‘I don’t want to have to,’ said Karel. It wasn’t the promise she wanted, and they both knew it.
‘I’d stay with you,’ said Susan. He knew that of course. That’s one reason why he had agreed to the making of a child so readily. It would be a way of keeping her in safety if he found himself heading into danger in the coming battle. It was the only thing that would work. It was woven into Susan’s mind to love and protect Karel. Only the motherhood urge would be stronger.
‘I’ve reached the point,’ she said. ‘Have you decided?’
‘Yes,’ said Karel. ‘A little girl.’
He would be thinking of Axel, their little boy. She was, too. But life went on.
‘A little girl. Have you thought of a name?’
‘Emily.’
Emily, a lovely name for a lovely child, due to be born in these less than lovely times.
Susan paused, looking at him.
‘Her nature comes next,’ she said. ‘Are you sure you want me to weave her that way?’
‘Yes!’ he said. ‘Make Emily curious about everything! Make her ask what and how and why. Always why, and never to accept any answer at face value.’
‘But that will render the weave so far pointless. If she questions everything we have made her to be-’
‘But that’s just the point!’ said Kavan, and he gazed up at the stars. ‘It’s like that human woman said: we robots aren’t very curious. Is that any surprise when we ask our mothers to weave our beliefs directly into our children? Who would want to weave in curiosity if it were-’
‘We’re doing this because of what some human woman said?’
‘It’s right, Susan. I know it’s right. Do you believe me?’
It didn’t matter whether she did or not. She would follow him, whatever he did. At least Emily would have a choice in what she did.
She continued with the weave. There was so much power in the wire, she now knew. Ada had talked about nuclear fusion, about hydrogen adsorption. Kavan had talked about the humans returning. They wanted that power.
‘Do you trust Kavan?’ she asked, suddenly. ‘You only lead with his approval, you know. If he ever decides otherwise you will be ousted before the day is out.’
‘I know that.’ He looked at her moving hands, wanting to think of happier things. ‘What are you weaving now?’
‘Her sense of self, of otherness.’
‘Will you make her like me? Angry? Angry enough to change things?’
‘Of course I will. I love you, Karel. How could I do anything else?’
‘We’re so strange, aren’t we?’ said Karel. ‘Us robots. We do exactly as our mothers told us, and yet we are all so different. So simple, and so complex at the same time.’
‘It seems normal to me,’ replied Susan, twisting his wire further. The thought of Nyro’s pattern kept rising in her mind, and she had to push it away. All those nights spent in the making rooms. So many times she had wondered if she could have ever done this again. But if she hadn’t, that would have been another victory for Artemis.
‘They never found Nettie, did they?’ she said.
‘Your friend? No. Perhaps she was on the ship that escaped.’
‘I hope so. Do you think they will bring her back?’
‘I don’t know. You said they wanted our minds.’
‘Something about the power there. The fact that we didn’t need fuel. The humans were very excited by that.’
Something stirred within her. The faintest edge of curiosity. Maybe Karel was right, that this world was stranger than she thought.
‘What was that story, the one that Melt told you?’
‘The Story of Eric and the Mountain.’
‘He’s a strange robot, Melt. Are you sure he can be trusted?’
‘I think so. There is a deep sense of honour within him, I know that.’
‘Where does he come from?’
‘He won’t say. I think he’s deeply ashamed of his past, that’s one of the things that convinces me he is honourable, funnily enough. He’s met the humans before, though. He knew about the Faraday Cage. He told the Artemisians; he got them to send the message to all their troops.’
‘I heard.’
Karel looked up at the stars, tried to enjoy the pleasurable feeling of Susan pulling at his wire. But all the time his mind wandered back to Melt, the way he had almost pleaded to be allowed to guard Susan, as he had done Karel on his journey south. It seemed to be important to the big robot. A way of redeeming himself.
‘If anything happens to me, you will be safe with Melt.’
‘I don’t want anything to happen to you.’ Susan twisted his wire in an odd loop. ‘Almost done,’ she said. ‘There is a little wire left. Are you ready? Are you sure that you want me to put it in?’
‘I’m sure,’ said Karel. ‘Every robot should know this. From now on, this story will be woven into every robot’s mind.’
‘Then tell me,’ said Susan.
‘Very well,’ said Karel, and he began.
The Story of Eric and the Mountain
‘When the ancient town of Ell was still young, before the tribes of Yukawa were united by the Emperor, before Ban province had learned the secret of animal husbandry, there lived a robot called Eric.’
‘This story is set in Yukawa?’ said Susan. ‘I had never heard of that place until yesterday.’
‘I’m sure that is where Melt comes from. He told this story as if it were woven into his mind. Now listen.
‘Eric was the adopted son of Ben-Ji, the owner of one of Ell’s principle forges. Now, it must be understood that the robots of Yukawa have a different culture to those of Shull, and the robots of Ell are unusual even in Yukawa, and this story happened a long time ago when Ell was a very different place to today. So if you find what happened in Ben-Ji’s forge strange, or even distasteful, then just remember that this is how things were in those days.’
Susan was staring at him.
‘This is our child we are making,’ she reminded him.
‘This is how Melt told me the story,’ explained Karel. He continued, using the same sing-song style in which Melt had related the story to him.
‘Now I must explain that Ben-Ji’s forge was known as a making forge. When a man and a woman wanted to make a child then they would go to his forge and look at the fine metals he had on display there. Pure iron and copper and aluminium and lead. The best steel, graded according to use. Metal available as plates and ingots and wire. Gold leaf so fine, silver wire, even phosphorus and sodium stored under oil. Jars of mercury, sheets of tungsten, and, there in the back, molybdenum and palladium. Even, it was rumoured, the eka metals: eka mercury and eka lead.’
‘Do they really exist?’ wondered Susan, her eyes glowing.
‘I don’t know! Susan, please don’t interrupt!’
‘So a couple would enter the forge, the woman full of thoughts and poetry and ideas, pregnant with the thoughts of the mind she would soon twist, and she would walk with her man as they examined the metals on offer. They would tell Ben-Ji and his wife Khafool what sort of a mind they planned to make, and then Ben-Ji and Khafool would give them advice on the metal to choose and the body they should construct. And any other robots who were in the forge would also pass on advice, and in this way the day would pass, until eventually the man would sit down, and the woman kneel before him, and, guided by the advice of all those present, a new mind would be twisted by the woman from the metal she drew forth from the man. The robots produced by the Ben-Ji forge were strong and wise and prospered in the city of Ell, and so the reputation of the Ben-Ji forge grew.
‘Now, Eric worked in the forge, but he was unhappy in his work. The only thing that gladdened his mind was the sight of Khalah, the daughter of Ben-Ji and Khafool. For Khalah had a good mind, a thing of symmetry and elegance and beauty. She built her body of the finest materials available to the forge. She crafted it well, mixing
