messages asking for support days ago. I though I would have heard from the Storm Troopers at least. But nothing. Maybe Sandale and the rest have got to them. And then you turn up…’
He leaned closer, looking into her eyes.
‘What are you? Just another robot jumping on the best opportunity for safety? Well, you’re wasting your time coming to me! Go and see Sandale and the rest, if you want to be accepted as an Artemisian!’
‘I never claimed to be an Artemisian,’ said Susan angrily. ‘I was a Turing Citizen. Your state kidnapped me and had me brought here. Forced me to work in your making rooms.’
Her current surged. She could feel it filling her electromuscles, drawing them in. This body was getting ready to fight. She fumbled for the rifle she carried slung over her shoulder, pointed it towards Spoole. He didn’t seem to care.
‘Ah,’ he said, eyes glowing, ‘Now I understand! You are a mother of Artemis. That explains it. You don’t walk like a soldier. You’re too precise; you have a different sort of thoughtfulness. I was a soldier, I know these things. Who did you swap bodies with?’
‘Like you would know! You took my husband from me! You killed my son! Do you know that?’
‘I killed your son? I don’t think so.’
‘Maybe not directly, but your rusting state attacked mine.’
‘Yes. That’s what we do. And your state crumbled and ran away, rather than fighting. Just like you’re doing now.’
‘Not at all,’ said Susan with angry dignity. ‘I came here by choice. I’m looking for someone.’
‘Who?’
‘My friend.’
‘What about your husband? I thought you said I took him from you. I would have thought you wanted him back?’
‘He’s out there somewhere, on the other side of that wall. Tell me a way through and I’ll take it.’
‘What was your friend’s name?’
‘Nettie.’
‘Should I know her? Another mother of Artemis, I suppose?’
‘Nettie wasn’t a mother. Nettie never twisted a mind. She was our teacher.’
‘Your teacher?’ said Spoole, and his expression changed. ‘What sort of minds were you making?’
Susan moved her grip on the rifle. It felt odd and comfortable at the same time, made to fit this body.
‘New minds. Minds full of power, minds that barely thought.’
‘Ah, then I think I understand.’
He turned back to face the window.
‘Understand? Understand what?’
‘Susan, have you ever heard of the Book of Robots?’
Susan laughed bitterly.
‘Oh yes. It doesn’t exist. But the idea of it causes people to do things and weave minds that only bring misery.’ Of course Susan knew that. Her own mind had been woven that way.
‘I never believed it existed either, Susan, but lately I wonder. The Book of Robots is supposed to contain the plan of the original robots. It is supposed to have the template of the way that minds should be woven.’
‘I know that,’ said Susan. ‘I don’t see the need for the book. Any answers there are can be found by looking at the world around us.’
‘I think you’re right, Susan,’ said Spoole, delighted. ‘We live in this world and we take its form for granted. We don’t see what is right in front of us.’
His words were like a shock to her body. Spoole wasn’t the first person to tell her this. She remembered Maoco O, the Turing City Guard, how he had stood on the mound by the city fort beneath the light of the night moon and spoken almost exactly the same words to her.
It was just coincidence, she told herself.
‘I’ve heard that before,’ said Susan. ‘The trouble is, no one can ever tell me what the answers are. They don’t tell me what we are taking for granted.’
‘Oh, but I know,’ said Spoole. ‘I can tell you.’
Kavan’s troops had completely encircled the city. Now they moved to join the bulges that were growing at five positions around the encircling moats, getting ready to cross at the points cleared of enemy troops.
‘They can’t get out of there,’ said Kavan. ‘They’ve trapped themselves behind metal and earth.’
The first of the platforms constructed by Ada and her engineers had been dragged forward and used to bridge the first moat. Storm Troopers charged across and fanned out, left and right, pushing back the enemy troops marooned there by Spoole and the Generals.
They were followed by infantryrobots who went to the edge of the first mound to repeat the tactics Kavan had used earlier, firing into the enemy who were stranded between the next set of trenches.
More chaff and iron filings rained down, shrapnel and high-explosive canisters fell amongst the tightly packed troops, killing Artemis’ friends and foe alike. The air was filled with smoke and metal and rain, so full of motion that there was barely any untouched space there amongst the darkness. Silver Scouts cut through the confusion, pulling metal back to the growing number of forges glowing red on the Artemisian plain behind them.
Calor appeared, silver panelling badly scarred.
‘The troops marooned between the moats have pulled away, Kavan. They’re caught between our fire and that coming from the walls.’
‘Conscripts, the lot of them,’ said Kavan, and he looked around at his own, Uncertain Army. ‘How many of these are loyal, do you suppose?’
‘All of them, when things are going well,’ said Calor, and she gave a brittle laugh. ‘At the moment, about half of them.’
As she spoke, there was a huge explosion in the centre of the first bridge, splitting it in two. Twisted metal, shrapnel and robots tumbled into the moat. Already a second bridge was being pulled into position.
‘There are enough troops,’ said Kavan. ‘We will make it into the city. That is, if we need to. They know we are here. There will be robots in there who will be on our side.’
Susan and Spoole
‘What’s the difference between an animal and a robot, Susan?’ ‘A robot is made of metal, an animal is organic.’ ‘But what about the robot animals? We don’t think of them as being like us, do we? Think about beetles. They forage for scraps of metal with which to build their young. Think about snakes, wrapping themselves around small robots and killing them with a shock of current. Think about smaller robotic life forms. We lump them in with the organic animals, don’t we?’ ‘I suppose so. What point are you making?’ Spoole’s eyes flashed.
‘What’s the difference between us and a porphyry worm?’ ‘We’re intelligent, we have arms and legs…’ ‘And what else? Come on, you’re a mother of Artemis.’ Susan already knew the answer.
‘Only robots twist the minds of their young. Animals don’t, whether they are metal or organic.’
‘Haven’t you ever wondered why this should be?’ ‘No. It’s twisting minds that makes us intelligent.’
Spoole laughed. ‘That’s what I thought, at least until a few days ago. Tell me, what other differences are there, between us and animals? Organic animals, I mean.’
‘I don’t know. There wasn’t much organic life in Turing City. We kept the place clean.’
‘What do organic animals do that robots don’t?’
‘I don’t know. I’m not that interested in organics. It wasn’t twisted into my mind, I forget what I hear about them.’
‘They eat,’ said Spoole. ‘They eat each other.’
‘Well, we take metal from each other to build new robots.’
‘Yes, but organic animals need to eat each other to stay alive. They consume plants and animals for fuel. Didn’t you know that?’
‘I knew that. Is it important?’
‘It’s a clue, Susan. If the Book of Robots exists, then this should be written in there. Robots don’t eat, they
