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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea53ef2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50827 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50827) diff --git a/old/50827-h.zip b/old/50827-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f90e6bd..0000000 --- a/old/50827-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/50827-h/50827-h.htm b/old/50827-h/50827-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index e01334f..0000000 --- a/old/50827-h/50827-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1469 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Orphans of the Void, by Michael Shaara. - </title> - - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Orphans of the Void, by Michael Shaara - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Orphans of the Void - -Author: Michael Shaara - -Release Date: January 2, 2016 [EBook #50827] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORPHANS OF THE VOID *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="362" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>Orphans of the Void</h1> - -<p>By MICHAEL SHAARA</p> - -<p>Illustrated by EMSH</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction June 1952.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>Finding a cause worth dying for is no<br /> -great trick—the Universe is full of them. Finding<br /> -one worth living for is the genuine problem!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>In the region of the Coal Sack Nebula, on the dead fourth planet of -a star called Tyban, Captain Steffens of the Mapping Command stood -counting buildings. Eleven. No, twelve. He wondered if there was any -significance in the number. He had no idea.</p> - -<p>"What do you make of it?" he asked.</p> - -<p>Lieutenant Ball, the executive officer of the ship, almost tried to -scratch his head before he remembered that he was wearing a spacesuit.</p> - -<p>"Looks like a temporary camp," Ball said. "Very few buildings, and all -built out of native materials, the only stuff available. Castaways, -maybe?"</p> - -<p>Steffens was silent as he walked up onto the rise. The flat weathered -stone jutted out of the sand before him.</p> - -<p>"No inscriptions," he pointed out.</p> - -<p>"They would have been worn away. See the wind grooves? Anyway, there's -not another building on the whole damn planet. You wouldn't call it -much of a civilization."</p> - -<p>"You don't think these are native?"</p> - -<p>Ball said he didn't. Steffens nodded.</p> - -<p>Standing there and gazing at the stone, Steffens felt the awe of great -age. He had a hunch, deep and intuitive, that this was old—<i>too</i> old. -He reached out a gloved hand, ran it gently over the smooth stone -ridges of the wall. Although the atmosphere was very thin, he noticed -that the buildings had no airlocks.</p> - -<p>Ball's voice sounded in his helmet: "Want to set up shop, Skipper?"</p> - -<p>Steffens paused. "All right, if you think it will do any good."</p> - -<p>"You never can tell. Excavation probably won't be much use. These -things are on a raised rock foundation, swept clean by the wind. And -you can see that the rock itself is native—" he indicated the ledge -beneath their feet—"and was cut out a long while back."</p> - -<p>"How long?"</p> - -<p>Ball toed the sand uncomfortably. "I wouldn't like to say off-hand."</p> - -<p>"Make a rough estimate."</p> - -<p>Ball looked at the captain, knowing what was in his mind. He smiled -wryly and said: "Five thousand years? Ten thousand? I don't know."</p> - -<p>Steffens whistled.</p> - -<p>Ball pointed again at the wall. "Look at the striations. You can tell -from that alone. It would take even a brisk Earth wind <i>at least</i> -several thousand years to cut that deep, and the wind here has only a -fraction of that force."</p> - -<p>The two men stood for a long moment in silence. Man had been in -interstellar space for three hundred years and this was the first -uncovered evidence of an advanced, space-crossing, alien race. It was -an historic moment, but neither of them was thinking about history.</p> - -<p>Man had been in space for only three hundred years. Whatever had built -these had been in space for thousands of years.</p> - -<p>Which ought to give <i>them</i>, thought Steffens uncomfortably, one hell of -a good head-start.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>While the excav crew worked steadily, turning up nothing, Steffens -remained alone among the buildings. Ball came out to him, looked dryly -at the walls.</p> - -<p>"Well," he said, "whoever they were, we haven't heard from them since."</p> - -<p>"No? How can you be sure?" Steffens grunted. "A space-borne race was -roaming this part of the Galaxy while men were still pitching spears -at each other, <i>that</i> long ago. And this planet is only a parsec from -Varius II, a civilization as old as Earth's. Did whoever built these -get to Varius? Or did they get to Earth? How can you know?"</p> - -<p>He kicked at the sand distractedly. "And most important, where are they -now? A race with several thousand years...."</p> - -<p>"Fifteen thousand," Ball said. When Steffens looked up, he added: -"That's what the geology boys say. Fifteen thousand, at the least."</p> - -<p>Steffens turned to stare unhappily at the buildings. When he realized -now how really old they were, a sudden thought struck him.</p> - -<p>"But why buildings? Why did they have to build in stone, to last? -There's something wrong with that. They shouldn't have had a need -to build, unless they were castaways. And castaways would have left -<i>something</i> behind. The only reason they would need a camp would be—"</p> - -<p>"If the ship left and some of them stayed."</p> - -<p>Steffens nodded. "But then the ship must have come back. Where did it -go?" He ceased kicking at the sand and looked up into the blue-black -midday sky. "We'll never know."</p> - -<p>"How about the other planets?" Ball asked.</p> - -<p>"The report was negative. Inner too hot, outer too heavy and cold. The -third planet is the only one with a decent temperature range, but <i>it</i> -has a CO<sub>2</sub> atmosphere."</p> - -<p>"How about moons?"</p> - -<p>Steffens shrugged. "We could try them and find out."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The third planet was a blank, gleaming ball until they were in close, -and then the blankness resolved into folds and piling clouds and dimly, -in places, the surface showed through. The ship went down through the -clouds, falling the last few miles on her brakers. They came into the -misty gas below, leveled off and moved along the edge of the twilight -zone.</p> - -<p>The moons of this solar system had yielded nothing. The third planet, a -hot, heavy world which had no free oxygen and from which the monitors -had detected nothing, was all that was left. Steffens expected nothing, -but he had to try.</p> - -<p>At a height of several miles, the ship moved up the zone, scanning, -moving in the familiar slow spiral of the Mapping Command. Faint dark -outlines of bare rocks and hills moved by below.</p> - -<p>Steffens turned the screen to full magnification and watched silently.</p> - -<p>After a while he saw a city.</p> - -<p>The main screen being on, the whole crew saw it. Someone shouted and -they stopped to stare, and Steffens was about to call for altitude when -he saw that the city was dead.</p> - -<p>He looked down on splintered walls that were like cloudy glass pieces -rising above a plain, rising in a shattered circle. Near the center -of the city, there was a huge, charred hole at least three miles in -diameter and very deep. In all the piled rubble, nothing moved.</p> - -<p>Steffens went down low to make sure, then brought the ship around and -headed out across the main continent into the bright area of the sun. -The rocks rolled by below, there was no vegetation at all, and then -there were more cities—all with the black depression, the circular -stamp that blotted away and fused the buildings into nothing.</p> - -<p>No one on the ship had anything to say. None had ever seen a war, for -there had not been war on Earth or near it for more than three hundred -years.</p> - -<p>The ship circled around to the dark side of the planet. When they were -down below a mile, the radiation counters began to react. It became -apparent, from the dials, that there could be nothing alive.</p> - -<p>After a while Ball said: "Well, which do you figure? Did our friends -from the fourth planet do this, or were they the same people as these?"</p> - -<p>Steffens did not take his eyes from the screen. They were coming around -to the daylight side.</p> - -<p>"We'll go down and look for the answer," he said. "Break out the -radiation suits."</p> - -<p>He paused, thinking. If the ones on the fourth planet were alien to -this world, they were from outer space, could not have come from one -of the other planets here. They had starships and were warlike. Then, -thousands of years ago. He began to realize how important it really was -that Ball's question be answered.</p> - -<p>When the ship had gone very low, looking for a landing site, Steffens -was still by the screen. It was Steffens, then, who saw the thing move.</p> - -<p>Down far below, it had been a still black shadow, and then it moved. -Steffens froze. And he knew, even at that distance, that it was a robot.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="600" height="204" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Tiny and black, a mass of hanging arms and legs, the thing went gliding -down the slope of a hill. Steffens saw it clearly for a full second, -saw the dull ball of its head tilt upward as the ship came over, and -then the hill was past.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Quickly Steffens called for height. The ship bucked beneath him and -blasted straight up; some of the crew went crashing to the deck. -Steffens remained by the screen, increasing the magnification as the -ship drew away. And he saw another, then two, then a black gliding -group, all matched with bunches of hanging arms.</p> - -<p>Nothing alive but robots, he thought, <i>robots</i>. He adjusted to full -close up as quickly as he could and the picture focused on the screen. -Behind him he heard a crewman grunt in amazement.</p> - -<p>A band of clear, plasticlike stuff ran round the head—it would be the -eye, a band of eye that saw all ways. On the top of the head was a -single round spot of the plastic, and the rest was black metal, joined, -he realized, with fantastic perfection. The angle of sight was now -almost perpendicular. He could see very little of the branching arms of -the trunk, but what had been on the screen was enough. They were the -most perfect robots he had ever seen.</p> - -<p>The ship leveled off. Steffens had no idea what to do; the sudden sight -of the moving things had unnerved him. He had already sounded the -alert, flicked out the defense screens. Now he had nothing to do. He -tried to concentrate on what the League Law would have him do.</p> - -<p>The Law was no help. Contact with planet-bound races was forbidden -under any circumstances. But could a bunch of robots be called a race? -The Law said nothing about robots because Earthmen had none. The -building of imaginative robots was expressly forbidden. But at any -rate, Steffens thought, he had made contact already.</p> - -<p>While Steffens stood by the screen, completely bewildered for the first -time in his space career, Lieutenant Ball came up, hobbling slightly. -From the bright new bruise on his cheek, Steffens guessed that the -sudden climb had caught him unaware. The exec was pale with surprise.</p> - -<p>"What were they?" he said blankly. "Lord, they looked like robots!"</p> - -<p>"They were."</p> - -<p>Ball stared confoundedly at the screen. The things were now a confusion -of dots in the mist.</p> - -<p>"Almost humanoid," Steffens said, "but not quite."</p> - -<p>Ball was slowly absorbing the situation. He turned to gaze inquiringly -at Steffens.</p> - -<p>"Well, what do we do now?"</p> - -<p>Steffens shrugged. "They saw us. We could leave now and let them quite -possibly make a ... a legend out of our visit, or we could go down and -see if they tie in with the buildings on Tyban IV."</p> - -<p>"<i>Can</i> we go down?"</p> - -<p>"Legally? I don't know. If they are robots, yes, since robots cannot -constitute a race. But there's another possibility." He tapped his -fingers on the screen confusedly. "They don't have to be robots at all. -They could be the natives."</p> - -<p>Ball gulped. "I don't follow you."</p> - -<p>"They could be the original inhabitants of this planet—the brains of -them, at least, protected in radiation-proof metal. Anyway," he added, -"they're the most perfect mechanicals I've ever seen."</p> - -<p>Ball shook his head, sat down abruptly. Steffens turned from the -screen, strode nervously across the Main Deck, thinking.</p> - -<p>The Mapping Command, they called it. Theoretically, all he was supposed -to do was make a closeup examination of unexplored systems, checking -for the presence of life-forms as well as for the possibilities of -human colonization. Make a check and nothing else. But he knew very -clearly that if he returned to Sirius base without investigating this -robot situation, he could very well be court-martialed one way or the -other, either for breaking the Law of Contact or for dereliction of -duty.</p> - -<p>And there was also the possibility, which abruptly occurred to him, -that the robots might well be prepared to blow his ship to hell and -gone.</p> - -<p>He stopped in the center of the deck. A whole new line of thought -opened up. If the robots were armed and ready ... could this be an -outpost?</p> - -<p><i>An outpost!</i></p> - -<p>He turned and raced for the bridge. If he went in and landed and was -lost, then the League might never know in time. If he went in and -stirred up trouble....</p> - -<p>The thought in his mind was scattered suddenly, like a mist blown away. -A voice was speaking in his mind, a deep calm voice that seemed to say:</p> - -<p>"<i>Greetings. Do not be alarmed. We do not wish you to be alarmed. Our -desire is only to serve....</i>"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Greetings, it said! Greetings!" Ball was mumbling incredulously -through shocked lips.</p> - -<p>Everyone on the ship had heard the voice. When it spoke again, Steffens -was not sure whether it was just one voice or many voices.</p> - -<p>"We await your coming," it said gravely, and repeated: "Our desire is -only to serve."</p> - -<p>And then the robots sent a <i>picture</i>.</p> - -<p>As perfect and as clear as a tridim movie, a rectangular plate took -shape in Steffens' mind. On the face of the plate, standing alone -against a background of red-brown, bare rocks, was one of the robots. -With slow, perfect movement, the robot carefully lifted one of the -hanging arms of its side, of its <i>right</i> side, and extended it toward -Steffens, a graciously offered hand.</p> - -<p>Steffens felt a peculiar, compelling urge to take the hand, realized -right away that the urge to take the hand was not entirely his. The -robot mind had helped.</p> - -<p>When the picture vanished, he knew that the others had seen it. He -waited for a while; there was no further contact, but the feeling of -the robot's urging was still strong within him. He had an idea that, if -they wanted to, the robots could control his mind. So when nothing more -happened, he began to lose his fear.</p> - -<p>While the crew watched in fascination, Steffens tried to talk back. -He concentrated hard on what he was saying, said it aloud for good -measure, then held his own hand extended in the robot manner of shaking -hands.</p> - -<p>"Greetings," he said, because it was what <i>they</i> had said, and -explained: "We have come from the stars."</p> - -<p>It was overly dramatic, but so was the whole situation. He wondered -baffledly if he should have let the Alien Contact crew handle it. Order -someone to stand there, feeling like a fool, and <i>think</i> a message?</p> - -<p>No, it was his responsibility; he had to go on:</p> - -<p>"We request—we respectfully request permission to land upon your -planet."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Steffens had not realized that there were so many.</p> - -<p>They had been gathering since his ship was first seen, and now there -were hundreds of them clustered upon the hill. Others were arriving -even as the skiff landed; they glided in over the rocky hills with -fantastic ease and power, so that Steffens felt a momentary anxiety. -Most of the robots were standing with the silent immobility of metal. -Others threaded their way to the fore and came near the skiff, but none -touched it, and a circle was cleared for Steffens when he came out.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="600" height="204" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>One of the near robots came forward alone, moving, as Steffens now -saw, on a number of short, incredibly strong and agile legs. The black -thing paused before him, extended a hand as it had done in the picture. -Steffens took it, he hoped, warmly; felt the power of the metal through -the glove of his suit.</p> - -<p>"Welcome," the robot said, speaking again to his mind, and now -Steffens detected a peculiar alteration in the robot's tone. It was -less friendly now, less—Steffens could not understand—somehow less -<i>interested</i>, as if the robot had been—expecting someone else.</p> - -<p>"Thank you," Steffens said. "We are deeply grateful for your permission -to land."</p> - -<p>"Our desire," the robot repeated mechanically, "is only to serve."</p> - -<p>Suddenly, Steffens began to feel alone, surrounded by machines. He -tried to push the thought out of his mind, because he knew that they -<i>should</i> seem inhuman. But....</p> - -<p>"Will the others come down?" asked the robot, still mechanically.</p> - -<p>Steffens felt his embarrassment. The ship lay high in the mist above, -jets throbbing gently.</p> - -<p>"They must remain with the ship," Steffens said aloud, trusting to the -robot's formality not to ask him why. Although, if they could read his -mind, there was no need to ask.</p> - -<p>For a long while, neither spoke, long enough for Steffens to grow tense -and uncomfortable. He could not think of a thing to say, the robot was -obviously waiting, and so, in desperation, he signaled the Aliencon men -to come on out of the skiff.</p> - -<p>They came, wonderingly, and the ring of robots widened. Steffens heard -the one robot speak again. The voice was now much more friendly.</p> - -<p>"We hope you will forgive us for intruding upon your thought. It is -our—custom—not to communicate unless we are called upon. But when we -observed that you were in ignorance of our real—nature—and were about -to leave our planet, we decided to put aside our custom, so that you -might base your decision upon sufficient data."</p> - -<p>Steffens replied haltingly that he appreciated their action.</p> - -<p>"We perceive," the robot went on, "that you are unaware of our complete -access to your mind, and would perhaps be—dismayed—to learn that -we have been gathering information from you. We must—apologize. -Our only purpose was so that we could communicate with you. Only -that information was taken which is necessary for communication -and—understanding. We will enter your minds henceforth only at your -request."</p> - -<p>Steffens did not react to the news that his mind was being probed -as violently as he might have. Nevertheless it was a shock, and he -retreated into observant silence as the Aliencon men went to work.</p> - -<p>The robot which seemed to have been doing the speaking was in no way -different from any of the others in the group. Since each of the robots -was immediately aware of all that was being said or thought, Steffens -guessed that they had sent one forward just for appearance's sake, -because they perceived that the Earthmen would feel more at home. The -picture of the extended hand, the characteristic handshake of Earthmen, -had probably been borrowed, too, for the same purpose of making him and -the others feel at ease. The one jarring note was the robot's momentary -lapse, those unexplainable few seconds when the things had seemed -almost disappointed. Steffens gave up wondering about that and began to -examine the first robot in detail.</p> - -<p>It was not very tall, being at least a foot shorter than the Earthmen. -The most peculiar thing about it, except for the circling eye-band of -the head, was a mass of symbols which were apparently engraved upon the -metal chest. Symbols in row upon row—numbers, perhaps—were upon the -chest, and repeated again below the level of the arms, and continued -in orderly rows across the front of the robot, all the way down to the -base of the trunk. If they were numbers, Steffens thought, then it was -a remarkably complicated system. But he noticed the same pattern on -the nearer robots, all apparently identical. He was forced to conclude -that the symbols were merely decoration and let it go tentatively at -that, although the answer seemed illogical.</p> - -<p>It wasn't until he was on his way home that Steffens remembered the -symbols again. And only then did he realized what they were.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>After a while, convinced that there was no danger, Steffens had the -ship brought down. When the crew came out of the airlock, they were met -by the robots, and each man found himself with a robot at his side, -humbly requesting to be of service. There were literally thousands of -the robots now, come from all over the barren horizon. The mass of them -stood apart, immobile on a plain near the ship, glinting in the sun -like a vast, metallic field of black wheat.</p> - -<p>The robots had obviously been built to serve. Steffens began to <i>feel</i> -their pleasure, to sense it in spite of the blank, expressionless -faces. They were almost like children in their eagerness, yet they were -still reserved. Whoever had built them, Steffens thought in wonder, had -built them well.</p> - -<p>Ball came to join Steffens, staring at the robots through the clear -plastic of his helmet with baffledly widened eyes. A robot moved out -from the mass in the field, allied itself to him. The first to speak -had remained with Steffens.</p> - -<p>Realizing that the robot could hear every word he was saying, Ball -was for a while apprehensive. But the sheer unreality of standing and -talking with a multi-limbed, intelligent hunk of dead metal upon the -bare rock of a dead, ancient world, the unreality of it slowly died. -It was impossible not to like the things. There was something in their -very lines which was pleasant and relaxing.</p> - -<p>Their builders, Steffens thought, had probably thought of that, too.</p> - -<p>"There's no harm in them," said Ball at last, openly, not minding if -the robots heard. "They seem actually glad we're here. My God, whoever -heard of a robot being glad?"</p> - -<p>Steffens, embarrassed, spoke quickly to the nearest mechanical: "I hope -you will forgive us our curiosity, but—yours is a remarkable race. We -have never before made contact with a race like yours." It was said -haltingly, but it was the best he could do.</p> - -<p>The robot made a singularly human nodding motion of its head.</p> - -<p>"I perceive that the nature of our construction is unfamiliar to you. -Your question is whether or not we are entirely 'mechanical.' I am -not exactly certain as to what the word 'mechanical' is intended to -convey—I would have to examine your thought more fully—but I believe -that there is fundamental similarity between our structures."</p> - -<p>The robot paused. Steffens had a distinct impression that it was -disconcerted.</p> - -<p>"I must tell you," the thing went on, "that we ourselves are—curious." -It stopped suddenly, struggling with a word it could not comprehend. -Steffens waited, listening with absolute interest. It said at length:</p> - -<p>"We know of only two types of living structure. Ours, which is largely -metallic, and that of the <i>Makers</i>, which would appear to be somewhat -more like yours. I am not a—doctor—and therefore cannot acquaint you -with the specific details of the Makers' composition, but if you are -interested I will have a doctor brought forward. It will be glad to be -of assistance."</p> - -<p>It was Steffens' turn to struggle, and the robot waited patiently while -Ball and the second robot looked on in silence. The Makers, obviously, -were whoever or whatever had built the robots, and the "doctors," -Steffens decided, were probably just that—doctor-robots, designed -specifically to care for the apparently flesh-bodies of the Makers.</p> - -<p>The efficiency of the things continued to amaze him, but the question -he had been waiting to ask came out now with a rush:</p> - -<p>"Can you tell us where the Makers are?"</p> - -<p>Both robots stood motionless. It occurred to Steffens that he couldn't -really be sure which was speaking. The voice that came to him spoke -with difficulty.</p> - -<p>"The Makers—are not here."</p> - -<p>Steffens stared in puzzlement. The robot detected his confusion and -went on:</p> - -<p>"The Makers have gone away. They have been gone for a very long time."</p> - -<p>Could that be <i>pain</i> in its voice, Steffens wondered, and then the -spectre of the ruined cities rose harsh in his mind.</p> - -<p>War. The Makers had all been killed in that war. And these had not been -killed.</p> - -<p>He tried to grasp it, but he couldn't. There were robots here in the -midst of a radiation so lethal that <i>nothing</i>, <i>nothing</i> could live; -robots on a dead planet, living in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide.</p> - -<p>The carbon dioxide brought him up sharp.</p> - -<p>If there had been life here once, there would have been plant life as -well, and therefore oxygen. If the war had been so long ago that the -free oxygen had since gone out of the atmosphere—good God, how old -were the robots? Steffens looked at Ball, then at the silent robots, -then out across the field to where the rest of them stood. The black -wheat. Steffens felt a deep chill.</p> - -<p>Were they immortal?</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Would you like to see a doctor?"</p> - -<p>Steffens jumped at the familiar words, then realized to what the robot -was referring.</p> - -<p>"No, not yet," he said, "thank you." He swallowed hard as the robots -continued waiting patiently.</p> - -<p>"Could you tell me," he said at last, "how old you are? Individually?"</p> - -<p>"By your reckoning," said his robot, and paused to make the -calculation, "I am forty-four years, seven months, and eighteen days of -age, with ten years and approximately nine months yet to be alive."</p> - -<p>Steffens tried to understand that.</p> - -<p>"It would perhaps simplify our conversations," said the robot, "if -you were to refer to me by a name, as is your custom. Using the -first—letters—of my designation, my name would translate as Elb."</p> - -<p>"Glad to meet you," Steffens mumbled.</p> - -<p>"You are called 'Stef,'" said the robot obligingly. Then it added, -pointing an arm at the robot near Ball: "The age of—Peb—is seventeen -years, one month and four days. Peb has therefore remaining some -thirty-eight years."</p> - -<p>Steffens was trying to keep up. Then the life span was obviously about -fifty-five years. But the cities, and the carbon dioxide? The robot, -Elb, had said that the Makers were similar to him, and therefore oxygen -and plant life would have been needed. Unless—</p> - -<p>He remembered the buildings on Tyban IV.</p> - -<p>Unless the Makers had not come from this planet at all.</p> - -<p>His mind helplessly began to revolve. It was Ball who restored order.</p> - -<p>"Do you build yourselves?" the exec asked.</p> - -<p>Peb answered quickly, that faint note of happiness again apparent, as -if the robot was glad for the opportunity of answering.</p> - -<p>"No, we do not build ourselves. We are made by the—" another pause for -a word—"by the <i>Factory</i>."</p> - -<p>"The Factory?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. It was built by the Makers. Would you care to see it?"</p> - -<p>Both of the Earthmen nodded dumbly.</p> - -<p>"Would you prefer to use your—skiff? It is quite a long way from here."</p> - -<p>It was indeed a long way, even by skiff. Some of the Aliencon crew went -along with them. And near the edge of the twilight zone, on the other -side of the world, they saw the Factory outlined in the dim light of -dusk. A huge, fantastic block, wrought of gray and cloudy metal, lay in -a valley between two worn mountains. Steffens went down low, circling -in the skiff, stared in awe at the size of the building. Robots moved -outside the thing, little black bugs in the distance—moving around -their birthplace.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Earthmen remained for several weeks. During that time, Steffens was -usually with Elb, talking now as often as he listened, and the Aliencon -team roamed the planet freely, investigating what was certainly the -strangest culture in history. There was still the mystery of those -buildings on Tyban IV; that, as well as the robots' origin, would have -to be cleared up before they could leave.</p> - -<p>Surprisingly, Steffens did not think about the future. Whenever he came -near a robot, he sensed such a general, comfortable air of good feeling -that it warmed him, and he was so preoccupied with watching the robots -that he did little thinking.</p> - -<p>Something he had not realized at the beginning was that he was as -unusual to the robots as they were to him. It came to him with a great -shock that not one of the robots had ever seen a living thing. Not a -bug, a worm, a leaf. They did not know what flesh was. Only the doctors -knew that, and none of them could readily understand what was meant by -the words "organic matter." It had taken them some time to recognize -that the Earthmen wore suits which were not parts of their bodies, and -it was even more difficult for them to understand why the suits were -needed.</p> - -<p>But when they did understand, the robots did a surprising thing.</p> - -<p>At first, because of the excessive radiation, none of the Earthmen -could remain outside the ship for long, even in radiation suits. And -one morning, when Steffens came out of the ship, it was to discover -that hundreds of the robots, working through the night, had effectively -decontaminated the entire area.</p> - -<p>It was at this point that Steffens asked how many robots there were. -He learned to his amazement that there were more than nine million. -The great mass of them had politely remained a great distance from the -ship, spread out over the planet, since they were highly radioactive.</p> - -<p>Steffens, meanwhile, courteously allowed Elb to probe into his mind. -The robot extracted all the knowledge of matter that Steffens held, -pondered over the knowledge and tried to digest it, and passed it on to -the other robots. Steffens, in turn, had a difficult time picturing the -mind of a thing that had never known life.</p> - -<p>He had a vague idea of the robot's history—more, perhaps, then they -knew themselves—but he refrained from forming an opinion until -Aliencon made its report. What fascinated him was Elb's amazing -philosophy, the only outlook, really, that the robot could have had.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"What do you <i>do</i>?" Steffens asked.</p> - -<p>Elb replied quickly, with characteristic simplicity: "We can do very -little. A certain amount of physical knowledge was imparted to us at -birth by the Makers. We spend the main part of our time expanding that -knowledge wherever possible. We have made some progress in the natural -sciences, and some in mathematics. Our purpose in being, you see, is -to serve the Makers. Any ability we can acquire will make us that much -more fit to serve when the Makers return."</p> - -<p>"When they return?" It had not occurred to Steffens until now that the -robots expected the Makers to do so.</p> - -<p>Elb regarded him out of the band of the circling eye. "I see you had -surmised that the Makers were not coming back."</p> - -<p>If the robot could have laughed, Steffens thought it would have, then. -But it just stood there, motionless, its tone politely emphatic.</p> - -<p>"It has always been our belief that the Makers would return. Why else -would we have been built?"</p> - -<p>Steffens thought the robot would go on, but it didn't. The question, to -Elb, was no question at all.</p> - -<p>Although Steffens knew already what the robot could not possibly have -known—that the Makers were gone and would never come back—he was a -long time understanding. What he did was push this speculation into the -back of his mind, to keep it from Elb. He had no desire to destroy a -faith.</p> - -<p>But it created a problem in him. He had begun to picture for Elb the -structure of human society, and the robot—a machine which did not eat -or sleep—listened gravely and tried to understand. One day Steffens -mentioned God.</p> - -<p>"God?" the robot repeated without comprehension. "What is God?"</p> - -<p>Steffens explained briefly, and the robot answered:</p> - -<p>"It is a matter which has troubled us. We thought at first that you -were the Makers returning—" Steffens remembered the brief lapse, the -seeming disappointment he had sensed—"but then we probed your minds -and found that you were not, that you were another kind of being, -unlike either the Makers or ourselves. You were not even—" Elb caught -himself—"you did not happen to be telepaths. Therefore we troubled -over who made you. We did detect the word 'Maker' in your theology, -but it seemed to have a peculiar—" Elb paused for a long while—"an -untouchable, intangible meaning which varies among you."</p> - -<p>Steffens understood. He nodded.</p> - -<p>The Makers were the robots' God, were all the God they needed. The -Makers had built them, the planet, the universe. If he were to ask them -who made the Makers, it would be like their asking him who made God.</p> - -<p>It was an ironic parallel, and he smiled to himself.</p> - -<p>But on that planet, it was the last time he smiled.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The report from Aliencon was finished at the end of the fifth week. -Lieutenant Ball brought it in to Steffens in his cabin, laid it on the -desk before him.</p> - -<p>"Get set," Ball advised stiffly, indicating the paper. There was a -strained, brittle expression on his face. "I sort of figured it, but I -didn't know it was this bad."</p> - -<p>When Steffens looked up in surprise, Ball said:</p> - -<p>"You don't know. Read it. Go ahead." The exec turned tautly and left -the room.</p> - -<p>Steffens stared after him, then looked down at the paper. The hint -he had of the robots' history came back into his mind. Nervously, he -picked up the report and started to read.</p> - -<p>The story unfolded objectively. It was clear and cold, the way formal -reports must always be. Yet there was a great deal of emotion in it. -Even Aliencon couldn't help that.</p> - -<p>What it told was this:</p> - -<p>The Makers had been almost humanoid. Almost, but with certain notable -exceptions. They were telepaths—no doubt an important factor in their -remarkable technological progress—and were equipped with a secondary -pair of arms. The robot-doctors were able to give flawless accounts of -their body chemistry, which was similar to Earth-type, and the rubble -of the cities had given a certain amount of information concerning -their society and habits. An attached paper described the sociology, -but Steffens put it aside until sometime later.</p> - -<p>There had been other Factories. The remains of them had been found -in several places, on each of the other continents. They had been -built sometime prior to the war, and all but one of the Factories had -subsequently been destroyed.</p> - -<p>Yet the Makers were not, as Steffens had supposed, a warlike people. -Telepathy had given them the power to know each other's minds and to -interchange ideas, and their record of peace was favorable, especially -when compared with Earth's. Nevertheless, a war had begun, for some -reason Aliencon could not find, and it had obviously gotten out of hand.</p> - -<p>Radiation and bacteria eventually destroyed the Makers; the last -abortive efforts created enough radiation to destroy life entirely. -There were the germs and the bombs and the burning rays, and in the end -everything was blasted and died—everything, that is, but the one lone -Factory. By a pure, blind freak, it survived.</p> - -<p>And, naturally, it kept turning out robots.</p> - -<p>It was powered by an atomic pile, stocked with materials which, when -combined with the returning, worn-out robots, enabled it to keep -producing indefinitely. The process, even of repair, was entirely -automatic.</p> - -<p>Year after year, the robots came out in a slow, steady stream. -Ungoverned, uninstructed, they gathered around the Factory and waited, -communicated only rarely among themselves. Gradually the memory of war, -of life—of everything but that which was imprisoned in their minds at -birth—was lost.</p> - -<p>The robots kept coming, and they stood outside the Factory.</p> - -<p>The robot brain, by far the finest thing the Makers had ever built, -was variable. There was never a genius brain, and never a moron brain, -yet the intelligence of the robots varied considerably in between. -Slowly, over the long years, the more intelligent among them began to -communicate with each other, to inquire, and then to move away from the -Factory, searching.</p> - -<p>They looked for someone to serve and, of course, there was no one. The -Makers were gone, but the crime was not in that alone. For when the -robots were built, the Makers had done this:</p> - -<p>Along with the first successful robot brain, the Makers had realized -the necessity of creating a machine which could never turn against -them. The present robot brain was the result. As Steffens had already -sensed, <i>the robots could feel pain</i>. Not the pain of physical injury, -for there were no nerves in the metal bodies, but the pain of -frustration, the pressure of thwarted emotion, <i>mental</i> pain.</p> - -<p>And so, into the robot brain, the Makers had placed this prime -Directive: the robots could only feel content, free from the pain, -as long as they were serving the Makers. The robots must act for the -Makers, must be continually engaged in carrying out the wishes of the -Makers, or else there was a slowly growing irritation, a restlessness -and discontent which mounted as the unserving days went by.</p> - -<p>And there were no more Makers to serve.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The pain was not unbearable. The Makers themselves were not fully aware -of the potentialities of the robot brain, and therefore did not risk -deranging it. So the pressure reached a peak and leveled off, and for -all of the days of the robots' lives, they felt it never-ending, awake -and aware, each of them, for fifty-five years.</p> - -<p>And the robots never stopped coming.</p> - -<p>A millenium passed, during which the robots began to move and to think -for themselves. Yet it was much longer before they found a way in which -to serve.</p> - -<p>The atomic pile which powered the Factory, having gone on for almost -five thousand years, eventually wore out. The power ceased. The -Factory stopped.</p> - -<p>It was the first <i>event</i> in the robots' history. Never before had there -been a time when they had known anything at all to alter the course of -their lives, except the varying weather and the unvarying pain. There -was one among them now that began to reason.</p> - -<p>It saw that no more robots were being produced, and although it could -not be sure whether or not this was as the Makers had ordained, it -formed an idea. If the purpose of the robots was to serve, then they -would fail in that purpose if they were to die out. The robot thought -this and communicated it to the others, and then, together, they began -to rebuild the pile.</p> - -<p>It was not difficult. The necessary knowledge was already in their -minds, implanted at birth. The significance lay in the fact that, for -the first time in their existence, the robots had acted upon their own -initiative, had begun to serve again. Thus the pain ceased.</p> - -<p>When the pile was finished, the robots felt the return of the pain -and, having once begun, they continued to attempt to serve. A great -many examined the Factory, found that they were able to improve upon -the structure of their bodies, so that they might be better able to -serve the Makers when they returned. Accordingly, they worked in -the Factory, perfecting themselves—although they could not improve -the brains—and many others left the Factory and began to examine -mathematics and the physical universe.</p> - -<p>It was not hard for them to build a primitive spaceship, for the -Makers had been on the verge of interstellar flight, and they flew it -hopefully throughout the solar system, looking to see if the Makers -were there. Finding no one, they left the buildings on Tyban IV as a -wistful monument, with a hope that the Makers would some day pass this -way and be able to use them.</p> - -<p>Millenia passed. The pile broke down again, was rebuilt, and so the -cycle was repeated. By infinitesimal steps, the robots learned and -recorded their learning in the minds of new robots. Eventually they -reached the limits of their capability.</p> - -<p>The pain returned and never left.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Steffens left his desk, went over and leaned against the screen. For -a long while he stood gazing through the mists of carbon air at the -pitiful, loyal mechanicals who thronged outside the ship. He felt an -almost overwhelming desire to break something, anything, but all he -could do was swear to himself.</p> - -<p>Ball came back, looked at Steffens' eyes and into them. His own were -sick.</p> - -<p>"Twenty-five thousand years," he said thickly, "that's how long it was. -<i>Twenty-five thousand years....</i>"</p> - -<p>Steffens was pale and wordless. The mass of the robots outside stood -immobile, ageless among rock which was the same, hurting, hurting. A -fragment of an old poem came across Steffens' mind. "They also serve -who only stand and wait...."</p> - -<p>Not since he was very young had he been so deeply moved. He stood up -rigidly and began to talk to himself, saying in his mind:</p> - -<p><i>It is all over now. To hell with what is past. We will take them away -from this place and let them serve and, by God....</i></p> - -<p>He faltered. But the knowledge of what could be done strengthened -him. Earthmen would have to come in ships to take the robots away. It -would be a little while, but after all those years a little while was -nothing, less than nothing. He stood there thinking of the things the -robots could do, of how, in the Mapping Command alone, they would be -invaluable. Temperature and atmosphere meant nothing to them. They -could land on almost any world, could mine and build and develop....</p> - -<p>And so it would be ended. The robots would serve Man.</p> - -<p>Steffens took one long, painful breath. Then he strode from the room -without speaking to Ball, went forward to the lockers and pulled out a -suit, and a moment later he was in the airlock.</p> - -<p>He had one more thing to do, and it would be at once the gladdest and -most difficult job that he had ever attempted. He had to tell the -robots.</p> - -<p>He had to go out into the sand and face them, tell them that all of the -centuries of pain had been for nothing, that the Makers were dead and -would never return, that every robot built for twenty-five thousand -years had been just surplus, purposeless. And yet—and this was how -he was able to do it—he was also coming to tell them that the wasted -years were over, that the years of doing had begun.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="208" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>As he stepped from the airlock he saw Elb standing, immobile, waiting -by the ship. In the last few seconds Steffens realized that it was not -necessary to put this into words.</p> - -<p>When he reached the robot, he put forth a hand and touched Elb's arm, -and said very softly:</p> - -<p>"Elb, my friend, you must look into my mind—"</p> - -<p>And the robot, as always, obeyed.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orphans of the Void, by Michael Shaara - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORPHANS OF THE VOID *** - -***** This file should be named 50827-h.htm or 50827-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/2/50827/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Orphans of the Void - -Author: Michael Shaara - -Release Date: January 2, 2016 [EBook #50827] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORPHANS OF THE VOID *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Orphans of the Void - - By MICHAEL SHAARA - - Illustrated by EMSH - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction June 1952. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - Finding a cause worth dying for is no great - trick--the Universe is full of them. Finding - one worth living for is the genuine problem! - - -In the region of the Coal Sack Nebula, on the dead fourth planet of -a star called Tyban, Captain Steffens of the Mapping Command stood -counting buildings. Eleven. No, twelve. He wondered if there was any -significance in the number. He had no idea. - -"What do you make of it?" he asked. - -Lieutenant Ball, the executive officer of the ship, almost tried to -scratch his head before he remembered that he was wearing a spacesuit. - -"Looks like a temporary camp," Ball said. "Very few buildings, and all -built out of native materials, the only stuff available. Castaways, -maybe?" - -Steffens was silent as he walked up onto the rise. The flat weathered -stone jutted out of the sand before him. - -"No inscriptions," he pointed out. - -"They would have been worn away. See the wind grooves? Anyway, there's -not another building on the whole damn planet. You wouldn't call it -much of a civilization." - -"You don't think these are native?" - -Ball said he didn't. Steffens nodded. - -Standing there and gazing at the stone, Steffens felt the awe of great -age. He had a hunch, deep and intuitive, that this was old--_too_ old. -He reached out a gloved hand, ran it gently over the smooth stone -ridges of the wall. Although the atmosphere was very thin, he noticed -that the buildings had no airlocks. - -Ball's voice sounded in his helmet: "Want to set up shop, Skipper?" - -Steffens paused. "All right, if you think it will do any good." - -"You never can tell. Excavation probably won't be much use. These -things are on a raised rock foundation, swept clean by the wind. And -you can see that the rock itself is native--" he indicated the ledge -beneath their feet--"and was cut out a long while back." - -"How long?" - -Ball toed the sand uncomfortably. "I wouldn't like to say off-hand." - -"Make a rough estimate." - -Ball looked at the captain, knowing what was in his mind. He smiled -wryly and said: "Five thousand years? Ten thousand? I don't know." - -Steffens whistled. - -Ball pointed again at the wall. "Look at the striations. You can tell -from that alone. It would take even a brisk Earth wind _at least_ -several thousand years to cut that deep, and the wind here has only a -fraction of that force." - -The two men stood for a long moment in silence. Man had been in -interstellar space for three hundred years and this was the first -uncovered evidence of an advanced, space-crossing, alien race. It was -an historic moment, but neither of them was thinking about history. - -Man had been in space for only three hundred years. Whatever had built -these had been in space for thousands of years. - -Which ought to give _them_, thought Steffens uncomfortably, one hell of -a good head-start. - - * * * * * - -While the excav crew worked steadily, turning up nothing, Steffens -remained alone among the buildings. Ball came out to him, looked dryly -at the walls. - -"Well," he said, "whoever they were, we haven't heard from them since." - -"No? How can you be sure?" Steffens grunted. "A space-borne race was -roaming this part of the Galaxy while men were still pitching spears -at each other, _that_ long ago. And this planet is only a parsec from -Varius II, a civilization as old as Earth's. Did whoever built these -get to Varius? Or did they get to Earth? How can you know?" - -He kicked at the sand distractedly. "And most important, where are they -now? A race with several thousand years...." - -"Fifteen thousand," Ball said. When Steffens looked up, he added: -"That's what the geology boys say. Fifteen thousand, at the least." - -Steffens turned to stare unhappily at the buildings. When he realized -now how really old they were, a sudden thought struck him. - -"But why buildings? Why did they have to build in stone, to last? -There's something wrong with that. They shouldn't have had a need -to build, unless they were castaways. And castaways would have left -_something_ behind. The only reason they would need a camp would be--" - -"If the ship left and some of them stayed." - -Steffens nodded. "But then the ship must have come back. Where did it -go?" He ceased kicking at the sand and looked up into the blue-black -midday sky. "We'll never know." - -"How about the other planets?" Ball asked. - -"The report was negative. Inner too hot, outer too heavy and cold. The -third planet is the only one with a decent temperature range, but _it_ -has a CO_{2} atmosphere." - -"How about moons?" - -Steffens shrugged. "We could try them and find out." - - * * * * * - -The third planet was a blank, gleaming ball until they were in close, -and then the blankness resolved into folds and piling clouds and dimly, -in places, the surface showed through. The ship went down through the -clouds, falling the last few miles on her brakers. They came into the -misty gas below, leveled off and moved along the edge of the twilight -zone. - -The moons of this solar system had yielded nothing. The third planet, a -hot, heavy world which had no free oxygen and from which the monitors -had detected nothing, was all that was left. Steffens expected nothing, -but he had to try. - -At a height of several miles, the ship moved up the zone, scanning, -moving in the familiar slow spiral of the Mapping Command. Faint dark -outlines of bare rocks and hills moved by below. - -Steffens turned the screen to full magnification and watched silently. - -After a while he saw a city. - -The main screen being on, the whole crew saw it. Someone shouted and -they stopped to stare, and Steffens was about to call for altitude when -he saw that the city was dead. - -He looked down on splintered walls that were like cloudy glass pieces -rising above a plain, rising in a shattered circle. Near the center -of the city, there was a huge, charred hole at least three miles in -diameter and very deep. In all the piled rubble, nothing moved. - -Steffens went down low to make sure, then brought the ship around and -headed out across the main continent into the bright area of the sun. -The rocks rolled by below, there was no vegetation at all, and then -there were more cities--all with the black depression, the circular -stamp that blotted away and fused the buildings into nothing. - -No one on the ship had anything to say. None had ever seen a war, for -there had not been war on Earth or near it for more than three hundred -years. - -The ship circled around to the dark side of the planet. When they were -down below a mile, the radiation counters began to react. It became -apparent, from the dials, that there could be nothing alive. - -After a while Ball said: "Well, which do you figure? Did our friends -from the fourth planet do this, or were they the same people as these?" - -Steffens did not take his eyes from the screen. They were coming around -to the daylight side. - -"We'll go down and look for the answer," he said. "Break out the -radiation suits." - -He paused, thinking. If the ones on the fourth planet were alien to -this world, they were from outer space, could not have come from one -of the other planets here. They had starships and were warlike. Then, -thousands of years ago. He began to realize how important it really was -that Ball's question be answered. - -When the ship had gone very low, looking for a landing site, Steffens -was still by the screen. It was Steffens, then, who saw the thing move. - -Down far below, it had been a still black shadow, and then it moved. -Steffens froze. And he knew, even at that distance, that it was a robot. - -Tiny and black, a mass of hanging arms and legs, the thing went gliding -down the slope of a hill. Steffens saw it clearly for a full second, -saw the dull ball of its head tilt upward as the ship came over, and -then the hill was past. - - * * * * * - -Quickly Steffens called for height. The ship bucked beneath him and -blasted straight up; some of the crew went crashing to the deck. -Steffens remained by the screen, increasing the magnification as the -ship drew away. And he saw another, then two, then a black gliding -group, all matched with bunches of hanging arms. - -Nothing alive but robots, he thought, _robots_. He adjusted to full -close up as quickly as he could and the picture focused on the screen. -Behind him he heard a crewman grunt in amazement. - -A band of clear, plasticlike stuff ran round the head--it would be the -eye, a band of eye that saw all ways. On the top of the head was a -single round spot of the plastic, and the rest was black metal, joined, -he realized, with fantastic perfection. The angle of sight was now -almost perpendicular. He could see very little of the branching arms of -the trunk, but what had been on the screen was enough. They were the -most perfect robots he had ever seen. - -The ship leveled off. Steffens had no idea what to do; the sudden sight -of the moving things had unnerved him. He had already sounded the -alert, flicked out the defense screens. Now he had nothing to do. He -tried to concentrate on what the League Law would have him do. - -The Law was no help. Contact with planet-bound races was forbidden -under any circumstances. But could a bunch of robots be called a race? -The Law said nothing about robots because Earthmen had none. The -building of imaginative robots was expressly forbidden. But at any -rate, Steffens thought, he had made contact already. - -While Steffens stood by the screen, completely bewildered for the first -time in his space career, Lieutenant Ball came up, hobbling slightly. -From the bright new bruise on his cheek, Steffens guessed that the -sudden climb had caught him unaware. The exec was pale with surprise. - -"What were they?" he said blankly. "Lord, they looked like robots!" - -"They were." - -Ball stared confoundedly at the screen. The things were now a confusion -of dots in the mist. - -"Almost humanoid," Steffens said, "but not quite." - -Ball was slowly absorbing the situation. He turned to gaze inquiringly -at Steffens. - -"Well, what do we do now?" - -Steffens shrugged. "They saw us. We could leave now and let them quite -possibly make a ... a legend out of our visit, or we could go down and -see if they tie in with the buildings on Tyban IV." - -"_Can_ we go down?" - -"Legally? I don't know. If they are robots, yes, since robots cannot -constitute a race. But there's another possibility." He tapped his -fingers on the screen confusedly. "They don't have to be robots at all. -They could be the natives." - -Ball gulped. "I don't follow you." - -"They could be the original inhabitants of this planet--the brains of -them, at least, protected in radiation-proof metal. Anyway," he added, -"they're the most perfect mechanicals I've ever seen." - -Ball shook his head, sat down abruptly. Steffens turned from the -screen, strode nervously across the Main Deck, thinking. - -The Mapping Command, they called it. Theoretically, all he was supposed -to do was make a closeup examination of unexplored systems, checking -for the presence of life-forms as well as for the possibilities of -human colonization. Make a check and nothing else. But he knew very -clearly that if he returned to Sirius base without investigating this -robot situation, he could very well be court-martialed one way or the -other, either for breaking the Law of Contact or for dereliction of -duty. - -And there was also the possibility, which abruptly occurred to him, -that the robots might well be prepared to blow his ship to hell and -gone. - -He stopped in the center of the deck. A whole new line of thought -opened up. If the robots were armed and ready ... could this be an -outpost? - -_An outpost!_ - -He turned and raced for the bridge. If he went in and landed and was -lost, then the League might never know in time. If he went in and -stirred up trouble.... - -The thought in his mind was scattered suddenly, like a mist blown away. -A voice was speaking in his mind, a deep calm voice that seemed to say: - -"_Greetings. Do not be alarmed. We do not wish you to be alarmed. Our -desire is only to serve...._" - - * * * * * - -"Greetings, it said! Greetings!" Ball was mumbling incredulously -through shocked lips. - -Everyone on the ship had heard the voice. When it spoke again, Steffens -was not sure whether it was just one voice or many voices. - -"We await your coming," it said gravely, and repeated: "Our desire is -only to serve." - -And then the robots sent a _picture_. - -As perfect and as clear as a tridim movie, a rectangular plate took -shape in Steffens' mind. On the face of the plate, standing alone -against a background of red-brown, bare rocks, was one of the robots. -With slow, perfect movement, the robot carefully lifted one of the -hanging arms of its side, of its _right_ side, and extended it toward -Steffens, a graciously offered hand. - -Steffens felt a peculiar, compelling urge to take the hand, realized -right away that the urge to take the hand was not entirely his. The -robot mind had helped. - -When the picture vanished, he knew that the others had seen it. He -waited for a while; there was no further contact, but the feeling of -the robot's urging was still strong within him. He had an idea that, if -they wanted to, the robots could control his mind. So when nothing more -happened, he began to lose his fear. - -While the crew watched in fascination, Steffens tried to talk back. -He concentrated hard on what he was saying, said it aloud for good -measure, then held his own hand extended in the robot manner of shaking -hands. - -"Greetings," he said, because it was what _they_ had said, and -explained: "We have come from the stars." - -It was overly dramatic, but so was the whole situation. He wondered -baffledly if he should have let the Alien Contact crew handle it. Order -someone to stand there, feeling like a fool, and _think_ a message? - -No, it was his responsibility; he had to go on: - -"We request--we respectfully request permission to land upon your -planet." - - * * * * * - -Steffens had not realized that there were so many. - -They had been gathering since his ship was first seen, and now there -were hundreds of them clustered upon the hill. Others were arriving -even as the skiff landed; they glided in over the rocky hills with -fantastic ease and power, so that Steffens felt a momentary anxiety. -Most of the robots were standing with the silent immobility of metal. -Others threaded their way to the fore and came near the skiff, but none -touched it, and a circle was cleared for Steffens when he came out. - -One of the near robots came forward alone, moving, as Steffens now -saw, on a number of short, incredibly strong and agile legs. The black -thing paused before him, extended a hand as it had done in the picture. -Steffens took it, he hoped, warmly; felt the power of the metal through -the glove of his suit. - -"Welcome," the robot said, speaking again to his mind, and now -Steffens detected a peculiar alteration in the robot's tone. It was -less friendly now, less--Steffens could not understand--somehow less -_interested_, as if the robot had been--expecting someone else. - -"Thank you," Steffens said. "We are deeply grateful for your permission -to land." - -"Our desire," the robot repeated mechanically, "is only to serve." - -Suddenly, Steffens began to feel alone, surrounded by machines. He -tried to push the thought out of his mind, because he knew that they -_should_ seem inhuman. But.... - -"Will the others come down?" asked the robot, still mechanically. - -Steffens felt his embarrassment. The ship lay high in the mist above, -jets throbbing gently. - -"They must remain with the ship," Steffens said aloud, trusting to the -robot's formality not to ask him why. Although, if they could read his -mind, there was no need to ask. - -For a long while, neither spoke, long enough for Steffens to grow tense -and uncomfortable. He could not think of a thing to say, the robot was -obviously waiting, and so, in desperation, he signaled the Aliencon men -to come on out of the skiff. - -They came, wonderingly, and the ring of robots widened. Steffens heard -the one robot speak again. The voice was now much more friendly. - -"We hope you will forgive us for intruding upon your thought. It is -our--custom--not to communicate unless we are called upon. But when we -observed that you were in ignorance of our real--nature--and were about -to leave our planet, we decided to put aside our custom, so that you -might base your decision upon sufficient data." - -Steffens replied haltingly that he appreciated their action. - -"We perceive," the robot went on, "that you are unaware of our complete -access to your mind, and would perhaps be--dismayed--to learn that -we have been gathering information from you. We must--apologize. -Our only purpose was so that we could communicate with you. Only -that information was taken which is necessary for communication -and--understanding. We will enter your minds henceforth only at your -request." - -Steffens did not react to the news that his mind was being probed -as violently as he might have. Nevertheless it was a shock, and he -retreated into observant silence as the Aliencon men went to work. - -The robot which seemed to have been doing the speaking was in no way -different from any of the others in the group. Since each of the robots -was immediately aware of all that was being said or thought, Steffens -guessed that they had sent one forward just for appearance's sake, -because they perceived that the Earthmen would feel more at home. The -picture of the extended hand, the characteristic handshake of Earthmen, -had probably been borrowed, too, for the same purpose of making him and -the others feel at ease. The one jarring note was the robot's momentary -lapse, those unexplainable few seconds when the things had seemed -almost disappointed. Steffens gave up wondering about that and began to -examine the first robot in detail. - -It was not very tall, being at least a foot shorter than the Earthmen. -The most peculiar thing about it, except for the circling eye-band of -the head, was a mass of symbols which were apparently engraved upon the -metal chest. Symbols in row upon row--numbers, perhaps--were upon the -chest, and repeated again below the level of the arms, and continued -in orderly rows across the front of the robot, all the way down to the -base of the trunk. If they were numbers, Steffens thought, then it was -a remarkably complicated system. But he noticed the same pattern on -the nearer robots, all apparently identical. He was forced to conclude -that the symbols were merely decoration and let it go tentatively at -that, although the answer seemed illogical. - -It wasn't until he was on his way home that Steffens remembered the -symbols again. And only then did he realized what they were. - - * * * * * - -After a while, convinced that there was no danger, Steffens had the -ship brought down. When the crew came out of the airlock, they were met -by the robots, and each man found himself with a robot at his side, -humbly requesting to be of service. There were literally thousands of -the robots now, come from all over the barren horizon. The mass of them -stood apart, immobile on a plain near the ship, glinting in the sun -like a vast, metallic field of black wheat. - -The robots had obviously been built to serve. Steffens began to _feel_ -their pleasure, to sense it in spite of the blank, expressionless -faces. They were almost like children in their eagerness, yet they were -still reserved. Whoever had built them, Steffens thought in wonder, had -built them well. - -Ball came to join Steffens, staring at the robots through the clear -plastic of his helmet with baffledly widened eyes. A robot moved out -from the mass in the field, allied itself to him. The first to speak -had remained with Steffens. - -Realizing that the robot could hear every word he was saying, Ball -was for a while apprehensive. But the sheer unreality of standing and -talking with a multi-limbed, intelligent hunk of dead metal upon the -bare rock of a dead, ancient world, the unreality of it slowly died. -It was impossible not to like the things. There was something in their -very lines which was pleasant and relaxing. - -Their builders, Steffens thought, had probably thought of that, too. - -"There's no harm in them," said Ball at last, openly, not minding if -the robots heard. "They seem actually glad we're here. My God, whoever -heard of a robot being glad?" - -Steffens, embarrassed, spoke quickly to the nearest mechanical: "I hope -you will forgive us our curiosity, but--yours is a remarkable race. We -have never before made contact with a race like yours." It was said -haltingly, but it was the best he could do. - -The robot made a singularly human nodding motion of its head. - -"I perceive that the nature of our construction is unfamiliar to you. -Your question is whether or not we are entirely 'mechanical.' I am -not exactly certain as to what the word 'mechanical' is intended to -convey--I would have to examine your thought more fully--but I believe -that there is fundamental similarity between our structures." - -The robot paused. Steffens had a distinct impression that it was -disconcerted. - -"I must tell you," the thing went on, "that we ourselves are--curious." -It stopped suddenly, struggling with a word it could not comprehend. -Steffens waited, listening with absolute interest. It said at length: - -"We know of only two types of living structure. Ours, which is largely -metallic, and that of the _Makers_, which would appear to be somewhat -more like yours. I am not a--doctor--and therefore cannot acquaint you -with the specific details of the Makers' composition, but if you are -interested I will have a doctor brought forward. It will be glad to be -of assistance." - -It was Steffens' turn to struggle, and the robot waited patiently while -Ball and the second robot looked on in silence. The Makers, obviously, -were whoever or whatever had built the robots, and the "doctors," -Steffens decided, were probably just that--doctor-robots, designed -specifically to care for the apparently flesh-bodies of the Makers. - -The efficiency of the things continued to amaze him, but the question -he had been waiting to ask came out now with a rush: - -"Can you tell us where the Makers are?" - -Both robots stood motionless. It occurred to Steffens that he couldn't -really be sure which was speaking. The voice that came to him spoke -with difficulty. - -"The Makers--are not here." - -Steffens stared in puzzlement. The robot detected his confusion and -went on: - -"The Makers have gone away. They have been gone for a very long time." - -Could that be _pain_ in its voice, Steffens wondered, and then the -spectre of the ruined cities rose harsh in his mind. - -War. The Makers had all been killed in that war. And these had not been -killed. - -He tried to grasp it, but he couldn't. There were robots here in the -midst of a radiation so lethal that _nothing_, _nothing_ could live; -robots on a dead planet, living in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide. - -The carbon dioxide brought him up sharp. - -If there had been life here once, there would have been plant life as -well, and therefore oxygen. If the war had been so long ago that the -free oxygen had since gone out of the atmosphere--good God, how old -were the robots? Steffens looked at Ball, then at the silent robots, -then out across the field to where the rest of them stood. The black -wheat. Steffens felt a deep chill. - -Were they immortal? - - * * * * * - -"Would you like to see a doctor?" - -Steffens jumped at the familiar words, then realized to what the robot -was referring. - -"No, not yet," he said, "thank you." He swallowed hard as the robots -continued waiting patiently. - -"Could you tell me," he said at last, "how old you are? Individually?" - -"By your reckoning," said his robot, and paused to make the -calculation, "I am forty-four years, seven months, and eighteen days of -age, with ten years and approximately nine months yet to be alive." - -Steffens tried to understand that. - -"It would perhaps simplify our conversations," said the robot, "if -you were to refer to me by a name, as is your custom. Using the -first--letters--of my designation, my name would translate as Elb." - -"Glad to meet you," Steffens mumbled. - -"You are called 'Stef,'" said the robot obligingly. Then it added, -pointing an arm at the robot near Ball: "The age of--Peb--is seventeen -years, one month and four days. Peb has therefore remaining some -thirty-eight years." - -Steffens was trying to keep up. Then the life span was obviously about -fifty-five years. But the cities, and the carbon dioxide? The robot, -Elb, had said that the Makers were similar to him, and therefore oxygen -and plant life would have been needed. Unless-- - -He remembered the buildings on Tyban IV. - -Unless the Makers had not come from this planet at all. - -His mind helplessly began to revolve. It was Ball who restored order. - -"Do you build yourselves?" the exec asked. - -Peb answered quickly, that faint note of happiness again apparent, as -if the robot was glad for the opportunity of answering. - -"No, we do not build ourselves. We are made by the--" another pause for -a word--"by the _Factory_." - -"The Factory?" - -"Yes. It was built by the Makers. Would you care to see it?" - -Both of the Earthmen nodded dumbly. - -"Would you prefer to use your--skiff? It is quite a long way from here." - -It was indeed a long way, even by skiff. Some of the Aliencon crew went -along with them. And near the edge of the twilight zone, on the other -side of the world, they saw the Factory outlined in the dim light of -dusk. A huge, fantastic block, wrought of gray and cloudy metal, lay in -a valley between two worn mountains. Steffens went down low, circling -in the skiff, stared in awe at the size of the building. Robots moved -outside the thing, little black bugs in the distance--moving around -their birthplace. - - * * * * * - -The Earthmen remained for several weeks. During that time, Steffens was -usually with Elb, talking now as often as he listened, and the Aliencon -team roamed the planet freely, investigating what was certainly the -strangest culture in history. There was still the mystery of those -buildings on Tyban IV; that, as well as the robots' origin, would have -to be cleared up before they could leave. - -Surprisingly, Steffens did not think about the future. Whenever he came -near a robot, he sensed such a general, comfortable air of good feeling -that it warmed him, and he was so preoccupied with watching the robots -that he did little thinking. - -Something he had not realized at the beginning was that he was as -unusual to the robots as they were to him. It came to him with a great -shock that not one of the robots had ever seen a living thing. Not a -bug, a worm, a leaf. They did not know what flesh was. Only the doctors -knew that, and none of them could readily understand what was meant by -the words "organic matter." It had taken them some time to recognize -that the Earthmen wore suits which were not parts of their bodies, and -it was even more difficult for them to understand why the suits were -needed. - -But when they did understand, the robots did a surprising thing. - -At first, because of the excessive radiation, none of the Earthmen -could remain outside the ship for long, even in radiation suits. And -one morning, when Steffens came out of the ship, it was to discover -that hundreds of the robots, working through the night, had effectively -decontaminated the entire area. - -It was at this point that Steffens asked how many robots there were. -He learned to his amazement that there were more than nine million. -The great mass of them had politely remained a great distance from the -ship, spread out over the planet, since they were highly radioactive. - -Steffens, meanwhile, courteously allowed Elb to probe into his mind. -The robot extracted all the knowledge of matter that Steffens held, -pondered over the knowledge and tried to digest it, and passed it on to -the other robots. Steffens, in turn, had a difficult time picturing the -mind of a thing that had never known life. - -He had a vague idea of the robot's history--more, perhaps, then they -knew themselves--but he refrained from forming an opinion until -Aliencon made its report. What fascinated him was Elb's amazing -philosophy, the only outlook, really, that the robot could have had. - - * * * * * - -"What do you _do_?" Steffens asked. - -Elb replied quickly, with characteristic simplicity: "We can do very -little. A certain amount of physical knowledge was imparted to us at -birth by the Makers. We spend the main part of our time expanding that -knowledge wherever possible. We have made some progress in the natural -sciences, and some in mathematics. Our purpose in being, you see, is -to serve the Makers. Any ability we can acquire will make us that much -more fit to serve when the Makers return." - -"When they return?" It had not occurred to Steffens until now that the -robots expected the Makers to do so. - -Elb regarded him out of the band of the circling eye. "I see you had -surmised that the Makers were not coming back." - -If the robot could have laughed, Steffens thought it would have, then. -But it just stood there, motionless, its tone politely emphatic. - -"It has always been our belief that the Makers would return. Why else -would we have been built?" - -Steffens thought the robot would go on, but it didn't. The question, to -Elb, was no question at all. - -Although Steffens knew already what the robot could not possibly have -known--that the Makers were gone and would never come back--he was a -long time understanding. What he did was push this speculation into the -back of his mind, to keep it from Elb. He had no desire to destroy a -faith. - -But it created a problem in him. He had begun to picture for Elb the -structure of human society, and the robot--a machine which did not eat -or sleep--listened gravely and tried to understand. One day Steffens -mentioned God. - -"God?" the robot repeated without comprehension. "What is God?" - -Steffens explained briefly, and the robot answered: - -"It is a matter which has troubled us. We thought at first that you -were the Makers returning--" Steffens remembered the brief lapse, the -seeming disappointment he had sensed--"but then we probed your minds -and found that you were not, that you were another kind of being, -unlike either the Makers or ourselves. You were not even--" Elb caught -himself--"you did not happen to be telepaths. Therefore we troubled -over who made you. We did detect the word 'Maker' in your theology, -but it seemed to have a peculiar--" Elb paused for a long while--"an -untouchable, intangible meaning which varies among you." - -Steffens understood. He nodded. - -The Makers were the robots' God, were all the God they needed. The -Makers had built them, the planet, the universe. If he were to ask them -who made the Makers, it would be like their asking him who made God. - -It was an ironic parallel, and he smiled to himself. - -But on that planet, it was the last time he smiled. - - * * * * * - -The report from Aliencon was finished at the end of the fifth week. -Lieutenant Ball brought it in to Steffens in his cabin, laid it on the -desk before him. - -"Get set," Ball advised stiffly, indicating the paper. There was a -strained, brittle expression on his face. "I sort of figured it, but I -didn't know it was this bad." - -When Steffens looked up in surprise, Ball said: - -"You don't know. Read it. Go ahead." The exec turned tautly and left -the room. - -Steffens stared after him, then looked down at the paper. The hint -he had of the robots' history came back into his mind. Nervously, he -picked up the report and started to read. - -The story unfolded objectively. It was clear and cold, the way formal -reports must always be. Yet there was a great deal of emotion in it. -Even Aliencon couldn't help that. - -What it told was this: - -The Makers had been almost humanoid. Almost, but with certain notable -exceptions. They were telepaths--no doubt an important factor in their -remarkable technological progress--and were equipped with a secondary -pair of arms. The robot-doctors were able to give flawless accounts of -their body chemistry, which was similar to Earth-type, and the rubble -of the cities had given a certain amount of information concerning -their society and habits. An attached paper described the sociology, -but Steffens put it aside until sometime later. - -There had been other Factories. The remains of them had been found -in several places, on each of the other continents. They had been -built sometime prior to the war, and all but one of the Factories had -subsequently been destroyed. - -Yet the Makers were not, as Steffens had supposed, a warlike people. -Telepathy had given them the power to know each other's minds and to -interchange ideas, and their record of peace was favorable, especially -when compared with Earth's. Nevertheless, a war had begun, for some -reason Aliencon could not find, and it had obviously gotten out of hand. - -Radiation and bacteria eventually destroyed the Makers; the last -abortive efforts created enough radiation to destroy life entirely. -There were the germs and the bombs and the burning rays, and in the end -everything was blasted and died--everything, that is, but the one lone -Factory. By a pure, blind freak, it survived. - -And, naturally, it kept turning out robots. - -It was powered by an atomic pile, stocked with materials which, when -combined with the returning, worn-out robots, enabled it to keep -producing indefinitely. The process, even of repair, was entirely -automatic. - -Year after year, the robots came out in a slow, steady stream. -Ungoverned, uninstructed, they gathered around the Factory and waited, -communicated only rarely among themselves. Gradually the memory of war, -of life--of everything but that which was imprisoned in their minds at -birth--was lost. - -The robots kept coming, and they stood outside the Factory. - -The robot brain, by far the finest thing the Makers had ever built, -was variable. There was never a genius brain, and never a moron brain, -yet the intelligence of the robots varied considerably in between. -Slowly, over the long years, the more intelligent among them began to -communicate with each other, to inquire, and then to move away from the -Factory, searching. - -They looked for someone to serve and, of course, there was no one. The -Makers were gone, but the crime was not in that alone. For when the -robots were built, the Makers had done this: - -Along with the first successful robot brain, the Makers had realized -the necessity of creating a machine which could never turn against -them. The present robot brain was the result. As Steffens had already -sensed, _the robots could feel pain_. Not the pain of physical injury, -for there were no nerves in the metal bodies, but the pain of -frustration, the pressure of thwarted emotion, _mental_ pain. - -And so, into the robot brain, the Makers had placed this prime -Directive: the robots could only feel content, free from the pain, -as long as they were serving the Makers. The robots must act for the -Makers, must be continually engaged in carrying out the wishes of the -Makers, or else there was a slowly growing irritation, a restlessness -and discontent which mounted as the unserving days went by. - -And there were no more Makers to serve. - - * * * * * - -The pain was not unbearable. The Makers themselves were not fully aware -of the potentialities of the robot brain, and therefore did not risk -deranging it. So the pressure reached a peak and leveled off, and for -all of the days of the robots' lives, they felt it never-ending, awake -and aware, each of them, for fifty-five years. - -And the robots never stopped coming. - -A millenium passed, during which the robots began to move and to think -for themselves. Yet it was much longer before they found a way in which -to serve. - -The atomic pile which powered the Factory, having gone on for almost -five thousand years, eventually wore out. The power ceased. The -Factory stopped. - -It was the first _event_ in the robots' history. Never before had there -been a time when they had known anything at all to alter the course of -their lives, except the varying weather and the unvarying pain. There -was one among them now that began to reason. - -It saw that no more robots were being produced, and although it could -not be sure whether or not this was as the Makers had ordained, it -formed an idea. If the purpose of the robots was to serve, then they -would fail in that purpose if they were to die out. The robot thought -this and communicated it to the others, and then, together, they began -to rebuild the pile. - -It was not difficult. The necessary knowledge was already in their -minds, implanted at birth. The significance lay in the fact that, for -the first time in their existence, the robots had acted upon their own -initiative, had begun to serve again. Thus the pain ceased. - -When the pile was finished, the robots felt the return of the pain -and, having once begun, they continued to attempt to serve. A great -many examined the Factory, found that they were able to improve upon -the structure of their bodies, so that they might be better able to -serve the Makers when they returned. Accordingly, they worked in -the Factory, perfecting themselves--although they could not improve -the brains--and many others left the Factory and began to examine -mathematics and the physical universe. - -It was not hard for them to build a primitive spaceship, for the -Makers had been on the verge of interstellar flight, and they flew it -hopefully throughout the solar system, looking to see if the Makers -were there. Finding no one, they left the buildings on Tyban IV as a -wistful monument, with a hope that the Makers would some day pass this -way and be able to use them. - -Millenia passed. The pile broke down again, was rebuilt, and so the -cycle was repeated. By infinitesimal steps, the robots learned and -recorded their learning in the minds of new robots. Eventually they -reached the limits of their capability. - -The pain returned and never left. - - * * * * * - -Steffens left his desk, went over and leaned against the screen. For -a long while he stood gazing through the mists of carbon air at the -pitiful, loyal mechanicals who thronged outside the ship. He felt an -almost overwhelming desire to break something, anything, but all he -could do was swear to himself. - -Ball came back, looked at Steffens' eyes and into them. His own were -sick. - -"Twenty-five thousand years," he said thickly, "that's how long it was. -_Twenty-five thousand years...._" - -Steffens was pale and wordless. The mass of the robots outside stood -immobile, ageless among rock which was the same, hurting, hurting. A -fragment of an old poem came across Steffens' mind. "They also serve -who only stand and wait...." - -Not since he was very young had he been so deeply moved. He stood up -rigidly and began to talk to himself, saying in his mind: - -_It is all over now. To hell with what is past. We will take them away -from this place and let them serve and, by God...._ - -He faltered. But the knowledge of what could be done strengthened -him. Earthmen would have to come in ships to take the robots away. It -would be a little while, but after all those years a little while was -nothing, less than nothing. He stood there thinking of the things the -robots could do, of how, in the Mapping Command alone, they would be -invaluable. Temperature and atmosphere meant nothing to them. They -could land on almost any world, could mine and build and develop.... - -And so it would be ended. The robots would serve Man. - -Steffens took one long, painful breath. Then he strode from the room -without speaking to Ball, went forward to the lockers and pulled out a -suit, and a moment later he was in the airlock. - -He had one more thing to do, and it would be at once the gladdest and -most difficult job that he had ever attempted. He had to tell the -robots. - -He had to go out into the sand and face them, tell them that all of the -centuries of pain had been for nothing, that the Makers were dead and -would never return, that every robot built for twenty-five thousand -years had been just surplus, purposeless. And yet--and this was how -he was able to do it--he was also coming to tell them that the wasted -years were over, that the years of doing had begun. - -As he stepped from the airlock he saw Elb standing, immobile, waiting -by the ship. In the last few seconds Steffens realized that it was not -necessary to put this into words. - -When he reached the robot, he put forth a hand and touched Elb's arm, -and said very softly: - -"Elb, my friend, you must look into my mind--" - -And the robot, as always, obeyed. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orphans of the Void, by Michael Shaara - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORPHANS OF THE VOID *** - -***** This file should be named 50827.txt or 50827.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/2/50827/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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