Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus (70 page)

There were also more Humans wearing Guardian uniforms, from Subi’s clandestine recruitment program around Canopa. He and Thinker had initiated strict security controls, developing a comprehensive electronic interview method and even a selective memory erasure procedure—such as the one they had used on Dr. Bichette before releasing him. In addition, the two of them had set up an electronic barricade across all tunnel openings, so that no one could pass in or out without setting off alarms.

One of the young female recruits had dated a Guardian, and he had given her an interesting gift, a nearly extinct little alien creature named “Lumey.” The amorphous creature, which she afterward took along with her to the underground hideout, had once been Noah’s pet—but had been left behind in the rushed escape from EcoStation when the Doge’s forces attacked the orbital facility.

As the machine proceeded now, digging deeper and wider, mechanical scoopers and dumpers scurried about, gathering debris and carting it away. They would dispose of it in a series of deep, vertical tunnels that had been dug by rampant machines in the past, when they were the mechanical pests of Canopa. The current debris removal system had been developed by Thinker and Gio. No one knew how they disposed of excess material in the past, but Thinker theorized it might have been in underground fissures and caverns. Occasionally, piles of dirt and rock had been found on the surface of the planet, but only on a remarkably few occasions, considering the extent of excavation that the machines had been doing.

Without warning, the Digger accelerated and increased the speed of its drill bits. It crashed into a wall and began boring through, where it wasn’t supposed to go. It made fast progress, creating a new tunnel. Gio ran after the errant machine, with guards behind him and alarm klaxons sounding.

Reaching for his belt, Gio pressed a transmitter, sending an electronic signal to the computers controlling the machine. Abruptly, the Digger shut down all systems, including its lights. For several moments, Gio found himself in darkness, down the escape tunnel the machine had dug.

Then he saw lights coming from behind. Moments later, Thinker reached him, clanking and whirring. “I was afraid this would happen,” the robot said.

“It’s a good thing we were ready,” Gio said.

Thinker led a robotic team to inspect the Digger. They disassembled the internal workings of the machine’s computer. Presently, Thinker went back to Gio and said, “Just as I suspected, it has an override system, so cleverly concealed that we didn’t see it before. The unit found a way to supersede your commands, but we had our own ace in the hole.”

“I assume you disabled the mechanism?”

“Oh yes. But before we use this Digger again we’ll need to reprogram your disabling transmitter and the receiver on the machine.”

“The old signal won’t stop it next time?”

“Better not try it. There could be more tricks in this Digger, more than we’ve discovered so far. Even if we successfully disable its present override system, it could have another, and another. We must be on constant alert.”

“Why haven’t our other two Digger machines done this?”

“Maybe this one is testing us, and somehow they’re communicating with one another. They
are
sentient, after all. Maybe they’re smarter than we assumed, with hidden intelligence.”

“Kind of a game, isn’t it?” Gio said, in an edgy tone.

“Not the way I look at it,” Thinker said. “Machines are my life.”

* * * * *

Subi Danvar, as acting head of the Guardians in Noah’s absence, received reports from Giovanni Nehr and from Thinker on the episode with the Digger. He also heard from Gio that he’d grown tired of supervising the necessary construction activities, which kept enlarging with the increasing forces and supplies. The man wanted even more important duties.

Impressed with Gio’s ambition and desire to contribute, Subi assigned him to work more closely with the machines that had brought him here and with the newly manufactured robots, to form them all into an efficient fighting force.

“But I have no real military experience,” Gio admitted.

“You have an inventive mind, don’t you? Doesn’t it run in the family?”

“Well, I don’t know. I do have a lot of ideas.”

“Some of the men said you had ideas about military formations and training. Comments you made over beers.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“They passed a few of your ideas on to me. My boy, if you can think that well when you’re drinking, I’d like to see what you can do when you’re completely sober.”

The two men laughed, and clasped hands to mark the new relationship between them.

* * * * *

A couple of days later, Gio and Thinker reported to Subi that disturbing news had just come in: The best machine fighters—led by Jimu—had left the Inn of the White Sun some time ago and joined the Red Berets. Even worse, they had initiated a large-scale robot manufacturing program, and with access to more raw materials theirs far outpaced the program that Thinker had established for the Guardians.

It was indeed troubling news. After considering the situation for a moment, Subi said, “We need Noah back more than ever. He’d know what to do.”

“We’ve already discussed that,” Thinker said, his mechanical voice weary. “From our reconnaissance missions and other reports, I’ve assembled all available data, and Noah is nowhere to be found. Since his captors have no podships to take him off planet, we know he’s on Canopa. Hopefully alive. The Doge’s people have set up an elaborate disinformation campaign about his whereabouts, with tens of thousands of Noah sightings reported all over the planet. Too many for us to investigate with our limited resources. We can’t mount a rescue effort until we have some idea of where he is. Why, he might not even be in one of their government prisons. In fact, I suspect he isn’t.”

“That’s your analysis, is it?” Subi said.

“It is. Absolutely.”

“And didn’t you also analyze the Diggers some time ago, without finding their override system?”

“Yes.”

“That proves that there are possibilities beyond your intellect. There is a way to find Noah and break him out—I’m convinced of it—and we need to find out what it is.”

“You’ll never outthink a machine,” Gio said, as he listened in.

Ignoring the comment, Subi said, “It must be a perfect plan, against superior forces. Nothing is more important.” With that, he stalked away, followed by Thinker, who continued to argue with him.…

For days afterward, Gio began to think about this at length. If he could pull off a rescue of Noah, or at least get credit for it, he would be rewarded extremely well. Thinker, however, remained obstinate against sending out any rescue missions until they had more data. He and Subi could frequently be heard in loud exchanges.

Chapter Eighteen

Tulyans call it the “Visitor’s Center,” a large facility that can accommodate more than thirteen hundred guests at once. And yet, they have used an odd singularity in the title for it, as if the place was only capable of taking one person at a time. They claim to have merely named it that way to make the place seem more personal for each visitor. We suspect that the facility may, in fact, have been built for only one person, and a very important one. Tulyans dismiss our questions about it. On the surface it seems a trivial matter, but we have an idea that it may be one of their secrets.

—Merchant Prince Diplomatic File #T 16544

Though Dux had initially enjoyed the luxuries of the Visitor’s Center and Acey had steadfastly resisted them, now both of them loathed the place. Acey had begun calling it a “velvet-lined prison,” and Dux could not help agreeing.

Worst of all, the teenagers had thought that Eshaz would take them under his wing, but now the big, enigmatic Tulyan had gone off on a mission far across the galaxy. The waitress they’d befriended told them he had gone on a “timeseeing assignment”—whatever that meant—with the leader of the Parvii race. The boys had no idea who Parviis were, and at this point neither of them cared. They just wanted to leave the posh orbiter by any means possible.

The pair would prefer to go to Canopa or another Human-controlled world to volunteer for military service, but could not reach any of them by podship, and all other means of space travel were too slow to be practical. As a result, when added to the bad news about planetary-scale losses, Acey and Dux were no longer their usual outgoing and fun-loving selves. They had, at very young ages, become quite serious.

The Human race was in trouble.

Each day, the boys gazed longingly out at the nearby pod station, a rough gray globular structure that kept pace with the Visitor’s Center, orbiting over the starcloud. The two orbital facilities were only a few kilometers apart.

“Too bad we can’t get back and help Noah,” Acey said.

“Maybe that’s not meant for us,” Dux said. He brushed his long blond hair out of his eyes. “Gio Nehr is on Canopa, and could cause us a lot of trouble. We’d probably have to kill him, or vice versa. As for me, I’m not sure I want to go that far, not even with him.”

“The first step is to get away from here. Agreed?”

“No question about that,” Dux said. “But how do we get on the shuttle to reach the pod station?”

A grin split Acey’s wide face. “We don’t. I found what looks like an emergency evacuation system. A series of passenger launchers—individual, man-sized capsules that shoot into orbital space.”

“Show me.”

Acey led the way through a narrow servant’s passageway. He had timed it perfectly, having watched for the schedules of the employees. The teenagers slipped into a small chamber, and closed a heavy door behind them.

“This is one of the emergency-escape launch rooms,” Acey said. “There are hundreds of them around the structure.”

Dux surveyed the room and saw a number of clearplex tubes, each capable of holding a large person, stacked on racks. It didn’t take him long to figure out how the system worked, and he saw what appeared to be cannon barrels on the outside wall. “This looks like a circus trick,” he said.

“More sophisticated than that, but you’re not far off.”

Dux felt hesitant. “It looks dangerous.”

“Well, if you’d rather stay here and loll around on vacation, that’s fine by me. But I have things to do and places to see. All right?”

Again wiping hair out of his eyes, Dux said, “We promised to stay together.”

“Exactly my point. You have to go with me, don’t you see?”

Shaking his head, Dux stepped toward one of the tubes, and moved it. The container was light. He carried it over to the launcher and slipped it inside, then opened a hatch on one end of the tube and crawled inside. “Now what?” he asked.

He no sooner had the words out when the launcher shot him into space. Dux felt surprise, but more exhilaration. It was like a super ride an amusement park. In a few moments, he experienced a floating sensation.

Seconds later, Acey followed him out. Then Dux heard Acey’s voice over a comlink. “Grab the joystick,” he said. “The handle activates directional jets when you move it, taking you in the direction you want to go.”

Acey roared past him, heading for the pod station.

But Dux had trouble with the controls, and veered off course. He heard Acey shouting at him over the comline. Finally he figured out the pressure pads and toggles, and made his way toward the pod station.

As the pair arrived and stepped through an airlock onto a platform, they saw no podship present, and no other vessels docked there. Looking back through a viewport, they saw a shuttle take off from the Visitor’s Center.

“Not a good sign,” Dux said.

“I timed this for the arrival of a podship,” Acey said. “While you were swimming and getting massages, I was watching schedules. I thought one would be here now.”

“What a time for them to change their schedule.”

“Look!” Acey pointed, and jumped up and down with excitement.

Dux felt a surge of hope as he saw the telltale green flash of a podship arriving from deep space.

“Come on! Come on!” Acey said. “Faster!” Looking back, he saw the shuttle enter the pod station first, and make its way toward them.

Unexpectedly, the podship turned and departed without ever going into the pod station. Apparently, something had startled the creature.

The boys didn’t even try to get away. Furious, they just waited to be taken into custody.

Chapter Nineteen

The Human brain is a marvelous, wondrous instrument, with razor-sharp cutting edges that can slice in countless directions. At all times, the user must be careful not to harm himself with such a powerful weapon.

—Noah Watanabe, Commentary on Captivity

Noah didn’t like the odors inside the CorpOne medical laboratory, the disturbingly strange chemicals he could not identify. His vivid imagination worked against him now, making him wonder what the doctors and other technicians intended to do with those substances, and with the dangerous-looking array of medical instruments he saw in clearplax cases all around him. In the few days he had been housed in the facility, he had not been able to get used to the underlying sense of evil that permeated the place, and he knew he never would.

Early each morning, Dr. Bichette’s assistants brought Noah out of his heavily guarded, locked room on the top level and took him down to the laboratory on the main floor, which had an operating theater in its central chamber. The laboratory was metal and plax, gleaming silver and white. Everything was voice-activated. Whenever the doctor wanted a vial or device, he spoke it by name, held his hand out, and waited for the elaborate machinery of the chamber to give it to him. Instantly, conveyors and servos in the ceiling whirred to life, removing items from cases and lowering them to his waiting hand.

From tiers of seats that circled above central operating station, around twenty people looked on, men and women. On previous days, Noah had noticed his detestable twin sister sitting in one of the front-row viewing seats above him, and he had watched her send messages to the medical personnel down on the central floor. This morning, however, she stood beside the doctor at the examination table and glared at her brother while the assistants activated electronic straps over his wrists and ankles to secure him in place.