For a Breath I Tarry

'Divcom feels that you may not be willing to accompany me where I must take you when you fail.'

'I understand,' said Frost, and as he spoke another army of machines came rolling toward the Man-factory from the opposite direction.

'That is the value of your bargain?' asked Mordel. 'You are prepared to do battle rather than fulfill it?'

'I did not order those machines to approach,' said Frost.

A blue star stood at midheaven, burning.

'Solcom has taken primary command of those machines,' said Frost.

'Then it is in the hands of the Great Ones now,' said Mordel, 'and our arguments are as nothing. So let us be about this thing. How may I assist you?'

'Come this way.'

They entered the laboratory. Frost prepared the host and activated his machines.

Then Solcom spoke to him:

'Frost,' said Solcom, 'you are really prepared to do it?'

'That is correct.'

'I forbid it.'

'Why?'

'You are falling into the power of Divcom.'

'I fail to see how.'

'You are going against my plan.'

'In what way?'

'Consider the disruption you have already caused.'

'I did not request that audience out there.'

'Nevertheless, you are disrupting the plan.'

'Supposing I succeed in what I have set out to achieve?'

'You cannot succeed in this.'

'Then let me ask you of your plan: What good is it? What is it for?'

'Frost, you are fallen now from my favor. From this moment forth you are cast out from the rebuilding. None may question the plan.'

'Then at least answer my questions: What good is it? What is it for?'

'It is the plan for the rebuilding and maintenance of the Earth.'

'For what? Why rebuild? Why maintain?'

'Because Man ordered that this be done. Even the Alternate agrees that there must be rebuilding and maintaining.'

'But why did Man order it?'

'The orders of Man are not to be questioned.'

'Well, I will tell you why He ordered it: To make it a fit habitation for His own species. What good is a house with no one to live in it? What good is a machine with no one to serve? See how the imperative affects any machine when the Ancient Ore-Crusher passes? It bears only the bones of a Man. What would it be like if a Man walked this Earth again?'

'I forbid your experiment, Frost.'

'It is too late to do that.'

'I can still destroy you.'

'No,' said Frost, 'the transmission of my matrix has already begun. If you destroy me now, you murder a Man.'

There was silence.

He moved his arms and his legs. He opened his eyes.

He looked about the room.

He tried to stand, but he lacked equilibrium and coordination.

He opened his mouse. He made a gurgling noise.

Then he screamed.

He fell off the table.

He began to gasp. He shut his eyes and curled himself into a ball.

He cried.

Then a machine approached him. It was about four feet in height and five feet wide; it looked like a turret set atop a barbell.

It spoke to him: 'Are you injured?' it asked.

He wept.

'May I help you back onto your table?'

The man cried.

The machine whined.

Then, 'Do not cry. I will help you,' said the machine. 'What do you want? What are your orders?'

He opened his mouth, struggled to form the words:

'—I—fear!'

He covered his eyes then and lay there panting.

At the end of five minutes, the man lay still, as if in a coma.

'Was that you, Frost?' asked Mordel, rushing to his side. 'Was that you in that human body?'

Frost did not reply for a long while; then, 'Go away,' he said.

The machines outside tore down a wall and entered the Man-factory.

They drew themselves into two semicircles, parenthesizing Frost and the Man on the floor.

Then Solcom asked the question:

'Did you succeed, Frost?'

'I failed,' said Frost. 'It cannot be done. It is too much—'

'—Cannot be done!' said Divcom, on the darkband. 'He has admitted it!—Frost, you are mine! Come to me now!'

'Wait,' said Solcom, 'you and I had an agreement also, Alternate. I have not finished questioning Frost.'

The dark machines kept their places.

'Too much what?' Solcom asked Frost.

'Light,' said Frost. 'Noise. Odors. And nothing measurable—jumbled data—imprecise perception—and —'

'And what?'

'I do not know what to call it. But—it cannot be done. I have failed. Nothing matters.'

'He admits it,' said Divcom.

'What were the words the Man spoke?' said Solcom.

''I fear,'' said Mordel.

'Only a Man can know fear,' said Solcom.

'Are you claiming that Frost succeeded, but will not admit it now because he is afraid of Manhood?'

'I do not know yet, Alternate.'

'Can a machine turn itself inside-out and be a Man?' Solcom asked Frost.

'No,' said Frost, 'this thing cannot be done. Nothing can be done. Nothing matters. Not the rebuilding. Not the maintaining. Not the Earth, or me, or you, or anything.'

Then the Beta-Machine, who had read the entire Library of Man, interrupted them:

'Can anything but a Man know despair?' asked Beta.

'Bring him to me,' said Divcom.

There was no movement within the Man-factory.

'Bring him to me!'

Nothing happened.

'Mordel, what is happening?'

'Nothing, master, nothing at all. The machines will not touch Frost.'