by Doug Chiang
“They fed you and kept you alive?” asked Elyseo. “Why?”
“Because some robots, in case you haven’t noticed, have a thing about humans.”
5.6Captured
“You mean the way Kaantur smokes, even though robots don’t breathe?” asked Caps.
“Kaantur’s only the most pathetic in his imitation of life,” said Beryl. “Feeding us pleased them somehow. When you live around robots all through your childhood, you get a feel for what they can and can’t do. What they notice. How they program their machines.”
“And that’s how you got away,” said Caps.
“Eventually, yes,” said Beryl. “Now, Elyseo-Set. You know this city. Where would they take Caps’s teleporter once they got it here?”
A harsh voice came from outside their circle. “Wherever I tell them.”
Caps turned to see Kaantur-Set leaning against a wall, smoking his pipe.
Juomes growled.
“Ah, Juomes,” said Kaantur. “I look forward to adding your head to my trophy case. Your parents’ heads have fed too many mothworms, and I need a replacement.”
5.7Kaantur’s Caravan
Juomes charged at him, screaming.
Hunter robots leapt from the ledge above Kaantur and had Juomes on the ground in moments. With escape impossible, Juomes stopped struggling.
“Beg me,” said Kaantur. “Like your mother did.”
Juomes said nothing, but Beryl gave a small groan.
“Ah, yes, Beryl,” said Kaantur. “After all I did for you, this is how you reward me. Bringing strangers into my city, trying to steal things.”
“You did nothing for me,” said Beryl.
“I raised you from a pup,” said Kaantur. “Runaway pets are guilty of ingratitude.”
“All we wanted,” said Rend, “was the jewel you stole from Juomes!”
Kaantur laughed. “Just because a creature can talk doesn’t mean it’s intelligent.” He looked down at Juomes. “Look how easily he is defeated now. The mighty hunter, the keeper of a hundred antennae.”
“Two hundred and forty,” said Juomes.
“Yes, but it doesn’t count if you steal them out of a spare-parts box,” said Kaantur. He turned to Caps. “He’s nothing without his jewel. Haven’t you noticed? Hasn’t he been a little slower? A little weaker? Could we have taken you down so easily, Juomes, if you hadn’t been all these days without your jewel?”
Now Caps understood why Juomes had been so tired on the way up into the city.
Kaantur-Set turned to Elyseo. “Good work, Elyseo-Set. I didn’t think you could persuade them to follow you into the city, but I guess I underestimated you.”
“That’s a lie!” shouted Elyseo.
Kaantur laughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone native. You think these are your friends now?”
“Kill us and have done with these games,” said Juomes.
“Don’t rush me,” said Kaantur. “It pleases me to leave you alive a little longer.”
The hunter robots bound them and carried them — not as gently as the Guardians had — to a platform suspended between large balloons. An air truck.
“So getting out of the city isn’t going to be a problem this time,” said Juomes to Beryl.
“Almost as easy as dying,” said Beryl bitterly.
Soon the balloons lifted them into the air. Not so high that they lost sight of the ground, but high enough that if they tried to wriggle off the platform, they would surely die.
5.8Sunken Ruins
5.9Ruins in the Sky
5.10Kaantur’s City
Only Elyseo-Set remained unbound. He slumped silently near the back of the platform, out from under the canopy, so the sun beat down on him mercilessly.
“I told you the robot would betray you,” said Beryl.
“I don’t think he did,’ said Juomes.
“Weren’t you listening?” said Rend.
“To Kaantur-Set? A liar and murderer? Do you think he ever tells the truth?” Juomes turned to Caps. “What do you think?”
“I think,” said Caps, “that Elyseo has had some kind of switch turned off, so he can’t move or speak.”
Juomes chuckled. “Interesting. Yes, I think you’re right. He’s not just pouting. He’s as much a captive as we are.”
“If he didn’t betray us, who did?” asked Rend.
“Who says we were betrayed?” said Juomes. “The Guardians might have called Kaantur-Set when they locked us away. We weren’t far from the prison when Kaantur found us.”
The balloons drifted out over the ocean, and passed near half-submerged skyscrapers from a ruined human city.
Then they came to the edge of the world, where the ocean poured over into the abyss.
Or so it seemed for one insane moment, and even when they realized the truth it made no more sense to them. There was a hole in the sea — no, several holes, several miles across, where the water flowed downward as if it were rushing over a waterfall, down until the water was lost in a fog of mist. What happened to it at the bottom, Caps could not guess. What force could keep the whole ocean from pouring in and filling this hole? What pumps could draw away the ocean as quickly as it flowed in? Near the edge of the first hole, they passed an abandoned Sentry City, floating in the sky.
The balloons lifted them higher as they reached the edge of the largest hole in the sea, and soon they found themselves rising to meet yet another robot city. Again, there was a dome like the cap of a mushroom, and under it like a wasp’s nest hung a vertical slab of stone. Or was it the stone that hung in the air like an impossible island, supporting the city that bloomed mushroomlike atop it? The floating city hung over a hole in the sea, using it like a moat. Or perhaps the force that punched the hole in the sea was the same one that held the city in the air.
Whatever the science, in practical terms it amounted to this: Their air truck tethered to the city, and they were carried from their platform to a prison deep in the stone — a dungeon in the middle of the air.
Once their guards had left them alone, Caps went immediately to Elyseo’s inert body.
“What are you doing?” demanded Beryl.
“I’m going to see if I can wake him up.”
“Oh, you think you press a button and that’s it?” she asked derisively.
“They can’t have turned him off remotely. Like he said, he’s not a slave.”
“I think we have pretty good evidence that he is one,” said Beryl.
“He didn’t betray us,” said Caps.
“I agree,” said Juomes. “Kaantur wants us to think he did, so it’s to our advantage to think not.” Juomes came over and elbowed Caps aside.
Caps noticed that Juomes’s blow was weaker than the cuffs and shoves he had given Caps before. Perhaps Juomes was conserving his strength, but it seemed to Caps that the journey had not been kind to him.
“I’ve been over the corpses of these things a few hundred times,” said Juomes. “I don’t know what all the external controls do, but I know where they all are.”
He started pressing a series of touch-sensitive pads in various niches of Elyseo’s body. Nothing happened.
“There’s a combination,” said Beryl.
“Oh, I forgot,” said Juomes. “You grew up with them. No doubt you switched them on and off as a prank.”
Beryl came over and knelt behind Elyseo. Almost without looking, she reached in and pressed a combination of control points. “OK, not that one,” she said, and moved her hand to another position, then another.
Elyseo came alert.
“I did not betray you,” he said immediately.
“You don’t have to argue,” said Beryl. “They already believe you, and I never will.”
“You can try to persuade me,” offered Rend glumly. “Except I don’t care.”
“Everybody’s keeping secrets,” said Caps. “Except me and Elyseo.”
“I don’t have any secrets,” said Rend. “I’m just a monkey.”
“Caps has secrets,” said Beryl. “He just doesn’t know what they are.”
“You were raised by Kaantur-Set himself,” said Caps. “I think that was a pretty big one.”
“Juomes already knew, and it was none of your business,” said Beryl.
6.1Caps the Warrior
6.2Paradise Lost
“Didn’t know it was Kaantur,” said Juomes.
“Does it make a difference?” asked Beryl defiantly.
“And Juomes is getting weaker the longer he’s away from his jewel,” said Caps. “It would have been nice to know that.”
“Right, tell a stranger like you that I’m getting weaker,” said Juomes.
However understandable their reticence might have been, Caps was sick of it. “I want to know right now,” said Caps to Beryl, “what it is that the humans of your city are trying to do to destroy the robots?”
“Not in front of the robot,” said Beryl.
“They’re trying to develop metal-eating bacteria,” said Juomes.
Beryl glared at him. “We’ve had that for years.”
“Excuse my inaccuracy,” said Juomes. “They’re trying to find a way to make them airborne, so the wind can spread them.”
“We know that,” said Elyseo. “We’ve been getting antibacterial coatings for more than a century.”
Beryl looked at him in consternation. “Why? We didn’t have anything a century ago.”
“Because we know that the only science you humans still practice is biological. We robots were so much better at engineering that you turned that whole side of things over to us. We built your cities for you. We created your machines. But the science of life you …”
“Kept to ourselves?” said Beryl.
“No. In those days neither robots nor humans kept any knowledge to themselves. We shared everything. But you humans stayed … involved in the science of life.”
“Too bad you robots didn’t stay up on the science of robotics,” said Juomes. “Except of course that I think of that as a good thing.”
“They didn’t forget how to make robots sentient,” said Caps. “They never knew.”
The others all stared at him.
“Once again the lord of random memories enlightens us,” said Juomes.
“I can’t help what I know and what I don’t know,” said Caps. “I didn’t know I knew this until you started talking about robots and humans sharing knowledge.”
“So humans did keep the secret of how to make robot brains?” asked Beryl. “It’s a shame we don’t remember now, because it would make it easier to destroy them all.”
“Humans never knew it either,” said Caps.
“If robots didn’t know, and humans didn’t know …” said Elyseo.
“The monkeys,” said Rend. “Finally we get credit for our contribution to science.”
“Monkeys weren’t sentient then,” said Beryl.
“We’re not even sure any of them are sentient now,” said Juomes.
“The Olm,” said Caps.
“The what?” said Juomes.
“You’ve heard that legend?” said Elyseo.
“They never existed,” said Beryl.
“They’re long gone,” said Rend.
“What are you talking about?” demanded Juomes.
“The Olm knew,” said Caps. “The Olm taught humans how to make robots that could take their places as our equals.”
“Till they became our masters,” said Beryl bitterly.
“They’ve never been equal to a living mind,” said Juomes.
“They refused to stay,” said Rend, “when humans used robot armies to slaughter each other.”
“What a ridiculous idea,” said Beryl. “Humans would never kill each other. Especially not by using robots to attack other humans.”
“The world was divided differently then,” said Rend. “Wasn’t it, Caps?”
Juomes glared at Rend. “You know too much for a monkey.”
“Just because I know more than you,” said Rend, “doesn’t mean I know too much.”
Beryl looked from Rend to Caps and back again. “I think, Caps, that this monkey knows a lot more about your origin than he’s been willing to confess. I think he’s been inside your machine. I think he’s heard that message that you can’t remember clearly. I think he knows everything you’re supposed to do and he just hasn’t told you.”
“I don’t know anything,” said Rend petulantly.
“Now that you admit it,” said Juomes, “I don’t believe it.”
“Humans warring against each other, yes,” said Caps. “The Olm gave us this great gift, and we used it to kill. But when they left, we woke up to our stupidity and we stopped making war on each other. That’s when the golden age came, after all the killing, after the Olm were gone. When it was too late to learn any more from them.”
“How tragic,” said Beryl. “And how useless for us to hear it now, when we’re imprisoned in the middle of this hanging rock.”
“There’s something,” said Caps. “If I could just remember it …”
Rend giggled. “Poor Caps,” he said. “So strong, but so weak. So wise, but so forgetful.”
“Tell me what I’ve forgotten,” said Caps. “I know you know it.”
“What do you know that I know?” asked Rend.
“I don’t know,” said Caps.
“I think it’s tail-wringing time,” said Juomes. “I think it’s bite-the-ear-off-the-monkey time.”
“I think it’s pee-in-the-hunter-beast’s-eyes time,” said Rend.
“How about bleed-in-the-hunter-beast’s-hands time?” said Juomes.
“I don’t think things are hopeless,” said Caps.
“You don’t?” said Beryl. “You think there’s still a chance for us to … what, die a swift and merciful death instead of a slow one?”
“I think we’re close to Font Prime here,” said Caps.
6.3Conflict
“And you think this because …” said Beryl.
Caps turned to Elyseo-Set. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Font Prime is kept here in Oonoftes,” said Elyseo.
“So, technically, I guess that means our mission is almost successful,” said Juomes sarcastically.
“How did you know that?” said Beryl to Caps. “How can a human just ‘feel’ that he’s close to Font Prime?”
“I didn’t just ‘feel’ it,” said Caps. “When I saw this place from the air truck, I knew then. It’s something I remembered. Only I didn’t trust the memory because it made no sense.”
“What didn’t make sense about it?” asked Juomes.
“Font Prime is tied into vast reservoirs of memory embedded in the earth,” said Caps. “Here, floating in the air, Font Prime would be crippled. Weakened.”
“‘Vast reservoirs of memory,’” said Beryl. “What, we sink a well and memories come bubbling up?”
“I don’t know,” said Caps. “I just know that Font Prime is here, and because it’s here, it’s crippled.”
“So why would the robots move it here, if it makes Font Prime weaker?” Juomes asked Elyseo.
“It’s here to keep it safe,” said Elyseo. “Centuries ago, before Kaantur began his extermination program, there was an attack on Font Prime. Sabotage. After that, Font Prime was moved to a place where humans could never go.”
“Except here we are,” said Caps.
“And that’s what makes no sense to me at all,” said Beryl. “Why would Kaantur bring us here, when he could have killed us back when the Guardians had us?”
“Because there’s something he needs,” said Rend.
Juomes reached out a hand and plucked Rend up from the floor and dangled him by the tail. “Tell us what you know, you ugly little poop-throwing hairy-tailed rat.”
Rend was screeching and taking aim to pee in Juomes’s face when the door of their cell opened. Two robots wearing robes stood in the doorway.
Elyseo immediately kne
lt before them. “Kneel,” he said. “These are Servants.”
“All robots are servants,” said Juomes.
“If only that were true,” said Elyseo-Set.
6.4The Grand Hall Museum
“They’re like priests,” said Beryl.
“They want us to come,” said Elyseo. “Put down the monkey. There is no violence in the presence of the Servants.”
In moments the prisoners were walking down a corridor behind the Servants. Their very wordlessness was unnerving, but none of the prisoners wanted to break the silence.
They went up elevators, up winding stairs, and even floated upward through a tube where gravity seemed to have been reversed. They passed through security checkpoints where no one questioned them or even bothered to look at them. They walked through huge halls with great vaulted ceilings, and through maintenance tunnels filled with pipes and ducts and cables.
Finally they emerged into a circular room where more Servants stood watchfully around the perimeter, all facing a huge machine in the center. Was this the king of the robots? Caps saw at once it was an egg-like assembly that had no face, no bilateral symmetry of arms and legs. It must be pure robot, he thought, completely devoid of any resemblance to humanity. On the surface of the machine had been etched the same symbol Caps had seen in the machine where he awoke not all that many days before.
“Font Prime,” murmured Elyseo-Set.
So this was indeed what the robots all obeyed and served, the opposite of life.
It was attached to the ceiling by cables and tubes, and no doubt more connections were piped through the floor, allowing Font Prime to receive all the information coming in from every robot, and to give commands to them in return. How could Juomes possibly attack it? Perhaps it would be enough to go after the tubes to the ceiling. Perhaps some or all of them might be disconnected before Juomes was cut down and killed. But then what? The Servants would simply reattach the cables and Juomes’s death would be for nothing.
Yet if they did nothing, they would no doubt be killed anyway, and what good would their deaths do then?
The Servants led them farther into the room, closer to Font Prime. Caps saw his teleporter had been placed directly behind the huge machine.
