Jerry Oltion - Alliance

“Famous last words,’“ Wolruf said.

The breakdown happened that same night. It was well after dark but still before bedtime, and Derec was watching Avery trace the expansion of an accelerated chemfet infection in a laboratory rat he had created for the purpose, using the same technology Lucius had used in his human-creating project. The chemfets had replaced most of the peripheral nerve tissue already and were starting in on the brain, and Avery had the rat running mazes every few minutes to test its memory as the chemfets replaced its brain cells.

The rat had just negotiated a maze with apparently undiminished efficiency, and Avery had picked it up to put it back in its cage when the lights dimmed and brightened again as if something had momentarily drawn a heavy load. Derec thought nothing of it; the city’s mutability made for unusual power demands, especially when a building shifted or grew from nothing. He had subconsciously learned that flickering lights meant the neighborhood would probably look different when he stepped outside again.

The lights dimmed a second time, and stayed dim. Derec just had time to think, Boy, there must be a big one going up next door, when they went out completely. The lab was in the interior of the hospital building and had no windows; the darkness was total.

“What the-ouch!” Avery shouted. There followed a thump and the clatter of the rat cage falling off the table. “It bit me!”

“What?” Derec reached for the table, found Avery’s shoulder instead.

“I’ve lost it. Lights!” Avery shouted. “Lights on!”

The voice-switch wasn’t working either.

“I wonder what-” Derec began, but he never finished the question. He became aware of a deep, almost subsonic groan that seemed to come from everywhere at once. It grew in intensity, shaking the floor, slowly rising up the scale into audibility. The floor gave a particularly violent lurch, and half a second later a sudden loud crack echoed through the lab.

Then came a sound like an enormous tree cracking at the base, splintering and popping as it toppled.

Avery’s shoulder suddenly dropped out from under Derec’s hand. “Get under something!” he shouted.

Derec obediently dropped to his knees in the dark and conked his head on the bench. Something furry-the rat, no doubt-squirmed under his hand and scurried away. Ignoring it, Derec reached out, found the kickspace under the bench, and crawled in. Avery was already there, but it was big enough for both of them.

From beyond the lab, transmitted through the floor and walls, came a last groan of overstressed metal, then a relatively silent rush of wind. Then came a peal of thunder that sounded as if Derec’s eardrums themselves had been hit by lightning, and the floor made a sudden rush for the ceiling.

The ceiling got out of the way in time, but just barely.

When the shaking and rumbling was over, Derec crawled out from under the lab bench and stood up, but he barely made it above a crouch before he banged his head again.

“Ouch! Be careful when you stand. The place has caved in on us.”

“Not surprising.” He heard Avery crawling out beside him, groping around in the dark and encountering the lab bench, the stool, which had already tipped over, and the remains of the rat’s cage and maze. A steady ringing in his ears accompanied the sound of Avery shuffling toward the door.

A moment later Avery said, “It’s collapsed even worse over here.”

“I’ll call for help.” Emergency, Derec sent, directing his comlink to the central computer. Derec and Dr. Avery are trapped in Avery ’ s laboratory. Send someone to get us out.

He listened for a response, but none came.

“The computer’s out,” he whispered.

“Impossible. The backup is a network of mobile supervisor robots. Even if the central coordinating unit were destroyed, the supervisors could function independently. They couldn’t all be destroyed.”

“Well, I’m not getting a response.”

“Hmm. Try a direct local command to turn on the lights.”

“Okay.” Lights on, Derec sent.

The blackness persisted.

“No good.”

“Obviously.”

“Now what?”

“Call a specific robot. Call Mandelbrot.”

“Right.” Mandelbrot. Do you hear me?

Yes, master Derec. Are you all right?

“Got him!” Yes, we ’ re all right, but we ’ re trapped in the lab. Is Ariel okay?

She and Wolruf have escaped serious injury; however, I am engaged in bandaging a cut on Wolruf ’ s forehead. I will call assistance to get you out of the laboratory.

“He’s calling help,” Derec echoed. There was a moment’s silence, then Mandelbrot sent, That is strange. I get no response on the supervisory link.

I couldn ’ t either. Something has happened to them.

Then I will gather what robots I can find and come myself.

Make sure Ariel and Wolruf are safe first.

Of course.

Derec felt himself blush. He hadn’t had to order him to do that.

Do you know what happened? he sent.

It appears a newly constructed building has fallen over.

Derec repeated his news for Avery, who had moved back to the lab bench and was fumbling around in a drawer for something.

“Certainly sounded like it,” Avery replied.

Derec shifted his weight from leg to leg. Crouching down was hard to do for more than a minute or so. “But how could a building have fallen over?” he asked.

“Easy. Just shut off the power to it when it’s at an unbalanced stage in its growth. The cells lose their mobility, and the building acts like a solid construction. If it isn’t stable, over it goes. But don’t ask me how the power could get shut off; there’s an entire supervisory subsection devoted to power distribution. Ah, here we go. Where are you?”

“Right here,” Derec said. He reached toward the place where Avery’s voice had come from, encountered his back.

“Shield your eyes.”

Derec just had time to raise his hand over his eyes before a brilliant blue light filled the room. He heard a loud hissing crackle from only a few feet in front of Avery, then the light dimmed and the hissing faded. Derec opened his eyes cautiously and saw Avery holding a cutting laser, now turned to low intensity and pointed up at an angle toward the ceiling. Avery played with the focus and the spot of light widened, but it was still painfully bright, and a wisp of smoke drifted away from it if he held it for too long in one place. It was made for cutting, not illumination, but at least it was light.

They surveyed the remains of the lab. The ceiling had indeed come down, stretching rather than crumbling. It met the floor near the door, and they could see the remains of the wall in which the door had stood smashed beneath it. Nothing had shattered; the building material had simply bent and crumpled under the stress. The monochromatic blue laser light made for stark shadows, accentuating the destruction.

“Evidently the core of the building collapsed,” Avery said. “We’ll have to go out through an exterior wall.” He turned the laser’s intensity up to full again and fired it at the wall opposite the door. The ceiling was still at the proper height there; Avery stepped closer until he could stand comfortably and began cutting a ragged rectangle into the wall. The light beam was nearly invisible at first, except where it met the wall, but within seconds it became a solid blue rod lancing through the smoke.

“Don’t breathe that stuff,” Derec cautioned.

“Good idea.” Avery stepped back and continued to cut. He got the sides and the top done, but the panel remained standing, so he cut along the floor as well. At last the section of wall twisted and toppled outward, landing with a clang on the sidewalk outside. Avery turned the laser intensity back down, took a deep breath, and rushed through the hole.