Jack Chalker - Priam's Lens

“At heart, all minds, all brains, whether artificial or naturally grown, are calculating machines,” the mentat noted. “I can do some calculations better than any human. I can tell you the exact odds that the one boy who discovered Jastrow’s body far away and who ran from my transmission should be the one who shows up here at this point in time. Unfortunately, you do not have time for all the zeros. You are here by choice. This boy was sent. There is no other explanation. And if you let him leave here, they will know that we have a weapon and where it is and they will move swiftly against us before we can move. The boy stays.”

“What d’ya mean, sent? ” Littlefeet snapped. “You can’t guess how hard it was just to stay alive to get this far! You don’t know what we went through!”

“I’ve heard your stories while you’ve been here. I believe I do,” the computer responded. “I am not saying that you are a conscious agent, only that you are a tool. You have all been speculating about how the Titans think, how different they are, how they could never be understood. Don’t you think that, in their own way, the Titans are thinking the same about you? They can experiment with you, they can genetically alter you, they can mess with your minds, but they can only make you more like them or like their models. They don’t understand you as you are. They got an ugly surprise at that transmission of Jastrow’s. It wasn’t supposed to be possible, nor was there supposed to be anyone left who could work it even if one or another device were accidentally left operational. I think they started a hunt to find mentally receptive humans they could use as monitors just in case another Jastrow came along. They couldn’t recognize him—it would take a native human to do that. I think they’ve had some natives they could directly influence all along. Perhaps even the tribal leaders. The priests and nuns and the like. You were finally adopted into their network of control when you climbed the mountain. Why did you climb that mountain, Littlefeet?”

“Huh? I—I dunno. Oh—yeah. Some members of a Family got struck dead. Father Alex sent me. He wanted me to do a complete survey. To go as high as I could stand it.”

“Yes. I doubt if he knew he was being influenced, either, but they ordered him to send one of his flock into the stream and he sent you. Later, they cut off your family, then attacked and scattered it when you were not there. But your one real love somehow gets away and gets right to you. She `heard’ you, she said. And you move south, even though you know that rivers get wider as they near the sea. You certainly know that. You thought you might be able to cross at some point but that defied your knowledge, experience, and logic. They wanted you to find the newcomers, and they even used a Hunter attack to delay them so that you could reach them. Not because they understand what’s going on here, but because they do not. But if you go back out there, you will tell them. You will not even know that you’ll tell them, but your mind is linked to theirs, they can read it out. They won’t understand it, but they will get the record and know that technologically sophisticated humans have landed and risked all for some reason. It does not take a lot to understand that this would be a threat. They will know about me, and this place. You will tell them and you will not know that you tell them. You will tell them in your dreams and visions. That is why you cannot go, Littlefeet. That is why you must remain until the codes are broadcast.”

Littlefeet shook his head in disbelief. “No, it is a lie! A dirty lie from some—ghost! The demons do not own my soul! I pray only to Jesus!”

“It is not your faith I am interested in,” the mentat said, perhaps a bit sadly—if that were possible. “I do not have a lot of records, but I can guess that good men have been used unwittingly by evil since the dawn of humanity. You are full of coincidences, my young friend. Far too many coincidences. Deep down, you know it, I think, now that it’s been laid out. You cannot go. Like the guards of a Family’s night kraals, one must be ready to die for the many. All of this has come too far to be allowed to fail now. I have accepted that my existence must terminate for that reason.”

“No!” Spotty screamed at him. “ You can’t have him! I won’t let you!”

“I can manage a sufficient charge through the plates and catwalks that you will need to navigate, and I will not hesitate to use it. If Littlefeet does not remain, I will use a kind of lightning bolt and strike him dead as he tries to leave.”

They all had their mouths open, but there was nothing any of them could say. Finally, Spotty said, “Well, then, if he stays, so do I. I do not want to keep going without him.”

Littlefeet seemed to snap out of it. “No! That’s wrong! And the ghost or whatever is right. Maybe I’m being used by them, maybe I’m not, but he can’t take the chance. That’s what he’s saying. But you—there’s a different duty for women and you know it. You didn’t bleed this time so you probably have my kid in you! I won’t let you kill it! Go with them! Be a part of this new family! It’s your duty. Just like my duty, and the others’ here, is to kill the demons.” He grabbed her and held her and kissed her like he’d never kissed anybody before, and then he let her go and stepped away. “Now, go! And tell my son that his father died heroically!”

“Let’s get out of here before we all get killed,” Harker muttered anxiously.

Spotty stared at Littlefeet, and there were tears in her eyes, but she said nothing. There was nothing to say and no way to argue it further. Particularly if she carried his child, it was her duty, to him and to God, not to die. She turned, wiping away the tears, and gestured to Gene Harker and Kat Socolov to go. They started, and she followed, not looking back, although she knew that Littlefeet stood there fighting back his own tears and looking at her until she was out of sight in the far reaches of the catwalks above.

N’Gana shifted, uncomfortable that he would not be the only one to die, but resigned to the business at hand.

You two! Come over here!” he managed, gesturing. “Mentat? You still there?”

“Yes. I just wish I was not. On the other hand, I have just seen the most logical justification for my imminent destructive actions that I could possible imagine. We must free these people.”

“I don’t just want to free these people,” N’Gana told it and the others. “I want to go out with a bang. Most of all, I want to know if the damned thing works. Don’t you?”

Littlefeet nodded. “Something that will kill demons? Yes!”

N’Gana looked up at the great machinery, frozen for nearly a century, and pointed.

“Well, if that thing up there in those giant mechanical pincers is what I think it is, and if there’s a charge left in it, then I think we might have a shot. Mentat, what was the procedure when you made a gate? You couldn’t do more than trickle-charge testing down here, but was it encoded into the Priam’s Lens weapons system before it was shipped or after it was installed?”

“Why, it was encoded right here, since the security system was on the lower level,” the computer replied. “The targets are addressed by code numbers.”

“So, if I’m not mistaken, that’s a finished plate up there, stuck where it was when the power failed. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“And it’s already encoded by number in the keys, so if its number were called, then theoretically it would, if charged, be an end point for the energy strings?”

“Why, yes, I believe so.”

“Can you determine the number? And can you bring it to a full charge?”