She was a traitor; there was nothing else to say.
The radio masts were set in an expanse of flat ground to the west of the city. Three tall lattice towers cradled by iron cable. A fourth, smaller tower stood some distance from them. Susan and Nettie stood at the perimeter of the radio ground and watched the rippling patterns as they climbed the masts.
‘You know they’re thinking of stepping up production,’ said Nettie, suddenly.
Susan felt her gyros spin a little faster. ‘How?’ she asked.
‘A mind every day as well as every night.’
The news didn’t fill Susan with the horror that she would have imagined. Rather, she felt annoyed at the stupidity of it all.
‘It can’t be done,’ she said simply. ‘We need a rest. A woman needs time to get her thoughts in order after making a mind. If not then she runs the risk of weaving the second mind imperfectly.’
Nettie looked away from her, ashamed.
‘I know that,’ she said. Of course, she didn’t. Nettie had never woven a mind in her life, nor would Artemis ever allow her to. She was too clumsy a craftsrobot.
‘Artemis doesn’t care about imperfect minds,’ Nettie retorted. ‘They have worked out that if two minds are woven every day, around one point six of them will be usable on average. That’s a net gain on the current rate.’
‘So what about the minds that don’t work?’ asked Susan. Nettie didn’t answer. She just stared at the ground. Susan figured it out straight away.
‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘No. They’ll just recycle the metal, won’t they? Start all over again…’
Radio waves rippled against the empty grey sky. Susan felt as if the little comfort she had gained was radiating away too.
‘Oh Nettie, I hate this place,’ she said. ‘It becomes so comfortable, you almost convince yourself you’re part of it, and then something like this happens and reminds you just how awful it really is.’
‘I know.’
‘I don’t know what I’d do without you here, Nettie. You’re the only friend I have left.’
For a moment, just a moment, a picture of Karel, her husband, appeared in her mind. She suppressed it, it was just too painful.
‘How long?’ she asked. ‘How long can this go on for?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Nettie. Shyly, she reached out a hand and sent a soothing wave of current into Susan’s own.
‘Why are they doing it? They’ve conquered the entire continent. What else could they want?’
Nettie looked around. They were two tiny figures dwarfed by the sky and the city behind them, the silver shapes of trains moving across the horizon. Even so, Nettie lowered her voice.
‘Susan, there are rumours. Rumours about the Book of Robots. Have you heard them?’
Susan looked at Nettie.
‘Nettie, I’ve heard nothing. The other women don’t speak to me, the only friend I have in here is you.’
Nettie looked around again.
‘I speak to the other supervisors. There is another who knows of the book. She speaks to me sometimes.’
Nettie leaned closer.
‘They have come, Susan. The writers of the book! The creators of the first robots!’
Susan didn’t know what to feel. She didn’t have belief of the book woven into her mind like some other robots did. Her mother had believed, she had woven Susan to be nothing more than a companion for Karel, her husband. Karel was important in some way, she understood that. His mind was different. Beyond that, she really did not care about the book. If only the others who had spoken to her about it understood that. Nettie was gazing at her, excited.
‘Well?’ she said. ‘Don’t you see what that means? They have come to free us! Surely they won’t allow Artemis to continue as it is?’
‘Why not?’ asked Susan. ‘Maybe Artemis is what they want. How do we know what the creators want?’ If they really exist, she added to herself.
Nettie looked troubled for a moment. Susan pressed home her point.
‘And how do we know they are the creators, Nettie? What are they like?’
At that Nettie looked even more troubled.
‘Oh Susan. I don’t know. There are so many rumours. Messages become garbled and twisted-’
‘What have you heard, Nettie?’
Nettie looked around once more.
‘Animals, Susan. They are animals! They walk like robots, they have two arms and legs and a head, but they are animals! It surely can’t be true!’
‘Animals?’ said Susan, disbelievingly.
‘Yes, they say they…’
Her voice trailed off. Three people were approaching, walking towards them across the bare field of the radio masts. A computer, a young man in a body painted green. He was flanked by two Storm Troopers.
‘Good afternoon ladies,’ he said. ‘What are you doing here?’
There was something unsettling about the two Storm Troopers. Susan knew she shouldn’t feel intimidated by them, but she felt as if she were back in Turing City, coming face to face with the invading forces. Yet what could they do to her? The worst had already happened.
Nettie spoke up.
‘We’re mothers of Artemis,’ she said, primly. ‘We need to walk the city in order that we do our job properly at night.’
One of the Storm Troopers laughed.
‘You keep walking,’ he said, staring at Susan. ‘You could twist my wire any day.’
‘Shut up,’ said the other Storm Trooper to his companion. He turned to Nettie. ‘Why do you need to be here?’
‘I like to watch the patterns of the signals,’ replied Nettie, truthfully.
‘Not any more. This area is off limits. General Sandale’s orders.’
‘But why?’ said Nettie. ‘We’re doing no harm.’
‘That’s irrelevant. Come back here and I will have you both recycled, mothers or not. Do you understand?’
‘Yes,’ said Susan.
‘I’ll escort them back,’ said the young man in the pale green body. ‘I need to report to the Centre City.’
‘You do that.’
Susan could feel the two Storm Troopers eyes on her as she and Nettie followed the green robot back into the city.
‘Rusting Storm Troopers,’ said Nettie. ‘I hate them. Those big bodies, and yet their wire is so thin and insipid.’
Susan said nothing in reply. What would Nettie know about twisting wire? And yet she was right. They may have big bodies, but there was something about those Storm Troopers that was strangely weak and ineffectual compared to her husband’s thoughts…
Too late. The image was there now. Karel. Karel in his finely built body, painted by Susan herself. Karel with Axel, both of them telling stories together. Both of them now gone… A soft electronic whine erupted from her voicebox.
She stilled it.
Karel’s anger was like a diesel engine, constantly churning, belching dirty black smoke that left a trail behind him. Most of the time it was there, running in the background, but then something would rev it up and the air was filled with that rattling purr and his vision was obscured by a black cloud of unreason…
