The 13th Science Fiction MEGAPACK®: 26 Great SF Stories!

by Lake, Jay

  The robots, of course, were odorless. In a world of odorless machines the human scent stood out in bold relief. The human quarter was a section of the city once prosperous. Humans had moved in and property values had dropped. Gradually the houses had been abandoned by robots and now humans exclusively lived there. Crow, in spite of his position, was obliged to live in the human quarter. His house, a uniform five-room dwelling, identical with all the others, was located to the rear of the quarter. One house of many.

  He held his hand up to the front door and the door melted. Crow entered quickly and the door reformed. He glanced at his watch. Plenty of time. An hour before he was due back at his desk.

  He rubbed his hands. It was always a thrilling moment to come here, to his personal quarters, where he had grown up, lived as an ordinary unclassified human being—before he had come across it and begun his meteoric ascent into the upper-class regions.

  Crow passed through the small silent house, to the work shed in back. He unlocked the bolted doors and slid them aside. The shed was hot and dry. He clicked off the alarm system. Complex tangles of bells and wires that were really unnecessary: robots never entered the human section, and humans seldom stole from each other.

  Locking the doors behind him, Crow seated himself before a bank of machinery assembled in the center of the shed. He snapped on the power and the machinery hummed into life. Dials and meters swung into activity. Lights glowed.

  Before him, a square window of gray faded to light pink and shimmered slightly. The Window. Crow’s pulse throbbed painfully. He flicked a key. The Window clouded and showed a scene. He slid a tape scanner before the Window and activated it. The scanner clicked as the Window gained shape. Forms moved, dim forms that wavered and hesitated. He steadied the picture.

  Two robots were standing behind a table. They moved quickly, jerkily. He slowed them down. The two robots were handling something. Crow increased the power of the image and the objects bloated up, to be caught by the scanning lens and preserved on tape.

  The robots were sorting Lists. Class One Lists. Grading and dividing them into groups. Several hundred packets of questions and answers. Before the table a restless crowd waited, eager robots waiting to hear their scores. Crow speeded the image up. The two robots leaped into activity, tossing and arranging Lists in a blur of energy. Then the master Class One List was held up—

  The List. Crow caught it in the Window, dropping the velocity to zero. The List was held, fixed tight like a specimen on a slide. The tape scanner hummed away, recording the questions and answers.

  He felt no guilt. No sting of conscience at using a Time Window to see the results of future Lists. He had been doing it ten years, all the way up from the bottom, from unclassified up to the top List, to Class One. He had never kidded himself. Without advance sight of the answers he could never have passed. He would still be unclassified, at the bottom of the pile, along with the great undifferentiated mass of humans.

  The Lists were geared to robot minds. Made up by robots, phased to a robot culture. A culture which was alien to humans, to which humans had to make difficult adjustment. No wonder only robots passed their Lists.

  Crow wiped the scene from the Window and threw the scanner aside. He sent the Window back into time, spinning back through the centuries into the past. He never tired of seeing the early days, the days before the Total War wrecked human society and destroyed all human tradition. The days when man lived without robots.

  He fiddled with the dials, capturing a moment. The Window showed robots building up their post-war society, swarming over the ruined planet, erecting vast cities and buildings, clearing away the debris. With humans as slaves. Second-class servant citizens.

  He saw the Total War, the rain of death from the sky. The blossoming pale funnels of destruction. He saw man’s society dissolve into radioactive particles. All human knowledge and culture lost in the chaos.

  And once again, he caught his favorite of all scenes, a scene he had examined repeatedly, enjoying with acute satisfaction this unique sight. A scene of human beings in an undersurface lab, in the early days of the war. Designing and building the first robots, the original A Type robots, four centuries before.

  * * * *

  Ed Parks walked home slowly, holding his son’s hand. Donnie gazed down at the ground. He said nothing. His eyes were red and puffy. He was pale with misery.

  “I’m sorry, Dad,” he muttered.

  Ed’s grip tightened. “It’s okay, kid. You did your best. Don’t worry about it. Maybe next time. We’ll get started practicing sooner.” He cursed under his breath. “Those lousy metal tubs. Damn soul-less heaps of tin!”

  It was evening. The sun was setting. The two of them climbed the porch steps slowly and entered the house. Grace met them at the door. “No luck?” She studied their faces. “I can see. Same old story.”

  “Same old story,” Ed said bitterly. “He didn’t have a chance. Hopeless.”

  From the dining room came a murmur of sound. Voices, men and women.

  “Who’s in there?” Ed demanded irritably. “Do we have to have company? For God’s sake, today of all days—”

  “Come on.” Grace pulled him toward the kitchen. “Some news. Maybe it’ll make you feel better. Come along, Donnie. This will interest you, too.”

  Ed and Donnie entered the kitchen. It was full of people. Bob McIntyre and his wife Pat. John Hollister and his wife Joan and their two daughters. Pete Klein and Rose Klein. Neighbors, Nat Johnson and Tim Davis and Barbara Stanley. An eager murmur buzzed through the room. Everybody was grouped around the table, excited and nervous. Sandwiches and beer bottles were piled up in heaps. The men and women were laughing and grinning happily, eyes bright with agitation.

  “What’s up?” Ed grumbled. “Why the party?”

  Bob McIntyre clapped him on the shoulder. “How you doing, Ed? We’ve got news.” He rattled a public news tape. “Get ready. Brace yourself.”

  “Read it to him,” Pete Klein said excitedly.

  “Go on! Read it!” They all grouped around McIntyre. “Let’s hear it again!”

  McIntyre’s face was alive with emotion. “Well, Ed. This is it. He made it. He’s there.”

  “Who? Who made what?”

  “Crow. Jim Crow. He made Class One.” The tape spool trembled in McIntyre’s hand. “He’s been named to the Supreme Council. Understand? He’s in. A human being. A member of the supreme governing body of the planet.”

  “Gosh,” Donnie said, awed.

  “Now what?” Ed asked. “What’s he going to do?”

  McIntyre grinned shakily. “We’ll know, soon. He’s got something. We know. We can feel it. And we should start seeing it in action—any time, now.”

  * * * *

  Crow strode briskly into the Council Chamber, his portfolio under his arm. He wore a slick new suit. His hair was combed. His shoes were shined. “Good day,” he said politely.

  The five robots regarded him with mixed feelings. They were old, over a century old. The powerful N Type that had dominated the social scene since its construction. And an incredibly ancient D Type, almost three centuries old. As Crow advanced toward his seat the five robots stepped away, leaving a wide path for him.

  “You,” one of the N Types said. “You are the new Council member?”

  “That’s right.” Crow took his seat. “Care to examine my credentials?”

  “Please.”

  Crow passed over the card plate given him by the Lists Committee. The five robots studied it intently. Finally they passed it back.

  “It appears to be in order,” the D admitted reluctantly.

  “Of course.” Crow unzippered his portfolio. “I wish to begin work at once. There’s quite a lot of material to cover. I have some reports and tapes you’ll find worth your while.”


  The robots took their places slowly, eyes still on Jim Crow. “This is incredible,” the D said. “Are you serious? Can you really expect to sit with us?”

  “Of course,” Crow snapped. “Let’s forego this and get down to business.”

  One of the N Types leaned toward him, massive and contemptuous, its patina-encrusted hull glinting dully. “Mr. Crow,” it said icily. “You must understand this is utterly impossible. In spite of the legal ruling and your technical right to sit on this—”

  Crow smiled calmly back. “I suggest you check my List scoring. You’ll discover I’ve made no errors in all twenty Lists. A perfect score. To my knowledge, none of you has achieved a perfect score. Therefore, according to the Governmental ruling contained in the official Lists Committee decree, I’m your superior.”

  The word fell like a bomb shell. The five robots slumped down in their seats, stricken. Their eye lenses flickered uneasily. A worried hum rose in pitch, filling the chamber.

  “Let’s see,” an N murmured, extending its gripper. Crow tossed his List sheets over and the five robots each scanned them rapidly.

  “It’s true, “the D stated. “Incredible. No robot has ever achieved a perfect score. This human outranks us, according to our own laws.”

  “Now,” Crow said. “Let’s get down to business.” He spread out his tapes and reports. “I won’t waste any time. I have a proposal to make. An important proposal bearing on the most critical problem of this society.”

  “What problem is that?” an X asked apprehensively.

  Crow was tense. “The problem of humans. Humans occupying an inferior position in a robot world. Menials in an alien culture. Servants of robots.”

  Silence.

  The five robots sat frozen. It had happened. The thing they had feared. Crow sat back in his chair, lighting a cigarette. The robots watched each motion, his hands, the cigarette, the smoke, the match as he ground it out underfoot. The moment had come.

  “What do you propose?” the D asked at last, with metallic dignity. “What is this proposal of yours?”

  “I propose you robots evacuate Earth at once. Pack up and leave. Emigrate to the colonies. Ganymede, Mars, Venus. Leave Earth to us humans.”

  The robots got instantly up. “Incredible! We built this world. This is our world! Earth belongs to us. It has always belonged to us.”

  “Has it?” Crow said grimly.

  An uneasy chill moved through the robots. They hesitated, strangely alarmed. “Of course,” the D murmured.

  Crow reached toward his heap of tapes and reports. The robots watched his movement with fear. “What is that?” an N demanded nervously. “What do you have there?”

  “Tapes,” Crow said.

  “What kind of tapes?”

  “History tapes.” Crow signaled and the gray-clad human servant hurried into the chamber with a tape scanner. “Thanks,” Crow said. The human started out. “Wait. You might like to stay and watch this, my friend.”

  The servant’s eyes bulged. He found a place in the back and stood trembling and watching.

  “Highly irregular,” the D protested. “What are you doing? What is this?”

  “Watch.” Crow snapped on the scanner, feeding the first tape into it. In the air, in the center of the Council table, a three-dimensional image formed. “Keep your eyes on this. You’ll remember this moment for a long time.”

  The image hardened. They were looking into the Time Window. A scene from the Total War was in motion. Men, human technicians, working frantically in an undersurface lab. Assembling something. Assembling—

  The human servant squawked wildly. “An A! It’s a Type A robot! They’re making it!”

  The five Council robots buzzed in consternation. “Get that servant out of here!” the D ordered.

  The scene changed. It showed the first robots, the original Type A, rising to the surface to fight the war. Other early robots appeared, snaking through the ruins and ash, approaching warily. The robots clashed. Bursts of white light. Gleaming clouds of particles.

  “Robots were originally designed as soldiers,” Crow explained. “Then more advanced types were produced to act as technicians and lab workers and machinists.” The scene showed an undersurface factory. Rows of robots worked presses and stampers. The robots worked rapidly, efficiently—supervised by human foremen.

  “These tapes are fake!” an N cried angrily. “Do you expect us to believe this?” A new scene formed. Robots, more advanced, types more complex and elaborate. Taking over more and more economic and industrial functions as humans were destroyed by the War.

  “At first robots were simple,” Crow explained. “They served simple needs. Then, as the War progressed, more advanced types were created. Finally, humans were making Types D and E. Equal to humans—and in conceptual faculties, superior to humans.”

  “This is insane!” an N stated. “Robots evolved. The early types were simple because they were original stages, primitive forms that gave rise to more complex forms. The laws of evolution fully explain this process.”

  A new scene formed. The last stages of the War. Robots fighting men. Robots eventually winning. The complete chaos of the latter years. Endless wastes of rolling ash and radioactive particles. Miles of ruin.

  “All cultural records were destroyed,” Crow said. “Robots emerged masters without knowing how or why, or in what manner they came into being. But now you see the facts. Robots were created as human tools. During the war they got out of hand.”

  He snapped off the tape scanner. The image faded. The five robots sat in stunned silence.

  Crow folded his arms. “Well? What do you say?” He jerked his thumb at the human servant crouching in the rear of the chamber, dazed and astonished. “Now you know and now he knows. What do you imagine he’s thinking? I can tell you. He’s thinking—”

  “How did you get these tapes?” the D demanded. “They can’t be genuine. They must be fakes.”

  “Why weren’t they found by our archeologists?” an N shouted shrilly.

  “I took them personally,” Crow said.

  “You took them? What do you mean?”

  “Through a Time Window.” Crow tossed a thick package onto the table. “Here are the schematics. You can build a Time Window yourself if you want.”

  “A time machine.” The D snatched up the package and leafed through the contents. “You saw into the past.” Dawning realization showed on its ancient face. “Then—”

  “He saw ahead!” an N searched wildly. “Into the future! That explains his perfect Lists. He scanned them in advance.’

  Crow rattled his papers impatiently. “You’ve heard my proposal. You’ve seen the tapes. If you vote down the proposal I’ll release the tapes publicly. And the schematics. Every human in the world will know the true story of his origin, and of yours.”

  “So?” an N said nervously. “We can handle humans. If there’s an uprising well put it down.”

  “Will you?” Crow got suddenly to his feet, his face hard. “Consider. Civil war raging over the whole planet. Men on one side, centuries of pent-up hatred. On the other side robots suddenly deprived of their myth. Knowing they were originally mechanical tools. Are you sure you’ll come out on top this time? Are you positive?” The robots were silent.

  “If you’ll evacuate Earth I’ll suppress the tapes. The two races can go on, each with its own culture and society. Humans here on Earth. Robots on the colonies. Neither one master. Neither one slave.”

  The five robots hesitated, angry and resentful. “But we worked centuries to build up this planet! It won’t make sense. Our leaving. What’ll we say? What’ll we give as our reason?”

  Crow smiled harshly. “You can say Earth isn’t adequate for the great original master race.”

 
There was silence. The four Type N robots looked at each other nervously, drawing together in a whispered huddle. The massive D sat silent, its archaic brass eye lens fixed intently on Crow, a baffled, defeated expression on its face.

  Calmly, Jim Crow waited.

  * * * *

  “Can I shake your hand?” L-87t asked timidly. “I’ll be going soon. I’m in one of the first loads.”

  Crow stuck out his hand briefly and L-87t shook, a little embarrassed.

  “I hope it works out,” L-87t ventured. “Vid us from time to time. Keep us posted.”

  Outside the Council Buildings the blaring voices of the street speakers were beginning to disturb the late afternoon gloom. All up and down the city the speakers roared out their message, the Council Directive.

  Men, scurrying home from work, paused to listen. In the uniform houses in the human quarter men and women glanced up, pausing in their routine of living, curious and attentive. Everywhere, in all the cities of Earth, robots and human beings ceased their activities and looked up as the Government speakers roared into life.

  “This is to announce that the Supreme Council has decreed the rich colony planets Venus, Mars, and Ganymede, are to be set aside exclusively for the use of robots. No humans will be permitted outside of Earth. In order to take advantage of the superior resources and living conditions of these colonies, all robots now on Earth are to be transferred to the colony of their choice.

  “The Supreme Council has decided that Earth is no fit place for robots. Its wasted and still partly-devastated condition renders it unworthy of the robot race. All robots are to be conveyed to their new homes in the colonies as quickly as adequate transportation can be arranged.

  “In no case can humans enter the colony areas. The colonies are exclusively for the use of robots. The human population will be permitted to remain on Earth.