Jenine frowned. “Why bring four-hundred people together to eat? Surely it would be more efficient to delivery their food to wherever they live or work? I mean, it doesn’t make sense - we had to all eat together in our first few years to keep an eye on us and make sure we always ate all our food. But this place isn’t for children. These are all adult-size chairs and tables.”
“We don’t know that it is an eating centre,” Ewen observed.
“Well what else could it be for?”
They wandered to the self-service lane at the side of the canteen. It was separated from the dining area by a long bright red rope threaded at intervals through stainless steel stanchions - obviously for controlling a queue. On the far side of the long serving counter was an area as large as the canteen, filled with gleaming, mysterious machines, the like of which they had never seen before. There was some similarity with an industrial processing laboratory, but everything was on a much larger scale. There were what appeared to be a row of ovens, some weighing machines, huge vats with power-operated covers, and stainless steel-covered tables. In fact all the machines were made from stainless steel. Along one wall near the end of the rope were islands of trollies stacked high with stainless steel trays. Jenine opened a trolley drawer. Inside were stainless steel knives, forks and spoons in separate compartments.
“You’re right,” Ewen conceded. “It’s definitely an eating centre.”
An open flap in the long serving counter led to the rows of strange, silent machines.
“Maybe they’re left like this without protection because they’re all stainless steel,” Ewen observed, far from convinced by his own deduction. He returned to the eating area, unpacked his datapad at one of the tables and concentrated on updating his sketch plans. Jenine moved to the far end of the huge kitchen where she could examine one of the giant vats without having Ewen telling her to leave things alone. She saw no harm in touching the vat’s activate pad or reading the message that appeared on the screen.
“Ewen! Look up soup in the dictionary please.” She spelt the word out.
“Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Please!”
Ewen called up the datapad’s dictionary. “How’s it spelt again?”
Jenine told him. He checked, assured her that there was no such word, and went back to his map-making. Jenine saw little harm in touching the control pad again. The screen display changed to a list of words. It was obviously an option menu. The longest word was VEGETABLE - a word she knew because it was the generic name for the material that made up the palm trees and grass in Arama. But one didn’t eat trees and grass. She wondered if Ewen would look the word up to see if it had other meanings, but decided that it would be politic to leave him alone. She saw no harm in touching the word. The machine hummed and the message changed:
SOUP, VEGETABLE. 400 SERVINGS. CONFIRM ORDER.
Pads marked CANCEL and CONFIRM were now flashing. Jenine saw no harm in touching the CONFIRM pad.
STANDBY.
There was a faint gurgling noise.
Jenine gave an anxious glance in Ewen’s direction and pressed her ear to the side of the vat. Strange things were going on inside. She decided that perhaps there had been too many things of late that she had seen no harm in doing. The vat was filling rapidly with a liquid - probably water. The gurgling stopped and there was a series of thumps and splashes as though solids were being injected into the vat. This was followed by the ominous click of latches and a gentle, pulsating vibration. The entire machine began to get warm. Jenine rather wished that she had left things alone.
PREPARATION TIME: 2.40… 2.39… 2.38…
Her panic was calm and orderly. She touched the cancel pad repeatedly in the hope of shutting the vat off, but its control system obviously locked out all input once it had been programmed and activated. Even the handle on the huge lid was immoveable.
Ewen looked up, suspicion writ large. Jenine was leaning nonchalantly against the vat. “What are you doing?” he demanded.
The timer’s digits flashed accusingly: 1.10… 1.09… 1.08…
Jenine nonchalance stopped short of her examining her fingernails. That would be over-doing it. “Nothing.”
Which was true. It was the vat that was doing things: vibrating quite loudly now and emitting obscene glugging noises. Ewen left his datapad and entered the kitchen area. He stared at the rumbling vat and its lapsed time indicator whose digits were clocking relentlessly towards zero.
0.40… 0.39… 0.38…
“You can’t leave anything alone, can you?”
The vat belched.
“As I keep telling you, if we don’t experiment, we’ll never find out what anything does!” Jenine retorted.
0.25… 0.24… 0.23…
“So what is it doing?” he demanded.
“Well… Making soup.”
“What’s soup?”
“I don’t know. Some sort of food, I suppose.”
Ewen looked more closely at the display. “Vegetable soup?”
“Food made from trees, do you suppose?” Jenine ventured.
“Tree soup?”
“Well I don’t know!”
“You think food is prepared here?”
0.08… 0.07… 0.06…
His hostile attitude angered Jenine. “I’ve no idea, Ewen. But I think we’re about to find out.”
There was the sound of what could be steam venting through a safety valve. They moved what they hoped was a safe distance from the vibrating vat and regarded it worriedly.
0.03… 0.02… 0.01…
A buzzer sounded. The STANDBY message cleared and was replaced by a flashing READY sign. A solenoid latch clicked and the handle turned. The lid yawned smoothly open, releasing a cloud of steam that was trapped in an overhead hood and ducted away.
The amazing barrage of smell that burst from the open vat rendered the couple temporarily speechless. It was a powerhouse scent of such stunning deliciousness that it slammed with almost brutal force against the perceptions of two people who had never experienced the wonderful sensation of having their sense of smell stimulated by the aroma of hot food. Saliva seemed to flood their mouths. The steam cleared and they both stared down at the swirl of thick, strangely-coloured liquid. Bubbles burped to the surface, releasing more of the wonderful odours, making them giddy with their overwhelming magic.
“I think,” said Jenine slowly, “that I’ve made vegetable soup for four-hundred people.” She dipped her finger tentatively in the hot brew and licked it. Her expression suggested that she was having a quiet orgasm. “And I’m going to eat it all.”
4.
The computer sounded a muted alert. A facial muscle twitched in Inman’s temple, betraying his tense nerves. He looked up from his desk and regarded the computer terminal.
“A problem?”
“An unexpected power load in DNS-C,” the computer replied.
Inman rose and sat at the screen. He steepled his fingers, and studied the information that had appeared.
“The power consumed, the duration of load, and the time of the load does not equate with the normal maintenance tests,” the computer reported.
“Do we know where it occurred?”
“Only that it was on the main supply circuit to the DNS and not an auxiliary circuit.”
“Conclusions?” Inman asked expressionlessly, knowing what the answer would be.
“Somehow an intruder or intruders has managed to enter DNS-C,” said the computer.
“Armageddonist saboteurs again?”
“The probability is ninety-nine percent.”
“Have all maintenance staff been accounted for?”
“Everyone.”
Inman was silent for some moments while he gave careful consideration to the options open to him. Was it possible that the fugitives had got through the door? He doubted it. It was a pity that there were no visual intruder systems in the deep nova shelters. But such safeguards were passive - they didn’t e
nd the problem if there was an intruder. Instead there was a much more effective means of dealing with them.
“Very well,” he said at length. “Activate the MANIX.”
5.
A door opened to a small compartment on Level 1 of Deep Nova Shelter C, and the Mobile Ancillary Intruder Exterminator emerged. MANIX was not a large machine - it didn’t have to be - its sole purpose was the hunting down and destruction of any human shape it encountered in the deep nova shelter. Its designers had a regard for human life but the integrity of the deep nova shelters was considered more important. They were the key to the survival of mankind.
The MANIX hovered clear of the ground on powerful mag-lev motors that emitted a faint hum. Its cylindrical body consisted of a fast-swiveling turret equipped with a needle plasma discharge gun that could scythe through human flesh but leave plant, machinery, and fittings relatively undamaged. Its sensors consisted of a pair of wide-set crystal infrared detectors that could swivel independently of its body. The separation between the two sensors gave them the appearance of fearsome eyes although the intention was to provide the android with effective range-finding stereoscopic “vision’. Its brain was in its body, and consisted of an inertial navigation system and a digitalized map of the entire shelter complex. It could move along precisely defined routes that were stored in its memory, enter rooms, and know exactly where it was at any time. Its shape recognition firmware was crude but effective. If a potential target had the heat shape of a human, or if the heat shape moved like a human, then it was a human, and was therefore a candidate for zapping. It was a machine unburdened by the ethical considerations of Isaac Asimov’s First Law of Robotics. Security of the shelter was paramount.
The door slid softly closed behind it. The fully-charged MANIX turned left in accordance with its seek and destroy program, and scoured the corridor.
Cold.
The first door it came to opened automatically. It was a large viewing theatre. A quick sweep of the auditorium. No smudges of heat.
All clear.
The MANIX cruised down the aisle to check the toilets, its broad magnetic levitation shoe hovering just above the floor. There was no sense of urgency in its movements. There was no point in hurrying because, in the still air of the shelter complex, its infrared sensors could detect and follow the thermal wake - the heat “scent” trail - left by humans up three hours after their passage. The MANIX would work its way methodically through the complex until it picked up a thermal trail. Then it would follow it to its source and kill with that quiet and deadly efficiency that such machines are capable of.
Throughout the ages, it had killed many times before.
6.
Ewen and Jenine were sitting at one of the restaurant’s tables where they could keep the entrance under observation. Ewen had partly cooled his soup by pouring it from bowl to bowl; his mouth was not accustomed to the feel of even warm food. At first there was the shock of heat but that disappeared immediately. He closed his eyes and allowed the rich flavours to seep into his senses. He was almost afraid to swallow for fear that the sheer heaven of each spoonful could not possibly be replicated by subsequent spoonfuls.
“If I’m to compare this with anything, it’s like the first time we made love,” he said in wonder.
Jenine smiled smugly. “Try the solid bits. They all have their own taste.”
Ewen trawled his spoon. The curious mixture of tiny coloured cubes dissolved in his mouth, releasing bursts of individual flavours that were beyond description. They ate in silence. The experimental amount that Jenine had measured into their bowls did not last long. She rose from the table and entered the kitchen area to refill their bowls, using a long-handled ladle to dredge the bottom of the vat so that the bowls were virtually filled to the brim with reconstituted vegetables.
The fourth bowl slowed them both down. They experimented, sorting out individual pieces and playing a little game, trying to determine which they liked the most. Ewen decided that the little green spheres tasted the best.
“You know,” he said, toying with his spoon. “This reminds me of when I first tried those army rations. But there’s something else…”
Jenine looked at him quizzically, her head cocked on one side. “Go on.”
“During our second year they told us that we’d never have sexual feelings like the others because we were different… That we were the GoD’s chosen ones.”
“So?”
“I don’t think being chosen ones has anything to do with it. It’s another part of the big lie. We’ve changed and become like the others because we’ve not been eating the approved food-”
Ewen never finished the sentence. He heard the automatic doors open. His fast reactions saved them; he threw Jenine and himself to the floor between the tables an instant before the MANIX appeared.
The robot was confused. It had followed two definite heat trails into the restaurant. In one smooth movement it ranged the huge ball of heat that was rising in the kitchen area and fired twice. The pencil beams of plasma struck sparks off the vat’s overhead steam hood. The MANIX wheeled around and let fly at the balloon of heat it could see above the tables where Ewen and Jenine were crouching. But the shapes were wrong. Its sensors turned slowly; motors humming softly as it advanced between the rows of tables and chairs, keeping to the exact centre of the lane as though following an invisible line. It knew they were here. They had to be here because there were no thermal trails leaving the restaurant.
Ewen gestured to Jenine to move. Keeping low, they crept along the aisle and under the next table. The MANIX saw the heat bubble move and fired. The beam’s impact shook the table that Ewen and Jenine were crouching under. Through the forest of steel legs they could see the android’s blunt levitation shoe hovering above the floor.
“Did you get a look at its sensors?” Jenine whispered.
“No,” Ewen whispered back. “Standing up to give it a careful visual examination didn’t strike me as a bright idea.”
“Infrared.”
Ewen thought fast. “Okay. We’d better split up.”
Jenine wriggled backwards and knocked a chair over. She froze but the MANIX didn’t respond to the sudden clatter.
“I don’t think it’s got auditory sensors,” Ewen muttered.
“Try shouting insults at it.”
“You’re the one who’s keen on experimenting with the unknown - you shout insults at it.” He had an idea. “Keep under a table as you move - it might break up your heat signature.”
The robot moved along the aisle towards the cowering fugitives. It knew something unauthorised was there because it could see the heat from their bodies, ballooning into the air above them as a telltale smear of crimson. Only the dead could escape detection by the MANIX.
Ewen had to be certain that the machine could not hear. He grabbed a soup bowl that had fallen to the floor and lobbed it high in the direction of the kitchen. It crashed down somewhere but the MANIX didn’t respond to the sudden sound.
“Jenine! We can talk! It definitely can’t hear us. Push the tables against one another to block it!”
Jenine followed Ewen’s example of pushing the lightweight tables together. Chairs tumbled over as tables scraped and collided with each other. Eventually a row moved as a single mass, blocking the aisle in front of the android.
The MANIX’s snub-nosed levitation shoe was designed to thrust obstacles aside. It ploughed into through the tangle of tables and chairs without difficulty apart from a slight reduction in speed, and kept moving towards its targets, its PD weapon spitting darts of lethal fire that seared into the table tops.
Ewen spotted the serving lane rope and had an idea. “Keep blocking it! It slows it down!” he shouted.
Keeping a table above him as a shield, Ewen moved towards the serving lane, unhitched the rope and pulled it through the row of stanchions until he had the entire length coiled on the floor. He looked along the floor, through the tangle of furniture legs, a
nd located the MANIX’s whereabouts. He could also see Jenine. She was doing a good job but the robot was remorselessly forcing her to the wall.
“Jenine! Listen. I’ve got the rope. I’m going to throw one end across to you. Grab hold of it and hang on but don’t show yourself!”
Ewen steered his table towards the MANIX, thrusting other tables and chairs out of the way. Darts of energy smacked repeated into the floor near his hands as he struggled to free a logjam.
“Ready!” He yelled.
“Okay!”
Ewen hurled the rope with all his strength. Plasma darts flashed past his hand. The heavy rope fell across the tables. He saw Jenine crawl into a forest of steel legs and grab the end.
“Got it, Ewen!”
“Hold on tight!”
“I have every confidence in your ability to laterally think us out of this one.”
Ewen was tempted to argue but this wasn’t the time. Gripping the end of the rope between his teeth, he did a fast crawl down an undisturbed aisle, pulling the rope across the table tops and tipping chairs over as he moved so that it was stretched across the MANIX’s path. The android blundered into the rope. It rode up around its cylindrical body as it pulled it into a tight vee. The robot rammed its bulk against the resistance and kept moving. Ewen knew that he stood no chance of arresting the robot’s progress unless he moved fast. He needed slack. That meant crashing the tables together as he worked his way towards his quarry. A quick jerk on the rope. The oscillation reached the MANIX, causing the rope to jam under the swiveling PD weapon.
“Pull it tight!” he yelled.
Jenine hauled on her slack. Two shots fired at Ewen went wide. At this point he had to take a calculated risk. He used his feet to kick tables and chairs away. He needed a clear area. The MANIX headed towards him. Holding tightly onto his end of the rope, he dived across the open space, chanced a quick glimpse above the tabletops, and saw that he now had a half turn of rope around the android’s body.
“Jenine! Work towards me! Fast!”
They crashed frantically towards each other, shoving tables and chairs out of the way. The MANIX tried to aim accurately but the rope was snagged against its PD weapon. It lacked the intelligence to work out that going backwards would ease the tension. Instead it strained towards its targets, causing the rope to tighten its grip. Ewen saw his chance when he was four paces from the robot. He jumped to his feet, flicked hard on the rope and completed the noose. The two infrared sensors spun and homed on him. The PD weapon swivelled towards him but the rope’s drag slowed the aiming mechanism down. With a whoop of triumph, Ewen hurled himself at the MANIX and twisted the PD weapon down with both hands. The weapon spat a continuous stream of fire impotently at the floor. The android was surprisingly powerful. Ewen held on grimly, standing on its magnetic levitation shoe. The machine jigged violently, trying to throw him off. Jenine pounced. She grabbed hold of the infrared sensors and bent them down so that they could no longer turn.
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