I knew to be the guts of a daydreaming Blue. Inside that dome-God only knew what was in there waiting for us.
“We should go inside, Colonel,” Kwon said. “Before this crazy thing gets mad again.”
“Tell the men to take a rest. I want everyone to drink some water and get their heart-rates down.”
Kwon walked among the surviving marines-there were only fourteen that still drew breath. He shouted at them, ordering them sternly to relax. This seemed counterproductive, but I wasn’t a sergeant.
Sloan walked up to me and engaged me in a private channel. I made the connection.
“What are we doing sir? Sight-seeing?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m having so many thoughts, so many questions. This thing we are inside of-this is the core of everything. Somehow, these creatures started this whole thing. Without its science, choices and mistakes, you and I would still be back on Earth, surfing the web and watching sports channels.”
“Yeah? You think so?”
“Yes, I do. There are so many questions to ask it.”
“It isn’t like you to overthink things, Colonel. Let’s ask it when we come back out of the dome. After we finish the mission.”
My head swirled with thoughts of my lost family, of the millions of people who had died back home and in space-and the hundreds of them I’d met personally. But I nodded. He had an excellent point. He never got off- target. Maybe that’s why he’d lived so long among the doomed souls of Riggs’ Pigs.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s head inside.”
The first thing I noticed was the instant silence. Stepping under the dome was like entering a cool, calm world. Cut off from the outside completely, I could feel the barrier as I passed through it. The sensation was like walking through some kind of plastic film, as if I’d been swallowed in bubble-wrap. We pushed inward and it pushed back. But we persisted and it soon gave way.
I knew the dome was designed to allow slowly moving things to walk through, allowing the entry of worker Macros without allowing projectiles to follow. Once past the barrier, we stood in a gloomy world. A machine hulked in front of us, dimly lit by internal sources. It was illuminated by many pairs of suit lights from my marines as more of them came through to stand with me.
I could hear the big machine that squatted under the dome now. It sort of thrummed. It was a deep, steady, ominous sound. It gave me a chill to hear it again. I hadn’t been this close to a Macro factory for years.
“Marvin, are you here? I don’t see any super-brain Macros.”
“No,” Marvin said. “I’m disappointed. The factory seems to be undefended.”
“Well, I can’t say that I’m unhappy about that. Slither up to the machine and do your magic, robot.”
Marvin was already slithering. He moved closer to the factory than any of the men. I think Kwon was the only man who may have seen a Macro machine this big before in person. The rest of them were standing suspiciously close to the edge of the dome.
“Shouldn’t we shoot it, or something, Colonel?” Sloan asked.
“Negative Captain. That monstrosity is our goal. If we can capture it and make it work for us, we will have more production power than every machine back on Earth combined.”
Sloan seemed nervous. “Should you be talking that way about it-right here, sir?” he said in a near whisper.
I chuckled, but I knew he wasn’t just being paranoid. In the past, Macros had tracked me down in particular, following our radioed messages. There was evidence they listened to us all the time. Even if they didn’t usually say much-they were listening.
“I don’t think this thing works like that. I expect it’s more like a big version of one of our factories. Not overly bright, but able to follow precise programming.”
Sloan muttered something about hoping I knew what I was doing. I didn’t take offense. I’d heard that one before.
“Any progress, Marvin?” I asked.
“I’m having protocol-engagement problems,” he said. “The channel opens, then closes immediately.”
I grimaced. As an ex-programmer, I knew all about that. Often when writing an original piece of software for networked devices, the most difficult part was to establish the initial communication. You had to get everything exactly right, any mistake would cause it to abort or crash. In this case, we could only change and examine the software on one side of the devices trying to synch up with each other. Or, to be more precise, Marvin could.
“Do you think you are using the right version of the protocol?”
“Standard Macro binary,” Marvin said.
I looked at him. Was he getting testy? It wasn’t like Marvin. But then again, when software didn’t work for no apparent reason, the experience could drive anyone mad with frustration.
“Try different versions.”
Up until now, all ten cameras had been locked onto various parts of the huge machine in front of us. Now, one of them swung to me. The lens refocused with a tiny whirring sound. “Why would this unit not be upgraded to the latest version of the communications software?”
My armor prevented me from shrugging. “Just try it.”
“It will require a complete reinitialization.”
“What will that take? A second or two? Come on, Marvin.”
He turned all his cameras back to the Macro factory. “Done,” he said.
“You got a response?”
“Yes. But it may have been a delayed acceptance of my earlier requests.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said. Marvin was like a lot of touchy engineering types. He hated to be wrong, especially about something technical. I could understand that, as he was a mass of technological wizardry himself. It probably hurt his pride.
“Should I attempt to make it bring down the dome?” he asked.
“No!” Sloan said quickly. He was standing at our side.
Marvin and I looked at him.
“Uh, if we brought down the shield, the Macros and that crazy cloud out there could get in. We need this defensive position, sir.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Let’s try something simple, Marvin. Have it produce a mass of constructive nanites.”
Marvin was quiet for a time. “Program rejected,” he said. “Symbol table limit exceeded. Unknown identifier. Errors too numerous-”
“I get it, Marvin,” I said. “Hmm. I should have thought of this. It is similar to our nanite factories, but not identical. It doesn’t seem to know much about nanite technology. I suppose that makes sense. If the Macros had been able to produce nanites, they would have sent different weapons systems against us. Let’s go easy on it. Tell it to build me a block of ferrous alloy. A cube.”
“What is the volume of this cube to be?”
“Let it decide. But I want to see what it can do in two minutes time.”
We waited then, as Marvin formed the program and transmitted the source code.
“Program accepted. Engaged.”
“That was easy,” Kwon said, stumping up close.
I politely kept quiet. Computers always looked easy to operate when they worked. We waited the two minutes. It seemed like a very long time. My marines had just begun to wander the place, when a massive clang sounded in the enclosed space.
“Could that be my cube?” I asked, heading to the output tray.
When I saw it, I gaped in amazement. A dozen marines joined me. There, in the tray, was a perfectly- formed gunmetal-gray cube. It had to be six feet in every dimension-maybe more.
“Is that thing solid, sir?” Sloan asked.
“Yes Captain,” I said. “I do believe it is.”
“It must weigh more than a ton,” Kwon said.
Marvin drifted near and tapped at the block with his tentacles. The action made an odd, tinging sound. “I’d estimate the weight at fifty-four tons,” he said. “That would be at one G of course, and an assumed steel density factor of point-two-eight.”
