Barrington Bayley - Barrington Bayley SF Gateway Omnibus - The Soul of the Robot, The Knights of the Limits, The Fall of Chronopolis

He returned to his desk. Jasperodus spoke softly through the terminal.

‘Cree.’

Inwing looked round startled. ‘Who is it?’

‘It is I, Jasperodus.’

Bewilderment appeared on Inwing’s face. Then his expression firmed. ‘That is not his voice,’ he said sternly.

‘My own voice is lost to me. I can only use whatever vodors are available.’

‘Then where on Earth are you? I heard you had been… destroyed.’

‘There are bits of me all over the palace,’ Jasperodus told him. ‘I was destroyed, but only to a degree. The engineers incorporated me into the service system.’ He chuckled gently. ‘A gross underutilisation of my components, if you ask me.’

He went on to describe in detail how he had been broken up, and how he had been able to reconnect all the parts of his redeployed brain through the system’s comlines. Cree reacted by looking in turns astounded and agitated, and at one time his hands began to tremble.

‘I want to escape this imprisonment,’ Jasperodus finished. ‘Will you help me, Cree?’

‘Wait! Wait! Don’t go any further!’ Cree rubbed his eyes, then leaned forward with his elbows on the desk and buried his face in his hands. ‘Give me time to take it in!’

Jasperodus waited. He realised that Cree was now middle-aged, no longer the dashing young man he had once been. Jasperodus’ entreaty doubtless came as a severe crisis for him.

Finally Cree sighed and uncovered his face.

‘So you want to be reconstructed.’

‘Yes.’

Again Jasperodus waited, for what seemed to him a long time.

‘Well?’ he said then.

‘No need to ask. I’m with you, all the way.’

‘It will involve you in some risk,’ Jasperodus pointed out.

‘I owe it to you. Besides, I heard something about that raw deal you got. A bad show, Jasperodus. I’m sorry.’

Jasperodus was elated. He had not expected to find help so easily. He had anticipated having to suffer his living incarceration for years before finding some means of extricating himself.

‘You’ve heard my tale,’ he said. ‘What of yours?’

Cree shrugged. ‘Oh, my story is ordinary enough. I got my commission – thanks to you. Had some good times. Got wounded in action on Mars – lost part of a leg. So here I am with a desk job in Tansiann. Still, things could be worse.’ He ruminated. ‘What happens now, Jasperodus? I’ll do whatever you say.’

‘I know I can depend on you,’ Jasperodus said. ‘Listen: I know exactly where all my components are as far as the service system is concerned, but that gives me, in effect, only my brain and a few ancillaries. I have no body. It will be necessary to acquire a new one, and for that you will need money. Also, we will need the services of roboticians we can trust and who are prepared to act criminally. They will need to be bribed.’

Cree nodded. ‘I understand. My funds are at your disposal. If they are are not enough, well…’ he fingered his moustache. ‘We will think of something…’

A few days later Cree entered his office in high spirits. He had been nosing around in the storerooms under the palace, and there he had found Jasperodus’ decorticated body, complete and undamaged.

‘Obviously nobody bothered sending it for scrap,’ he crowed, rubbing his hands. ‘You’ll look like your old self again, Jasperodus.’

‘I’m relieved to hear it,’ Jasperodus congratulated, ‘and also pleased to learn that now there need be no lengthy delay while a new one is manufactured. Have you hired the roboticians yet?’

‘Have patience. I am putting out feelers, but give me a few more days.’

‘Very well, but now that the event is close it is time to discuss practical details. Cutting so much cerebration out of the system will certainly be noticed quickly because of the deterioration in performance. So the thing will have to be done all at once in a short space of time, and at night. Several men will be needed to extract my parts from various points in the palace, which will require careful planning.’

Cree frowned. ‘I was hoping it could be managed stealthily, piece by piece. Surely the system has some redundancy built into it? You said yourself your components were being underutilised. Couldn’t you arrange for the functions to be taken over elsewhere?’

‘Possibly, as a makeshift measure, but it would be difficult, and as more of me is removed the harder it would become for me to arrange anything at all. Besides…’

Jasperodus hesitated. Then, diffidently, he told of the sexual function he had acquired, and which now was also incorporated into the service system.

‘It is being used as a crucial nexus for the whole network,’ he explained. ‘It has so much capacity that it could not possibly be substituted for. Its removal will result in what amounts to a breakdown of the system as an integrated function.’

Cree’s mouth had been agape as he heard of Jasperodus’ sexual adventures. He laughed uproariously and slapped his thigh. ‘You’re still the man I knew you for, Jasperodus! A robot and a maid – that I’d like to see!’

‘You may,’ Jasperodus promised, ‘if you respect my wishes in this regard.’

On a dark night a little under a month later, Jasperodus’ reassembly was accomplished. As his functions were excised his awareness dimmed, then descended into oblivion. He knew no more until he found himself standing, fully restored, in a windowless stonewalled room much like the one where he had been broken up. Near him stood Cree Inwing and three roboticians – among them, he noted with surprise, one of the team that had deactivated him in the first place. The scene was much the same as on that occasion, with robotic tools scattered all over. Only the wreckers were missing.

‘Walk to the wall,’ said the latter robotician curtly. ‘Spin round quickly – reach up – touch your toes. Right. Stand on your left leg, raise your right leg and bend to the left to touch the floor with your fingers. Right. Now similar on your right leg. Good.’ All three watched closely while Jasperodus performed these exercises. ‘How do you feel? Any nodges, wiggles or disloes?’

Jasperodus listened into himself. ‘None,’ he said in answer to their robotic jargon.

‘Good.’ The man turned to Inwing. ‘We’re finished.’

Jasperodus moved forward and in an uncharacteristically fond gesture placed his hands around Cree’s shoulders. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’

Cree was embarrassed but pleased. ‘Steady on, old chap. Don’t let that sex centre get the better of you!’ He chuckled, then became serious. ‘It will shortly be dawn. We’d better get moving before light. There’ll be no problems: I have a pass, and as an accompanying construct you need none. These fellows will make their own way out half an hour later.’

He dipped into a large canvas hold-all and handed to each man a small but heavy cloth bag jingling with money. They inspected the contents briefly, nodded to him and left.

‘Did you say you intend to come with me?’ Jasperodus inquired. ‘You have implicated yourself?’

‘My career in the service of the Emperor is over,’ Cree said with a sigh. ‘While it is always possible that my part in the rifling of the service system will go undetected, it is not a possibility I would care to depend on. Anyway, the question is hypothetical. To bring our project to fruition I have been obliged to resort to further malfeasance.’ He grimaced. ‘Those rogues weren’t bought cheaply.’

‘Are you referring to malversation?’ Jasperodus asked delicately.

‘The supply funds are now short a hundred and fifty thousand crowns.’

Jasperodus became thoughtful. ‘My predicament has involved you in considerable sacrifice.’