from the half-defeated city. She could understand why Kavan had made this his headquarters.
The wreckage of the front of the reaction train had been dragged to one side, the remains of the ripped-open carcase of the railway station had either been made safe or torn down. New rails had been laid, and a steady relay of trains had been set up, bringing in troops and supplies from Artemis, Bethe, even from Wien.
It took her some time to spot Kavan, just another grey infantry-robot standing near the front of the station, reading from a piece of foil. Wolfgang, Kavan’s aide, stood nearby, along with Ruth, who had formerly been General Fallan’s number two. Their silence was a good sign: it meant things were going according to plan.
Eleanor marched up to Kavan. She was badly burned down her left-hand side; soot and scorched paint covered the bare metal of her arm, thigh and torso.
‘One of the foundries,’ she explained, noting Kavan’s glance. ‘The robots in there had jury-rigged some sort of flamethrower.’
‘It’s almost a pleasure to hear of someone here bothering to fight,’ said Kavan, rolling the foil into a ball and dropping it on the ground.
‘I don’t understand it,’ said Eleanor. ‘Where has the spirit gone from this city? For years we feared it, and yet today we find it as empty as a ghost.’
‘It was the same in Wien and Bethe and Segre, and all the other states where the citizens had ceased to take responsibility for all of the state’s functions. The people here are happy to operate a forge, or paint pictures, or make machine parts, but they will no longer scrub the algae from the stones or fight in the army. When you have a state that leaves those jobs to the immigrants and the underclass, you have a state that is already dead.’
The singing of rails announced another train approaching the station. Kavan and Eleanor watched the blue and yellow nose of a diesel approaching along the Bethe line. The midnight-black bodies of Storm Troopers could just be made out, lined up in racks on the trucks behind the engine.
‘Artemis itself has begun to follow that path…’ continued Kavan thoughtfully.
Eleanor looked up at the night. The stars shone so brightly, as if the heavens themselves were watching Turing City’s end.
‘You need to get yourself cleaned and repainted,’ said Kavan suddenly, and Eleanor was dragged back down to the world of Penrose.
‘Later,’ she said dismissively. ‘We almost have control of the city now.’
‘No, we haven’t.’ Kavan sounded tired. ‘We have taken a lot of ground, but that’s the easy part. Holding it will be more difficult. Come the morning, the sun will rise, and the robots of Turing City will see what they have lost. When they understand that all the easy options have gone, then the hard fact of fighting will not seem such an unpleasant alternative. We need to break their spirit now, before that truth occurs to them.’
Eleanor remained silent. Behind Kavan, a line of Storm Troopers stepped down from the train to the platform in perfect unison, their feet making a perfect double crash.
‘Get your troops, Eleanor,’ said Kavan, coming to a decision. ‘Send them out to the residential districts. There will be civilians cowering in their homes, wondering what they should do. Well, let’s keep them cowed. Get your troops to kill about a third of them.’
Eleanor gazed at him, shocked. ‘If you think so, Kavan.’
‘I do think so,’ said Kavan. He stared at her. ‘You want to be leader, Eleanor…’
‘No, I…’
‘Don’t deny it, Eleanor. You want to be leader. You know it. Very well, do you think you are really committed to Artemis?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘Then you will understand why I do as I do.’
Eleanor turned on her heel.
‘Oh, and Eleanor.’ She paused, looking back. Behind Kavan, the Storm Troopers stepped two paces forward in perfect formation. He continued. ‘Give them Nyro’s choice.’
Eleanor grimaced. ‘Of course, Kavan.’
Karel and Susan sat in silence in the cooling forge room, listening to the hum of Axel’s sleeping body. The child stirred, the yellow glow of his eyes deepened.
‘Go back to sleep, Axel,’ said Susan. ‘It’s okay.’
‘Why can’t we light the forge then, Mummy?’ said the child, sleepily. ‘I want to work on my legs.’
‘In the morning.’
Axel leaned against the wall and drifted back to sleep.
‘Where are you going?’ asked Susan.
Karel stopped by the door. ‘Back outside. I want to see what’s going on.’
‘Be careful.’
The hallway was dim. Karel turned his vision right up, crept down past the doors of his neighbours to the stair-well, now plunged into darkness. A faint noise of metal on metal echoed up from below. The sound of robots moving about. Karel felt a prickle of tension in his electromuscles. What was happening down there? Karel crept down the stairs, ears turned up full.
‘Someone’s coming…’
He heard the voice and froze. A light snapped on, framing him in its beam.
‘Who’s that? Karel? What are you doing creeping up on us?’ The voice was unfriendly, suspicious.
‘Garfel, is that you?’ Karel strained to see past the bright glare of the light.
‘Stay where you are!’
Karel had been on edge all night, wondering what was happening outside in the city, fearful for his family, rejected by his fellow citizens. Their command was enough to ignite the anger that was woven deep into his mind.
‘Rust, NO!’ he swore. He stamped forward, roughly pushing aside the lamp and the robot who had shone it at him.
‘Hey, be careful!’ Karel recognized Gustav’s voice. And now Karel’s eyes adjusted to the dimness of the communal area that lay beyond the stairs. A wide, tall space, the furniture pushed to one side to make more space for the robots that had assembled in the darkness. And Karel felt his anger increase. So many robots, men, women, children: all Turing Citizens and all dressed in underwater bodies. Grey whale metal, elongated faces and big glassy eyes, all illuminated by a dim green glow.
‘Traitors!’ said Karel. ‘Traitors, all of you!’
There was an uncomfortable silence. Robots looked to the floor, to the ceiling, everywhere but at him.
A voice spoke up. ‘Who are you calling traitors, Karel? Who is it that allowed these Artemisians into our city?’
‘What?’ Karel felt a burning inside him like the flame of a forge. ‘What are you talking about? No one let the Artemisians in. Didn’t you notice, Ruther? They attacked! They destroyed the station!’
‘Oh yes, we have been attacked. But before that, Karel. Who was it that diluted Turing City by allowing in immigrants? Who was it that diluted the resolve of the people by allowing refugees from Wien and Bethe and Born, even from Artemis itself, into this state?’
Karel was furious. Even so, he controlled his temper. Just.
‘I don’t see any refugees amongst this crowd,’ he said. ‘I only see Turing Citizens. I wonder where the refugees are at the moment. I wonder if they might be out there in the city, fighting for it?’
There was another uncomfortable silence at this point. Karel pressed home his advantage.
‘And think of this, you robots who are about to run away, who are about to become refugees yourselves. What are you going to do when you are walking on the seabed if you meet another state already down there? Will you expect them to welcome you with open arms?’
No one spoke. The robots focused on the floor, on the ceiling, on anything but each other.
And then Garfel came forward. Garfel who lived in the apartment above Karel and who ran the residents’ committee. Garfel who was too friendly with Susan, Garfel who had an opinion on everything.
‘Why are we even taking the time to listen to you Karel, here at the fall of Turing City?’ he asked. ‘Even
