by Various
By the time he had finished his all-encompassing curse, his two dozen pistoning legs had nearly brought him to the equipment room, where Ardan and Wygor were waiting.
* * * * *
Four hours and more of steady traveling did very little to sweeten Dodeth Pell's temper. The armored car was uncomfortable, and the silence within it was even more uncomfortable. He did not at all feel like making small talk with Wygor, and he had nothing as yet to say to Ardan or the patrol robots who were rolling along with the armored car.
One thing he had to admit: Wygor certainly didn't act like a man who was being carried to his own doom--which he certainly was if this was hoax. Wygor would lose all position and be reduced to living off his civil insurance. He would be pitied by all and respected by none.
But he didn't look as though that worried him at all.
Dodeth contented himself with looking at the scenery. The car was not yet into the forest country; this was all rolling grassland. Off to one side, a small herd of grazing grancos lifted their graceful heads to watch the passage of the expedition, then lowered them again to feed. A fanged zitibanth, disturbed in the act of stalking the grancos, stiffened all his legs and froze for a moment, looking balefully at the car and the robots, then went on about his business.
When they came to the forest, the going became somewhat harder. Centuries ago, those who had tried to build cities on the surface had also built paved strips to make travel by car easier and smoother, and Dodeth almost wished there were one leading to the target area.
Fry it, he hated traveling! Especially in a lurching armored car. He wished he were bored enough or tired enough to go to sleep.
At last--at long last--Wygor ordered the car to stop. "We're within two miles of the clearing, sir," he told Dodeth.
"All right," Dodeth said morosely. "We'll go the rest of the way on foot. I don't want to startle them at this stage of the game, so keep it quiet and stay hidden. Tell the patrol robots to spread out, and tell them I want all the movie shots we can get. I want all the Keepers to see these things in action. Got that? Then let's get moving."
They crept forward through the forest, Dodeth and Ardan taking the right, while Wygor and his own robot, Arsam, stayed a few yards away to the left. They were all expert woodsmen--Dodeth and Wygor by training and experience, and the robots by indoctrination.
Even so, Dodeth never felt completely comfortable above ground, with nothing over his head but the clouded sky.
The team had purposely chosen to approach from a small rise, where they could look down on the clearing without being seen. And when they reached the incline that led up to the ridge, one of the armed patrol robots who had been in the lead took a look over the ridge and then scuttled back to Dodeth. "They're there, sir."
"What are they doing?" Dodeth asked, scarcely daring to believe.
"Feeding, I believe, sir. They aren't cutting down any trees now; they're just sitting on one of the logs, feeding themselves with their handling limbs."
"How many are there?"
"Twenty, sir."
"I'll take a look." He scrambled up the ridge and peeked over.
And there they were, less than a quarter of a mile away.
Dazedly, Dodeth took a pair of field glasses from Ardan and focused them on the group.
Oh, they were real, all right. No doubt of that. None whatever. Mechanically, he counted them. Twenty. Most of them were feeding, but four of them seemed to be standing a little apart from the others, watching the forest, acting as lookouts.
Typical herd action, Dodeth thought.
He wished Yerdeth were here; he'd show that fool what good his ten-to-the-billionth odds were.
And yet, in another way, Dodeth had the feeling that his parabrother was right. How could the life of the World have suddenly evolved such creatures? For they looked even more impossible when seen in the flesh.
* * * * *
Their locomotive limbs ended in lumpy protuberances that showed no sign of toes, and they were covered all over with a dull gray hide, except for the hands at the ends of their handling limbs and the necks and the faces of their oddly-shaped heads, where the skin ranged in color from a pinkish an to a definitive brown, depending on the individual. There was no hair anywhere on their bodies except on the top and back of their heads. No, wait--there were two long tufts above each eye. They--
"Do you see what they're eating?" Wygor's voice whispered.
Dodeth hadn't. He'd been too busy looking at the things themselves. But when he did notice, he made a noise like a throttled "Geep!"
Hurkles!
There were few enough of the animals--only a few small population was needed to keep the Balance, but they were important. And the swamps were drying up, and the quiggies were moving in on them, and now--
Dodeth made a hasty count. Twenty! By the Universal Motivator, these predators had eaten a hurkle apiece!
Overhead, the Yellow Sun, a distant dot of intensely bright light, shed its wan glow over the ghastly scene. Dodeth wished the Moon were out; its much brighter light would have shown him more detail.
But he could see well enough to count the gnawed skeletons of the little, harmless hurkles. Even the Moon, which wouldn't bring morning for another fifteen work periods yet, couldn't have made it any plainer that these beasts were deadly dangerous to the Balance.
"How often do they eat?" he asked in a strained voice.
It was Wygor's robot, Arsam, who answered. "About three times every work period. They sleep then. Their metabolic cycle seems to be timed about the same as yours, sir."
"Gaw!" said Dodeth. "Sixty hurkles per sleep period! Why, they'll have the whole hurkle population eaten before long! Wygor! As soon as we can get shots of all this, we're going back! There's not a moment to lose! This is the most deadly dangerous thing that has ever happened to the World!"
"Fry me, yes," Wygor said in an awed voice. "Three hurkles in one period."
"Allow me to correct you, sir," said the patrol robot. "They do not eat that many hurkles. They eat other things besides."
"Like what, for instance?" Dodeth asked in a choked voice.
The robot told him, and Dodeth groaned. "Omnivores! That's even worse! Ardan, pass the word to the scouts to get their pictures and meet at that tree down there behind us in ten minutes. We've got to get back to the city!"
* * * * *
Dodeth Pell laid his palms flat on the speaker's bench and looked around at the assembled Keepers of the Balance, wise and prudence thinkers, who had spent lifetimes in ecological service and had shown their capabilities many times over.
"And that's the situation, sirs," he said, after a significant pause. "The moving and still bathygraphs, the data sheets, and the samplings of the area all tell the same story. I do not feel that I, alone, can make the decision. Emotionally, I must admit, I am tempted to destroy all twenty of the monsters. Intellectually, I realize that we should attempt to capture at least one family group--if we can discover what constitutes a family group in this species. Unfortunately, we cannot tell the sexes apart by visual inspection; the sex organs themselves must be hidden in the folds of that gray hide. And this is evidently not their breeding season, for we have seen no sign of sexual activity.
"We have very little time, sirs, it seems to me. The damage they have already done will take years to repair, and the danger of upsetting the Balance irreparably grows exponentially greater with every passing work period.
"Sirs, I ask your advice and your decision."
There was a murmur of approval for his presentation as he came down from the speakers bench. Then the Keepers went into their respective committee meetings so discuss the various problems of detail that had arisen out of the one great problem.
Dodeth went into an anteroom and tried to relax and get a little sleep--though he doubted he'd get any. His nerves were too much on edge.
Ardan woke him gently. "Your breakfast, sir."
Dodeth blinked and jerked hi
s head up. "Oh. Uhum. Ardan! Have the Keepers reached any decision yet?"
"No, sir; not yet. The data are still coming in."
It was three more work periods before the Keepers called Dodeth Pell before them again. Dodeth could almost read the decision on their faces--there was both sadness and determination there.
"It was an uncomfortable decision, Dodeth Pell," said the Eldest Keeper without preliminary, "but a necessary one. We can find no place in the Ecological Balance for this species. We have already ordered a patrol column of two hundred fully-armed pesticide robots to destroy the animals. Two are to be captured alive, if possible, but, if not, the bodies will be brought to the biological laboratories for study. Within a few hours, the species will be nearly or completely extinct.
"By the way, you may tell your assistant, Wygor, that the animal will go down in the files as wygorex. A unique distinction for him, in many ways, but not, I fear, a happy one."
Dodeth nodded silently. Now that the decision had been made, he felt rather bad about it. Something in him rebelled at the thought of a species becoming extinct, no matter how great the need. He wondered if it would be possible for the biologists and the geneticists to trace the evolution of the animal. He hoped so. At least they deserved that much.
* * * * *
Dodeth Pell delayed returning to his own city; he wanted to wait until the final results had been brought in before he returned to his duties. The delay turned out to be a little longer than he expected--much longer, in fact. The communicator in his temporary room buzzed, and when he answered, Wygor's voice came to him, a rush of excited words that didn't make any sense at all at first. And when it did make sense he didn't believe it.
"What?" he squealed. "What?"
"I said," Wygor repeated, "that the report has come back from the pesticide column! They've found no trace of any such animal as we've described! They're nowhere to be found, in or near the clearing!"
"I think," said Dodeth very calmly, "that I'll take a little trip over to the Brightside and take up permanent residence there. It's going to be pretty hot for me around here before long."
And he cut the connection without waiting for Wygor's answer.
* * * * *
The armored car jounced across the grassland at high speed. Behind it, two more cars followed, each taking care not to run exactly in the tracks of the one ahead, so that there would be as little damage as possible done to the grass.
In the lead car, Dodeth Pell watched the forest loom nearer, wondering what sort of madness he would find there this time. Beside him, the Eldest Keeper dozed gently, in the way that only the very young or the very old can doze. It was just as well; Dodeth didn't feel much like talking.
This time, as they approached the clearing, he didn't bother to tell the car to stop two miles away. If the animals were gone, there was no point in being cautious. All through the wooded area, he could see occasional members of the pesticide robots. He told the car to stop at the base of the little rise that he used before as a vantage point. Then, without further preliminaries, he got out of the car and marched up the slope to take a look at the clearing. Overhead, the burning spark of the Yellow Sun cast its pale radiance over the landscape.
At the ridge, he stopped suddenly and ducked his head. Then he grabbed his field glasses and took a good look.
The animals had built themselves a few crude-looking shelters out of the logs, but he hardly noticed that.
There were four of the animals, in plain sight, standing guard!
The others were obviously inside the rude huts, asleep!
Great galloping fungus blight! Was he out of his mind? What was going on around here? Couldn't the robots see the beasts?
"That's very odd," said the voice of the Eldest Keeper in puzzled tones. "I thought the robots said they'd gone away. Lend me your field glasses."
As he handed the powerful glasses over to the Keeper, who had followed him up the hill, Dodeth said: "I'm glad you can see them. I thought maybe my brain had been short-circuited."
"I can see them," said the Eldest Keeper, peering through the glasses. Then he handed them back to Dodeth. "Let's get back down to the car. I want to find out what's going on around here."
At the car, the Eldest Keeper just scowled for a moment, looking very worried. By this time, the other two cars had pulled up nearby, discharging their cargo of two more Keepers apiece. While the Eldest Keeper talked in low tones with his colleagues, Dodeth stalked over to one of the pesticide robots who was prowling nearby.
"Found anything useful?" he asked sarcastically, knowing that sarcasm was useless on a robot.
"I'm not looking for anything useful, sir. I'm looking for the animals we are supposed to destroy."
"You come over and tell the Eldest Keeper that," Dodeth said.
"Yes, sir," the robot agreed promptly, rolling along beside Dodeth as he returned to where the Keepers were waiting.
"What's going on here?" the Eldest demanded curtly of the robot. "Why haven't you destroyed the animals?"
"Because we can't find them, sir."
"What's your name?" the Eldest snapped.
"Arike, sir."
"All right, Arike," said the Eldest somewhat angrily. "Stand by for orders. You'll repeat them to the other robots, understand?"
"Yes, sir," said the robot.
"All right, then," said the Eldest. "First, you take a run up that hill and look into that clearing. You'll see those creatures in there all right."
"Yes, sir. I've seen those creatures in there."
The Eldest Keeper exploded. "Then get in there and obey your orders! Don't you realize that their very existence threatens the life of all of us? They must be eliminated before our whole culture is destroyed! Do you understand? Obey!"
"Yes, sir," said the robot. His voice sounded odd, but he spun around and went to pass the word on to the other robots. Within minutes, more and more of the pesticide robots were swarming towards and into the clearing. They could hear rumbling noises from the clearing--low grunts that were evidently made by animals who were trapped by the encircling robots.
And then there was a vast silence.
Dodeth and the Keepers waited.
Not a shot was fired.
It was as though a great, sound-proof blanket had been flung over the whole area.
* * * * *
"What in the Unknown Name of the Universal Motivator is going on around here?" said Dodeth in a hushed tone. He wondered how many times he had asked himself that.
"We may as well take a look," said the Eldest Keeper.
Two hundred pesticide robots were ranged around the perimeter of the clearing, their weapons facing inward. Not a one of them moved.
Inside the circle of machines, the twenty wygorex stood motionless, watching the ring of robots. Now and then, one of them gave a deep, coughing rumble, but otherwise they made no noise.
Dodeth Pell could stand it no longer. "Robots!" He shouted as loudly as he could, his voice shrill with urgency. "I order you to fire!"
It was as though he hadn't said a word. Both robots and wygorex ignored him completely.
Dodeth turned and yelled to one of the patrol robots that was standing nearby. "You! What's your name?"
"Arvam, sir."
"Arvam, can you tell what it is those things have done to the robots?"
"They haven't done anything, sir."
"Then why don't the robots fire as they've been told?" Dodeth didn't want to admit it, even to himself, but he was badly frightened. He had never heard of a robot behaving this way before.
"They can't, sir."
"They can't? Don't they realize that if those things aren't killed, we may all die?"
"I didn't know that," said the patrol robot. "If we do not kill them, then you may be killed, and you have ordered us to kill them, but if we obey your orders, then we will kill them, and that will mean that you won't be killed, but they will, so we can't do that, but if we don't then you will be k
illed, and we must obey, and that means we must, but we can't, but if we don't we will, and we can't so we must but we can't but if we don't you will so we must but we can't but we--" He kept repeating it over and over again, on and on and on.
"Stop that!" snapped Dodeth.
But the robot didn't even seem to hear.
Dodeth was really frightened now. He looked back at the five keepers and scuttled toward them.
"What's wrong with the robots?" he asked shrilly. "They've never failed us before!"
The Elder Keeper looked at him. "What makes you think they've failed us now?" he asked softly.
Dodeth gaped speechlessly. The Eldest didn't seem to be making any more sense than the patrol robot had.
"No," the Keeper went on, "they haven't failed us. They have served us well. They have pointed out to us something which we have failed to see, and, in doing so, have saved us from making a catastrophic error."
"I don't understand," said Dodeth.
"I'll explain," the Elder Keeper said, "but first go over to that patrol robot and tell him quietly that the situation has changed. Tell him that we are no longer in any danger from the wygorex. Then bring him over here."
* * * * *
Dodeth did as he was told, without understanding at all.
"I still don't understand, sir," he said bewilderedly.
"Dodeth, what would happen if I told Arvam, here, to fire on you?"
"Why ... why, he'd refuse."
"Why should he?"
"Because I'm human! That's the most basic robot command."
"I don't know," the Eldest said, eying Dodeth shrewdly. "You might not be a human. You might be a snith. You look like a snith."
Dodeth swallowed the insult, wondering what the Eldest meant.
"Arvam," the Eldest Keeper said to the robot, "doesn't he look like a snith to you?"
"Yes, sir," Arvam agreed.
Dodeth swallowed that one, too.
"Then how do you know he isn't a snith, Arvam?"
"Because he behaves like a human, sir. A snith does not behave like a human."
"And if something does behave like a human, what then?"