectly still as the merciless lenses swept over them, but evidently nothing unusual was noted for the lenses passed on.
Finally one of the robots moved to the control board whilst another closed the airlock. This latter move could only be to prevent a robot drifting out into space. Certainly it was not to keep air within the space machine—or to stop the frigid cold from entering—for the robots did not need such expediencies. This realization prompted Colin to glance towards the instrument board, where he immediately noticed that there was no sign of an air-gauge. The control cabin had no air, or heat. The robots themselves probably had electric circuits which kept their oiled parts in working order, and nothing more was needed.
Lunar Vengeance: A Collection of Science Fiction Stories Page 13
