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diff --git a/78681-h/78681-h.htm b/78681-h/78681-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9e598a --- /dev/null +++ b/78681-h/78681-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1717 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <title> + The Thinking Machine | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} +.f15 {font-size: 1.5em;} +img.w20 {width: 20em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + + +blockquote { + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +figcaption {font-weight: bold;} +figcaption p {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: .2em; text-align: inherit;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowe116_3125 {width: 116.3125em;} + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78681 ***</div> + + + +<figure class="figcenter illowe116_3125" id="cover"> + <img class="w20" src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + Transcribed from Fantastic Universe, July 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 6). + </figcaption> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"></div> + +<h1> +The Thinking Machine +</h1> + + +<p class="f15 center">by <strong>Raymond F. Jones</strong></p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"></div> + +<blockquote> +<p><i>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</i> <span class="allsmcap">THIS ISLAND EARTH</span> <i>and left us wondering far into the night +how long the human race would survive.</i></p> + +<p class="p2"><b>“Leave everything to me!” the Machine seemed to whisper. “Love and +marriage, your daily bread.” But there will always be rebels.</b></p> +</blockquote> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"></div> + + +<p>They gave Rick Theron a party before he left.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“There he is!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“How’s it feel to have your farming days over?”</p> + +<p>“Hear you’re picked to pair with a Mech!”</p> + +<p>“You’ll get fed and brushed like a prize sire—what a life!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For some inconceivable reason the Machine had picked +<i>him</i> 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!</p> + +<p>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 <i>wanted</i> him to +leave.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“To Rick!” the others shouted, even more loudly +than they intended, in order to cover their embarrassment at Mendon’s +inept toast.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“For a little while +I thought you weren’t here,” he said.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="II"> + II + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They were doing something called “The Lass at the Mech-Shake Ball.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter?” Barie said finally. “Don’t you want to dance with +me tonight?”</p> + +<p>To everyone but him it seemed like a time for dancing. +“I want to get out of here,” he said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think +you want to go very badly,” she said.</p> + +<p>“Am I supposed to?”</p> + +<p>“It’s like +growing older every year. You may not want to, but it happens just the +same.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Is there anything wrong with having and owning something for +your very own?” he demanded.</p> + +<p>“Who’d want to? You’re hurting my arm, +Rick.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>own</i> something? It already +belongs to you. You work the land. You turn in +its production. You make your living here.”</p> + +<p>“Except that now I have +to go away and never come back again.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He raised his face from hers. +“Does the Machine know how to think about love?” he said softly.</p> + +<p>“It +must.” Barie shrugged and straightened in his arms. “It says a certain +Mech girl is more right for your arms than I am.”</p> + +<p>“And don’t you <i>hate</i> it for saying that?”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“Barie, do you really believe that? In your heart—?”</p> + +<p>“I +think I almost hate <i>you</i> when you pretend to be so blind,” Barie said. +“You know it’s true as well as I do.”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It added to the smouldering, uncertain hate in his own +heart against that same world.</p> + +<p>“Is it childishness that we love each +other?” he demanded almost roughly.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What are you +talking about? Go where?”</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“How?”</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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—”</p> + +<p>“<i>They’ll</i> 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!”</p> + +<p>“All right,” she whispered. “If you can get them +to help with making the plane ready, I’ll go.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="III"> + III + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“It’s not fair,” Len +complained jokingly, “to spend all your time with Barie. After all, +you <i>are</i> going to be paired with a Mech in a couple more days!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>But neither of the men had moved. “Come on!” he said.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“It takes +something like this to find out who your friends are,” Rick cried. +“There are plenty of guys who <i>will</i> help me!”</p> + +<p>“We’re your friends,” said +Len quietly. But he was gone from hearing.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He had not asked them all, +but word had gone around from mouth to ear, until all knew his frantic +decision.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She had +known it would be this way. She had never intended going with him.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Barie—Barie—</p> + +<p>It had taken from him every reason for living.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>all</i> men on the globe, without favoritism or +bias. Here at last was the millennium for which all the prophets and +seers had searched.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IV"> + IV + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The plane rolled to a stop.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Even this seemed to be known, +however. “There was a girl, wasn’t there?” said Jackson. “A girl named +Barie?”</p> + +<p>Rick hesitated. “Yes—there was.”</p> + +<p>“How do you feel about +parting from her?”</p> + +<p>He shrugged and then remembered Barie’s own words. +“You can’t keep childhood forever.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>He looked directly at Rick.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What if it doesn’t become mutually agreeable?” Rick asked impulsively +and wished immediately that he’d held his tongue.</p> + +<p>Bernard Jackson was +not disturbed by the question, however. He merely smiled. “That just +doesn’t happen. The Machine doesn’t make mistakes.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He was introduced to Deva Warel, the woman +with whom he was scheduled to pair, at noon the following morning.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Jackson pointed her out +ahead of time, as they came into the room. “That’s her, sitting right +over there,” he said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“That’s Deva? The one with the red hair?”</p> + +<p>“In the flesh.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="V"> + V + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Then he stopped short. A dozen feet away, seated on the +grass with a thick book open in her lap, was Deva Warel.</p> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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. <i>Associative Reflex Circuits of the Memory Package!</i></p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 +<i>did</i>. 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.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>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?”</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t really know. It happens so rarely. I don’t suppose you’d marry +me even to escape imprisonment.”</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“I +thought so,” said Deva. “That makes the feeling <i>completely mutual</i>.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Rick straightened in sudden anger. The whole ordeal was becoming +more disgusting by the minute.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“We’ve a chance to get +away,” Deva said, “if you have the courage to risk it.”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“Gerald?”</p> + +<p>“The man I worked with and +loved.”</p> + +<p>Rick looked at her. “Where did you want to go?” he asked. +“Tell me, Deva.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Why did he back down?” Rick asked, knowing in +advance what her answer would be.</p> + +<p>“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 <i>knows</i> Mech +theory and operation. But of course <i>you</i> wouldn’t understand how that +knowledge should have made him scorn the Machine. Gerald said he +had his work to consider.”</p> + +<p>“It hit pretty hard?” said Rick. “Yes—I can see that it did.”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“You’d take him back, though—if you had the chance?”</p> + +<p>Deva nodded. “I’d be fool enough to take him back in +a minute if he had the courage to go with me.”</p> + +<p>“But he hasn’t,” Rick +said, thinking of Barie. “And you haven’t answered my first question. +Just what do we do?”</p> + +<p>“<i>We</i> 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.”</p> + +<p>“Married to an Agro Sixth, of course.”</p> + +<p>Deva nodded. “Married to an Agro +Sixth. Do you know what you’ll do? Have you given it serious thought?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Deva’s lips tightened in disgust. “It’s a +man-made machine, and only a fool would let it dictate his life for +him.”</p> + +<p>“There are a good many fools, apparently.”</p> + +<p>“Millions of them,” +Deva agreed.</p> + +<p>“Including Gerald?”</p> + +<p>“Including both Gerald and Barie,” +said Deva.</p> + +<p>Rick started to protest, then grinned. “I think we’ll manage +this getaway if it’s physically possible. Just what are your plans?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Is it that easy?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“I’m ready to start now,” Rick +said, pressing her hand.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>“Fine. We’ll go on our first tour tomorrow?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll see about the +arrangements. You’d better pretend to steal a kiss now—just to make it +look real.”</p> + +<p>Rick complied. After a moment Deva broke away, protesting, +with fire in her eyes. “It doesn’t have to be <i>that</i> real, farmer-boy! +You’ll behave yourself—or find yourself left here alone.”</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The thoughts made him almost physically ill and sharply increased his +bitterness.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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—”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“I told you to behave!” Deva said, how +angrily he could only guess.</p> + +<p>“Tomorrow,” Rick promised.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VI"> + VI + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“I’d be a lot more interested in seeing—”</p> + +<p>“Hush! General sightseeing is <i>expected</i> of us. +Do you want to ruin everything?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Are you trying to sell me something?” Rick +asked.</p> + +<p>Deva shook her head. “I’d like to sell it to myself.”</p> + +<p>“Why can’t you?”</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“Everybody seems happy enough.” Rick said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 <i>owned</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Owned?”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>Deva walked +slowly beside him, her face sober with thought. “I don’t know. That +may be the answer. It <i>would</i> be strange if it took an Agro to show us +what was wrong!”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“There is really no such thing as <i>the</i> 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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“It’s <i>the</i> 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—”</p> + +<p>“Hush!” Deva warned, her fingers tightening in his clasp.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“There must be some kind +of human administration involved in the operation of the Machine,” he +said more quietly.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“No regrets?” he whispered.</p> + +<p>“No,” Deva said. “No regrets.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VII"> + VII + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Are you hurt?” he called, hastening down the bank.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“Can you swim that far in the dark?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“We’ll find a driftlog—if we can,” she said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you +want to rest for a while?” Rick asked.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They +ate a small quantity of the food concentrate which they had smuggled +out, and almost immediately afterwards Deva fell into a deep sleep.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!”</p> + +<p>He +struggled awake, and snatched up a food concentrate. He munched on it +as they made their way cautiously out of the shelter.</p> + +<p>“How much farther +must we go before we start hitting Outlander settlements?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“It’s hard to tell,” she replied. “They move around. But we should be +on the edge of their country by morning.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“What is it?” Rick asked.</p> + +<p>“I don’t +know. Wait—yes, I do. They’re after us! That’s a helicopter, and it’s +heading straight this way.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Deva gasped. “I should have +remembered—!”</p> + +<p>“Remembered what?”</p> + +<p>“Quick!” she urged, grasping his arm. +“Into the water!”</p> + +<p>Not understanding, Rick stumbled riverward through +the brush. “What for?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“I’m hit! Go on, Rick. Into the +water. Forget about me—”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VIII"> + VIII + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“It was a +necessary risk. You know that. You read the Machine’s instructions.”</p> + +<p>“But I don’t always believe them!”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“So says that idiot Machine!”</p> + +<p>Dr. Jackson smiled.</p> + +<p>“Careful, Flora—even the walls have ears. Or so it is said.”</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>“What have you figured out?”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“We haven’t built a Machine that thinks like a man. Instead, +we’ve developed a generation of men that think like machines!”</p> + +<p>“What are you talking about?”</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“The Machine has its judgment circuits—”</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>Dr. Flora +Johns was staring through the windows of the tower to the glistening +city beyond. “If only you were right!” she whispered.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>Dr. +Jackson shook his head.</p> + +<p>“No. What we <i>have</i> 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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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!”</p> + +<p>“It sounds right,” Flora Johns whispered +again, and now her eyes were aglow. “It <i>has</i> to be right!”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IX"> + IX + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It +was time to be moving on.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He moved toward her resolutely.</p> + +<p>“You’re on your way?” she +asked.</p> + +<p>“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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“You think it could be that the Machine was right about us, after all?”</p> + +<p>“It might be wise not to be hasty in going against it,” Deva said.</p> + +<p>He +reached for her suddenly and gathered her into his arms and kissed her +long, and passionately.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” she said. “I think I could even learn to +like that. In time and with practice, darling.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div><div class="transnote"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Note"> + Transcriber’s Note: + </h2> + + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Obvious errors have been silently corrected in this version, but minor +inconsistencies have been retained as printed.</p> + +<p>The chapter heading <b>IX</b> has been added in this version.</p> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78681 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78681-h/images/cover.jpg b/78681-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9d1bdd --- /dev/null +++ b/78681-h/images/cover.jpg |
