Again, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do was struck by the humans’ attitude to the robots. They certainly did not act like guests of the Emperor. He dismissed the subject.
‘All is harmony, Rachael. Now, if you will excuse me…’
She finally seemed to notice the soldiers, lined patiently in the sun behind him. The contrast between her soft pink body, barely wrapped in thin cloth, and their hard, steel bodies was marked.
‘Oh! I’m sorry! You’re busy. I’ll get back to the beach. The sun is the best thing about this place. Shame you poisoned the lake.’
‘Poisoned? That’s copper!’
But she was already gone. He watched her running back towards the lake, the strange cloth flapping behind her.
Susan
‘What are you doing in here?’
Yellow eyes gazed at her out of the darkness. Susan turned up her own eyes to get a better look at the stranger. She made out the grey shape of an infantryrobot.
‘I’m looking for my friend. She’s called Nettie. Have you seen her?’
Susan stepped forward, the other robot moved away, keeping the big stone bowl at the centre of the room between herself and Susan.
‘No! She’s not here. Now go away. Leave me alone.’
Susan gazed thoughtfully at the other robot.
‘You’re hiding in here too, aren’t you? Have you run away from the battle as well?’
‘That’s none of your business! Get out of here!’
‘I should keep your voice down if I were you. There’s a Storm Trooper out there, hunting me.’
The other robot looked at her, trying to decide if she was telling the truth or not.
‘I’m Susan. I was from Turing City, I’m now a mother of Artemis. Who are you?’
The other robot’s eyes glowed brighter for a moment, and then they dimmed just a fraction.
‘Vignette,’ she said. ‘I’m from Lankum in the central mountains. I was conscripted into the Artemisian army along with rest of my kingdom when Spoole fled south. We were brought to help in the construction of the trenches they’re digging around the city. We were to have been stationed between Kavan’s army and the walls of the city, showered by the cannons and the guns of both sides. I wasn’t going to have that happen to me, so I slipped away as we marched through the city.’
Vignette’s voice echoed oddly in the building. Susan raised a hand.
‘Too loud!’ she said, ‘He’s out there, looking for me.’
‘Then why did you lead him here to me, you selfish Tok? I was safe until you turned up!’ Her eyes flashed, more in fear than anger. Susan was patient. She knew what it was like to be frightened.
‘There is no safety here in Artemis City. You can only hide for so long. In the end they’ll find you, and then…’
‘You must have been safe,’ said Vignette, the envy thick in her voice. ‘The mothers of Artemis work beneath the ground, away from danger.’
‘Raped twice a night.’ Susan laughed bitterly. ‘I’d rather take my chances in the trenches.’
Vignette gazed at her, eyes glowing in the darkness.
‘I’d rather shelter in the making rooms.’
‘That’s immaterial. What is done is done.’
Susan spoke with bitter finality.
‘No it’s not,’ said Vignette. ‘Change places with me. Swap your body for mine.’
The idea brought Susan up short. Swap their bodies? It had its attractions. Surely an infantryrobot would fare better in the city at the moment? She would certainly be less noticeable in that grey body. Would that aid in her search for her friend?
‘But how?’ she said, slowly. ‘We’d need a third robot to unplug our coils.’
‘The robot at the top of this tower would do it. We could ask him.’
Susan felt as if she had wandered into a children’s story.
‘What robot at the top of the tower? Where are we? What is this place?’
‘You don’t know? Have you never seen a shot tower? We used to have one in Lankum like this, only ours was taller. We carved a groove in the side of the mountain, and then built a tower on the top of it. There was a copper sieve at the top through which molten lead fell in drops. It formed into spheres as it fell and then landed in a basin of water at the bottom.’
Susan looked up, the light of her gaze lost in the darkness. The tower was a spiral of stone. A robot could walk up the interior wall to the top, she realized.
‘Who is he, the robot up there?’
‘He’s the robot who built this tower. His wife built the one opposite.’
‘How do you know this?’
‘He told me.’
‘Why is he still here?’
‘He’s waiting for lead. Sometimes Artemis needs more spherical shot than it can produce elsewhere.’
Susan looked down at the stone bowl. She saw the water inside, as still as the night outside.
‘You know that if you leave this tower in my body, the Storm Trooper out there will rape you?’
‘Better than dying in the trenches,’ said Vignette.
Susan looked up again, up to the top of the tower.
‘Very well,’ she said. ‘Let’s exchange bodies.’
They climbed the tower’s interior and emerged into the night. Susan found herself standing on an island of darkness in the middle of the illuminated city. Up here the night sky billowed with stars. In the distance, around the edge of the dark sea of this strange, forgotten collection of buildings, light bloomed. It blossomed in yellow flames from chimneys, it glowed deep red from forges, it reflected in gold and silver from metal towers and aerials. Beyond it there was the darkness of the Artemisian plain. Susan gazed out, wondering if she could see the lights of Kavan’s army out there, moving to surround the city. Was Karel somewhere out there too, separated from her by two armies? Was Nettie trapped in here with her?
‘Bouvan?’ called Vignette. ‘Are you there?’
Susan gazed into the darkness at the centre of the tower. She was standing on a circle of stone that surrounded the three hundred foot drop. Something was moving, something was rising from the centre of the tower.
‘Bouvan?’ said Vignette again. ‘This is Susan.’
Bouvan had the longest arms and legs of any robot Susan had ever seen. She realized he must live wedged in the space at the top of the tower.
‘What do you want?’ Bouvan spoke in the flat tones of an unfused robot.
‘We want you to swap over our minds,’ said Vignette.
‘Very well,’ said Bouvan. Susan recoiled as a hand reached towards her on the end of an impossibly long arm, felt a surge of current as she realized how close she had come to stepping back over the edge.
‘Hold on a moment!’ she shouted, suddenly uncomfortably aware of what she was agreeing to. Allowing another robot to unplug her coil, leaving her perfectly helpless. ‘How can I trust you both?’ she said. ‘How do I know that you will reattach my mind?’
‘I’ll go first,’ said Vignette.
‘Hey, you!’
The voice came from behind her. Susan turned and looked out over the darkness to the other shot tower. Down on the street they had seemed so far apart. Up here, in the stillness beneath the twinkling stars, she almost felt as if she could jump from one to the other. Ridiculous, of course. They must be sixty feet apart.
‘Yes, you!’ Sound travelled easily in the clear air, that voice could have come from a robot standing just by her. She looked and saw another robot standing at the top of the other tower. She looked just like Bouvan, and Susan realized that this must be the wife Vignette had talked about.
‘Listen, lady! You don’t want to trust him! He’ll fumble and break your coil! Come over here, I’ll change your minds!’
