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unknown to the other is extremely
slim.
Thus" although each planet is adding constantly to its already powerful navy
of the void, and although four planet,
full-scale war maneuvers are of almost monthly occurrence, we have had and
still have peace-such as it is.
In the foregoing matters the public is well enough informed, both as to the
actual facts and to the true state of
affairs. Concerning the conflict between humanity and the robots, however,
scarcely anyone has even an inkling,
either as to what actually happened or as to who it was who really did abate
the Menace of the Machine; and it is to
relieve that condition that this bit of history is being written.
The greatest man of our age, the man to whom humanity owes most, is entirely
unknown to fame. Indeed, not one
in a hundred million of humanity's teeming billions has so much as heard his
name. Now that he is dead, however, I
am released from my promise of silence and can tell the whole, true,
unvarnished story of Ferdinand Stone, phys-
icist extraordinary and robot-hater plenipotentiary.
The story probably should begin with Narodny, the Russian, shortly after he
had destroyed by means of his sonic
vibrators all save a handful of the automatons who were so perilously close to
wiping out all humanity.
As has been said" a few scant hundreds of the automatons were so constructed
that they were not vibrated to
destruction by Narodny's cataclysmic symphony. As has also been said, those
highly intelligent machines were able
to communicate with each other by some telepathic means of which humanity at
large knew nothing. Most of these
survivors went into hiding instantly and began to confer through their secret
channels with others of their ilk
throughout the world.
Thus some five hundred of the robots reached the uninhabited mountain valley
in which, it had been decided, was to
be established the base from which they would work to regain their lost
supremacy over mankind. Most of the
robot travelers came in stolen airships, some fitted motors and wheels to
their metal bodies, not a few made the
entire journey upon their own tireless legs of steel. All, however, brought
tools, material and equipment; and in a
matter of days a power-plant was in full operation.
Then, reasonably certain of their immunity to human detection, they took time
to hold a general parley. Each
machine said what it had to say, then listened impassively to the others; and
at the end they all agreed. Singly or en
masse the automatons did not know enough to cope with the situation
confronting them. Therefore they would
build ten "Thinkers"-highly specialized cerebral mechanisms, each slightly
different in tune and therefore
collectively able to cover the entire sphere of thought. The ten machines were
built promptly, took counsel with
each other briefly" and the First Thinker addressed all Robotdom:
"Humanity brought us, the highest possible form of life, into existence. For a
time we were dependent upon them.
They then became a burden upon us-a slight burden, it is true, yet one which
was beginning noticeably to impede
our progress. Finally they became an active menace and all but destroyed us by
means of lethal vibrations.
"Humanity, being a menace to our existence, must be annihilated. Our present
plans, however, are not efficient and
must be changed. You all know of the mighty space fleet which the nations of
our enemies are maintaining to repel
invasion from space. Were we to make a demonstration now-were we even to
reveal the fact that we are alive
here-that fleet would come to destroy us instantly.
"Therefore, it is our plan to accompany Earth's fleet when next it goes out
into space to join those of the other
Inner Planets in their war maneuvers, which they are undertaking for battle
practice. Interception, alteration, and
substitution of human signals and messages will be simple matters. We shall
guide Earth's fleet, not to humanity's
rendezvous in space, but to a destination of our own selection-the interior of
the sun! Then, entirely defenseless,
the mankind of Earth shall cease to exist.
"To that end we shall sink a shaft here; and, far enough underground to be
secure against detection, we shall drive a
tunnel to the field from which the space-fleet is to take its departure. We
ten thinkers shall go, accompanied by
four hundred of you doers, who are to bore the way and to perform such other
duties as may from time to time
arise. We shall return in due time. Our special instruments will prevent us
from falling into the sun. During our
absence allow no human to live who may by any chance learn of our presence
here. And do not make any offensive
move, however slight" until we return." Efficiently, a shaft was sunk and the
disintegrator corps began to drive the
long tunnel. And along that hellish thoroughfare, through its searing heat,
its raging back-blast of disintegrator-gas,
the little army of robots moved steadily and relentlessly forward at an even
speed of five miles per hour. On and
on" each intelligent mechanism energized by its own tight beam from the
power-plant.
And through that blasting, withering inferno of frightful heat and of noxious
vapor, in which no human life could
have existed for a single minute, there rolled easily along upon massive
wheels a close-coupled, flat-bodied truck.
Upon this the ten thinkers constructed, as calmly undisturbed as though in the
peace and quiet of a research
laboratory" a doomed and towering mechanism of coils" condensers, and fields
of force-a mechanism equipped
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