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together.
Meanwhile, computers, robots, and androids did everything else. The computers
controlled the power supply, the protective force fields, the synthetic food
factories. They programmed the robots and trained the androids.
The robots mounted guard on the outer Wall and took care of all the heavy
maintenance. The androids in the red coveralls were soldiers, pure and simple,
produced and trained to be nothing else. They lived in underground caves,
connected with tunnels that ran under the whole city and up into the towers
along the city wall.
The androids in blue did the thousand and one essential jobs in the city
itself. Robots and androids together numbered over half a million, or about
five for every human inhabitant of Mak'loh.
The Authority watched over everything. They had been created when the city
built its Walls, as a force of trained people, capable of Physical activity,
capable of aggression if necessary. They would be too few to use these
qualities to endanger the city or themselves. But they would be enough to keep
watch for minor accidents and failures and correct them. They would also be
able to wake up the whole population of the city in an emergency, turning off
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the Inward Eyes, reprogramming the robots, retraining the androids, and so on.
At least that was the theory, and with the original thousand-man Authority, it
might have worked in practice. Unfortunately, the appeal of the Inward Eye
seduced away many members of the Authority.
Old age took others. As the birth rate shrank, it became impossible to train
enough new members of the
Authority to replace those who'd gone. Century by century, the strength of the
Authority shrank.
Eventually it shrank to the point where it could no longer do its job
properly, and the slow decay of
Mak'loh became more rapid. Errors crept into the programming of the robots and
the training of the androids. This explained the mad soldier Blade had
encountered on the city wall, the simple-minded responses of the Watchers, the
deterioration of the gardens. Machines wore out and could no longer be
replaced quickly, then could not be replaced at all. The power supply was
sometimes erratic. Sometimes an Inward Eye machine would go wild, producing
such intense sensations that a person hooked into it would be driven mad.
"At one time, about a century ago, it seemed that things were about to fall
apart all at once," Sela said.
"But all of us in the Authority made a tremendous effort and did much of the
necessary work."
"It wasn't enough," said Blade.
The woman sighed. "This we know. We have known it for fifty years. But we were
not strong enough to do any more. We are even weaker now. The only thing we
could do to make any real difference would be to declare an emergency and turn
off the Inward Eyes. We would have to cast aside all of Hudvom's teachings to
do that. I fear the people would not accept that."
Blade suspected this was an excuse, rather than a reason, to justify the
Authority's refusal to grasp the bull by the horns. The real problem was the
pleasure the people of Mak'loh took in their carefree, sensual life of Inward
Eye and android servants. They would continue to prefer their living death,
even as their city fell apart around them. They would probably panic if they
were awakened.
Blade didn't blame the Authority for not wanting to grab this bull by the
horns. It was a large and ferocious bull. But if they didn't quickly do
something drastic, Mak'loh was doomed. It would become a city of the dead who
no longer lived, even through the Inward Eye.
"This is true, I fear," said Sela. "But we of the Authority have given up
hope. Even if we had hope, we lack the strength."
"Perhaps you lack the strength," said Blade. "But that does not mean that the
strength does not exist or cannot be brought to Mak'loh."
"Will-will your comrades from England help us?" said Sela.
"Why not?" said Blade. "As I have said before, you are our brothers and
sisters. From us you can learn how to bring Mak'loh back to life. From you we
can learn our history and some of the science we have lost."
"That seems to be a fair bargain," said the woman, frowning. "But I cannot
make promises for the whole
Authority or speak for them all."
"I cannot do that for my comrades either," said Blade. "I shall have to see
much more of your city before
I can even speak to them. Show me Mak'loh, Sela. Take me everywhere in it,
tell me everything you know about it, let me speak to the others of the
Authority. Conceal nothing.
"When I have learned everything I can, I shall return across the Wall, to
where my comrades wait in the
Warlands. I shall speak to them and tell them what I have seen. I think they
will agree to help your city. If they are not enough to do all that is needed,
we will send word to England. That will bring more of our people to help
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Mak'loh."
Blade had never bluffed quite so extravagantly, and he wasn't entirely sure
he'd be able to carry it off in the face of sharp wits like Sela's. Yet it was
certainly his best chance of learning everything about
Mak'loh, and perhaps in the end he could learn enough to actually give them
some help.
Sela reached out and caught Blade's right hand in both of hers. There were
tears in her eyes as she said, in a voice not entirely steady:
"Blade, we shall do what you wish. Mak'loh must live."
Chapter 15
Sela was as good as her word. She started by getting Blade the black coveralls
of the Authority, as well as a combat helmet, boots, and gloves. She got him a
new shock rifle and taught him how to use it more effectively. It could be set
to either stun or kill, depending on how much power one wanted to use. She
also warned Blade that some of the power cells could be unreliable, since the
factory that made them was not working very well.
She also showed him the other main weapon kept in Mak'loh-one that was not
given to the soldier androids. It was a grenade thrower that looked very much
like a large-bore shotgun with a single, stubby barrel. Blade was familiar
with similar weapons in Home Dimension, but this one was lighter and much more
powerful. That explained why it was not given to the androids. Some time in
the dim past, some wise man in the Authority had realized that the androids
might not always be completely reliable and therefore should not have weapons
as powerful as those of the Masters.
There were only about five hundred of the grenade throwers in Mak'loh, all of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]