Kate Wilhelm - The Killer Thing

There was bedlam in the area by then, and trainers had taken off already, some to escape, others to swoop in attacking dives. Equipped with dummy bombs and light beams only, they were no threat; the robot knew they were no threat and ignored them, concentrating its fire on the ground forces that were responding automatically, setting up weapons in the distance, preparing to focus lasers on it although it was still out of range. Moving at twenty-five miles an hour the robot cleared the area of the port in minutes, then turned towards the building where the general and the scientists were meeting. The meeting had broken up at a call from a survivor of the robot’s attack, and the general was issuing orders for the destruction of the robot when line after line went dead, and the laser cut through the building. “Destroy all the spaceships!” Langtree shouted to him, and darted out of the back door.

Mulligan hesitated only a moment and during that moment the beam found him and cut him in half. The building erupted in flames and the beam moved on, catching scientist and observers alike as they fled. Langtree had left the building on a dead run, and when it flared explosively he dived into the swamp beyond the walkways, and lay there with his face pressed into the stinking, decaying matter that oozed into his nose and ears.

The robot turned the beam towards the space port then, and one by one sliced through the spaceships, all but one. With the terminal building gone, and the army in flight, only then starting to regroup, there was no hindrance as it rolled towards the remaining ship, hauled itself aboard with waldoes strong enough to lift tons of gabbro, and hurled out the seats that only got in its way. Ten minutes after it had left the laboratory, it was starting the engine of the spaceship, and three minutes later it was aloft, spraying the land below with the heavier lasers of the ship, igniting the forests, towns, the army camp, everything in a three-hundred-mile radius. No ship took off to pursue it. One man stood on the ground when it was lost in the dense clouds and promised himself that the robot wouldn’t get away with it. Langtree turned then and surveyed the area of death and destruction, and he felt a deeper fear than he had ever known in his heart.

The sun swung slowly overhead, the area of intolerable light moving gradually towards the west, lengthening the shadows once more. It was still too hot to go out to search for the other dinghy. Trace looked at the thermometer registering one hundred and twenty-two, and knew that he dared not remain outside long in that heat. He cleaned the inside of the compact craft, sliding units back into their places, pulling down covers over the controls, over the charts, and then there was nothing to do. He would keep his air conditioner on for two days only, then keep it off for the next three days until the robot appeared. If it was using infra-red to track him, this time there would be no heat trail for it to home in on.

He felt very calm then when he surveyed his lifeboat, all in good shape, inspection proof. He was a good officer, a good soldier. They had predicted that he would be as far back as he could remember. Not only because of his father who had been army all his life, but everything about him. He had been able to accept the discipline; from the start he had known that it was temporary only, that he would be in a position to issue the orders quickly, that until then it was a matter of yes sirring, and waiting. He had been a good waiter, and it had not been very long, not long at all.

He thought of his mother whom he had not seen for thirteen years, probably never would see again. They had lived on Venus, she, a descendent of one of the original colonists, he as the dependent of a Fleet man. He had seen better worlds since Venus, but still he thought of it with a certain amount of nostalgia. He hummed the refrain of one of the Fleet songs:

His father had sung it before him; his father before that… All army, as far back as the male lineage could be traced, all army married to daughters of army men. He should have married Corrine, the girl his mother had chosen for him. He thought of Corrine, third daughter of still another army general, General Scot Kerwin, retired. Corrine, tall and graceful, even back when he had known her at sixteen and seventeen. No doubt she still was tall and graceful, the mother of an army child, destined to be army himself in eight or ten years. His mouth twisted in a wry smile as he thought of other verses of the song he had been humming:

Had he left sons and daughters behind? He didn’t know.

I would keep you if I could, Lar had said, that last time. They had been swimming; water droplets sparkled on her red-gold skin.

Your way? Renouncing my own kind, becoming one of yours?

Yes, my way.

You know I couldn’t stay like that.

I know.

Mellic was a gentle world with woods and fields and swelling hills of green, with kind oceans and cold rivers and mountains that were painted with snow. The breezes were soft, the air sweet. Behind them the river sang softly.

Why are you back again? she asked, her fingers caressing a blue flower, her gaze on it.

I have escort duty this time. How are the meetings going?

Don’t they keep you informed about them?

Only rumours.

I see. The Outsiders are kind and firm; they do not wish to yield on any of the points of their ultimatum…

They are arrogant and too demanding.

No! Not arrogant. They came here before, long, long ago, and they gave their pledge to come to our aid at any time that we should need them. We needed them, and they came.

He stood up angrily and pulled on his uniform trousers.

Do you know what the terms are that they are demanding? Withdrawal from every world where our withdrawal is requested! Every world, from a civilised planet like Mellic down to the stone age world of Tau Ceti III. What do people like that know about withdrawal of forces?

Is that where you were injured by the spear?

Yes! They are cave-men still! What do they know about anything? They were starving before we came along. Now they are being taught how to provide better for themselves, how to protect themselves from the weather and the wild animals… He had finished dressing as he spoke. How much nakeder she seemed when he was fully clothed!

Would you go from infancy to adulthood without the joys and sorrows of adolescence? Would you be able to trust your own judgement, to prize your own achievements if there never had been that period of trying and failing, and finally not failing? What are you taking from them by forcing too rapid adulthood on them? Aren’t you actually turning them into slaves dependent entirely on your forces, your medicines, your decrees…

You are as savage as they are!

I know. Smiling, her eyes deep and shadowed by luxuriant lashes that hid their lights then.

Why did you say you would keep me here?

There will be war again, this time between your fleet and the Outsiders. Your people never learned how to accept defeat. Pride will force your government to war. They will kill you and drive you back until you are once more on the planet of your birth, and you will be lost to me for ever. I wish it were not to be like that.