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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78681 ***
+
+
+
+
+                          The Thinking Machine
+
+                          by Raymond F. Jones
+
+
+
+
+  _Like Robert Heinlein and Harry Bates, Raymond F. Jones can point
+  with pride to a major Hollywood production based upon one of his
+  stories, and more science fantasy anthology inclusions over the past
+  seven or eight years than there are blackbirds in an electronic
+  wizard’s pie. And now he takes a look at the future as excitingly
+  prophetic as the chill alien face which stared remorselessly out
+  at us from the silver screen in_ THIS ISLAND EARTH _and left us
+  wondering far into the night how long the human race would survive._
+
+  =“Leave everything to me!” the Machine seemed to whisper. “Love and
+  marriage, your daily bread.” But there will always be rebels.=
+
+
+
+
+They gave Rick Theron a party before he left.
+
+It wasn’t a rational thing to do, or even completely legal. But they
+were Agros, Sixth Rating, and it was the kind of thing to be expected
+among their class. The Watch Police knew it was going on, and didn’t
+even bother to validate the report to the regional observatory.
+
+So they darkened the windows in Sol Hanara’s house and invited all the
+people from the neighboring farms--the friends that Rick Theron had
+known since he was a child--and gave a farewell party. It was a special
+doings to show the special kind of feeling they had for Rick.
+
+Not that they wouldn’t have liked to do the same thing for everyone who
+went. They would. But it was for Rick that all those accumulated and
+repressed desires were unloosed.
+
+Rick’s father, Sard Theron, drove one of the farm’s big cargo planes
+down from Rillo to RiGrand. He got clearance for the flight as a cargo
+of livestock, but even the traffic officials knew that he was picking
+up a dozen other families from farms along the way. It didn’t really
+matter. The Lonestar Region was among the top producing areas in the
+country. No one could expect its Agros to be civilized as well.
+
+The big plane rolled to a stop, the last of three bringing guests to
+the party, and the farm families climbed down to the solid surface of
+the RiGrand field. They could smell the night-borne scent of the Gulf
+waters and see the distant shimmering of moonlight on its surface.
+
+Rick had always loved it down here. He’d wished ever since he was a boy
+that his family could have transferred assignments to a farm nearer
+the water, but his father preferred the big, open country of Rillo for
+cattle and roughage crops and the gathering in of a plentiful harvest.
+
+Now Rick was through with both kinds of country. He stood a moment at
+the foot of the plane stairs sucking the moist Gulf air into his lungs.
+This was probably the last night he’d ever see this wonderful RiGrand
+Agro area.
+
+“There he is!”
+
+He heard the sounds of voices and running feet, and saw the shapes of
+moving figures in the half light. They came up and swarmed over him,
+slapping him on the back.
+
+“How’s it feel to have your farming days over?”
+
+“Hear you’re picked to pair with a Mech!”
+
+“You’ll get fed and brushed like a prize sire--what a life!”
+
+“They say those Mech women are charged like a parogun. You have to say
+‘yes’m’ and ‘no’m’ or you’re likely to get your head smoked off.”
+
+“Lay off it!” Rick roared, half annoyed by the banter that was supposed
+to be friendly enough but which had the effect of small, hot needles in
+his skin.
+
+A vacuum of sound swelled outward in the wake of his voice. “Sorry,
+guys,” he said. “I didn’t mean it to come out that way. I just don’t
+like it being the last night of my life at RiGrand.”
+
+“Sure, we don’t like it, either. Guess there’s better ways of showing
+it than being damned fools. Let’s go in and have a tall drink.”
+
+They crowded around, taking his arms, urging him on. These were the
+fellows he’d grown up with on the vast farms and ranches of the
+Lonestar Agro Region. They knew how he felt. Or at least they were
+trying. Most of them couldn’t really know. They’d never leave. They’d
+spend the rest of their lives here.
+
+For some inconceivable reason the Machine had picked _him_ to leave. To
+pair with a Mech. What kind of breed was that supposed to produce? A
+Rillo range sire and a salt grass heifer!
+
+He went along into the enormous guest hall of the RiGrand ranch. The
+families left the drinking table and surged about him, shaking his hand
+and offering congratulations as if something wonderful had happened to
+him. It was enough to make a man think they _wanted_ him to leave.
+
+But he knew how they felt. It was just a part of growing up, to them.
+Maybe the trouble with him was that he didn’t want to grow up.
+
+Mendon Carter, RiGrand’s Chief Agro, stood up on the drinking table to
+propose a toast. His mane of white hair was entangled with points of
+quivering, silver light. “To Rick Theron!” he cried. “May a thousand
+Agro sons call him father!”
+
+It wasn’t a good toast. Not for a man who was going to pair with a
+Mech. But Mendon Carter was trying, in the best way he knew how, to
+supply an expression of their love which Rick would have to remember
+and sustain him in the years ahead. Until the time, at least, when he
+would finally all but forget that he had ever been an Agro.
+
+“To Rick!” the others shouted, even more loudly than they intended, in
+order to cover their embarrassment at Mendon’s inept toast.
+
+But Rick pretended there was no cause for discomfort. He leaped to the
+table beside Mendon and held his glass high. “To my sons!” he cried.
+“I’ll send every one of them back to Lonestar!”
+
+That eased their tension, and gave them license to be as gay as they
+liked. They answered back with shouts of laughter and good wishes as
+Rick jumped down from the table, his eyes intent upon the figure he had
+been searching for ever since he came in.
+
+She was standing against the far wall, her face bright with laughter
+that pained him. He forced his way through the crowd to Barie’s side.
+
+“For a little while I thought you weren’t here,” he said.
+
+“You knew better than that,” Barie answered. “Come on.” She took his
+arm. “The orchestra’s going to play. You aren’t going to dance with
+anyone but me tonight. And after tonight you’ll never dance with me as
+long as you live.”
+
+She stepped closer and he took her in his arms as the squeaky, tootling
+orchestra assembled by Mendon Carter at one end of the room took up its
+beat.
+
+
+
+
+                                   II
+
+
+It wasn’t a good orchestra and never would be. It was just some of the
+farm boys who liked to get together on Saturday nights and beat out
+a little whimsey. Sometimes it was at RiGrand; sometimes at Rillo or
+Worth-Dallas. At best it was a five hundred mile round trip, and of
+course the Watch Police knew all about it. They didn’t expect anything
+better from Agros, Sixth Rating.
+
+They were doing something called “The Lass at the Mech-Shake Ball.”
+
+Barie bounced happily to its senseless, repetitious rhythm. Rick felt
+the warm touch and vibration of her body against him, but he couldn’t
+keep time.
+
+“What’s the matter?” Barie said finally. “Don’t you want to dance with
+me tonight?”
+
+To everyone but him it seemed like a time for dancing. “I want to get
+out of here,” he said.
+
+He took her out to the patio under the open sky, where the stars were
+so sweet and clear it made something ache inside a man. They wouldn’t
+look like that anywhere else in the world, even if you roamed the world
+over.
+
+He stopped with Barie just beyond an arbor, from which they could see
+the distant sheet of restless water against the horizon. He touched her
+and drew her close to him. She looked up, smiling, and patted his cheek.
+
+“I don’t think you want to go very badly,” she said.
+
+“Am I supposed to?”
+
+“It’s like growing older every year. You may not want to, but it
+happens just the same.”
+
+“You mean there’s nothing we can do when a machine a thousand miles or
+more from here says one day that Rick Theron is to leave the land he
+loves and go to a city he never wanted to see and there be paired with
+a Mech he never wanted to know?”
+
+Barie laughed softly and pressed a little closer to him. “Rick, you
+talk so silly. I guess that’s why I’ve always liked you. Even the first
+time we met, when Dad took me with him to Rillo to talk about cattle
+with your father. I remember I thought I’d never seen a boy who talked
+like you. I remember how you spoke of the cattle and the land as if
+they were your very own. You were nine then. Do you remember?”
+
+Didn’t she know? Didn’t she know he remembered every glimpse he’d ever
+had of her, every sound her voice had made in his hearing? He gripped
+her arm tightly in his big, rough hand. His eyes swept the fields and
+the grassy plain that led down to the sea.
+
+“Is there anything wrong with having and owning something for your very
+own?” he demanded.
+
+“Who’d want to? You’re hurting my arm, Rick.”
+
+He released her. “I’d want to,” he said. “I’d want some land, some
+cattle that were mine and couldn’t be taken away. Something to love and
+take pride in.”
+
+He turned her so that he could see her eyes by the light from the sky.
+“You don’t know what I’m talking about, even yet, do you?” he said.
+
+Barie shook her head. “I don’t understand you, Rick. Sometimes you
+frighten me with your talk that I can’t make any sense out of. Why
+should you want to _own_ something? It already belongs to you. You work
+the land. You turn in its production. You make your living here.”
+
+“Except that now I have to go away and never come back again.”
+
+“It makes no difference!” Barie cried. “Wherever you go you’ll have
+something to do, something to produce, something that will get you
+your living. If the Machine says you belong in another place, paired
+to a certain Mech, then that’s right. There’s no argument with it. The
+Machine can think better than any man ever could! You know that’s so.”
+
+He regarded her for a long moment. Then swiftly he took her into
+his arms and pressed his mouth hard against hers. She clung to him,
+answering his yearning. But even in the midst of her embrace he felt a
+coldness somewhere that was like a little stab of terror in his mind.
+
+He raised his face from hers. “Does the Machine know how to think about
+love?” he said softly.
+
+“It must.” Barie shrugged and straightened in his arms. “It says a
+certain Mech girl is more right for your arms than I am.”
+
+“And don’t you _hate_ it for saying that?”
+
+“Hate it for knowing more than our poor, stupid brains do? Hate it for
+being right? Would it make sense if you and I went ahead and made a
+dreadful mistake that would bring us misery all our lives?”
+
+“Barie, do you really believe that? In your heart--?”
+
+“I think I almost hate _you_ when you pretend to be so blind,” Barie
+said. “You know it’s true as well as I do.”
+
+“Barie--Barie--has it all been so empty? Has it all been
+meaningless--since that day when I was nine and showed you what land
+and cattle could really mean to a man?”
+
+He had to turn away to keep her from sensing the sudden, quick sob that
+welled up from the depths of him. And then she came to him and stroked
+his long hair with her soft fingers.
+
+“Of course it has not been meaningless and empty,” she said. “It’s been
+wonderful. We’ve been happy. Our childhood has been sweeter because of
+each other. And now it is time to grow up. Do you want childhood to
+last forever, Rick?”
+
+He stood looking down at her face--at her long black hair teasing about
+her shoulders in the soft night wind and her wide dark eyes so full of
+trust for the world to which they were born that she would not listen
+even to her own heart.
+
+It added to the smouldering, uncertain hate in his own heart against
+that same world.
+
+“Is it childishness that we love each other?” he demanded almost
+roughly.
+
+For a moment the expression of calm acceptance on her face seemed to
+break. “It must be,” she whispered at last, “because no one keeps it.
+We have everything else; we mustn’t expect to keep childhood. And even
+if we wanted to, what could we do about it?”
+
+“We can go away! Listen to me, Barie. There hasn’t been much time to
+plan, but I’ve been thinking of this ever since the notification came.
+Tonight’s our chance.”
+
+“What are you talking about? Go where?”
+
+“The Machine doesn’t do the thinking for the whole world. There are
+savages it doesn’t care about. We could be one with them!”
+
+“How?”
+
+He pointed to the dark shapes of the planes beyond the farmhouse. “I’ve
+planned for us to take one of them. We can fill it with spare tanks of
+fuel and fly it as far south as the Andes. They’d never find us there.
+They’d never want to!”
+
+She seemed to hesitate a long time, watching the direction of his
+glance. “How would you get it ready? The escort comes for you in the
+morning. There isn’t time--”
+
+“_They’ll_ help me load fuel.” He nodded toward the farmhouse where the
+music was thumping ecstatically. “Say you’ll go with me, Barie! It’s
+our only chance!”
+
+“All right,” she whispered. “If you can get them to help with making
+the plane ready, I’ll go.”
+
+
+
+
+                                  III
+
+
+Rick almost ran from her, bumping into two figures standing at a corner
+of the house, smoking. It was Len and Sam from his own farm.
+
+“It’s not fair,” Len complained jokingly, “to spend all your time with
+Barie. After all, you _are_ going to be paired with a Mech in a couple
+more days!”
+
+“I’m not!” he cried in exultation. “I’m going with Barie. I need your
+help.” In a tumble of words he told them what he planned. “Get a half
+dozen more guys from inside the house, Sam. Len, you come and help me
+get started. We’ll pump the tanks full and figure out a way to feed
+them from spare barrels inside the plane. There ought to be enough
+barrels around the farm.”
+
+But neither of the men had moved. “Come on!” he said.
+
+“You can’t,” said Sam. “You know better, Rick. It isn’t right. The
+Machine’s told you what’s best. We like you too much to help with a
+fool thing like this. You and Barie--we like you both too much.”
+
+He saw it then, he thought. Sam had always liked Barie. Maybe he
+figured with Rick out of the way the Machine might give her to him.
+
+“It takes something like this to find out who your friends are,” Rick
+cried. “There are plenty of guys who _will_ help me!”
+
+“We’re your friends,” said Len quietly. But he was gone from hearing.
+
+One by one, or in groups of two or three, they were approached by him
+in the hall or out in the yard. They were appalled by the stupidity of
+the thing he asked them to do. He was stunned by their repeated refusal.
+
+In panic, he looked about him. There was still dancing in the hall, but
+it was muted now, and the jumping, frantic rhythm had reduced to a low
+beat that was more felt than heard. Their eyes were upon him, averting
+as he stared back in defiant bewilderment.
+
+He had not asked them all, but word had gone around from mouth to ear,
+until all knew his frantic decision.
+
+He held them in his stare when he had asked his last man, and knew it
+was futile to ask any longer. He whirled from the room and raced out to
+the hangars alone.
+
+The night was half gone and he had only until daylight to work, but he
+had to try. He unreeled the fuel hose and fed it to the partially empty
+tanks of the plane. While it throbbed with the pump’s pulsations, he
+ransacked the tool and supply sheds for drums to fill the cabin.
+
+He gathered some, but there didn’t seem to be nearly enough. What he
+had he wrestled up the landing stairs and through the doorway. He
+lashed them down and went searching for more, then came back to change
+the hose connection on the tanks.
+
+The dancing had ceased inside the house. All the guests, those who
+were his friends and had known him all his life, came out and stood in
+silent knots watching his frantic movements silhouetted against the
+night sky as he tried to prepare the plane alone.
+
+But it was too much of a task. Dawn came, and he hadn’t found enough
+barrels. He hadn’t filled those he had, and he hadn’t devised the way
+to feed their contents to the main tanks from inside the plane.
+
+He was licked, but he was still trying when they saw the plane of the
+Watch Police against the brightening sky, coming to take him to the
+re-orientation center.
+
+He climbed down in defeat and looked slowly about the ring of sober
+faces of his friends who had watched and refused to help. “I could
+have done it,” he cried, “if you’d given me a hand. I leave behind no
+friends at Lonestar--only enemies!”
+
+And then it came to him for the first time, apparently, that Barie
+could have helped, but she hadn’t. He turned to her, in the forefront
+of the group, and seemed to read in her eyes the thing he had always
+known was there but didn’t dare to admit.
+
+She had known it would be this way. She had never intended going with
+him.
+
+“You can’t keep childhood forever, Rick. I had to show you that,” she
+said. “It was the last good thing I could do for you!”
+
+Six days ago he’d had nothing in his heart but love for the land--and
+for Barie. He’d expected he’d have the right to pair with her. If you
+were an Agro, you could afford such hopes. The Machine didn’t bother
+Agros too much. It let them pair often with the ones they had chosen
+themselves.
+
+Only a few were denied it. And fewer still were taken away from the
+Region altogether, to pair and spend the rest of their lives elsewhere.
+Rick remembered those who had gone. Stan More, Daly Croden--not more
+than a couple of dozen since he’d been aware of the kind of world he
+lived in, and the things that sometimes happened to people.
+
+Now, he was one of them, borne through the sky to an alien land that he
+had never seen, never wanted to see. It had happened to him.
+
+He watched the unfamiliar landscape through the windows of the plane. A
+couple of Watch Police were his companions, but they were busy over a
+game and paid no attention to him. His thoughts remained with the world
+he was leaving behind.
+
+There was something wrong with it. He had never been able to put his
+finger on it, but he had always been the odd one, the strange one who
+didn’t fit. He wanted things of his own--in a world where each man
+could say that all the Earth was his, if he remembered his neighbor
+could say it too. He didn’t believe that the great Machine, which they
+told him did the thinking for mankind, could think out his own problems
+as well as he could.
+
+Somehow this wrongness in the world had destroyed Barie. That was the
+sign by which he knew it was the world and not he who was in error. It
+could make her stand and say it was right for someone else to take her
+place in his arms.
+
+Barie--Barie--
+
+It had taken from him every reason for living.
+
+He had no idea what was ahead of him, but in his mind there burned a
+single decision that would cover anything that came up. He would do
+everything in his power to obstruct the goals and purposes to which the
+Machine assigned him. He would break, and destroy, and disobey until
+they either crushed him or let him go back. And he had never heard of
+any who went back.
+
+With this decision clearly made, his mind was free to speculate on what
+he might find. He knew the traditional stories that circulated among
+the Agros regarding the Mech cities and their vast production centers.
+He’d heard tales of the monstrous, unthinkable mechanical brain that
+had finally brought order out of the chaos of human civilization.
+
+The thinking machine, as the Agros called it, had direct control over
+the life of every human being on the face of the Earth. At birth, a
+tape of data based on brain and chromosome mapping was filed with the
+central library which fed the machine. Here it was instantly available
+for optimum meshing with similar data from all other men and women
+currently alive.
+
+In as much detail as the machine considered necessary then, the
+subsequent lives of the people were planned. Their station, occupation,
+matings, permission to reproduce--all of these activities and thousands
+more, at the machine’s option, were precisely dictated and controlled.
+
+Rick was vaguely aware of the history of the changeover from chaos and
+war to order and peace. It had come about as a natural byproduct of the
+Second Industrial Revolution. Men had been searching for the answer for
+all the ages of history, and then suddenly they had it without even
+looking for it.
+
+Automation. Robots took the place of clerks and mechanics in the
+factories. Machines could remember ten thousand times as many facts as
+the most efficient human and apply those facts without error. There was
+dislocation and unrest, but eventually the economy settled down just as
+it had in the First Industrial Revolution.
+
+And then the Great Idea that was so obvious and yet so long delayed.
+Automation in government. Millions of accurate data on tape to
+determine the need for a new law or change in the old one. No Senator
+or Representative could hope to match knowledge with such a device. But
+the one impregnable argument held for many years: This was mere machine
+calculation. You couldn’t depend for lawmaking on an operation in which
+no judgment was involved. Human beings had to be governed by human
+beings. There was no other way.
+
+But finally this limitation, too, was overcome. Marcroft’s invention of
+the judgment circuit made it possible to construct a machine capable of
+duplicating human thought. The chain was complete.
+
+The changeover was almost painless. Automation, conscription, emergency
+regulation had been with the world so long that it had become the
+normal way of life. Here at last was a device that could, without
+error, direct a man’s life in the most useful channels, and do it for
+_all_ men on the globe, without favoritism or bias. Here at last was
+the millennium for which all the prophets and seers had searched.
+
+Only a few, like Rick Theron, felt, burning within them, aching
+remnants of something that was not satisfied or taken into account by
+the Machine.
+
+
+
+
+                                   IV
+
+
+Rick Theron had never been away from the farms before in his life and
+his first sight of the shining city of Sanlou almost took his breath
+away and made him forget momentarily his hate and his resolution to
+defy the Machine. His longing for the fields and ranges, the patient
+cattle and green crops dimmed a trifle. He hadn’t known a city could be
+beautiful, too.
+
+The plane dropped from the sky almost at the base of its outermost
+tall building. Only then was he aware that the Watch Police had been
+observing him closely for a long time.
+
+The plane rolled to a stop.
+
+“Okay. This is it, farmboy,” one of them said. “Let’s go in and get the
+manure cleaned off your feet for the last time.”
+
+There was no clear impression of what followed immediately--a thousand
+blurred details of registration, identification, movement through
+pleasing corridors and rooms, a complete physical examination that
+included everything but a count of his body cells. Then, at the end of
+the day, a moment of rest in the chambers of the Orientation Officer to
+whom he had been assigned.
+
+The man was tall, like Rick. He had lighter hair, but a countenance
+that was no less rugged, as if he knew what it was to work with his
+hands under the open sky.
+
+“I’m Jackson,” he said. “Bernard Jackson. We’re going to work in pretty
+close association for the next few months, so we might as well take it
+as easy as possible. I know a few things about you, but I’d like to
+hear more. And then I’ll tell you anything you want to know about your
+position here. Fair enough?”
+
+Rick found himself liking the man, just as he had the city, in spite of
+his determination to hate everything which had taken him from the farms.
+
+But caution warned him against confiding fully in Jackson. He told
+the story of his life, briefly, confining himself to those aspects of
+it which the man must already know. He said nothing of Barie and his
+terrible disappointment in losing her.
+
+Even this seemed to be known, however. “There was a girl, wasn’t
+there?” said Jackson. “A girl named Barie?”
+
+Rick hesitated. “Yes--there was.”
+
+“How do you feel about parting from her?”
+
+He shrugged and then remembered Barie’s own words. “You can’t keep
+childhood forever.”
+
+He repeated them, convinced that he was saying the right thing. The
+Orientation Officer nodded and smiled. “Sometimes we have a little
+trouble over such situations and corrective steps are necessary.
+Apparently none will be needed in your case.”
+
+He looked directly at Rick.
+
+“As to your own situation now the Machine has discovered an
+extraordinary combination of potential abilities in you, and has been
+able to match them in a very desirable counterpart with whom you will
+be paired.
+
+“You must understand that we are not wholly unhuman and mechanical
+about all of this. You will be properly introduced and given adequate
+opportunity to become well acquainted. We have special areas set aside
+for these courtship preliminaries. Whenever you find it mutually
+agreeable an official sanction is given to your pairing and you are
+then ready for the next step of preparation for your place in our
+society. The getting acquainted period usually takes about two to three
+weeks.”
+
+“What if it doesn’t become mutually agreeable?” Rick asked impulsively
+and wished immediately that he’d held his tongue.
+
+Bernard Jackson was not disturbed by the question, however. He merely
+smiled. “That just doesn’t happen. The Machine doesn’t make mistakes.”
+
+Rick managed to get a good night’s sleep in spite of the experiences
+of the day. A long time later he reminded himself that his ability to
+sleep had been a very fortunate thing, too--considering all that was to
+follow during the next twenty-four hours.
+
+He was introduced to Deva Warel, the woman with whom he was scheduled
+to pair, at noon the following morning.
+
+Bernard Jackson brought them together for lunch. She was seated at a
+table near the window of the dining room in the Orientation Building.
+With her was Jackson’s counterpart, a female Orientation Officer, who
+seemed unhappy about the whole arrangement.
+
+Jackson pointed her out ahead of time, as they came into the room.
+“That’s her, sitting right over there,” he said.
+
+Rick looked. For a moment he seemed to be staring at a small, golden
+sunburst. Then it turned into the reddest head of hair he had ever seen
+or imagined.
+
+“That’s Deva? The one with the red hair?”
+
+“In the flesh.”
+
+He knew at once that the Machine’s traditional infallibility was sheer
+idiocy. This girl was as unlike Barie as it was possible for a woman to
+be, and on her face, as she caught sight of him and turned, was a look
+of total, unadulterated antagonism.
+
+“She has the highest potential value of any Mech designer we have
+discovered for many years,” Jackson whispered as they approached. “So
+you see, you are being entrusted with a very valuable property,” he
+added, with a smile Rick didn’t understand at all.
+
+Introductions were quickly completed. The name of Deva’s companion was
+Flora Johns. She nodded politely, but Deva was openly contemptuous.
+Inside himself, Rick felt like laughing. It occurred to him that the
+machine must give out a good many solutions that human beings found
+difficult to assimilate. This, certainly, was going to be one of the
+most indigestible on record. In a way, he and Deva were going to be
+partners after all.
+
+As soon as the painful meal was over, Jackson cleared his throat. “I
+presume you have carefully explained the preliminaries to Miss Warel,
+Dr. Johns?”
+
+“I’ve explained nothing!” the woman officer snapped. “Deva Warel states
+that she absolutely refuses to go through with this arrangement. She
+had already committed herself to a companion in the University.”
+
+“That’s extremely unfortunate,” Bernard Jackson said. “However, in all
+fairness to my ward, I believe we should go ahead in conformity with
+established custom.”
+
+“You young people,” he said, “will be assigned quarters in the
+orientation area. Every opportunity will be offered you to become
+acquainted and acquire mutual interests. Should this--ah, determination
+of Miss Warel’s not be overcome we shall consult the Machine for other
+arrangements. But let us have a fair trial and see what comes of it.”
+
+
+
+
+                                   V
+
+
+For three days Rick remained in his room without leaving it, except for
+the brief periods he spent in the restaurant. He wondered how long they
+would allow the farce to go on, and what would happen to him after it
+was over.
+
+The fact that Deva Warel was as opposed to the arrangement as he was
+made it a little easier to bear. But all the humor had gone out of
+the situation. His heart was sick and empty for all that he had left
+behind--for the farm, the cattle, even the friends who had refused to
+help him.
+
+On the fourth day he decided he’d at least have to get out in the open
+if he was going to preserve his sanity. He left the building and walked
+out through a large, park-like area enclosed by buildings and masonry
+walls. He passed occasional couples who were apparently becoming
+acquainted and “acquiring mutual interests.” For the most part they
+seemed to exhibit a good deal of enthusiasm about the process.
+
+Then he stopped short. A dozen feet away, seated on the grass with a
+thick book open in her lap, was Deva Warel.
+
+She looked up as he approached and grinned. “Welcome to the bull pen,”
+she said. “I wondered when you were going to come down. Guess I must
+have really scared you, huh?”
+
+“No, I was just taking my time,” he told her. He dropped down beside
+her on the grass and glanced at the title of the book. _Associative
+Reflex Circuits of the Memory Package!_
+
+“That’s too deep for you, farmboy,” she said. “Anyway, since we’re here
+to court, suppose you start courting and get it over with. I’ve heard
+they have some real cute customs down on the farm.”
+
+“I wouldn’t know about that,” said Rick slowly. “But ordinarily we use
+courtesy and kindness to the animals. They’re the only creatures below
+an Agro Sixth Rating, of course.”
+
+She looked at him with an expression of regret in her eyes. “I’m sorry.
+I didn’t mean it that way. Or maybe I _did_. I just don’t know!” She
+turned away again, her expression changing to one of anguish. “You
+couldn’t know anything about what this means to me. A week ago I hoped
+and halfplanned to marry a man of my own status--a Mech, First Rating.
+He’s a genius, and we’ve worked together all our lives.”
+
+“I’m told that’s what you have to expect in return for the benefits of
+the Machine’s great wisdom. But even an Agro can understand what it
+means to rebel. I had hopes too--of marrying the woman I loved.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She looked up quickly, her eyes searching his face. “I didn’t know.
+That makes us partners in at least one respect, doesn’t it?”
+
+“I guess it does. The question is: What will they do to us for refusing
+to pair with each other? Will it mean prison, or alteration?”
+
+“I don’t really know. It happens so rarely. I don’t suppose you’d marry
+me even to escape imprisonment.”
+
+“Not if the future of the whole race depended on it,” Rick said
+fervently. “An Agro Sixth may not have much to be proud of. But he has
+a great deal of pride, just the same!”
+
+“I thought so,” said Deva. “That makes the feeling _completely mutual_.”
+
+Abruptly, she got up and moved to a more open spot away from the trees
+and bushes. She gestured to him to follow her. Irritated, he almost
+decided to walk back to the building, but his curiosity got the better
+of him.
+
+“Closer,” she said as he approached. “This place is wired for sound
+in every bush and pebble. They’re watching us from observation posts
+on the walls and in the buildings--and they are taking continuous
+pictures. They’re interested in the progress of our courtship, you see.”
+
+Rick straightened in sudden anger. The whole ordeal was becoming more
+disgusting by the minute.
+
+“No, be careful!” Deva said. She put her hands up and drew his head
+closer to her. “Pretend you are whispering endearments in my ear,” she
+said. “Keep your face down so they can’t get your lips on the film.
+They won’t be able to read your words then.”
+
+He did as she advised. She turned her face downward, too, and plucked
+idly at blades of grass as if they were exchanging only words of love
+and discussing the most blissful of futures.
+
+“We’ve a chance to get away,” Deva said, “if you have the courage to
+risk it.”
+
+“I’ve already made one try,” Rick told her. “It failed because I didn’t
+prepare far enough ahead.” He described his desperate, last-minute
+attempt to get the plane ready.
+
+Deva looked up in surprise, and then quickly lowered her head again.
+“You’re a bigger boy than I thought,” she said. “Gerald wouldn’t take
+the chance either. He had that much in common with Barie.”
+
+“Gerald?”
+
+“The man I worked with and loved.”
+
+Rick looked at her. “Where did you want to go?” he asked. “Tell me,
+Deva.”
+
+“There are ten thousand square miles of open country outside the
+cities. They aren’t patroled very well, because the Machine doesn’t
+consider the area a vital factor. You’d be surprised how many have
+escaped and are living in perfect freedom between the cities. Gerald
+and I could have joined them if he had possessed the nerve--and had
+loved me enough.”
+
+“Why did he back down?” Rick asked, knowing in advance what her answer
+would be.
+
+“He said there was no future for us out there. We were civilized
+citizens of a great community, and had an obligation to do our part. If
+that obligation included bowing to the superior wisdom of the Machine
+our only alternative was to obey. Can you imagine a weak-kneed evasion
+like that from a man who _knows_ Mech theory and operation. But of
+course _you_ wouldn’t understand how that knowledge should have made
+him scorn the Machine. Gerald said he had his work to consider.”
+
+“It hit pretty hard?” said Rick. “Yes--I can see that it did.”
+
+“When he heard I’d been scheduled to pair with an Agro Sixth he acted
+as if he’d just had a very narrow escape--as if I’d suddenly become
+unclean. I’d loved him since I was a little girl. But I could have
+killed him then.”
+
+“You’d take him back, though--if you had the chance?”
+
+Deva nodded. “I’d be fool enough to take him back in a minute if he had
+the courage to go with me.”
+
+“But he hasn’t,” Rick said, thinking of Barie. “And you haven’t
+answered my first question. Just what do we do?”
+
+“_We_ can go out there,” Deva said fiercely. “We can help each other
+escape from the city. After that, we can split up and go our separate
+ways. I haven’t quite figured out what I’ll do with the rest of my
+life. But I’d rather be a wilderness outcast than remain chained here,
+forced to obey every life-denying whim of the Machine.”
+
+“Married to an Agro Sixth, of course.”
+
+Deva nodded. “Married to an Agro Sixth. Do you know what you’ll do?
+Have you given it serious thought?”
+
+He shook his head, thinking suddenly of all the blank years ahead,
+without Barie, without home or land or friends. But what Deva said was
+true. Anything would be better than a life of blind obedience to the
+whims of the Machine.
+
+“You don’t believe then that the Machine is the infallible god it’s
+supposed to be?” he asked curiously. “I thought all Mechs bowed to it
+three times upon arising, and before going to bed.”
+
+Deva’s lips tightened in disgust. “It’s a man-made machine, and only a
+fool would let it dictate his life for him.”
+
+“There are a good many fools, apparently.”
+
+“Millions of them,” Deva agreed.
+
+“Including Gerald?”
+
+“Including both Gerald and Barie,” said Deva.
+
+Rick started to protest, then grinned. “I think we’ll manage this
+getaway if it’s physically possible. Just what are your plans?”
+
+“Because you’re an Agro it will be possible for me to get permission to
+take you out in the city--away from the bull pen. We’ll make several
+trips, and come back each time. But on the final trip, we’ll just keep
+going.”
+
+“Is it that easy?”
+
+“There’ll be a search, of course. A search is routine, but it’s never
+very intensive. After that, however, it’s a long way to the nearest
+Outlander post and decent food and shelter. You won’t think it’s easy
+when it’s over.”
+
+“I’m ready to start now,” Rick said, pressing her hand.
+
+She shook her head. “No. Our wisest course is to separate now. Tonight
+there will be a musical show put on for the benefit of all the gay
+lovers in the bull pen. You’ll take me to that.”
+
+“Fine. We’ll go on our first tour tomorrow?”
+
+“I’ll see about the arrangements. You’d better pretend to steal a kiss
+now--just to make it look real.”
+
+Rick complied. After a moment Deva broke away, protesting, with fire in
+her eyes. “It doesn’t have to be _that_ real, farmer-boy! You’ll behave
+yourself--or find yourself left here alone.”
+
+Rick grinned. “From what you have just told me, you’d have great
+difficulty in escaping without me. So I don’t intend to worry.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Even in the sanctuary of his own apartment Rick forced himself to
+suppress his excitement over the prospects of immediate escape. From
+what Deva had said, he was certain that the watch circuits were
+observing him constantly--here as well as out in the park.
+
+He smiled to himself at the memory of Deva’s name for it. The bull pen.
+Well, what could be more appropriate? He looked down at the strolling
+couples walking arm-in-arm, as if the whole revolting spectacle had
+been entirely their idea. In disgust he turned away again. How could
+men and women make love at the dictates of a machine? What had happened
+to the human race, anyway?
+
+At least he had to admire and respect Deva. She had courage enough to
+rebel against the system, despite her certain knowledge that she would
+lose her place in the only kind of society she knew. And perhaps the
+price would be death.
+
+Inevitably, his thoughts went back to Barie. He imagined her in a
+similar position, facing the same kind of challenge. What if the
+Machine actually should call her up. It could happen!
+
+He went on to imagine her walking down through the gardens and along
+the flower-scented paths with some man she’d never even seen before, a
+love choice selected for her by a mindless machine.
+
+The thoughts made him almost physically ill and sharply increased his
+bitterness.
+
+That night at the entertainment Deva had reassuring news. She had been
+granted permission to take Rick on extensive tours of the city to
+acquaint him with the unfamiliar civilization he would soon be expected
+to embrace as his own. This orientation preliminary was acceptable as
+part of their courtship period, since he was an Agro.
+
+“But we’ll have to wait another four or five days,” Deva said. “They
+want us to become better acquainted in the gardens where there are
+not too many other distractions. So just be patient,” she said as he
+frowned wryly. “It won’t embitter you for life to endure my company for
+a few extra days!”
+
+She’s right, he thought with a grin as he tucked her arm in his. She
+was going to be real easy to get along with.
+
+The show was not too bad, he guessed. He’d never seen anything quite
+like it, but it wouldn’t matter if he never repeated the experience,
+either. His mind refused to remain passive. It lunged about, from
+considerations of his vague and shadowy future to Lonestar and Barie,
+and then back to the strange little Mech girl sitting beside him. He
+wondered what would become of her when once they were safely away into
+the Outlander country. Had she some secret plan of her own?
+
+During the succeeding days they spent most of their time together
+discussing with each other their past lives in the widely divergent
+worlds from which they had come. They spent long, idle hours in the
+gardens or at the music bar. They ate together and Deva read to Rick
+poems and stories that opened up a new world of beauty to him.
+
+The time passed more quickly than he could have dreamed. Then on the
+fifth day Deva said, “Tomorrow we can take a trip through the city. I
+don’t suppose I’ll need a leash--”
+
+He laughed and drew her to him and kissed her soundly as had become
+their custom at parting--solely to impress the watchers who recorded
+all their actions.
+
+“I told you to behave!” Deva said, how angrily he could only guess.
+
+“Tomorrow,” Rick promised.
+
+
+
+
+                                   VI
+
+
+It was almost like being let out of jail. The administrator, Bernard
+Jackson, gave them a few brief instructions and showed them the way out
+of the building.
+
+“Just a kind of once-over-lightly today,” Deva said. “We’ll just go
+along the streets and through some of the shops to give you an idea of
+what things are like here.”
+
+“I’d be a lot more interested in seeing--”
+
+“Hush! General sightseeing is _expected_ of us. Do you want to ruin
+everything?”
+
+He found himself fascinated by the sights and sounds of the city in
+spite of his reluctant interest. The metropolis was built like a
+machine itself, with precision-placed masses of pleasant-hued steel
+and concrete flung against the sky and linked with a lacy network of
+connecting ways up to the highest levels. There was no darkness or
+filth or visible deterioration anywhere.
+
+“There was a time when big, massed cities like this were considered
+failures,” Deva said. “It was all the fashion to abandon them, tear
+them down, and spread the buildings out all over the landscape. That
+was before we understood the true function of a city. Now we know it
+can be both a thing of supreme beauty and of maximum efficiency. It’s
+a device for civilized living. But today’s model compares with a city
+before the Atom War in about the same way that a starship compares with
+the first wooden cartwheels.”
+
+“Are you trying to sell me something?” Rick asked.
+
+Deva shook her head. “I’d like to sell it to myself.”
+
+“Why can’t you?”
+
+“Because of the Machine. It’s inexplicable. The Machine actually made
+possible the cities we have now. And yet because of the Machine I can’t
+bear to live here any longer. It just doesn’t make sense!”
+
+“Everybody seems happy enough.” Rick said.
+
+And it was true. The people he passed on the street seemed universally
+content and peaceful--to judge by their expressions. Within a block
+or two a hundred strangers had smiled and nodded to him. The city was
+certainly not a place of violent discontent.
+
+“It’s me and you!” said Deva bitterly. “Even Barie is happy to conform
+to the will of the Machine. But you’re not. Gerald is glad to be free
+of me because he’s convinced that Utopia has come. And maybe it has!
+No one lacks food, shelter, luxuries, aggressive outlets. Nothing is
+lacking--except whatever is tormenting you and me.”
+
+Rick smiled at her outburst. “In the Agro regions you have a chance
+to become very wise,” he said quietly. “There’s something lacking,
+all right--something most people don’t even know exists. The love of
+something that belongs to you alone. You take pride in moulding it to a
+state of perfection. Pride in yourself because you’re not _owned_.”
+
+“Owned?”
+
+“Of course. All men are property now. Don’t you see? They belong
+to the Machine and can be dispensed and manipulated as the Machine
+decides through its all-powerful wisdom. A man cannot have pride if he
+is owned--and by a mere automaton, at that! He can’t even experience
+love, because he hasn’t the right to offer himself. He’s no longer the
+proprietor of his own being.”
+
+Deva walked slowly beside him, her face sober with thought. “I don’t
+know. That may be the answer. It _would_ be strange if it took an Agro
+to show us what was wrong!”
+
+They walked all day--to the outskirts of the city and back. They stood
+silently at the edge of the great mass, where the towers dwindled to a
+thin layer of individual homes. Beyond these stretched the river and
+the highways leading north and south. Their eyes scanned the distances
+in silence, each sensing the thoughts of the other, and each saying
+nothing.
+
+They went more deeply into the heart of the city on the following days.
+Deva showed Rick the factories and plants that worked in total silence
+and without attendants, each throwing up a mountain of goods that were
+automatically inspected, packed and shipped to locations within the
+city itself or across the continent without a single human voice to
+guide them.
+
+On the last day she took him to the headquarters of the Machine. These
+were many tiers of banked memory circuits and blinking lights below
+the surface of the city itself, in the depths of the solid rock where
+nothing short of a convulsion of the Earth could disturb the intricate
+mechanism.
+
+But there wasn’t a great deal to see. And the Machine’s more intangible
+aspects were totally foreign to Rick’s mind. They stood in the
+visitors’ gallery, behind the impregnable plastic sheets which afforded
+them a clear view of the mechanisms and the attendants on the other
+side.
+
+“There is really no such thing as _the_ Machine,” Deva said. “In
+reality there are many hundreds of machines. Every city has one. Its
+storage vaults contain data on each and every resident. It computes
+upon that data, and its judgment circuits render decisions based upon
+its final computations.
+
+“Each machine is interconnected with all others in the nation by
+tremendous microwave cables. A main clearing panel located somewhere
+in Kansas links the function of all local machines to a central,
+coordinating unit.
+
+“In addition, there is a worldwide network of interconnections between
+New York, London, Paris, Rome, and Moscow. It even extends to Africa
+and the cities of Central Asia. Actually, for instance, a Mech, First
+Rating, could be checked out for pairing against a South African native
+if the Machine so decided. It’s never happened as far as I know. But it
+could happen.”
+
+“It’s _the_ Machine, all right,” said Rick bitterly. “I never quite
+realized before how viciously it has succeeded in wrapping itself
+around the whole world. You can almost feel it strangling, crushing--”
+
+“Hush!” Deva warned, her fingers tightening in his clasp.
+
+They stood apart from the other visitors to the gallery. But Rick could
+almost feel invisible eyes and ears ominously recording their every
+change of expression. He understood Deva’s caution.
+
+“There must be some kind of human administration involved in the
+operation of the Machine,” he said more quietly.
+
+Deva nodded. “There is, of course. In the beginning they were the
+elected representatives of the people--the remnants of the old
+democratic system.” She tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
+“But now that human safeguard doesn’t even exist any more. The machine
+picks its own personnel. The original administrators spent most of
+their time watching and checking on each other to see that no tampering
+with the mandates occurred. The Machine decided it could do much better
+by picking men who would not be tempted to tamper.”
+
+The Machine seemed so harmless, with its rows on rows of black panels
+and glowing tubes and murmuring relays! But it was the enemy. Its very
+existence had made it forever impossible for him to possess Barie
+as his own. From every man upon the face of the Earth it had taken
+something. A desire, a dream, a woman, a treasured possession.
+
+They left the gallery quietly, for they had seen all that they cared to
+see. They went quickly out and up to the street level and took one of
+the cars that were freely available to the citizens. Rick glanced at
+his watch. “It’s almost time to get back to the bull pen,” he said.
+
+Deva did not reply. Her lips were compressed, and she was staring
+straight ahead of her. Rick looked around at the magnificent towers and
+airy bridges of the city.
+
+“No regrets?” he whispered.
+
+“No,” Deva said. “No regrets.”
+
+She started the motor of the car, punched the button for the lane and
+route she desired, and leaned back against the seat with her eyes
+closed. Swiftly the car moved out into the stream of traffic, and
+picked up speed.
+
+
+
+
+                                  VII
+
+
+Rick could not shake off a chill sense of foreboding as the mass of the
+city was left behind. It did not seem possible they could so easily
+escape a monster whose tentacles encircled the earth. Might it not even
+now be watching them through unseen eyes in the walls of the great
+buildings? When they had gone far enough would it not jerk them back,
+willing to play a cat-and-mouse game with them until they no longer had
+energies enough left to continue the fight?
+
+He told himself that he was taking too despairing a view. Deva had
+lived all her life here, and had been trained as a technical designer
+of circuits such as those employed by the Machine. She understood its
+workings, and knew that it could be misled and deceived.
+
+He hoped, too, that someday men would do more than just run away from
+the Machine. A vague but burning desire had been kindled to activity
+within him. He would have given his life to be an instrument, no matter
+how small, in its destruction. But he knew that in his lifetime such a
+rebellion by the many might well remain only a dream.
+
+He turned his attention to the road as they cleared the advancing edges
+of the residential section and moved out onto the express highway,
+heading south.
+
+Deva slowed the car. “We’ll be checked at the first automatic station,”
+she said. “The scanners will note that this is a car from the city and
+record our basic identification. We’ll have to abandon the car before
+then. But that won’t be safe, either--until after dark.”
+
+His spirits rose as darkness descended and the countryside became more
+open. The sense of confinement, which had been with him ever since
+he entered the city, dropped away and he began to feel as free as he
+had felt during all the years of his childhood in the open country of
+Lonestar.
+
+“We’ll have to turn off soon,” said Deva. “Keep on the alert for some
+kind of trail that might lead down to the river. We’ll run the car into
+the water if we can get it safely down the bank.”
+
+A few minutes later, in the glow of the car’s headlights, Rick called
+attention to a sharp turn-off directly ahead. Deva took the controls
+and in another moment they had come to a halt by the bank of the river.
+
+She directed Rick to get out, and then set the car in motion again. He
+held his breath as it descended the steep bank. He thought for a moment
+she had stayed with it too long, but her running figure stumbled to the
+ground an instant before it struck the water with a resounding splash,
+and vanished from sight in the swirling dark current.
+
+“Are you hurt?” he called, hastening down the bank.
+
+“My wrist--” she answered in momentary agony. Then, as he reached her
+side: “I’ll be all right. We’ve got to keep moving as fast as we can.”
+
+Her speed and endurance astonished him as they moved through the
+sheltering brush in the darkness. He wondered how her city life could
+have endowed her with such stamina. But there was little time for
+questions.
+
+“There’s the check station,” she said, a few minutes later. “That red
+light over on the highway about a half mile down. Our best bet would be
+to get in the water and float past it. They might have detectors out if
+our absence has been broadcast.”
+
+“Can you swim that far in the dark?” he asked.
+
+“We’ll find a driftlog--if we can,” she said.
+
+They found a suitable log in the next few minutes. They made bundles of
+their clothes, so that they could be held out of the water and kept dry
+as long as possible. Then they slipped soundlessly into the cold, muddy
+waters, pushing the log forward laboriously between them.
+
+They kept silent, paddling slowly through what seemed an eternity
+of cold and darkness, letting the current do most of the work. Rick
+tried to estimate the distance they had traveled, but the light of the
+inspection station was invisible from the level of the water’s surface.
+
+At last Deva spoke, her voice thin with cold and anxiety. “This is far
+enough. I’m sure we must be well past the station.”
+
+They climbed out on the bank once more and saw the signal light a
+satisfying distance behind them. They dried themselves hastily against
+the chill of the night and donned their clothes, which had remained
+fairly dry.
+
+“Don’t you want to rest for a while?” Rick asked.
+
+“No time for that,” Deva said. “We’ve got to put as much distance as
+possible between ourselves and that station before daylight. We can
+find a place to rest and hide all day tomorrow.”
+
+As dawn approached, Deva could no longer conceal her fatigue. They had
+not slowed during the night, but now they began searching for adequate
+shelter to protect them from observation during the day. They found it
+at last in a thick cluster of foliage by the river bank. So dense was
+its canopy of leaves that even the sky was hidden from their sight when
+they were at rest in its center.
+
+They ate a small quantity of the food concentrate which they had
+smuggled out, and almost immediately afterwards Deva fell into a deep
+sleep.
+
+Rick remained awake until the sun was high overhead, keeping an alert
+lookout for possible pursuit. There was no sign of a hue and cry from
+any direction. He began to let himself think that they were no longer
+in any immediate danger. Possibly the Machine and the Watch Police were
+not even very much concerned about an escape such as theirs. Citizens
+who wanted to run away were probably considered of very little value to
+society.
+
+He allowed drowsiness to creep upon him as he contemplated his
+future plans. His first and major obligation was to see Deva to the
+nearest settlement of the Outlanders at which she wished to stay.
+Then he’d drift on. No place in particular. Eventually, he supposed,
+he’d have to throw in with the Outlanders somewhere. But until that
+day arrived--well, he’d always wanted to see as much of the land as
+possible.
+
+He thought, too, of Deva. She had remarkable courage and an amazing
+spirit of independence, he admitted in admiration. He might even find
+himself missing that fiery mop of hair and equally burning temper. In
+any event, he owed her a debt of gratitude he could never repay.
+
+He was aware next of darkness and of hands tugging at him in ungentle
+persistence. Deva’s voice whispered impatiently in his ear. “Come on,
+it’s time we were on our way!”
+
+He struggled awake, and snatched up a food concentrate. He munched on
+it as they made their way cautiously out of the shelter.
+
+“How much farther must we go before we start hitting Outlander
+settlements?” he asked.
+
+“It’s hard to tell,” she replied. “They move around. But we should be
+on the edge of their country by morning.”
+
+They moved rapidly through the wilderness again, following the course
+of the river, but Deva tired more quickly now. She was willing to stop
+for rest occasionally but not for long. It was approaching dawn when
+they heard the first faint thread of unfamiliar sound in the air. Deva
+paused in alarm and glanced up to the sky, listening.
+
+“What is it?” Rick asked.
+
+“I don’t know. Wait--yes, I do. They’re after us! That’s a helicopter,
+and it’s heading straight this way.”
+
+Frantically, she raced toward the heavy foliage on the shore. The sound
+increased and seemed to arrow toward them. They settled in a crouch
+under the densest cover they could find. But still the sound came on.
+
+Suddenly Deva gasped. “I should have remembered--!”
+
+“Remembered what?”
+
+“Quick!” she urged, grasping his arm. “Into the water!”
+
+Not understanding, Rick stumbled riverward through the brush. “What
+for?” he asked.
+
+“Infra-red detectors. They’re certain to have them. They may be trained
+on us already. The water may not mask us. But it’s our only chance.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They were out of the underbrush now and descending the sloping bank.
+The sound of the beating vanes was so loud in their ears that it seemed
+almost upon them. Suddenly a tiny spurt of light snapped out of the
+sky. Momentarily it cast a ball of flaming brilliance about Deva. Then
+she cried out and fell to the ground.
+
+“I’m hit! Go on, Rick. Into the water. Forget about me--”
+
+
+
+
+                                  VIII
+
+
+In his office high in the tower of Orientation Center, Dr. Bernard
+Jackson put down the report of the Twelfth Sector Watch Police and
+sighed. He removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, his
+features haggard with strain.
+
+“Action completed,” he said finally to Dr. Flora Johns, who occupied a
+chair nearby. “Everything went precisely according to schedule. I hope
+it works out. I liked those two. Remember what he called himself and
+the girl? A Rillo range sire and a salt grass heifer! I’ve got an idea
+he’ll change his mind about her before long!”
+
+“I fail to see why it was necessary to order the Police to deliberately
+shoot her,” Flora Johns said with a tartness that verged on bitterness.
+“She might have been killed. We don’t know yet how serious the injury
+was. The Police aren’t that good at shooting a moving target from a
+plane.”
+
+“It was a necessary risk. You know that. You read the Machine’s
+instructions.”
+
+“But I don’t always believe them!”
+
+“It was necessary because he would have taken her to the first
+Outlander Settlement, left her there, and gone on his own way. And if
+he had suggested anything else she would have opposed it.
+
+“It was absolutely necessary to put her in a state of complete
+dependency on him for a long enough period to enable her to overcome
+her resistance to his presence. The injury was the only available
+means.”
+
+“So says that idiot Machine!”
+
+Dr. Jackson smiled.
+
+“Careful, Flora--even the walls have ears. Or so it is said.”
+
+“I don’t care! If the Machine was going to drag us in for
+insubordination it would have happened long ago. Sometimes I wonder
+just what the devilish thing is up to, anyway!”
+
+“That’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” he said
+slowly. “And I think that with this present case I’ve been able to
+figure it out.”
+
+“What have you figured out?”
+
+“The Machine has recognized from the beginning that we’ve asked it for
+more than it could deliver. We’ve always assumed that we had succeeded
+in creating a Machine that could think like a man. We forgot there
+are two answers to the problem of creating equal thinking in men and
+machines.
+
+“We haven’t built a Machine that thinks like a man. Instead, we’ve
+developed a generation of men that think like machines!”
+
+“What are you talking about?”
+
+“Just that. We’ve leveled men and machines to the same category, but
+not by raising machine thinking. We’ve done it by lowering men. So
+today we have thinking machines, all right. Millions of them. All over
+the globe. We call them men!”
+
+“The Machine has its judgment circuits--”
+
+“Fortunately, yes. And this gives it just sufficient ability to
+recognize its own failure--and wisdom enough to turn the problem back
+where it belongs.
+
+“What essential difference there is between true human thought, and
+the kind of thought we’ve developed in the Machine, I don’t know. And
+I don’t think the Machine knows. But it’s throwing the problem back to
+the only possible source of solution: human beings. Don’t you see?”
+
+Dr. Flora Johns was staring through the windows of the tower to the
+glistening city beyond. “If only you were right!” she whispered.
+
+“I have to be right!” Dr. Jackson exclaimed. “It’s the only possible
+answer. If it weren’t, you and I would have been ordered drawn and
+quartered long ago. But the Machine picked us--and scores of others
+like us.
+
+“It keeps us in our present positions and gives out wholly insane
+instructions--by accepted understanding of its purposes. It gives out
+pairings like this one we’ve just handled. And provides a clear path
+for their escape to the Outlander settlements, and insures that they
+will stay together in spite of themselves. I tell you the Machine is
+bent on seeing that we somehow rectify our own mistakes and make men
+out of those millions of thinking machines that inhabit the world!”
+
+“But to what purpose?” Flora Johns cried. “We’ll be going back to the
+chaos from which we escaped by the very creation of the Machine. It
+has showed us how to insure peace, prosperity, happiness. We’ve got
+the perfection of society that men struggled for thousands of years to
+obtain!”
+
+Dr. Jackson shook his head.
+
+“No. What we _have_ got isn’t it. We may have come close, but for all
+practical purposes we’ve run up a blind alley. We can thank whatever
+Providence is watching over us that the Machine has been capable of
+recognizing that fact.
+
+“Our failure is in turning over final thought and judgment to something
+outside ourselves. Until we are able to take the responsibility and
+work out answers with our own personal gray matter, we have not solved
+the problem. Certainly, our existing solution is a failure.
+
+“Maybe a definite, positive solution is unobtainable. Perhaps the only
+answer is in the continued searching for an answer. I don’t know, and
+I feel certain the Machine doesn’t know. But it’s trying to develop a
+sector of humanity that might be able to find out!”
+
+“It sounds right,” Flora Johns whispered again, and now her eyes were
+aglow. “It _has_ to be right!”
+
+
+
+
+                                   IX
+
+
+A full harvest season had come and gone, and Rick Theron had stayed
+with the Outlanders far longer than he had at first had any intention
+of doing. Deva was on her feet again. She had a little limp, but it had
+been a long time since her injury had kept her from running and working
+with the strongest of the Outlander women.
+
+It was time to be moving on.
+
+Yet, as Rick saw her coming from the cabin he’d helped build for her,
+something caught again deep in the middle of his chest. He wondered
+what the day would be like that denied him the sight of that red crest
+of hair, tumbled by the wind, or bound in tender curls.
+
+He moved toward her resolutely.
+
+“You’re on your way?” she asked.
+
+“Deva,” he said. “I’ve been doing some thinking. We don’t know yet
+where we’re going to end up, and you and I haven’t got any better
+friends out here than each other. We’ve made out pretty good so far.
+Why don’t we just kind of stick together and see what comes of it?”
+
+She looked at him almost shyly, with a slow smile starting at the
+corners of her mouth. “I was just about to suggest the same thing,” she
+said.
+
+“You think it could be that the Machine was right about us, after all?”
+
+“It might be wise not to be hasty in going against it,” Deva said.
+
+He reached for her suddenly and gathered her into his arms and kissed
+her long, and passionately.
+
+“Yes,” she said. “I think I could even learn to like that. In time and
+with practice, darling.”
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note:
+
+
+ This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe, July 1956 (Vol. 5,
+No. 6). Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+ Obvious errors have been silently corrected in this version, but minor
+inconsistencies have been retained as printed.
+
+ The chapter heading =IX= has been added in this version.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78681 ***