Blood and Iron

by Tony Ballantyne

  ‘If anything happens to me, you will be safe with Melt.’

  ‘I don’t want anything to happen to you.’ Susan twisted his wire in an odd loop. ‘Almost done,’ she said. ‘There is a little wire left. Are you ready? Are you sure that you want me to put it in?’

  ‘I’m sure,’ said Karel. ‘Every robot should know this. From now on, this story will be woven into every robot’s mind.’

  ‘Then tell me,’ said Susan.

  ‘Very well,’ said Karel, and he began.

  The Story of Eric and the Mountain

  ‘When the ancient town of Ell was still young, before the tribes of Yukawa were united by the Emperor, before Ban province had learned the secret of animal husbandry, there lived a robot called Eric.’

  ‘This story is set in Yukawa?’ said Susan. ‘I had never heard of that place until yesterday.’

  ‘I’m sure that is where Melt comes from. He told this story as if it were woven into his mind. Now listen.

  ‘Eric was the adopted son of Ben-Ji, the owner of one of Ell’s principle forges. Now, it must be understood that the robots of Yukawa have a different culture to those of Shull, and the robots of Ell are unusual even in Yukawa, and this story happened a long time ago when Ell was a very different place to today. So if you find what happened in Ben-Ji’s forge strange, or even distasteful, then just remember that this is how things were in those days.’

  Susan was staring at him.

  ‘This is our child we are making,’ she reminded him.

  ‘This is how Melt told me the story,’ explained Karel. He continued, using the same sing-song style in which Melt had related the story to him.

  ‘Now I must explain that Ben-Ji’s forge was known as a making forge. When a man and a woman wanted to make a child then they would go to his forge and look at the fine metals he had on display there. Pure iron and copper and aluminium and lead. The best steel, graded according to use. Metal available as plates and ingots and wire. Gold leaf so fine, silver wire, even phosphorus and sodium stored under oil. Jars of mercury, sheets of tungsten, and, there in the back, molybdenum and palladium. Even, it was rumoured, the eka metals: eka mercury and eka lead.’

  ‘Do they really exist?’ wondered Susan, her eyes glowing.

  ‘I don’t know! Susan, please don’t interrupt!’

  ‘So a couple would enter the forge, the woman full of thoughts and poetry and ideas, pregnant with the thoughts of the mind she would soon twist, and she would walk with her man as they examined the metals on offer. They would tell Ben-Ji and his wife Khafool what sort of a mind they planned to make, and then Ben-Ji and Khafool would give them advice on the metal to choose and the body they should construct. And any other robots who were in the forge would also pass on advice, and in this way the day would pass, until eventually the man would sit down, and the woman kneel before him, and, guided by the advice of all those present, a new mind would be twisted by the woman from the metal she drew forth from the man. The robots produced by the Ben-Ji forge were strong and wise and prospered in the city of Ell, and so the reputation of the Ben-Ji forge grew.

  ‘Now, Eric worked in the forge, but he was unhappy in his work. The only thing that gladdened his mind was the sight of Khalah, the daughter of Ben-Ji and Khafool. For Khalah had a good mind, a thing of symmetry and elegance and beauty. She built her body of the finest materials available to the forge. She crafted it well, mixing metals and alloys to form long struts of a pleasing curve, electromuscles of the most cunning weave, and polished aluminium panels that shone under the sun in the daylight and reflected the red glow of the forge through the night.

  ‘Khalah loved the forge and her family, and she loved Eric as he loved her, yet she was filled with disquiet, for as long as Eric was unhappy, she could never be truly happy herself. So, one cold autumn day as they stood before the forge, a day when the frost was heavy on the metal bosses and brackets of the doors, the ice was frozen in rings around edges of the puddles and troughs, and the sky was blue and misty, on that day she challenged him.

  ‘“Eric,” she said. “Why are you always so sad? You are a good smith, good enough to impress my father, and there are few robots who can do that. My mother approves our match, and some day we shall have this forge for our own, and we can go on building it in strength and stature. Is that not a good thing?”

  ‘“It is Khalah, it is indeed. Yet I do not feel that I belong here.”

  ‘“You were not made here, Eric, it is true. Your mind is different, and you construct your body in a style foreign to those who live here, but there is much to be recommended in you, and, as I have said, no less an authority than my mother has suggested that we are compatible and shall weave strong children together. What do your origins matter?”

  ‘Eric hammered at the red iron he held over the anvil, hammered his frustration into the metal.

  ‘“What do they matter, Khalah? I was found at the foot of the High Spires by your father. He brought me back here and cared for me, and the people of this town accepted me as their own. They gave me metal and taught me how to weave it in their fashion. My origins shouldn’t matter. Yet they do. A thought lives on in my mind. Look over there . . .”

  ‘He pointed to the distant peaks of the High Spires. The mountaintops were sharp in the cold air, rising clear of the misty foothills. Snow gleamed white and crisp; Eric almost felt their chill from here.

  ‘“Do you see the High Spires. Do you see the group over there in the centre? The Crown, they are called. There is something up there, Khalah, hidden amongst the peaks.”

  ‘“What is it?”

  ‘“I don’t know. It is there at the edge of my mind. Sometimes it is a sword, made of the first metal, the first metal to think thoughts. Sometimes it is a body made of katana metal, an indestructible body. Sometimes it is just metal itself. But precious metal. A ball of eka lead perhaps, or the metal that lies beyond that.”

  ‘“I have heard the stories,” said Khalah. “The stories of the first robots, Alpha and Gamma, how they crossed the High Spires, and left some of their treasures up there for safe keeping, before they stepped into this land.”

  ‘“Khalah, the stories are true! I know it. I came from the High Spires, the pictures are there in my mind. Now I must return there to find those treasures.”

  ‘“What about me?”

  ‘“Come with me, Khalah!”

  ‘“My father would never allow it! I must stay here at the forge with my mother!”

  ‘“I know that, but Khalah, I must go.”

  ‘There was a long silence as Khalah contemplated his words. She knew she could not leave the forge, she also knew she could not bear to be parted from Eric. The two urges were powerful within her, so powerful they threatened to rip her in two, or so she thought. In the end her path was obvious.

  ‘“Then I will come with you,” she said.’

  ‘And so, later that day, when the forge was full, and Ben-Ji and Khalah were hard at work tending to a man and woman who twisted metal, Eric and Khalah left the city of Ell and set out towards the High Spires.

  ‘They did not take the main road that led south to the mountain pass, but rather walked through the wastelands that lay to the sides. In those days much of the land of Yukawa was overgrown with grass and twisted trees. Animals walked freely, and these watched Khalah and Eric as they headed south. The robots’ metal soon became dented and scratched from the journey, their electromuscle sodden from fording the cold streams and rivers that tumbled down from the mountains.

  ‘There was no fire to be found in the wastelands, save what Khalah could kindle from the dead wood that lay on the ground, and the fire she could make was a poor cool thing, not hot enough to fix the damage that their bodies suffered. Eric saw how Khalah’s once smooth and shiny body was now nothing but a network of scratches and scuffs and dents, he saw how she looked away from herself to the grass and the stones and tried not think about what she had become, and Eric felt ashamed at this. He p
ushed his hand into hers and sent a current down his own electromuscle and into hers.

  ‘“Thank you, Khalah,” he said.

  ‘“I will follow you anywhere, Eric.”

  ‘“I would do the same for you, Khalah.”

  ‘She was too noble to ask him to follow her back to her father’s forge.

  ‘And so they walked south towards the mountains, and as they did they saw, in the distance, the other robots who searched for them, for Ben-Ji loved his daughter, and he had not given up hope of finding her.

  ‘This saddened Khalah further, for she loved her father.

  ‘But she loved Eric more.’

  ‘After some weeks they came to the edge of the High Spires. The glassy rock rose up above them, piercing the very skies.

  ‘“What now, Eric?” asked Khalah.

  ‘“There is a way up, Khalah. I can feel it in my mind. If we walk along the base of the mountains in the direction of the rising sun, we will find it.”

  ‘They wandered east. After two days, at the rising of the sun, they saw a ledge that tilted from the ground and ran upwards.

  ‘“That is the path,” said Eric. “If we follow that ledge it will lead us up into the mountains, up to the treasures.”

  ‘“Then let us take it,” said Khalah.

  ‘“Yes, but . . .” His voice faltered.

  ‘“What’s the matter, Eric?”

  ‘“Khalah, now that I see the path, my thoughts have awoken some more, and I can see that this is not enough. Two of us will not be sufficient to gain the prize.”

  ‘Khalah gazed at him, her body scratched and dented. She kept her calm. “We are not enough,” she said, patiently. “What do you suggest that we do?”

  ‘“Your body is in need of attention, Khalah. The road north runs near here. A forge lies there at the foot of the mountains. I say we visit the forge, we repair ourselves. Perhaps we can persuade others to join us.”

  ‘Khalah was pleased to do this. For though she loved Eric, she craved other company, and she desired to visit the forge and make herself beautiful once more.

  ‘So they visited the forge. And whilst they were there, they persuaded two more robots to join them on their journey up the mountain, and those two robots persuaded two more, and they persuaded still more, until eventually sixteen of them took the path up into the mountains.

  ‘It was a long and dangerous journey, a story in itself. Perhaps another time I could speak of the paths of glass, too slippery for a robot to pass, or the caves of spears that thrust themselves into bodies as they passed by, or the creatures with the heads of robots but the bodies of insects that they had to battle with in order to get to their destination, but suffice to say they arrived there.

  ‘And so Eric and Khalah and their company walked into the centre of a circle of stone pillars, and they looked around.

  ‘“Is this the right place?” asked Khalah. Her body was battered and damaged once more by the journey. She had seen how empty their destination was, and now, for the first time, she questioned the wisdom of accompanying Eric here. All the robots did.

  ‘Eric looked around, puzzled.

  ‘“This is the place . . .” he said, “I’m sure of it . . .” And his eyes shone as he recognized something.

  ‘“There,” he said. “There, near the centre of the circle! See? The hole in the ground.”

  ‘Now they all saw it. A circular hole, about fifty feet across, smoothly bored into the ground. The wonder was they hadn’t seen it before.

  ‘“That looks like the den of a mugger snake,” said Khalah. “Only bigger. Much bigger.”

  ‘“It is,” said Eric. “Go down it, all of you.”

  ‘“But it will strip our metal away and plate it to its own body!”

  ‘“Yes. That’s how it feeds. It has grown so large that its body stretches nearly to the bottom of this mountain. It curls around inside the rock below us, but it is so big it can no longer hunt as it used to. So now it brings its prey towards itself.”

  ‘“But that’s impossible,” said Khalah. “Eric, I’m walking towards the hole. I don’t want to! Stop me!”

  ‘“I can’t, Khalah. I remember now. This is how it got so large. It’s twisted into our minds to follow the will of the mugger snake. All of us. All of the robots on the plain.”

  ‘“But how?”

  ‘“It made us! All of us! Simply as way of extending its range. A way to search out metal beyond the mountains. It made robots and sent us out into the world. And every so often it makes a robot such as me to bring prey back to itself. This is how it finds new metal.”

  ‘“No!” cried Khalah, and a sound of hissing emerged from her voicebox. “I thought you loved me!”

  ‘“I do, Khalah. But this is more important than that.”

  ‘Ahead of them, the first of the robots had stepped over the lip of the borehole, falling into the mugger snake’s maw.

  ‘“More important?” shrieked Khalah. “How can you say that?”

  ‘“Well, maybe not more important. Maybe it is an underlying truth on top of which all of our other thoughts dance.”

  ‘“No! I can’t believe that!”

  ‘“Well, you are walking into the hole,” observed Eric. “We both are.”

  ‘And they both stepped over the lip.’

  ‘The story can’t be true,’ said Susan. ‘If there were no survivors, how did the story get told?’

  ‘I don’t think that story is true,’ said Karel. ‘It’s an illustration. A warning from the past. A warning that none of us will know the truth until the end. And on that day we will walk unresisting towards the pit, because that is our purpose. That was what we were made for.’

  Susan gazed at him with horror, the wire cooling in her hands.

  ‘You allowed me to make a child, knowing this? Knowing that we were all doomed?’

  ‘No!’ said Karel. ‘No! That may have been the way we were made, but we are better than that. We can be better than that! Look at Turing City, and all that we achieved! Even Artemis City showed how much robots can achieve through sheer will.

  ‘That’s why we need to travel north and search out the truth Susan! Because even if someone did make us, and even if they meant us to be nothing more than raw material for some other cause, that doesn’t mean we have to accept it! There is no such thing as destiny, Susan. At least, there doesn’t have to be.’

  Susan gazed at him as she cut free the end of the wire that came from his body. She quickly tied it off in the fuse.

  ‘Here, Karel,’ she said. ‘Here’s our child. Meet Emily.’

  ‘Hello, Emily,’ said Karel, slipping the newly made mind in the little body they had prepared. They watched as the eyes glowed into life, a beautiful golden yellow.

  ‘Hello, Emily,’ said Susan.

  Karel smiled. Above him, the metal face of the night moon reflected light down onto the plain.

  ‘Hello Emily,’ repeated Karel. ‘My little girl. You know, don’t you? Because Mummy wove it into you. You know.’

  ‘What does she know?’ asked Susan.

  ‘She knows that we don’t have to accept anything. No matter who made us, no matter what our purpose is supposed to be, we don’t have to accept it.’

  He gazed into Emily’s golden eyes as he spoke.

  ‘And we won’t, will we?’

  Also by Tony Ballantyne

  Recursion

  Capacity

  Divergence

  PENROSE SERIES

  Twisted Metal

  First published 2010 by Tor

  This electronic edition published 2011 by Tor

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-0-230-75371-6 PDF

  ISBN 978-0-230-75370-9 EPUB

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yright © Tony Ballantyne 2010

  The right of Tony Ballantyne to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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