World of the Drone

by Robert Abernathy

that right."

  Purri eyed them sourly, shrugged. "As you like. I'm in command herewhile the Mother's busy at the front. I'll see you get transportation upthere." Turning toward the door, she glanced sidelong at Dworn...."You'll have to go separately, since a spider will only carry two. I'mleaving right away myself; _you_ may come with me in my machine--"

  "No, he won't," declared Qanya with finality, tightening her hold onDworn's arm. "He can ride with old Zimka."

  Purri stalked through the doorway before them, grumbling to herself,"Why is it the best ones always get away?"

  * * * * *

  Earlier in the night, climbing spiders--the only machines which couldmanage the ascent of the toppled Barrier--had scouted the periphery ofthe drones' fortress, and discovered the sole possible approach to it.At a single spot above the slide, a low ridge made it feasible tosurmount the rim and steal out onto the table-land beyond without comingin direct view of the enemy's installations.

  Once that was known, the council of chiefs decided on a daring strategy.Up the thousand-foot slope of tumbled rocks below that one vulnerablepoint, a fantastic supply line was established. One by one, machinesfrom among those massing on the desert below toiled upward until wheelsor treads could carry them no further; then they were hoisted bodilyover the precipices by the invaluable spiders, who anchored themselvesfirmly in place with the powerful steel cables they ordinarily used forsnaring prey, and used other such cables as pulleys.

  Through the remaining hours of darkness the joined forces labored withHerculean devotion to accomplish the seemingly impossible task. Therewere brushes with the enemy, for the wingless drones still came and wentabout the mountainside and from time to time their winged kindred flewoverhead. But strict orders had gone out to all the alliedpeoples--avoid opening fire, avoid precipitating a general engagement,and freeze motionless whenever the fliers passed over. This lastinstruction rested on the observation that the robot predators, withwhatever sensory devices they used, apparently had difficulty inspotting anything but a moving target.

  In this wise, when dawn began to break, close to three hundredfirst-line fighting machines of a dozen different species had beenraised to the summit of the Barrier. Thence they filtered cautiously outacross the plateau, in a great arc moving to enclose the hollow of thedrones.

  * * * * *

  The sky was lightening when Dworn and Qanya settled themselves to watchfrom the crest of the rocky ridge which had shielded the attackingforces' deployment not far from the brink of the cliffs.

  Behind them, the spiders which had brought them here melted stealthilyaway toward the east, going to take their places in the battle line.

  The two were alone once more, looking out over the vast circulardepression infested by the enemy, just as they had yesterday at sunset.But today, as the sun rose, the situation was very different. For milesaround the circumference of the great hive, there were furtivestirrings, last-minute movements of preparation for the imminentassault. From behind every outcropping and fold of the ground, grimgun-muzzles pointed inward, ready to begin spitting fire when the zerosecond came.

  From here the central buildings of the hive were plainly visible,standing out against the sunrise. Around them moved many of the tirelessworker machines; and the parked aircraft seemed more numerous than theyhad been the night before. Among them a score or more of winged shapesloomed conspicuous for their great size; when you made proper allowancefor the distance, you realized that they were immense.

  Those would be the queens--loaded and ready to take flight on theirone-way journey to found new colonies wherever their evil destiny mightlead them. The time of swarming was near.

  Dworn scowled darkly, squinting against the light in an effort to judgethe enemy's numbers. He grunted, "I hope ..." and bit his lip.

  "What's wrong?" said Qanya tensely.

  "Nothing.... Only it would have been well if we'd had time to bring upmore reinforcements. But don't worry--we'll smash them." He was a littlesurprised to note that he said "we"--and meant any and all of themachine-peoples, united now in a common cause.

  Dworn was bitterly wishing at this moment that he had had hisbeetle-machine again, and had been able to take an active part. As itwas, he didn't even know surely just where in the battle line thebeetles had taken up their position.

  A distant explosion, a single gunshot, rolled echoless across the flats.It was a signal. Even as the shell hit the ground close to the rankeddrone aircraft, motors had begun to pulse and snarl all along thefarflung line. The desert began to spew forth attackers. A motley hordeof metal things, they darted, stalked, and lumbered from theirlurking-places, and as they advanced to the assault the firing commencedin earnest, became a staccato thunder that blanketed but failed to drownout the beginning alarm-wail of a huge mechanical voice from thefortress of the drones.

  The enemy was not slow to react. Almost as the first rain of projectilessmashed down among them, jet engines began howling into life, and someof the fighter craft rocked into motion, wheeling out onto the runways.

  The encircling attackers well knew the peril of letting any of thosepilotless killers get into the air. Shellfire was being concentrated onthe airstrips, striving to block them, plow them up with craters.

  * * * * *

  A fighter drone came roaring out one of the runaways gathering speed andbeginning to lift. Dworn followed it with his eyes, feeling sweat springout on his forehead, repeating under his breath without consciousawareness of what he was saying: "Stop him, _stop_ him--"

  Then the enemy craft spun round in the air, belching smoke, came apartand spilled along the runway for a hundred yards. A second, coming closebehind it, plowed into the wreckage of its comrade, rolled over and overand became a furiously burning pyre. That strip was blocked.

  All round the central hive smoke and flame were rising in innumerableplaces, from the paved ways and from the open desert. On anotherlaunching strip, just visible through the mounting inferno, one of thebig queen-craft had sought to take to the air, and had been knocked outby heavy shellfire. Now its upended and blazing hulk tilted slowly overand collapsed burying beneath it several of the little wingless workers.In all the confusion these still scurried hither and yon, oblivious tothe bombardment, laboring frantically but futilely to clear away thedebris. Their efforts were useless, while the rain of explosives fromthe tightening ring of assault forces continued adding to the ruin anddisorder within the hive....

  Dworn sprang to his feet for a better view. He hugged Qanya to him tillshe gasped for breath, shouted in her ear over the thunder of thebarrage, "_We've got them!_"

  Close to the ridge where they stood a line of many-wheeled monstersrolled past--scorpions, moving along the battle front and, whenever thethickening smoke up ahead revealed a target, halting to wheel round anddischarge their heavy-caliber tail guns.

  Dworn had never liked scorpions, but he watched these with heartfeltapproval.

  Then he stared, bewilderedly aware that something had gone wrong. Thebig machines had turned and begun heading toward the ridge, clatteringalong at their top speed and no longer pausing to fire.

  Within moments, Dworn perceived that all the other attackers were doinglikewise; everywhere on the blazing battlefield, they had ceased theiradvance and were scattering to seek cover.

  Only then, as the firing slackened, did he realize that the sky hadbegun to echo with a spiteful screaming of flying things. Against thebrightening daylight hurtled some two dozen dark winged shapes ...fighter drones.

  Dworn realized they must have been out on patrol, and summoned back bythe drones' mysterious means of communication to defend the threatenedhive. Now the flight was splitting into groups of two or three, divingto attack at one point and another and flitting away again so swiftlythat human reflexes could scarcely act to train a gun.

  Dworn glimpsed Qanya's horrified face beside him, and the girl threw herweight again
st him and dragged him down among the sheltering rocks.Overhead, from out of the sun, shot three of the winged drones. Theypassed over before the shrieking of their flight could reach the ears,and Dworn caught a glimpse of bombs tumbling earthward. Thunder crashedas the scorpions hugging the ridge threw up a vicious defensive barrage,and was drowned out as the bombs landed all around. The rocks heaved,and dust and splinters showered down from above.

  Only a dozen yards away, a scorpion came rumbling up across the crest,its many wheels jolting over the rocks, and halted there, its tail gunweaving angrily as it sought vainly for targets in the sky. Along one ofits gray-painted sides was a long bright gash where something had barelyglanced from its armor. And Dworn saw, too, the black outline of amythological arachnid on its observation turret, which signified thatthe machine belonged to a scorpion chief.

  * * * * *

  Scarcely knowing what he intended, he shook off Qanya's panic grip andplunged recklessly toward the big machine. As he scrambled over therugged hilltop, he saw fleetingly what went on in the arena ofbattle--the allied peoples were being driven back, forced to concentratetheir fire power on beating off aerial onslaughts. Meantime, thewingless drones about their beleaguered citadel worked feverishly toclear the way for their fighters that still remained undamaged on theground.... Within minutes, unless something happened to turn the tide,there would be enough flying drones aloft to break the attack andinflict terrible losses.

  Dworn found himself alongside the scorpion, just as its tail gun firedonce more. The muzzle blast almost knocked him down, but he clawed hisway up the side of the machine and began hammering on the observationturret hatch-cover.

  "You in there!" he shouted. "Listen to me--"

  The hatch cracked open and a grizzled head peered out, blinking at himwith bewilderment and an automatic fierce suspicion. But at a time likethis anything human was an ally.

  "What's the idea?" demanded the scorpion.

  The racket of gunfire and of jets made speech almost impossible. ButDworn pointed out across the sink, shouted: "Fire on the buildings--thecentral tower! They're controlled from somewhere--"

  Luckily the scorpion leader--if that was who he was--was a man of quickunderstanding. He nodded vigorously and dropped out of sight again intothe interior of his vehicle, bawling something to its driver. Dworndropped off the machine's side as it lurched abruptly into motion. Hewatched, hardly breathing, as it slid to a halt at the bottom of thehill beside another of its tribe, and with shouts and gestures the wordwas passed on.

  Inside a minute, all the nearby scorpions had begun banging away at thestructures some three miles distant. The heavy scorpion guns were quitecapable of carrying that far, and their shells had enough punch to domuch damage to the buildings or to the central tower which still loomedoccasionally visible through the drifting smoke....

  But it was only a hope, perhaps even a forlorn hope. Dworn was fairlyconfident of his guess that the drones possessed some sort of centralcommunication and control system--but it would take a lucky hit todisable that nerve center in time.

  Qanya stumbled to his side. She cried something he couldn't hear overthe continuous firing, tugged at him and pointed skyward with terror inher eyes.

  The flying drones aloft had suddenly abandoned their scattered strafingattacks. With deadly machine-precision they wheeled into a singleformation once more, and the whole flight came diving straight at thescorpion battery's position.

  Dworn stood rigid, fists clenched at his sides, watching them screamnearer.

  He ignored Qanya's pleading with him to take cover. No point tothat--the drones' full force would blast the whole ridge to rubble andblanket it with their liquid flame.

  At least, the enemy's reaction proved his inspiration correct. Henoticed with fierce satisfaction that the scorpions were still doggedlyfiring....

  The foremost drone came on, slanting down the sky until the gapingrocket-ports were plainly visible along its swept-back wings. But thosesports still spat no flame. And it came on. It cleared the hilltop by nomore than fifty feet, still diving faster than the speed of sound. Ithit the desert slope beyond and ricocheted like a great projectile,bursting apart into fiery fragments that strewed themselves for athousand yards across the rolling plateau.

  * * * * *

  Dworn picked himself up from among the rocks where he had been flung bythe shock-wave of its near passage, and was knocked sprawling again bythe earthquake impact of a second drone that thundered headlong into theearth a few hundred feet away, burying itself under a crater like thatof a huge bomb.

  He glimpsed a third craft going down to the west of them, just missingthe rim of the Barrier cliffs and plunging out of sight without a signof coming out of its dive.

  Those which remained in the air were flying aimlessly. Two of thempassed over side by side, gradually converging until, a couple of milesaway, they locked wings and went spinning down toward the horizon in adeadly embrace.

  On the ground, a like confusion had befallen the wingless workers. Theirscurrying suddenly lost all its busy, planned efficiency. Some buzzedround and round in drunken circles; others ran head-on into one another,or tumbled into shell-holes to lie futilely spinning their wheels.

  A hush descended on the field of battle. After the fury of bombardmentand counterattack, the relative silence was deafening.

  Dworn got to his feet for the second time and helped Qanya up; hegrinned exultantly at her, oblivious of a trickle of blood running downhis face where a rock-splinter had hit.

  The scorpion lying nearest the foot of the slope opened its hatch-cover.A man climbed out, clasped hands together over his head and stamped onthe gray monster's back in an awkward impromptu victory-dance. Cheersrang faintly from far off down the silenced firing-line.

  Then--the spell of premature triumph was rudely shattered.

  From the direction of the breached and smoking buildings, there rose yetagain the soughing roar of jet engines gathering speed. Onto the runwayto the west--the only one which the workers had managed to clear beforetheir central control was knocked out--came waddling an enormous wingedthing.

  Its multiple engines screamed up to a frenzied pitch, and it rolled outalong the strip at increasing velocity. Its huge wheels narrowly misseda dead fighter slewed across the way. Its tail went up.

  Naturally, the queen ships wouldn't be dependent on the nerve-center ofthe hive that had spawned them; for each of them carried within itselfthe full-grown robot brain, the nucleus of a new hive....

  Shooting began again raggedly, the gunners caught unawares. Perhaps thegreat machine was hit--but to stop it would take more than one or twohits.

  It reached and passed the end of the runway, its wheels barely clearingthe ground as the paved strip ended. Black smoke belched from itsengines as it spent fuel lavishly, fighting heavy-laden for altitude. Itrocked with the concussion of shells bursting all around it, and then itwas soaring out over the Barrier, dipping and rolling perilously in thedowndrafts beyond the cliffs. But it steadied and flew on, out of rangeof the guns, rising and dwindling until it was a speck, a mote vanishinginto the western sky....

  But no more queens escaped that day. The cannonade resumed withredoubled fury, and the guns did not fall silent until nothing was leftto stir amid the gutted and blazing wreckage that had been the citadelof the drones.

  * * * * *

  Morning wind blew over the plateau, clearing away the reek of battle,bringing air that was cool and clear as it must have been in themorning of the world.

  In that breeze like the breath of a new creation, it somehow seemed notat all strange to Dworn that he should be walking in the open under adaylight sky, among a multitude of excited strangers, men and women ofall races, who mixed and exchanged greetings, laughed, shouted, slappedone another on the back ... then, perhaps, drew away for a moment witheyes of wonder at their own boldness....

  Nor did it see
m strange that Dworn strolled round the smoldering dronefortress hand in hand with a girl of the spider (who was by that tokenhis hereditary foe,) and that he turned and kissed this enemy on themouth, and she returned the kiss.

  They stood with arms around one another, on the edge of the jubilantcrowd, and looked out across the vast litter of smoking wreckage wherescarcely a shell-holed wall stood upright now, from which the Enemywould no longer come to threaten the life of the Earth.

  "One got away," said Qanya soberly.

  "Yes. Somewhere it will all be to do over again." Dworn glanced towardthe empty west, whither the queen flier had disappeared--where, perhaps,by now it would have crash-landed two or three hundred miles away, tospew forth its cargo of pygmy workers and (if the inhabitants or thearea where it descended didn't discover and scotch it in time) toconstruct more workers, fighters, a hive no less formidable than the onethat had perished today.

  Dworn said, brow thoughtfully furrowed: "But maybe there's a goodreason, even for the drones. Maybe they serve a purpose...." Hefaltered, unable to phrase the idea that had come to him--a thought thatwas not only unaccustomed but downright heretical. According totradition the drones were the spawn of ancient evil and themselveswholly evil--but, Dworn was thinking, perhaps their existence producedgood if, once in a generation or in ten generations, they came to remindthe warring peoples that fundamentally all life was one in its eonlongconflict with no-life.

  But he sensed, too, that that idea would take a long, long time to beworked out, to be communicated, to bear fruit....

  Qanya's hand pressed his, and she said softly, "I think I know what youmean."

  On one impulse they turned their backs to the ruins and gazed out acrossthe throng of people, milling happily about, rejoicing, among the grimwar-machines that stood open and abandoned on every hand. Near by, acrew of pill-bugs had