painted wood and metal.
‘Well, the first thing to do is straightforward,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do decisively. ‘We will form an army of the dispossessed. Make good use of their skills and talents. All those robots that have lost their mines and fields can be put to work building roads and bridges. They can delve deeper into the earth for metal.’
He looked at the young robot by his side.
‘I sense a lack of enthusiasm for my order, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.’
‘Your predecessor tried that, Honoured Commander. I fear events have moved beyond that. There is growing resentment amongst the dispossessed. There has been minor damage and vandalism against the Emperor’s property, insolence towards the Imperial Army.’
‘This will not be allowed to continue,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do mildly.
‘Your predecessor said the same, and he is no longer with us. La-Ver-Di-Arussah, your second in command, is of a good family. Her voice is heard in the Imperial Court. She does not believe in capitulation to the peasants, under any circumstances. Yet I fear that if we continue to ignore them, their anger may drive them to do something worse.’
‘Worse than to refuse to follow orders? Such a thing is almost unheard of within the Empire! What could be worse than a disobedient robot?’
Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah’s voice was so low that Wa-Ka-Mo-Do had to strain to hear it.
‘One who attacks the humans themselves?’
‘Attack our honoured guests? That would bring shame upon us indeed.’
‘Shame upon us?’ There was a squeak in Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah’s voice. He was close to breaking point, Wa- Ka-Mo-Do realized. What was going on here was deeply affecting the young soldier. ‘Honoured Commander, it would bring our utter destruction! You do not realize just how powerful the humans are.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do was a warrior of Ko. One of the first lessons he had learned was how to avoid conflict. He spoke calmly.
‘Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah, you are an honourable soldier who works hard in the service of his Emperor. Together, I am sure that we can…’
His voice trailed away as he saw what Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah was looking at. There was a message painted on the wall of a nearby house. The robot’s whole body sagged.
‘You must understand, Honoured Commander,’ he said, ‘this street is busy with robots at all hours of the day. Many people would have seen this message being painted here, and yet no one thought to stop it, or to report the perpetrators to us.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do read the message.
What happened in Ell?
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do felt as if the current was draining from his electromuscle. He remembered the scene in the railway station just before he left the Silent City. All those soldiers, commandeering the train. They were heading to Ell.
‘Just how far from here is Ell, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah?’
‘One hundred and nine miles.’
‘What has happened there?’
‘I don’t know, Honoured Commander.’ And again, there was a squeak in his voice, ‘we are too busy with the problems here in Sangrel.’
He turned to one of the escorting soldiers, and pointed to the wall.
‘Clean this,’ he said.
The soldier was already moving to do so. Two of the other soldiers, meanwhile, had drawn their swords and had seized two people from the crowd.
‘What are they doing?’ asked Wa-Ka-Mo-Do.
‘La-Ver-Di-Arussah’s orders, Honoured Commander. For every act such as this, four peasants are to be executed, as an example.’
‘Hold,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. It wouldn’t do to undermine his second-in-command, he knew that. But at the same time, these were bad orders. They would heighten rebellion, not quell it. He came to a decision.
‘Bring them with us,’ he said. ‘I wish to meet La-Ver-Di-Arussah directly.’
Karel
The last of the evening sun died in the doorway, as Karel set to work on Melt by the light of the fire. The knife he had made was not as hard or as sharp as he would like, but it would do for now. He scored a line down the side of Melt’s left thigh, cutting his way into the dissolved seam there.
‘As we travel south we may find better-equipped workshops,’ he said. ‘We should be able to keep on improving you.’
‘Thank you.’
‘How long were you waiting here for me?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘How many days? How many sunsets?’
‘Four sunsets. I sat with Morphobia Alligator. We talked.’
‘What about?’
‘This planet. Shull.’
‘Morphobia Alligator is a strange robot. Have you met any like him before?’
‘No. I’m sure of that at least. None that look like him, nor any that think like him. He asked me a question: how do beetles and whales and all the other robot animals reproduce when they don’t have hands?’
‘I don’t know!’
‘It’s a good point, though, isn’t it? When robots reproduce, the female twists the metal that comes from a male to make a mind. Then they place that mind in a body they have built themselves, with their own hands. How do animals make bodies, when they have no hands?’
Karel worked away at the seam. The metal there was so hard, he was struggling to scrape it away.
‘Does it matter?’
Melt didn’t answer. He was thinking of something else. ‘Do you know he counts days backwards? Wednesday follows Thursday by his reckoning.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. I’m not sure that Morphobia Alligator is the same as us. He’s not quite a robot.’
Karel thought of the building at the northern coast of Shull, the one Morphobia Alligator had called the reliquary. He thought of the mind patterns drawn on the wall there. Did Morphobia Alligator really have a mind twisted in a different way? Was such a thing possible?
‘I think he’s waiting for something. Something in the future. Every sunset was one less to him, not one more, eeeeeeeeeeee!’
The last word was lost in an electronic squeak. Karel had felt the surge of electricity through the knife.
‘I’m sorry!’ he said. ‘Did I hit the electromuscle?’
‘Not exactly. But the muscle and the metal are joined together.’
‘I’ll stop then. I’ll try the other side.’
‘No, go on. I can ignore the pain.’
Karel looked up into Melt’s dim grey eyes, then he steeled himself. He resumed his hacking at the seam, hesitating when he felt the surge of current, going on when Melt commanded him to.
The night passed. The doorway to the forge was lit up in pale green.
‘I’ve done all I can,’ said Karel, dropping the knife and flexing his fingers.
Melt stretched, this way and that.
‘I feel a lot freer, thank you.’
‘I’m sorry I hurt you.’
‘You did your best. It wasn’t easy for you, either.’
Karel looked through the forge door. The broken archway to the sea framed the distant town of Presper Boole, now lit by the dawn. The robots who had built this city were fine architects, he thought. What could have happened to them? He dismissed the thought for the moment. He had more pressing concerns.
‘Another clear day coming. We should set off now, get some miles covered.’
