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Slaves to the Metal Horde - Stephen marlowe · Science Fiction Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter one, Johnny Hope backed off, warily, retreating towards the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: sun dried creek bed a jagged brown scar across the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: parched grassland. He carried no weapon, and as the others
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: closed in about him in a tightening semicircle, his eyes
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: darted furtively in all directions, but all the faces were
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: stamped as from a mold, with uncompromising hostility. Johnny licked
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: his lips and said, I want to bury them. Let
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: me bury them, and then I'll go. I promise de Reggio.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: The mayor brandished his club, which was an old rifle
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: stock with half the jagged corroded barrel forming a handle. Go,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: he said. He took a long stride toward Johnny, then
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: changed his mind when the youth held his ground. They
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: cannot be buried, Johnny Hope. You know your parents must
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: be burned, as the law dictates. Blinking sweat from his eyes,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Johnny felt the sun scorching down through the glaring midsummer
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: heat haze. It was the last wish of my father,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: he said, softly, his voice hardy more than a whisper,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: that I should take them forth from the village and
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: bury them with a prayer for their Christian souls. No
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: de Reggio bellowed. He was a great chested man with
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: sloping shoulders and almost no neck. We cannot deliver their
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: bodies to you. We cannot let you come back into
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Hamilton Village and take them, for you comforted them in
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: their last hours, and are there for a victim of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the plague yourself. He pointed with the rifle stock toward
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the far hills Purple with distance go. Johnny shook his head,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: planting his feet firmly, wiping sweat dampened hands on the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: worn fabric of his denim trousers. Then he held his
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: palms up and said, where where is the plague? You've
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: been contaminated. Nearly the entire village had gathered behind their
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: mare now, and the mutterings were angry. When Johnny began
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to walk toward them, his hands outstretched to show no
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: plague scars mark their skin. Someone hurled a stone. Instinctively,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Johnny hunched his shoulder and caught the missile on his collarbone.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: It jarred him and left an angry red mark where
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the capillaries had burst beneath the skin. Staggering back toward
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the creek bed, Johnny was felled by a fusillade of stones.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: He crouched on all fours at the edge of the dry,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: brown earth head, spinning, vision blurring with pain. He expected
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: more stones to usher in the final blackness, But when
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: he could again see clearly, De Reggio's muscle corded legs
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: straddled him, and the mayor cried enough let Johnny hope
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: to part with his life. It was a brave gesture
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: de Reggio had made, approaching within inches of Johnny, whose
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: parents had been slain by the plague. But Reggio and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Johnny's father had been close friends all their lives, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: had fought together in the last days of World War
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Three before the plague brought warfare and civilization to an
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: abrupt halt. Johnny forced himself upright on trembling legs. I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: thank you for my life, he said, but not for
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: how you treat your dead companion in arms. The color
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: drained from de Reggio's olive skinned face. Think what you will, Johnny,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: think it, but go while you still can, and remember
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that our first concern is with the living. The dead
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: are beyond recall, and the plague victims can spread carnage
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: in their wake. You know, I loved your father like
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: a brother, and your mother. The Reggio and Johnny's dead
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: mother were cousins, had been raised together under the same
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: roof in the long gone days before the war. Except
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: for Johnny himself, the death of his parents could have
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: disturbed no one more than de Reggio. All right, said Johnny,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I'll go. There was a loud sucking in of breasth
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: relief from the crowd. But first I have this to say.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I have visited the old, ruined cities. I have seen
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia on its river, and once I went north as
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: far as New York, the great stumps of its buildings,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: coming right down to the water's edge on the island
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: called Manhattan. I have seen these things, and although I
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: am young, I tell you this. We will not return
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: to our greatness unless we strike out boldly instead of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: sitting huddled in fear at the thought of the plague.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: It is what his father always said. Someone whispered from
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the edge of the crowd. The robots will cure the plague,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: some one else, a woman declared. Johnny laughed, and had
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: never heard such a sound before. From his lips or others.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: The robots will care nothing, he said, Has anyone here
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: ever seen the robots? The faltering wave of sound from
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the crowd was in the negative. I have seen them,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Johnny told his people, with whom he could no longer live.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: My father wanted it that way. He sent me to
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the cities, and to the mysterious places between the cities,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the gleaming white surface roads which we use no longer,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to see the robots. And I tell you this, they
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: will not cure the plague. If anything, they'll spread it.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: A hushed silence fell like a pall on the assembly.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: None of them had ever seen the robots, but that
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was because it was not proper for a mortal to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: see a deity. This was the truth my father could
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: not tell you in his lifetime. Johnny went on. He
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: knew you would have laughed and mocked, or worse in
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: his death. I tell it to you for him, along
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: with his wish to be interred in the ground. It
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: was his final thought to Reggio did not look Johnny
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: squarely in the eye. I think you had better go, lad.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: You have no right to talk like that. Johnny shrugged,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: feeling the weight of a knowledge and wisdom beyond his years.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I am twenty three, he said. I was an infant
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: when the war ended. Yet my father could teach me
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: certain things, and other things I could see for myself,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: because he taught me to be curious and take nothing
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: for granted. You could learn the same some day, perhaps
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: by the robots. To Reggio swore softly, hissing the words
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: almost in Johnny's ears, go before you antagonize them. If
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: they start throwing things again, I won't be able to
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: save you. Johnny turned his back and square to shoulders.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: In a gesture compounded as much of defiance as contempt,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: he told de Reggio, at least do one thing for me,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: if I can. When they are burned, say a prayer,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: one of the old prayers, if you remember. Johnny did
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: not wait for an answer. He set forth in long strides,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: his sandal shod feet, powdering the sun baked ridges on
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the dry creek bed. He did not once look back
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: over his shoulder. But now with the people gone and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: his pride no longer a barrier, he sobbed softly, thinking
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of his parents, who had died because they had to
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: venture forth from Hamilton Village. To learn some of the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: truths which were hidden from their people, and so had
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: come down with the plague. Hours later, as the sun
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: sank toward the western horizon and the heat of the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: day became less intense, Johnny heard the distant baying of
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: dogs as the village hounds picked up his spore and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: followed it as prescribed by law. Mayor de Reggia was
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: making certain Johnny did not double back to Hamilton Village.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: He was alone in a hostile world which in twenty
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: years had seen civilization come tumbling down like a house
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: of cards in a hurricane. That night, he slept uneasily
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: on the bare ground, the soft footed padding of foraging
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: animals all around him, under the dark, moonless sky. He
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: awoke with a tremendous hunger and a parching thirst. The
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: latter he slaked in a swift, gushing stream, which flowed
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: clean and cool even in the heat of midsummer. Presently,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: he came upon a huge black hawk, its pinions flapping,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: its talons sunk into the flesh of a dead cottontail rabbit.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: As it prepared to fly off, Johnny waved his arms
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and shouted, frightening the bird of prey, which rose without
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: its breakfast, circled uncertainly, and then wheeled off to the east,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a soaring black ghost, graceful as a feather. Johnny built
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: a fire with brush and dry twigs and ate his
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: meal in silence. Feeling like a scavenger, he drank again
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: from the stream and began to fashion himself a spear
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: by uprooting a sapling and ripping off its branches and
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: rubbing its tapering top to a fine point. On the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: edge of a small flat boulder, he hardened a point
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: in the embers of his dying fire. After the makeshift
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: weapon experimentally, and headed north in the general direction of
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: New York. Two days later, the joints of his knees
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and elbows began to stiffen. It came upon him slowly,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and he thought it was from too much walking and
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: not enough food. But when the stiffness spread to his ankles, wrist,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and neck, and giddiness struck him suddenly, he began to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: suspect the plague. It was early afternoon, and he sat
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: down at the base of a thick trunked oak tree,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: propping himself against the bowl. He hurled his useless spear
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: away and wondered how long it would take before he
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: sank into the final coma and death. He ran swollen
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: fingers across his knees and realized they had puffed twice
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: their normal size. He could now feel nothing from his
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: knees down, and it was an effort to move his hands.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: A faint purple color suffused his limbs, and any doubt
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: he may have harbored about the plague vanished. Terreggio was right.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Johnny tried to rise and failed, rolling over helplessly to
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: lie half in and half out of the cooling shade
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: shed by the oak. The chills rushed up from his
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: feet and engulfed him, followed at once by fever. By
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the time he began mumbling in delirium, the sun was
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: going down in the west, casting long red cloud fingers
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: into the darkening sky. End of chapter one, Chapter two,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Diane darted from the stream with a glad little, shaking
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the water from her long, tawny hair, the droplets of
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: water sparkling on her bronzed skin like diamonds, The long
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: lithe lines of her body clothed only in the moisture
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: until she found her buckskin shorts and halter and dressed.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Life was comparatively simple and uncomplicated among the shining ones,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: and she, of all their encampment, remembered no other way.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: The others might look back with bitter longing, or curse
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: softly and feutally at the silver patches of skin at
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: elbow and knee, which marked them as survivors of the plague,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: But not Diane. So what if they were shun by others,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: by the non afflicted people who clung so doggedly to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: their mean existence in the small villages. She had but
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to hunt and fish and evade the bands of roving
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: robots lest they could script her in their services. The
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: only other bane in her life was Harry Starbuck, and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: she could take care of herself where he was concerned.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: She could. Something stirred in the undergrowth to her left,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: and Diane could barely make out the flash of skin
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: which said it was a man and not an animal.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: She finished fasting her halter as if she had seen
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: or heard nothing, then abruptly picked up her hunting knife
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and said, I hear you in there. I'll count three
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and then come in after you. She did not have
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to count. The bushes parted and Harry Starbuck emerged, his
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: skin scratched by the brambles, his boy's face ridiculously out
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: of place, a top and over muscled body, his knees
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and elbows covered by buckskin guards, an affectation common among
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the Shining Ones, but which Diane had always thought as
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: silly as wearing eye patches. Because you did not like
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the color of your eyes. You were watching me, Diane
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: said angrily. I warn you before, Harry, there's no law,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: he boomed sullenly, his deep voice belonging to the over
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: developed body, and knock the boy's face. I can go
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: where I want to. Diane slapped the flat of her
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: knife against her palm slowly. Some day, she predicted, this
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: blade is going to feast on Starbuck. I mean that.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Starbuck roared his laughter. Then no, be careful, he promised.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: But meanwhile, you realize you can't marry anyone but a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: shining one, and who of our people suit you more
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: than none of them suit me. You're young, you have
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: no family, no close friends to protect you. I should
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: take you, Diane shrugged, then regretted it as Starbuck's small
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: eyes feasted hungrily on the smooth play of muscle beneath
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the taut bronze skin. Then go ahead, Harry, but you
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: won't sleep nights because I'll be waiting. And if you
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: do sleep, you can forget all about waking up. I
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: mean that too, Starbuck. Buck was still laughing. I've half
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: a mind to turn you over to the robots and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: let them tame you a little before I claim what
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I want. Diane, let her voice do the shrugging. You
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: can always try, must we always argue? Starbuck demanded abruptly, petulance,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: drawing down the corners of his lips. I don't want
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: to fight with you. I want to I know what
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: you want. You can forget it. I'm going to take
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: a walk and maybe do some hunting, if you'll excuse
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: me with a knife. I'm not hunting for wild horses.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I think I'll go with you. Diane scowled at him,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: then girdled her knife. As you wish, but be quiet. Grinning.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Starbuck shortened his strides and mashed her pace as she
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: cut away from the stream and the undergrowth and headed
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: toward the foothills of the Pocono Mountains in the distance,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: where plump, juicy rabbits hid behind every blade of grass.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: They walked in silence, the man steps pondrous, the girl
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: so quick in life, her bare feet hardly seemed to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: touch the ground. In an hour, they had reached another stream,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: wider than the first and running deep with swift, cool water.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Diane immediately dived in and swam, then continued walking on
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the other side, while Starbuck carefully searched out a ford
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: and splashed across, with the water up to his waist.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: By the time he overtook Diane, she was crouching sitting
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: on her bare heels, the line of her back damp
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: under the buckskins, a long, graceful curve. Take a look
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: at this, she said, and pointed. Starbuck looked and saw
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the remains of a campfire at her feet, warm, he asked.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Diane shook her head, but not completely cold, several hours old.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Probably made this morning. Probably there's someone nearby, so what
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: so if he's alone, he's probably a shining one. And
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: we have enough people in our camp. Now you always
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: think competitively, harry one more man won't hurt your position
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: in our tribe. Well, if he's young, and if he well,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: if you I'm not promised to you or anyone and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: don't forget that. Besides, it doesn't have a thing to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: do with this. Diane peered expertly at the ground and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: soon picked up the stranger's spore, where he had come
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: out of the stream himself, probably after bathing, and started
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: out on his day's journey. Come on, she said, and
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Starbuck could either forego her company or follow her. He followed.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: The spore became erratic. It wandered in circles, double back
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: on itself, seemed either headed for no goal or incapable
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: of reaching one. He must have been hurt somehow, Diane mused.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: He can't be very far. What are you so curious about? Curious?
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm just interested. I hello up there.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Diane sprinted up a short rise, leaving a surprised Starbuck
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: pounding along several paces behind her. She found the man
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: lying face down near a large oak tree. Although it
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: was comparatively cool, his body was drenched with perspiration. Diane
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: shook her head sadly at the swollen joints and purple discolorations.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: They say it's a terrible thing, she told Starbuck as
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: he panted up. I don't remember I was a baby.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Starbuck shuddered. I remember, watch out, don't go near him.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: What's the matter with you? We're immune? Starbuck nodded morosely. Yes, immune.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: But he'll die anyway, So why don't we Why do
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: we take him back with us? That's what? Don't kid me,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Harry Starbuck. You're acting sympathetic only because you think I'll
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: like that. Well. I happen to feel sorry for this man.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: I think we'll feel better if we help him. Help him.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: He's as good as dead. Are you dead? You had
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the plague? Am I? No? But maybe one out of
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a hundred live. That is a much of a chance
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: for him. It's a chance, though, here carry him? What
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: who me? Now? Listen, Diane, maybe a moonstruck Starbuck had
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: his advantages. Suit yourself, but don't expect me to speak
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to you again ever. Starbuck considered this, then mumble something
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: under his breath which Diane could not hear. All right,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: he said, finally, but I'm telling you it's a waste
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of time. I'll be the judge of that. Still grumbling,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Starbuck picked the man up by one arm and one leg,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: staggered until he bounced his burden across one shoulder, then
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: started back down toward the stream. That's right, said Diane.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: We could reach camp in a few hours if we hurry.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: He'll never live through the day, said Starbuck. I only
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: had the plague a few years ago. I lived in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the villages, so I know he'll never live through the day.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Just keep walking. If he dies, we can bury him.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: By the time they reached the stream again, Starbuck was
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: covered with sweat. He forded the water carefully, Diane behind him,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: to keep a stricken man's head above water despite its
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: fever flush. She liked the man's face. He was young,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: not much older than Diane herself, with dark hair and
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: regular features, neither too boyish like Starbucks, nor too craggy
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: like most of the older men she knew. Occasionally the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: man would mutter something unintelligible, and when they got to
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the other side of the stream, he opened his eyes,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: stared at Diane without seeing her, and said in a
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: croaking whisper. Water they stopped. Starbuck dropped his burden, thankfully.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I can't carry him all the way back, he said.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Then don't go ahead, I'll stay here. Diane cupped some
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: water in her hand trickled it between the dry lips.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: She was not even aware of Starbuck when he left.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: She made a bed of leave for the man's head
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and studied him. The denim trousers suggested village life, but
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: she never suspected otherwise. The face still appealed to her,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: strong in appearance despite the fever, yet not overbearing. She
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: hoped the youth would recover. This is fantastic, Diane said aloud.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: It may take days before he recovers or dies. She
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: thought of calling to Starbuck before he retreated beyond earshot,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: but her pride forbade that. Shrugging and making herself as
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: comfortable as she could, she bathed the man's flushed face
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: with water day and night. The touch of the ground,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the cool water which bathed him, the patient hands which
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: kept the blood flowing through his swollen joints, all became
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: as unreal to Johnny Hope as the shadowy remembrance of
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: some half forgotten nightmare. His lucid moments were few. There
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: was this person, face unseen but comforting. There was a
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: little food and all the water he wanted. And there
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: was the fever, which came and departed, leaving an icy
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: chill behind. Once Johnny mumbled, go away, you'll catch it yourself,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: and there was laughter, soft murmuring feminine. He thought, was
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the woman insane to expose herself? So the fever retreated stubbornly,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: in no great hurry to depart. The lucid moments became
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: more frequent and of longer duration. The girl was beautiful.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: There came a time when Johnny sat up weakly, his
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: back propped against the bowl of a tree. The face
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: smiled at him. He willed the toes of his left
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: foot to move and watch them wiggle. He could just
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: barely feel them. With long, easy strokes, the girl massaged
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: his legs acutely. Conscious of her now, Johnny was embarrassed.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I'm all right, he said. He struggled to sit up,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: but as yet had no real control over his limbs.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: The girl placed the flat of her palm against his
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: chest and pushed gently, easing him back against the tree.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: You stay still, she told him. You'll be up and
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: around in a day or so, but don't hurry things.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I ought to thank you. You're crazy. Why did you
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: expose yourself like this? Why? He watched her as she
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: sat before him and drew her legs up, knees thrust up.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: She saw the slim bronzed line of her calves and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the metallic silver of knees A shining one, he cried,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: recoiling involuntarily. The Shining Ones had survived the plague, but
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: remained carriers of it for all their days. The girl
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: smiled at him, as are you. You're a very lucky
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: young man to live through this. The silver coated his
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: own knees, Johnny saw and his elbows. It would take
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: some adjustment. All his life he had been told to
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: walk in fear of the Shining Ones, who often swept
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: down on the villages, forcing the townsfolk to flee or
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: face the plague, and taking what they wanted of the
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: stores of food and supplies. I see you're a little
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: afraid of yourself. It's common enough. I was lucky to
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: have the plague as an infant. I remember no other life.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: You see, when you're well and strong enough to walk,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I'll take you back to our encampment. I dunno, Johnny said, doubtfully.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Just be patient with yourself. Adjustment will come all my life.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: They said the Shining Ones were monsters. When I was
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: a little boy, I had to be good because my
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: mother said otherwise. The Shining Ones would come and get me,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: carrying me off to kill me with the plague. You've
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: had the plague yourself. You've got to remember that. Besides,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the girl laughed easily. You're a big boy now to
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: believe in bogey men. Well, Johnny continued stubbornly, there are
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: other things. The Shining Ones are scavengers. They don't work
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: themselves or grow their own crops. Instead, they invade the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: peaceful villages. Then the natives, my people have to flee
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: or become contaminated. The Shining Ones take all the loot
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: they want some of us. I have been a shining
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: one all my life, but have never taken part in
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: such a raid. We do not grow crops because we
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: are not an agricultural people. We are nomadic and hunters.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Why the robots, the girl told him. Some of our
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: people joined them voluntarily. Many others are forced into bondage.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: If we don't keep on the move, they'll find us.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Agriculture is an impossible art when you're encampain is always
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: on the move. It gave Johnny food for thought, and
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: something of the girl's own frankness made him do his
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: thinking aloud. If I remain alone I'll be a hermit.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I've seen the hermit shining ones wandering through the hills
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: alone and friendless wild men. If I go with you,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I become almost an enemy of my own people. They
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: are no longer yours people. You must realize that. And
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: if I go with you, I can learn about the
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: robots and perhaps one day bring the truth back to
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: my people. Tell me, do the robots cure the plague
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: or spread it? They spread it? Johnny smiled grimly. I'll
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: go with you. Two days and half a dozen good
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: meals later, the girl helped him to his feet and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: nursed him along for his first few on certain steps,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: but strength flowed back into his legs rapidly. He was
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: walking without support by the time they reached the wide
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: stream and saw the girl's nod of silent approval as
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: he swam across at with her matching swift stroke for stroke.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: An hour went by, and Johnny became amazed at the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: speed of his recovery. He almost wanted to return to
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Hamilton Village and shout, see, I survived, I'm back. But
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: he was a shining on a carrier forever, an exile
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: from the people and the life. He knew, and his
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: own parents were dead mute testimony of the havoc. He
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: might wreek among his people if he returned to them.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: They walked from the stream and shook the water from
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: themselves and looked at each other, wet like that, and smiled.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I don't even know your name, said Johnny. It's Diane.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: I'm Johnny Hope. I want to Johnny, get down. He
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: stood there, surprised, staring foolishly. They were on a small
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: rise of ground above the stream. The girl, who had
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: fallen flat even as she hissed the command at him,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: was tugging at his legs. He dropped prone beside her,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: although he still failed to see the reason for her
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: sudden alarm. She parted the undergrowth in front of them
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: with her hands and said the one word. Look. Johnny
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: had never seen the robots this close. For all their
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: ungainly bulk, they trod the ground softly, walking as he
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: had always seen them at greater distances, in a long,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: single file column. They were huge, antenna top creatures, their
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: great cylindrical head sections bigger than a man and gleaming
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a polished silver blue. Their eyes, four of them, evenly
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: spaced around the cylinder a foot or so below the antenna,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: white and bulging, with neither pupil nor lid. Their limbs
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: many jointed and metallic, various tul ends fastened securely. Instead
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: of hands. The legs were attached to the small body,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: but one fifth the size of the head. The arms
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: came from the head itself, just below the unblinking eyes.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: They must be twelve feet tall, Johnny whispered, sh softly.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: We're close to our encampment, and I don't want them
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to find us. They averaged twelve feet Johnny. Johnny would
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: never forget the sight. Many times he had watched the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: robots parading in thin line silence down the long, silent
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: roads which men no longer used. But now he could
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: have almost reached out and touched them. The absolute quiet
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: was unnerving. The robots must have weighed close to a
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: ton each, but walked with the stillness of stalking jungle cats.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Where are they going, Diane? I don't know who understands
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: the ways of robots, who can say abruptly? Diane was still.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Her eyes went big and wide, but she wasn't watching
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the robots directly in front of her face and staring
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: at her from unblinking eyes. Its body half coiled and
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: dappled with the sunlight which filtered down through the foliage.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Was a copper head. The tongue darted out in a quick,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: blurring red streak. The head cleared the loose coils and
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: swayed slightly from side to side. Don't move, Johnny barely
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: formed the words with his lips and hoped Diane would
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: retain her presence of mind and obey him. A sudden
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: motion would set the snake to striking. The file of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: robots paraded by just in front of them, an occasional
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: joint creaking metal skins polished to keen reflection. The copper
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: head was fully coiled. Now head cocked flat and ugly
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and perfectly still. Johnny placed his hand on Diane's thigh
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and let it crawl upwards, as if of its own volition,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: with an agonizing lack of speed. Now his fingers had
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: reached the edge of the buckskin shorts, and now they
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: climbed on the smooth pelt. He could feel Diane trembling faintly,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the motion unseen but felt, And now his fingers climbed
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to the girling belt, grasped the haft of the hunting
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: knife slowly withdrew it tiny fraction of an inch at
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: a time. At last he had drawn the knife clear,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: easing it slowly toward his own body. He balanced it
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: upon his palm, trying to judge the weight. He would
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: have only one chance, for the quick motion of his
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: arm would make the copperhead strike. If he missed. Sweat
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: rolled on his forehead and into his eyes, half blinding him.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: He cursed soundlessly, held his hand out flat, squinted, whipped
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: it forward. A sigh escaped Diana's lips. There was an
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: angry thrashing as the copper head uncoiled, but the blade
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: had pinned it to the ground, piercing the body just
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: below the flat head. Ignoring the column of robots, now,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Johnny crawled forward, swiftly, grasped the knife, and drew it
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: cleanly toward him. The head was severed from the body.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: The body thrashed furiously, then lay still in death. The
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: robots marched on, oblivious of the drama which had unfolded
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: at their metal clawed feet. The last robot glided by
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: the long line Reich treated into the woodland vanished. Diane
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: stood up still trembling. It took me three days to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: save your life, she said, you saved mine in seconds.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Johnny added her the knife. Let's find your people, he said.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: End of chapter two, Chapter three. It was Harry Starbuck
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: who met them when they emerged from a long, winding
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: defile overgrown with vegetation. The defile opened into a depression,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: perhaps half a mile wide, surrounded on all sides by
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: low hills, steep sloped, and blue green with pine. Unless
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: the robots happened upon the almost hidden defile, Diane's Shining
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Ones could not have selected a better hiding place for
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: their present encampment. Starbuck greeted Diane with in this case,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: you had more luck than brains. I see he has survived.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: He's one of us now. When she said that, Johnny
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: looked down at his silver knees self consciously. In time,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: he hoped he would grow accustomed to it, But right
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: now he felt himself somehow between two worlds, divorced from
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: his own people, but not ready to accept the nomadic
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: existence of the Shining Ones. Starbuck grinned without humor. Well,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: then he's in time to help us move, although I'm
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: opposed to it. To what Diane demanded angrily to Johnny,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: that's just too bad. Will you let me finish? Not
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: to Johnny, if that's his name, to the move, kelliher
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: has decided we have to move because a band of
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: robots trooped through earlier today. Maybe you saw them, We
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: certainly did. Diane informed him, Well, I don't like it.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Every time the robots pass, we have to start all over.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: What's so bad about the robots anyway? They never bother us,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: do they? They can script us whether we like it
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: or not. Well, what of it? Rumor has it? The
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: conscriptees live like kings. Anyhow, We've got nothing to fear
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: from the robots. That's a matter of opinion, Harry. At
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: that moment, another man joined them. Johnny Hardy had time
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to realize that he did not like the man named Harry.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: The newcomer was a big man, bigger than de Reggio,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: with huge shoulders almost three feet across and a long
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: mane of graying hair almost reaching them. He wore a
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: beard spade shaped and also gray, and covered his legs
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: not with the expected buckskin, but with khaki trousers he
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: had probably stolen from one of the villages. He greeted
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Diane briefly, then said, Starbuck here told me how you
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: are going to nurse a plague victim back to health?
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Is this the man? Diane nodded, and keller Her stuck
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: out a powerful hand, which Johnny pumped vigorously. Glad to
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: have you with us, Son. In time, you'll learn were
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: not the monsters you were led to believe all your life.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: But mark me, you owe your allegiance to us henceforth,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: provided you decide to stay. Johnny did not have to
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: be introduced. Starbuck had mentioned a man named Kellerher as
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: their leader, and the newcomer spoke not with the bluster
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: and arrogance of a leader unsure of his position, but
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: with the calm self assurance of a respected and powerful chieftain.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Keller Her would make a first rate friend, but a
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: terrible enemy. He'll stay, Diane spoke for Johnny. He doesn't
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: look like a hermit, does he never can tell? Where
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: are you from? Son, Hamilton Village. Keller Her smile was wry,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: almost rueful. Will you put in with us? I guess so.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Keller Her shrugged, then took Diana aside and whispered to her.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: After that, the big man turned and walked away. Diane
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: was quiet. What's the matter, Johnny wanted to know. Does
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: he always smile like that? No? Johnny, then tell me,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: we're going to leave this area because of the robots.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Starbuck already told you that we're going to travel light,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: but we're still going to restock some of our supplies
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: for the journey. I still don't see. I don't know
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: how to tell you this. The nearest village is Hamilton,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: so so we're going to raid it. We're going to
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: raid your village, Johnny. Starbuck's laughter carried through the entire
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: encampment of conical tents, each flying its clan standard from
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: the central ridgepole. Johnny wanted to hit the man, then
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: realized he would be striking out at his own mixed
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: up emotions. Diane was staring at him with genuine sympathy,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: but that hardly helped. She said, what are you going
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: to do? Johnny? I'm not sure yet. I have to think.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Remember you're one of us. Now. Any time you doubt that,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: look at your knees or elbows. You are a shining one.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Make no mistake, Yes, a shining one. But Hamilton Village
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: had been his home we don't harm anyone, Diane explained.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: I told you I take no part in the raids.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know why, for they're harmless. I saw one
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: once when I was a young boy, before my people
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: came to Hamilton Village to build their homes. The Shining
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Ones came down from the hills and simply walked into
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: the village. There was no resistance. Our sentries gave us warning,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: but it hardly helped. We packed what we could and fled,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: leaving most of our supplies and equipment behind, leaving an
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: entire village which we had called home, but which we
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: could never see again. The Shining Ones contaminate, Yes, we do,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you do. The villagers can't fight us. We could walk
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: down there unarmed and take what we want. Maybe that's
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: why I preferred to hunt instead. I'm not sure, Johnny,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: what are you going to do? She took his hand
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: impulsively in hers and squeezed it. They hardly knew each other,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: but they had saved each other's life. I wish I knew.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: He withdrew his hand awkwardly. He liked Diane, perhaps too much,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: but until he made up his mind, she was a
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: potential enemy. Soon Kelliherb returned to them, not alone this time.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: A dozen men crowded behind him, and others were leaving
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the tents of the various clans to join them. Did
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you tell me his name, or asked Diane. No, he's
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope, well, Hope. Get a good meal under your belts,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: and we're off. We leave for Hamilton Village later this afternoon.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: You ought to be able to tell us exactly where
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: to find whatever we want once we get there. Could
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: a man change his allegiance overnight because he now was
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: different physically, Johnny's heart was still in Hamilton, even if
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: he had been stoned from the village and his parents
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: had been burned as prescribed by law. But the rest
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: of his life he would be a shining one. For
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: a time, he watched while Diane fixed his venison dinner,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: savoring the rich gamey aroma. Then he slipped silently from
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: the encampment. Often, de Reggio would come to the large
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: bowlder half a mile north of Hamilton Village and sun
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: himself contentedly forgetting for the time at least the problems
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: of his office. This rock was no secret villager, not
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: finding de Reggio in Hamilton itself would know where to
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: look for him. Now he had almost drifted off into slumber.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: He always found this half away time most pleasant for dreaming.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Then he could conjure visions of the old days, of
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: the lost cities, with the beat of their traffic pulse
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: and the waking kaleidoscope of their electric lights, and the
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: driving madness of their people which kept them seething with
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: activity around the clock. He never traveled to the deserted
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: cities himself, as youngsters like Johnny Hope did, because their
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: crumbling masonry and bomb scarred streets saddened him. And besides,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: the robots had taken over many of the cities, and
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: since no one had ever bothered to tabulate them, you
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: were never sure when a city was deserted, and when
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: it was not better to dream of the old days.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: To Reggio, wake up, it was Sheldon Hope, his old
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: comrade in arms, who fought half way across a world
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: with him while civilization crumbled to ruin all about them.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Shell Shell boy, wake up, to Reggio, it's Johnny Hope.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: To Reggio, sat bolt upright, circles of light floating on
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: blackness before his eyes, from two much sun, Johnny, go away.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: They'll kill you if they find you here. Are you crazy?
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Keep away from me? To Reggio stood up and backed off,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: watching Johnny, you have no business coming here. You De
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Reggio saw the shining knees, the silver elbows, the plague,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: you survived it. You're a shining one, Johnny finished for him,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: as the mayor's voice trailed off a carrier. That's even worse.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: I was hoping I would find you here. I knew
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: I couldn't go down into Hamilton. You haven't much time.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about? Shining ones, Johnny said quickly.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Hundreds of them coming to raid Hamilton Village. They are
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: on their way. Now you'll have to leave. But I
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: thought if I warned you, you could have some time
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: to take your belongings. Reggiu accepted the fact without question,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: but with sadness. He shook his head from side to side,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: thinking of the neatly laid out streets, the small compact bungalows,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: the field planted with hay for the cattle, with grain, asparagus,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: beans and tall corn waving green in the summer sun,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: ready for harvest. How much time do we have? Four
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: or five hours. I think we'll have to hurry. De
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Reggia was already trotting back down the trail toward Hamilton,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: Johnny maintaining the pace with him, but hanging back half
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: a dozen long strides. I went to see the village
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: once more, then I'll go, what are you going to do?
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know. The Shining Ones want me to stay
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: with them, but I had to warn you if they
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: found out for my people, I thank you, Johnny, first
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: person plural, my people. Johnny no longer was included. If
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: the Shining Ones discovered his treachery, he would indeed be homeless.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: He wondered what Diane would think. Look at the village
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: and then go, Johnny. If they find you, I won't
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: be able to do a thing. And I wanted to
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: tell you, I said the prayer. A figure appeared on
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: the path up ahead. As he came closer, the man's
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: face was familiar, but his name eluded Johnny mayor de Reggio.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: He called, I wanted to tell you. My wife thinks
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: his voice trailed off. He scuffed his feet in the
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: dust of the path and squinted. Johnny hope he cried
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: by the robots keep away. I have a wife and children.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I only wanted to see Hamilton once more. We don't
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: care what you wanted. He brought a warning. Mayor. De
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Reggio explained, the Shining Ones are coming. The man held
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: his distance, but spat on the ground in disgust. Look
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: at him. You heed his warning. Look he's a shining
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: one himself. It's some kind of a trick you've fallen for.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: De Reggio shrugged hopelessly. You'll have to go, Johnny. Already,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the man was sprinting back down the path toward Hamilton.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I'll bring some of my friends, he called back over
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. We'll see about this. We'll see if a
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: damned shining one can go parading around Hamilton Village any
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: time he wants. And you've got some explaining to do,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: de Reggio. Then the man was gone. De Reggio turned
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: to Johnny, almost shaking hands with him from force of habit,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: then drawing away in self conscious confusion. Good luck, boy,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: we'll be moving. Despite what Lawford said, don't try to
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: follow us. I hope I haven't got you into any trouble.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: It won't be the first time. Thanks for the prayer.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: They would have liked that. When de Reggio looked up,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope had vanished into the woods. Starbuck led one
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: party of shining Ones toward Hamilton from the north, while
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Kellerher took the main band in from the east. They
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: never reached the village, though each leader saw the black
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: pall of smoke rising long before he reached Hamilton, each
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: knew the village had been put to the torch. They
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: met on high ground northeast of the flaming town and
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: watched the fire, fanned by a strong summer wind, burn
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: itself to embers and leave the charred skeleton of a
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: village behind it. They got word, Starbuck said, waiting for
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Kellerher to draw his own conclusions. It's happened before, But
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: now has anybody seen the new man, Johnny Hope. None
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: of their followers had even heard of him. Diane would know,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Starbucks suggested. She rarely joins our raiding parties, and keller
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Her checked, but as he suspected, Diane was not present. Well,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: we move on empty handed. Starbuck. You take your men
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: back to the encampment and round up stragglers or anyone
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: who remain behind. We'll wait here you're as bad as
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: the people of Hamilton, always on the run. I don't
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: mean to argue, but then don't. Men who want to
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: be conscripted by the robots are free to leave our
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: encampment at any time. Get that straight. But I don't
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: want forced conscription of all of us, Starbuck. Understand the
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: robots are around. Well. I was just letting you know
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: how I felt. What about Johnny Hope time enough to
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: see about him later. If he's still with the encamp
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: ampmant naturally, if he's guilty, he won't go unpunished. If
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: he's guilty, That's what I said. You're growing soft, keller Her. Yes,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: we don't elect our leader, Starbuck. Anytime you think you
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: want the job, you can try to take it. Starbuck blanched.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't mean it that way. I was only giving
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: my opinion. Don't unless you're prepared to defend it and yourself.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but Starbuck's eyes were smoldering. Get back to
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: the encampment, then I'll expect you here with the rest
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: of our people day after tomorrow. Can't make up your
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: mind where you belong, can you, keller Her pointed with
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: amusement to the buckskin kneepads. I know you're trying to
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: goad me, Starbuck whined. Maybe you don't like me as
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: a type. Starbuck personally, I'm indifferent. That was goading of
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: a more subtle sort, but it was lost on Starbuck.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Diane's indifference would irk him. Keller. HER's indifference was at
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: times preferable. We ought to be friends, Starbuck boomed. I'm
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: generally recognized as your second in command only because I
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: want it that way. Amos Wesler, for example, has forgotten
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: more than you will ever learn. That's clever, declared Starbuck.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: That's expert. You play us off one against another and
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: keep the power for yourself. Keller shrugged massive shoulders. It
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't original with me, but you're unusually perceptive today, Starbuck.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: And I'll say this, you've got more spunk than Westler.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: For all his brains, he's soft. You bring our people.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I'll wait. Tell your men that since they have to
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: pack our tents and cart our belongings, they'll be able
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: to rest when we reach our new encampment. My group
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: was set the place up. He ought to be a hermit.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: That Amos Westler. Keller shook his head too scholarly, no
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: outdoor know how. Give him a book and he's happy.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't last a week, but he's still a good man, Starbuck.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: We need men like Amos Westler, and we need men
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: like me. Keller Her grinned. You should have let me
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: say that. Trouble with you is you tried to ape me.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: I'm always a step ahead of you, though, and don't
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: forget it. Maybe someday I'll catch up. That would be interesting,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: admitted keller Her, dismissing Starbuck with a shrug and issuing instructions.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: As his men began to assemble their bivouac, Starbucks sensed
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: he had been bested in the verbal battle, but was
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: too petulantly egotistical to admit it even to himself. Instead,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: he made plan for his return to the encampment. He
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: hoped the new shining One that Johnny Hope, kid, whom
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Diane had nursed back to health, would be foolish enough
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: to return without keller Her around to steal the show.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: Starbuck might make himself a hero. If it weren't for
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the tawny haired girl who had saved his life, Johnny
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Hope never would have returned to the encampment of the
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Shining Ones. He left Do Reggio with the intention of
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: again heading north toward New York, but his way led
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: him close by the encampment, and he remembered the sudden
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: touch of the girl's hand, and before that, the vision
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: of her face, lovely and comforting, while he burned with
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the fever. Calling himself a fool, he entered the encampment warily,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: half expecting a dozen men to leap at him with
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: the word traitor on their lips, but the camp was
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: almost deserted and no one paid him any heed. He
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: found Diane returning from the hunt with a small deer,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: it's antlers not yet branching, slung across her shoulders. She
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: dropped the dead animal with a happy shout and ran
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: to Johnny. I'm so glad you're back. I'm glad to
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: see you too. Then the smile left her face. Did
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: you warn them? Johnny considered his answer. Well, he had
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: returned because he wanted to see the girl. It would
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: be senseless if he were not honest with her. I
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: had to, he said. She nodded slowly. It isn't hard
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: for me to understand they were your people. But tell me.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Does anyone know? I'm not sure. When they find the
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: village deserted and probably burn though, they'll know, yes. Diana
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: agreed with him, then snapped her fingers. But not if
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: I say you were with me all the time. See
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: you even went out hunting with me. We call this
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: fawn together. You'd be lying to protect me. You may
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: get yourself into trouble. How it's my word against a
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: lot of guessing. I can't let you take the chance.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: It's no chance at all. I want to do it.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I want you to be one of us, Johnny. We
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: all don't raid villages. I don't raid them, do I No?
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: But I but nothing. You came back here, didn't you.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: No one forced you. I came back to see you.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I guess well, you're going to stay with us. A
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: man wasn't meant to live alone like a hermit. Here.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Diane took his hand and led him forward. You can
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: stay in my tent for now. It would be silly
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: to build yourself one, since we're going to move the
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: encampment as soon as Kellerher returns from the raid. I can't,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: I mean can't nothing. I'm a good girl, Johnny, Hope,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: make no mistakes. Touch me at night and I'll scream.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: But I trust you. I like you. Her frankness was
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: both charming and unnerving. He wanted to say he liked
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: her too, but could not bring himself to utter the words. Instead,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: he slipped his arm about her waist and walked with
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: her to the tent, where she skinned the fawn expertly
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: and prepared it for cooking. By then, Johnny was sound
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: asleep and did not wake up until Diane stirred him
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and offered him a platter of tender, young venison. Shortly
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: after noon. The next day, Starbuck returned with his men.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: Those who had remained behind were disappointed because the raiding
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: party had come back empty handed. Starbuck wasted no time
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: adding fuel to the fire. Has anyone seen that traitor,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope? He demanded, You mean the new man, the
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: one Diane brought. Someone asked him, he's here. The ingrate,
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: the dirty ingrate. Starbuck boomed, so all the encampmentt heard him.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: One of us saved his life. At first chance he gets,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: he turns trader. Next thing, you know, he'll want us
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: to be conscripted by the robots. You should talk, Diane cried,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: as she and Johnny emerged from her tent. You're always
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: talking about how nice it would be to live with
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: the robots, Johnny hope isn't like that at all. Starbuck
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: raised his fingers to his lips and whispered, keep it quiet.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: If they hear about this, they'll lynch Johnny. All of
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: a sudden, you went to keep it quiet, Diane hissed
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: at him, that's right, softly, Well for your information. Johnny
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: was with me all along. We went hunting yesterday, just
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: the two of us, didn't we, Johnny. Johnny mumbled something
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: under his breath and waited for Starbuck to speak. Suddenly
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: the man shouting again. He slapped Diane on the shoulder, smiled, roared,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: thank you, Diane, Thank you. I thought so. Did you
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: all hear her? Diane told me she saw this man's
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: sneak off to warn Hamilton village yesterday. That's a rotten lie,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: Diane cried, but Starbucks smiled blandly. That's all right. I
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: know you didn't want him to know you told me,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: but there's nothing to worry about. You all heard her,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: didn't you. We heard her whispering something to you. One
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: of the men admitted she whispered, because she didn't want
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: the traitor to hear. She was afraid. She should have
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: known we'd protect her. I'm surprised to you, Diane. For answer,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: she flew at him with her knife. He laughed softly,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: so softly that only she heard it. A shocked look
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: appeared on his face as he parried the blow, twisted
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: her arm up, spun her around, and held her that
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: while she writhed helplessly, and dropped the knife to the ground.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know what's the matter with you, he said,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: He still looked shocked. That should be proof enough, She panted,
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: I never told Starbuck what he claims. If you're covering up,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: I can only assume you went with him. I am
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: deeply shocked. I did not go with him. I was hunting.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Then you admit he went. I didn't admit anything. You
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: are hurting me. Starbuck's big hand had twisted her wrist painfully.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: He gave no indication of letting her go. She said,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: you're hurting her. Johnny snarled, let her go. I'm all right,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: Diane said. Starbuck was going to let her go, but
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: Johnny did not wait. He circled Starbuck's arm with his
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: hand and wrenched until the bigger man bellowed and released Diane.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: Good Johnny said, I have no fight with you, but
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: he had turned to look at Diane when Starbuck's bald
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: fist slammed against the side of his jaw, knocking him down.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: He sat there, dazed, uncomprehending because he had not seen
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: the blow coming. But Starbucks stood above him, fists clenched,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: and that was enough to tell him. I still have
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: no fight with you, Johnny said softly. He thought he
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: could have taken the bigger man, and at this moment
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: could think of nothing he would rather do. But Starbuck
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: had already accused Diane of being his accomplice, and he
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: did not want to involve the girl further. He hoped
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Starbuck would be content to boast about his one punch victory. Instead, scared,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: Starbuck leered down at him, prodding his ribs with one foot,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: Get up and punch his teeth in. Diane pleaded, but
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Johnny remained sitting on the ground and shook his head.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: He explored his jaw gingerly with the fingers of one hand,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: as if the thought of rising to take more of
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: the same frightened him. His time of reckoning with Starbuck
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: would come, he promised himself. But now wasn't the time,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: not when it might involve Diane. You're not going to
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: sit there, Diane insisted, don't just sit there. Johnny shrugged.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Fighting him won't prove anything. He climbed to his feet
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: and retreated out of Starbucks range. He was the picture
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: of abject cowardice and hoped it would inflate Starbuck's ego
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: sufficiently to make him forget the charges he had brought
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: against Diane. Starbuck was smiling, smugly and booming something about
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: letting Keller her decide what to do about Johnny Hope
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: after they moved the encampment, But when Johnny stalked away
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: from him toward Diane, calling her name, she presented him
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: only with a stiff, haughty back, and by the time
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: he reached the tent, the flat was down and tied securely.
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: Johnny heard sobbing from within. A few moments later, Starbuck
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: and another man came and led him to a different tent,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: where he remained under guard until the encampment had been broken.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: The tents and equipment packed and ready to move, The
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: people assembled in the square clearing, which now was dotted
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: with folded tents and bedding rolls. Let's move it, Starbuck
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: roared in his booming voice. The men stooped for their burdens.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: The few horses carried three four times their normal loads.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Starbuck waved the group forward dramatically, aware of his moment
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: and making the most of it. They marched double file
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: into the narrow ravine and were soon well on their
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: way toward where Kellerher waited. End of chapter three. Chapter four.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: Sixty three seventeen B was twenty years old, but a
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: trip to the repair bays every time he returned to
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: New York City kept his barrel steel body gleaming as
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: if it had rolled but yesterday from the assembly lines. Now,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: sixty three seventeen B could sense a stiffness in the
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: second joint of his left leg as suspected corrosion. He
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: was looking forward with keen anticipation to the time in
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: the near future when he would stretch out in the
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: repair bay and have his worn parts exchanged. That, however,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: was not on his primary level of thought. While not
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: unique with sixty three seventeen B, the secondary level was
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: not universal among the robots. For the idea of individual
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: sentience had crept into the original plans only accidentally. On
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: his primary level of thought, sixty three seventeen B was
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: in closer rappoort with Central Intelligence than the three hundred
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: robots stretched out in a long sun reflecting line behind him.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: Like Central Intelligence itself, and unlike the few humans who
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: thought of such things, sixty three seventeen B believed that
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: matter and energy were not merely components of one another,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: but are actually the same thing. Thus he explained his
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: greater primary level of thought by saying that the energy
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: matter bridge connecting him with Central Intelligence invisible but measurable
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: in quanta, as was his body, was stronger than most
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: on the social level. This gave sixty three seventeen B
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: leadership of the three hundred thought. Quanta crackled back and
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: forth between sixty three seventeen B and Central Intelligence in
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: New York, and, as on all such occasions, sixty three
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: seventeen B was not sure how much of the conversation
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: reached the other robots. Hamilton Village is a flame, sixty
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: three seventeen B thought, did you fire it? The answer
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: was immediate and angry, certainly not. We arrived too late
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: to prevent it. Yet your scouts reported the village was
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: going to move out. You know, a moving village may
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: or may not remain together. As often as not, it
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: separates into small bands which will spread out and find
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: their way to distant communities, an ideal means of spreading
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: the plague. Although I need not remind you of that,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: I am aware the error is unpardonable unless the villagers
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: have not yet fled. Unfortunately they have. Then another opportunity
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: slips through our fingers sixty three seventeen B. Upon your return,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: you are to report to the intelligence base for a
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: re examination of your apporse synapses. But but nothing. The
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: thought communication crackled to silence. Sixty three seventeen B made
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: the mental equivalent of a sigh. Such re examinations, he
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: knew from bitter experience, were shams. Reshuffling was more like it.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: At a whim of Central Intelligence, he might become nothing
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: but a second class robot. On the surface, Intelligence would
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: discover a flaw in his synapses. Actually, Intelligence would produce
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: the flaw and pass his mantle of leadership down the
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: line to some other robot. Suddenly, sixty three seventeen B
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: called a halt. Like all robots, he was vindictive. Constructed
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: originally as machines of war, the robots had had revenge
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: built into their mind patterns as a strong factor. Actually,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: second class robots were not aware of this. The feelings
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: merely existed, and they acted accordingly. But sixty three seventeen
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: B was only too acutely aware. It pained him the
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: robots had never actually functioned as machines of war, for
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: the war had taken a bacteriological turn. Before the mechanical
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: infantry could march off to battle. The robots had been
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: stored as useless while disease swept earth, with the development
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: of the plague itself, making all further fighting impossible on
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: an international scale. But the plague got out of hand,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: sixty three seventeen B remembered dimly the slightest contact meant
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: almost certain contamination, and mankind prepared grimly for the end
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: of its brief dominion over the Earth until someone thought
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: of the robots, let them cure the plague. The antidote
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: was known, they merely had to apply it. Sixty three
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: seventeen B's memory coils tightened angrily. Until that time, the
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: robots had been slighted, although they had waited patiently to
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: serve their masters. Masters. Indeed, sixty three seventeen B recognized
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: the vindictive pattern of his thoughts. For what it was,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: mankind had had its chance, had failed after man the robots.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: It was as simple as that. But now sixty three
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: seventeen B was seething. He'd been advancing steadily in the
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: robot hierarchy, and had even expected himself to be assigned
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: to Central Intelligence itself. Before too long, Because the impetuous
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: people of Hamilton Village had set their city to the
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: torch before he could arrive, all was lost. He scanned
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: the surrounding countryside with photo retinal cells. Far below, just
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: leaving the edge of the burning town, were a pair
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: of stragglers, man and woman, he thought, but couldn't be
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: sure at this distance. Well, revenge on two individuals would
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: be better than nothing. Strong halting ropes were prepared, and
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: now sixty three seventeen B could see the figures were
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: not two but three. Since his photo retinal cells could
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: not receive color except as shades of black and white,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: he had no way of telling the three figures were
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: not villagers, but shining ones were approaching Hamilton Village, said
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: Starbuck over his shoulder, as Diana overtook him at the
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: head of the column to get her first look at
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: the place. You could see the flames. I thought you
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: said the fire was almost out when you left Kelleher
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: and the others. I did, But you can't predict those things.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: Apparently it has started again. See they had reached a
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: rise of ground and could see what was left of
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: the village in a broad valley below them, a great
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: pall of black smoke rising from it sluggishly. Starbuck saw
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: something else a few miles off to the north, but
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: said nothing. It was a long, thin column gleaming metallically.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: At this distance he could not be sure, but it
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: looked like a line of robots. Kelliher and the others
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: are close by, Starbuck said mechanically. He was not thinking
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: of Kellerher. The trouble with this group of shining ones
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: was no one understood Starbuck. Not only were his talents
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: for leadership unappreciated, he was actually made fun of. He'd
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: been sullen ever since his mental rebuff at the hands
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: of keller Heer. He'd acted inconsistently. His anger had been
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: a free floating thing, and he'd very nearly got Diane
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: in trouble for it. That was ridiculous. The answer seemed
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: obvious enough. If one is not appreciated at a particular place,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: one should go elsewhere. There was Thomas Burwood, a youngster
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: whose father had been chief before keller Her, and who
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: had been killed by keller Her. Burwood almost certainly would
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: join Starbuck, and Diane could be taken by force if necessary.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: Starbuck put the stocky man named Gilbert in charge of
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: the column and sought out Burwood. He found the younger
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: man on a fringe of the column, plodding listlessly along. Listen,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: Tom said Starbuck in a confidential voice. Often talked about
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: life among the robots. But we're letting our years fritter away.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: What would you do if the opportunity presented itself? Like
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: Starbuck himself, Burwood was an oversized young man given to
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: fits of temperament. What's the use, he said? You can't
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: just walk into the robots citadel. They would kill you
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: first and ask questions afterwards. No, but you could join
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: robots in the field. It's done that way most of
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: the time since the robots venture forth, either to spread
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: the plague or gain conscripts among the shining ones. Starbuck
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: whispered in his best confidential voice, and Tom, there's a
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: group of robots two or three miles from here right now.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: What do you say to that? Let me think, Burwood frowned.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's one thing to talk about it,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: but another to keell Her. Didn't give your fother a
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: chance to think? Did he not? When your father was
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: growing old and keller Her knew he could take him,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: he killed him, struck him down like an animal. Don't
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: forget that, Tom, that's true. But you're worrying about life
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: among the robots? Are you from every room? Or I've
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: heard you can live like a king like the days
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: before World War III ruined our civilization? What do you say, Tom?
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: An opportunity like this doesn't often come well, of course,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: if you're afraid. But I thought you were made of
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: the same stuff as your father, the only leader I
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: have ever served faithfully. That's enough, Harry Young Burwood's voice broke.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: I'll go with you. I knew you would. You're just
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: like your father. Tom. There's one thing I want to
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: do first. The two whispered together for a time then
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Starbuck drifted back toward the rear of the column and
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: permitted himself to straggle until he was out of sight
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: of the rear guard, first making arrangements for the prisoner
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope, to be taken off the trail into the woods.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: Tom Burwood meanwhile double timed up toward the head of
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: the column. Diane, I was looking for you, Hello, Tom,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: what is it? Someone wants to see you rear of
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: the column? Who All through the march, Diane had wanted
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: to make her peace with Johnny Hope, but the opportunity
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: had never presented itself. I'm not at liberty to say,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: Burwood told her slyly, and winked, is it Johnny Hope?
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: Burwood smiled affably. I can't say, please, Diane. I was
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: only told to fetch you. It's been arranged temporarily, but
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: he can't remain back there indefinitely. I'm coming lead the way,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: Diane said eagerly, and fell into step with Burwood. Johnny
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: Hope must have had his reasons for not fighting with Starbuck.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: He was not the cowardly type, unless Diane had suddenly
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: become a bad judge of people. Perhaps, he thought in
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: some strange way he was protecting her. Where is he? Tom?
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: I don't see anyone a little further, but we've already
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: left the column. Just around that clump of trees. I
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: think something rustled in the undergrowth, Johnny, Diane called expectantly.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: He stepped out into the trail and faced her. It
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: was Harry Starbuck. What kind of a joke is this,
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: Diane demanded, angrily, turning to rejoin the column. I thought
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: I was coming back here to meet Johnny Hope, Burwood
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: laughed easily. I never said that. Well, whatever you're planning,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: you can count me out of all the nerve bringing
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: me back here like this. Would you like to see
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope alive? Starbuck asked, in a conversational tone. What
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: do you mean by that that you had better cooperate
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: with me, Diane? The three of us are leaving the
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: column now, you, Tom and I. If you don't, I
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: can't guarantee anything about Johnny Hope. Diane did not know
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: whether to believe him or not, but would hardly endanger
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope's life on a notion. I'll go with you,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: she said. Less than an hour later, they approached the
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: vanguard of the file of robots. Burwood and Diane saw
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: them at the same time, Contempt filling Diane's eyes as
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: she began to understand what had been on Starbucks's mind.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: Fear was there, too threatening to unnerve her at any moment,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: but the scorn she felt for Starbuck prevented it from
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: overpowering her. Of all the cheap tricks, she said, you
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: you wanted to join the robots, but you also wanted me.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope was never in any danger. It was all
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: a lie to get me here. Well, if you think
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: I'm going with you, Diane crouched abruptly, came up with
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: a handful of dry earth and flung it at Starbuck's face,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: blinding him. Then she began to run get her Burwood.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: Starbuck roared, don't let her escape. It wasn't Burwood's fight,
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: But if he had thrown in with Starbuck, he wanted
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: to remain in the man's good graces, at least until
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: he could figure things out for himself. Besides, his first
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: sight of the robots had almost choked him with fear.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: Chasing Diane would take his mind off them. He set
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: out after her, aware that a still half blinded Starbuck
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: was circling around in another direction. Diane guessed her best
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: chance for escape would lie along the very edge of
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: the file of robots. She did not relish the idea,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: but she had seen the look on burwoid It's face
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: when the creatures of metal had appeared, and figured he
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: would be loath to follow her in that direction. Did
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: the robots see her? She ran in their direction, her
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: clothing catching and tearing on the undergrowth. She neared the
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: head of the file. Could hear Burwood stumbling along behind her?
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: The metal figure stood there, unmoving, watching her. Each one
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: twelve feet tall, they could have stamped her to death.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: Behind her, Diane heard a hoarse scream. She whirled instinctively,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: lost her footing fell. One of the robots had taken Burwood,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: who was thrashing and kicking helplessly as it bore him
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: aloft and held him feet pounding on air, two yards
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: off the ground. She didn't like Burwood, but she had
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: nothing against him. He screamed again, his voice breaking put
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: him down. Diane shouted. She might as well have been
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: talking to the ingots from which the robots had been fashioned,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: For all the heed they paid her. She whirled again,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: sought Starbuck, couldn't find him. Starbuck always talked of the robots.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he knew how to communicate with them. Now the
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: robot had set a trembling Birdwood down on the ground.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: Now a great noose of rope was drawn about his neck,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: its other end slung over the branch of a huge,
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: bare limb tree. Now something neither warm nor cold touched
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: Diane grasped her about the middle, lifted her. It was
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: a nightmare. It was unreal, not happening to her. The
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: ground spun giddily. All vision receded behind a wave of vertigo,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: then returned, still spinning. Diane clawed at the metal head,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: at the hard unblinking eyes, scraping uselessly. She might as
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: well try to scrape down the side of a mountain
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: with her finger nails. Burwood was hanging, feet dangling, arms
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: bound behind him. He twisted and writhed in his last
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: death agony. Diane shuddered, turning away, striking her head sharply
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: against the hard metal of the robot. When her vision
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: cleared again, she was on the ground, another robot stalking
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: soundlessly toward her. For all its great bulk, a noose
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: identical to the one from which Burwood dangled, suspended from
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: its metal hand, but the scene had changed. Diane realized
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: wildly a great airship a rocket had landed midway between
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: the file of robots and the burning village. Vaguely, she
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: remembered that Starbuck had once said only robots from the
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: Citadel itself used the rockets, since only a few remained
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: from Man's last great war. Starbuck was near by, shaking
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: but holding his ground, shouting at the robots as if
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: his very life depended upon it, and Diane thought despairingly
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: it did leave her be. Starbuck cried, you're making a
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: terrible mistake. We're not from the village. We're shining ones.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: We're shining ones. I tell you, we came here to
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: join you, to be conscripted. We went to work for
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: the robots. See E, we're shining ones. Did they understand?
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: Diane couldn't tell. The robots with the noose reached down
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: and grabbed her, drawing her aloft again. She wanted to scream,
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: but all her energy could bring forth only a whimper.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: She wanted to shut her eyes tightly and wake up trembling,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: but otherwise all right in her tent. She could feel
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: a lurching motion as the robot began to move. Burwood
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: hung slightly, now twisting gently from side to side like
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: a rag doll with the motion of the rope. Diane faded.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: Within half an hour, all the robots had filed into
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: their waiting ship. It blasted skyward on a jet of flame,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: which was all but lost against the fires which consumed
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: Hamilton Village. End of chapter four, Chapter five, Will Harry
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: Starbuck please step forth and make his report? One of
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: Kelleher's assistants brought the command to the Shining Ones, who
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: had joined the larger group near Hamilton Village. There was
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: a silence. Where is Starbuck? No one knew. The assistant
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: shook his head and returned to kell Her for further instructions.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: Had anyone seen Starbuck a short while ago? Yes, not
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: for the past hour, though kell Her next called for Diane,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: who had found Johnny Hope, the alleged trader, along with Starbuck.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: Some of them had seen her marching toward the rear
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: of the column with Tom Burwood not long since. She
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: did not answer the summons, and Burwood could not be
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: found anywhere. As everyone going crazy kellerhurt stormed fetched the
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: prisoner himself. We'll see what's going on moments later. Hope
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: charges have been brought against you concerning a raid on
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: Hamilton Village. I know all about the charges. I refuse
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: to discuss them now, Kellerhurst smiled, without mirth. You refuse.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: They were looking for Diane, they couldn't find her. They
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: were looking for Starbuck too, and couldn't find him. It
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: is Starbuck who has made the accusation, so we'll have
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: to wait until he's found. I don't care one way
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: or the other about Starbuck, but I want to find Diane. Plump.
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: Gilbert came forward, said I may be able to shed
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: some light on this. After Starbuck gave me charge of
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: the column. He conferred with Tom Burwood for a time,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: then disappeared, but Burwood whispered something to Diane and she
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: joined him, heading for the rear of the car. You see,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: Johnny demanded, Starbuck went someplace with Diane. From the looks
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: of it, she was tricked into going with him, mere supposition,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: said Kellerher. Although I wouldn't trust Starbuck particularly listen, Johnny
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: went on, that girl saved my life. I want to
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: find her. Since you can't try my case until Starbuck
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: is found. Let me look for them. And how do
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: we know you will return my word, said Johnny, But
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: the look on kellerhurst face said that would never satisfy him.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: If the lad promises, and if meanwhile he cannot be tried,
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: began Gilbert. When I want your advice, I'll ask for it,
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: Kellerhurst said curtly. The boy stays here, but he merely
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: wants to find Diane, persisted Gilbert. Enough, if someone thinks
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: to depose me, let him try meanwhile. I command here
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: the boy stays, he will be considered innocent until we
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: can bring him to trial, but he will not be
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: permitted to leave the encampment. Her life may be in danger,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: Johnny said grimly. I doubt it. I have given my orders.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: They don't satisfy me. Johnny told keller Her bluntly. Am
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: I to be regarded as prisoner or member of the
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: community until my trial? You are one of us, a
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: shining one until proven guilty. It is the way of
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: our law. In that case, Johnny informed him, I challenge
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: your right to rule. I would depose you. Even as
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: he spoke the words, Johnny doubted their wisdom. Keller Her
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: was large and powerful. Johnny had recently recovered from the
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: plague and did not feel fully himself. Still, he had
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: to find Diane, and if there was no other way,
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: was grinning. Perhaps you do not know what that entails.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: I'll admit it's primitive. Upon your challenge, we fight not
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: with weapons, Johnny Hope, with our bare hands. Call it
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: a peculiarity of mine. But I prefer brute strength. It
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: is as if civilization, inclosing its book for mankind, has
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: put men like me in its stead. The ballot, the tribunal,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: the town meeting, all these are sophistications leading ultimately back
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: along the road to civilization. If that means another war,
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: and a worse one, I want no part of it.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: Small communities living by mean strength, fighting for their existence
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: tooth and nail, can't start as civilization growing. The level
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: I want to maintain is physical, brutal, elemental. Knowing that
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: do you still challenge my right, keller Her folded huge
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: muscled arms across his massive chest and stared with scorn
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: at well. I was aware of that the answer is yes.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: Then we can start making arrangements for the time and place.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: Would you prefer it on our journey, before we reach
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: a new permanent encampment, or after we have arrived to
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: set up camp. You still look pale from your time
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: with the plague, my young friend. I prefer it right here,
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: Johnny said, I can't wait right here and right now.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: The sudden, complete silence was broken by Kelliher's explosive laughter
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: as he unbuckled his weapon belt and let it fall
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: with knife and club to the ground. What do you think, Diane,
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: don't speak to me. I think it was a dirty trick,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: but I should have expected it from you, and you
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: let Tom Burr would die too. I couldn't do anything
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: about that, Starbuck protested. I tried. By the time I
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: got through to them, Burwood was already dead. As it is,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: I saved your life for this. Diane gestured around her
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: scornfully to take in the tiny cubicle aboard the rocket,
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: which they occupied after depositing them within it ten minutes
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: before the robots had ignored them. I'm surprised at you
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: have some patience, Diane. Some day you'll be grateful I
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: took you along. You're young, You've no idea what life
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: could be like in a civilized place, do you. How
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: do you know how the robots treat people. I have
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: heard rumors, we all have. But I'm older than I look.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: I was a small boy before the war, Diane. But
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: I remember, I remember the luxuries, the comforts you'll see.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: I ought to kill you, Diane said coldly. Starbuck blanched.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: I might too, first chance. I get you're so self centered,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: you're almost inhuman. But maybe I'm dumb enough to think
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: you'll realize you're mistake some day, and two of us
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: will have a better chance of getting away than one.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I ought to kill you, though I
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: did it for you. I wanted you with me. I
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't enjoy the life we're going to lead without you.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: You're a fool, Harry. I can't even hate you. I
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: feel sorry for you. What do the robots do from
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: day to day? You don't even know that. You haven't
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: the slightest idea what you've let us in for. You
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: don't even know for sure where we're going, Starbucks shook
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: his head. You're wrong about that. We're going to the
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: Citadel in New York. We should be arriving in a
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: few minutes. You'll change your mind, Diane, Wait till you
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: see the citadel, Wait until you've never seen it. You're
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: just guessing. It's more than a guess every rumor I
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: have ever heard, Diane, I want you to share it
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: with me, to learn to love it with me. You're beautiful.
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: You weren't met for Buckskins. Starbuck fingered, the tattered clothing
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: barely covering her Torso keep away from me. Don't you
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: realize it's just the two of us now and the robots.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: I'm warning you. Starbuck shrugged and sat down at the
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: other side of the small cubicle. You're frightened now, he said,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: I've got patience if you haven't, wait and see how
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: the robots will provide for us. Diane shuddered and tried
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: to hide it. Trapped aboard a ship full of robots,
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: she was companion to a madman. Strangely, no thought could
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: comfort her, but the image of Johnny Hope somewhere many
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: miles behind them, a prisoner of Kelliherm and the band
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: of Shining Ones. Perhaps, she thought grimly, the madman had
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: for company a mad woman. The Shining Ones were bivouacking,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: not two miles above the gutted ruins of Hamilton Village
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: would have been stacked for the cook fires, but as
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: yet no spark had been coaxed into flame. Half the
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: tents had been raised tautly about their ridge poles, others
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: were still to be unpacked. Five hundred strong, the whole
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: group gathered around a natural clearing in the woods, where
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: deft fingered girls were applying grease to killer Her and
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope. They had stripped to their shorts. Keller Her
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: with his thick, feued limbs glistening in the fading sunlight,
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: arms folded like some immobile heroic statue, all muscle and
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: sinew carved from granite. Johnny fidgeting waiting for the fight
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: to start. He was surprised at his own objective lack
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: of fear. He wanted only to start out after Diane,
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: you probably wonder why they'd grease you, Amos Wesler declared.
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: Westler was a small, slim man with close cropped, graying
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: hair and eyes that would twinkle, Johnny thought, even in darkness.
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: He had come to Johnny's corner as a sort of
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: unexpected second to ready him for battle. It's a concession
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: on the part of keller Her, Johnny, hope, he has
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: declared openly, your strength is no match for his. The
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: slicking will make speed and dexterity count for more. Am
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: I supposed to be grateful? The only reason I'm fighting
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: him is because he won't let me seek Diane any
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: other way. She could be in danger right now. Her
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: life might be at stake. Keller her as a fool,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: and life among the shining Ones has always been an
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: expendable item. Diane's life, your life, even keller hers. What
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: happens if I win? Westler sighed wistfully, You won't. This
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: won't be the first time for kelliherm nor the last. Actually,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: I hope you do win. Why and you haven't answered
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: my question? Because I've always wanted to leave the encampment,
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: but I'm not a man for the outdoors, Johnny, I
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: wouldn't survive a week with your companionship. I might should
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: you win the fight, and should you decide to seek Diane,
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: I would like to join you. Johnny grasped his hand.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: Shook it done, he said, Westler smiled, wiping grease on
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: his trousers. To answer your question, if you win, you're
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: the chief of this encampment now, Johnny was smiling a
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: job I'm not particularly interested in. I only want to,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: I know, look for the girl. During the excitement, something
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: went entirely unnoticed. Rocketship took off near the ruins of
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: the village. Rockets mean robots and from the citadel. Tell me,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope, if the trail leads there, will you follow?
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: Johnny shrugged. I hadn't thought of that. I didn't realize
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: the robots were near. Then you're going to back down.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: Disappointment was in Westler's expressive eyes. Never I saw New
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: York once. I stood on the Jersey cliffs at sunset
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: and gazed across the Broad River at the Citadel with
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: its winking lights and beacons. It's not a place of fear,
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: but a place that men built long ago. I will
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: go again, Amos. Westler sighed. I wish you win this fight,
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope. I never wish for anything as much in
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: my life. I was a college professor before the war,
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: and I learned this. The search for knowledge is a
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: strange thing and knows no fear. But I am no
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: young man, and this may be my last opportunity. Ready,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: Callerher's voice roared across the clearing, if the girls are
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: finished caressing you with their oils. The girl stepped back,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: looked at Johnny, tall and lithe but so small compared
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: to keller her and shook their heads ready, Johnny said,
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: moving out toward keller her warily his legs, amos wester
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: are confided. He uses them like a pair of arms.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Watch them. The grease on his face had been applied
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: too close to his eyes, and Johnny found he had
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: to blink to clear his vision. Keller Heer came lumbering
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: across the clearing, gathering momentum. By the time he neared Johnny,
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: he was fairly rocketing down upon him. The muttering of
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: the assembled encampment had been stilled, as if by some
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: unspoken command. There was the sound of Kellerherr's thundering feet
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: and nothing else. Juggernaut thundered close, was almost upon him,
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: great arms outstretched, huge body shining red in the last
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: light of the sun. At the last moment, Johnny sidestepped,
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: thrust out his leg, added momentum to kill her with
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: his arms. As he pounded by, something struck his leg
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: that was a loud, bull bellowing cry. Keller her flipped
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: completely over and sprawled in the dust a dozen feet away.
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: He came up, roaring his rage as Johnny waited, balancing
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: on the balls of his feet, fists up and ready.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: Keller Her parried Johnny's left hand, when the blow was
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: too long in coming, struck with his own great right fist.
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: Johnny went over on his back and felt keller Her
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: at his throat almost before he had hit the ground.
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: Now the crowd was churning with excitement, and Johnny found
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: himself thinking they must have smelled blood on the air.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: Their heavily greased bodies prevented keller Her from up plying
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: a stranglehold. Johnny squirmed out from under, straddled the bigger
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: man's back, and felt himself borne aloft, still clinging there,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: as keller Her climbed to his feet and charged about
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: the clearing Johnny held grimly his forearms circling the thick throat,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: choking off Kellerher's breath. But the shaggy head twisted broke free.
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: The legs drummed backwards, and Johnny whirled in time to
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: fathom Kellerher's plan. He was going to crush Johnny against
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: the bowl of an oak tree. Cracking his ribs and
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: ending the battle at once without mirth, Johnny smiled. So
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: intent was keller her upon his plan he did not
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: bother to hold Johnny on his back. Possibly he thought
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: that was Johnny's intention. Anyway, Johnny leapt away, rolling clear,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: as keller Her backed into the tree trunk with all
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: the strength of his huge muscles. There was a terrible
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: crunching sound as kellerher hit the tree and went down
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: as if a groggly He began to rise, but Johnny
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: was waiting for him, waiting to see if there was
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: any fight left, and the half conscious man. The eyes
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: were watery, the lips slack, the arms twitching. Johnny waited stop.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: Someone cried, I bring news. At first the encamp had
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: shouted him off, but presently Johnny became aware of loud talking,
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: of angry shouts, of a buzzing as from a sundered
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: hornet's nest which swept the clearing. He whirled to face
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: the newcomer as Kellerhert slumped at his feet, clawing the
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: ground and gasping, I don't surrender, Johnny, hope, only give
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: me time to catch my wind. And they turned to
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: Johnny hope, all of them their new leader. For Kellerher
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: had spoken those words, then fell forward on his face.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: Three men carried him off to a tent where two
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: women brought vessels of water. They went looking for the
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: three missing ones. Hope, what can we do? The robots
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: tell us, Hope, what they did once they might do again.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: Johnny laughed as reaction from his ordeal set in the
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: crowd around him, flies swarming for honey. They hadn't given
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: him a chance in the fight, but now because Kellerher
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: had cracked his own ribs instead of Johnny's, Johnny was
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: their leader. It was a job he neither wanted nor
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: would tolerate. What they're trying to say, Amos Wesler told
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: him is that they found Tom Burwood not far from here.
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: What about Diane, Johnny demanded, eagerly. No Diane, no Starbuck.
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: They found Burwood hanging by his neck, dead dead, Johnny said, dazed, Diane,
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: you're not listening to me, young men, Diane they didn't
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: find Then, as if he suddenly realized he was addressing
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: their new, if bewildered leader, Wessler apologized, I'm sorry. While
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: Berwood's corpse was the only one they found that were
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: shreds of clothing in the undergrowth there, Diane. Possibly they're
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: not sure, I would say, all indications point to the
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: robot citadel. You said you would go, But now that
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: you are a leader, perhaps you've changed your mind. When
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: leadership is thrust upon a man, when an old leader
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: is vanquished, Plump Gilbert bubbled effusively, there is a celebration, sir,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: and there is an edict to be handed down by
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: the new leader. Do he banish keller Her from the
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: encampment when his condition permits? Do we slay him for you?
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: Do we do whatever you want? Johnny said, irritably, I'm
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: not staying. This is some joke. I have nothing against
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: keller Her. I still have nothing against him. I'm leaving.
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: When Kellerher regains consciousness, when his body heals, you may
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: tell him for me. I did not depose him. He
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: is still your leader. That is clearly impossible, is it?
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: I command you? In this Kellerher remains on as chief.
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: But tell him this for me. Someday I may call
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: upon him and his people for help. And when I do,
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: you have vision, said Amos Westler, admiration in his voice.
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: When I do I want no delays. That is my
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: message to your ruler. To Keller her, is it understood?
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: Gilbert and some of the others nodded. A small intense man,
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: Wessler fidgeted about impatiently while the girls returned with thick
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: strips of cloth and scrub the grease from Johnny Hope.
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: I'm now a celebrity, he said to Westler, feeling himself
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: briefly as one with these wild people as they gather
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: around for his advice, preparing a victory banquet over roaring fires.
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: As darkness covered the bivouac area, he munched a savory
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: leg of fowl, slaked his thirst from a moist leather
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: wine bag, the claret stream gushing into his mouth from
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: the spout. You see, Wesser could not hide his disappointment.
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: It is even as I said, you will stay, Johnny
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: grinned at him. Are you tired? Why? No? Tossing a
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: chicken bone into the fire, Johnny went on, and do
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: you know the way to New York in the darkness? No?
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: I think I do. Are you ready to start? Are
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: you serious? Wesler cried, Do you mean that, Johnny Hope,
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: Let's go and not waiting for an answer. Johnny clapped
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: Gilbert on the back, told him to take charge until
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: Kelleher had recovered, and left the clearing with Westler trailing
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: at his heels. The night closed in about them, not
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: quiet but alive, with the sounds of insects and the
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: occasional soft pad padding of small hunting animals. Johnny set
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: a quick mileating pace which made Wesser's breath weese in
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: and out of his lungs asthmatically, but the older man
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: did not complain once end of chapter five, Chapter six.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: We have openings in the repair bays, or for servants
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: among the inner circle of Shining Ones who work hand
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: in hand with our masters, the old woman told Starbuck
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: and Diane after they had been taken from the rocket
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: ship in New York and shunted underground where the subways
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: had been converted into living quarters for humans, without being
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: given a chance to see the city. Which will it be?
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: We're not cut out to be menials, Starbuck said coldly.
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: But the repair bays don't appeal to me either, You say,
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: servants to the leaders themselves, to the top echelon of
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: shining ones. Yes, you will find this socioeconomic hierarchy rigidly
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: enforced here. Well, which will it be, Starbuck had heard
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: about palace revolutions. It would be servants to the leaders, naturally.
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: Let them bide their time, let them learn what they
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: could of the citadel and its robots. Servants, he said,
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: are you married? The old woman, shamelessly bare to the
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: waist on this hot day, smiled at them with a
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: perfect set of false teeth, which seemed laughably incongruous in
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: her gaunt, seamed face. Her bare breasts were dry as
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: parchment and hung flat but pendulan almost to her waist.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: From a distance, she looked almost like a mannequin, a
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: leathery humanoid robot. We are, Starbuck beamed, But Diane said,
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: certainly not. The old woman cackled. I believe the woman.
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: In that case. You will live in these underground dormitories,
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: Not in the city upstairs, Starbuck demanded, disappointed. Not in
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: the city, that is correct. Do not ask why. It
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: is merely so we work for the robots and obey them.
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: Is that clear? Someday the only humans left on earth
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: will be shining ones, or so the robots tell us.
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: Then we will climb up into the light of day
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: and take our rightful place side by side with them. Meanwhile,
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: we do as we are told. Are you satisfied, Harry,
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: Diane wanted to know. The robots make promises and destroy
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: our brothers, our brothers, Starbuck, you mean the people of
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: the villages, those our brothers. The plague makes brother hate brother.
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: But you're a fool, Starbuck. The robots want that, this
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: playing of human against human. Yes, how do you know
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: You've never I don't know, but Amos Westler always said
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: so Westler Starbucks spat contemptuously. A reader of books, we
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: go out to hunt or raid. Wessler seeks his books
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: and grows soft looking through them. With more Westlers and
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: less Starbucks in the world, Diane began, we probably wouldn't
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: have had to fight three world wars, and never would have.
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: That's enough, said Starbuck, his eyes darting suspiciously to the
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: old woman, who was taking in their conversation with an
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: amused look on her face. It is quite enough, agreed
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: the old If you want to last here more than
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: a few days. Can the robots actually understand us, Starbuck
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: asked the old woman, shrugged thin shoulders. Some say they
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: can read our minds. It is not important. Those of
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: us who rule can understand, since they can somehow communicate
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: with the robots. It is the same thing we will conform,
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: promised Starbuck like robots of robots, said Diane bitterly. Johnny
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: Hope rubbed the stubble of beard on his face and
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: frowned at Westber. I'm not sure, but I think I
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: know this place. We should reach the New York River.
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: This afternoon, they stood in a forest glade, not one
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: hundred yards from one of the overgrown concrete highways upon
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: which the robots were known to tread. A path paralleled
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: the highway through the woods, and upon this they made
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: their way. Sometimes I wonder if you know what you're
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: letting yourself in for, Western mused. I want to find Diane.
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: I'll take whatever goes with it. Do you mind if
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: I ask why? I'm not sure? I know myself. All
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: I know is I think of her all the time.
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: Nothing matters as much as finding her and freeing her.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: We could be wrong. Perhaps she is not with the
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: robots at all. What do you think I think she is.
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: Everything points to it. I was only pointing out that
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: we're not sure, Johnny. Not many years ago, I met
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: a man, another shining one, who had fled from New York.
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: He was old and he didn't last long. But he
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: told me things. Which about the robots. You mean, yes,
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: you know, of course they can help cure the plague. Instead,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: they spread it. I never could figure out why. Who
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: knows what sort of thinking the robots can do. We're
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: not even sure if they possess sentience at all, although
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: I suspect they do. But in the last days of
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: the war, Man made a frantic mistake. The robots were
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: conceived as fighters, were constructed as fighters, were built to
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: hate man and to kill man. When we gave the
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: robots a different mission, entirely, it failed. They've simply strengthened
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: the plague toxoid and made it lethal. I don't think
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: they'll rest until every man on earth is destroyed. We're
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: weak now, disorganized, We've left civilization behind us. You think
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: the robots could do the job overnight, But the only
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: thing that prevents them actually is the lack of numbers.
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: Most of my people, I mean the villagers, not my people,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: any lawhunger. Most of them believe the robots somehow will
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: cure the plague, and most of my people, said Wessler,
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: believe their destiny is hand in glove with the destiny
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: of the robots. They put it this way, we are
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: hated by the rest of mankind, we are apparently not
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: hated by the robots. Why not cooperate with them, then? Actually,
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: a free man of shining ones as large as kellihers
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: is the exception, not the rule. Every day more and
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: more shining ones go to the Citadel in New York
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: or elsewhere to work for the robots. Not a pretty picture,
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: is it? What can we do about it? At present?
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: I don't have the slightest notion. We've got to do something, though,
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: Someone's got to do something unless nature's ready to write
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: off mankind is a bad experiment. Perhaps I am a
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: pettant Johnny. I do not know, but I will tell
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: you this. When all the great strides and human history
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: were made, the pedants, the scholars paved the way. I
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: want to see the Citadel, not only to learn, but
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: to see if there is something, some way to end
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: the rain of the robots. It seems incredible that men
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: their makers lacked the foresight to equip them with an
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: Achille's heel. If the need ever arose abruptly, Johnny motioned
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: Westler down with a wave of his hand. It looks
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: like you're going to find out soon enough. Take a look,
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: Johnny parted the bushes in front of them. Here the
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: dirt path had angled sharply toward the highway, so that
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: not more than thirty yards separated them. Marching silently along
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: the concrete in the direction of New York, quiet but
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: for the clanking of their joints, was a long file
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: of robots. Spongy metal footpads, whispered Wessler, staring eagerly at
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: the robots. We built fine fighting machines, Johnny, and now
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: we find we have to suffer the consequences. Johnny nodded impatiently,
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: hardly feeling philosophical. This is what we came here for, Amos,
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: he said, afraid to tell you the truth. I'm not
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: sure yet. Johnny was not sure either, but did not
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: want a brood about it. He stood up, recklessly, forcing
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: his way through the undergrowth toward the highway. By the
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: time he reached it, Wester trailing uncertainly at his heels,
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: he was shouting. It worked magically, the long line of
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: robots extending as far as they could see to the
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: left and several hundred yards to the right, stopped its
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: steady advance. The great metal heads, each bigger than a man,
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: swiveled on the sockets which joined them with the tiny
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: bodies the unblinking eyes which now faced them. Another set
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: for each robot surveyed the rear. Johnny new were lined
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: up row one row. We want to join you, Johnny
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: called out, we want employment in the citadel? Did a
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: human ask a robot for employment? Johnny Hardy knew, for
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: nothing had been further from his mind until recently. The
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: leading robot came back down the line toward them. Johnny
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: could read nothing in the artificial eyes and had to
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: check a wild impulse to run. Sometimes I prefer the
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: uncomplicated life of an unimaginative man of action, Western moaned softly.
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: It was Johnny knew a good point. He did not
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: bother telling Wesler that both traits had merged in him,
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: which might have been better or worse, depending upon the circumstances.
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: Then the robot was upon them sixty three seventeen by Sir.
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: All robots, even those with a primary level of thought
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: as high as sixty three seventeen B and an existing
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: secondary level addressed central intelligence as sir, after exhaustive tests,
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: it has been a judge that an overestimation has been
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: made regarding your mental ability. Since that is the case,
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: it will mechanically be necessary to change your position. Sullenly
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: plotting shapeless revenge at a central intelligence which would never
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: consider the possibility of an outside factor intervening unexpectedly and
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: hence altering or spoiling what had been planned. Sixty three
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: seventeen B listened to his fate. A position currently is
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: vacant as supervisor of the Shining ones and a section
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: of the repair base. Do you have any objections to
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: assuming this new duty in place of the old? To
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: object was disastrous. To object was to admit you needed
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: not merely a lesser job commensurate with your lesser skill,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: but also complete readjustment of your thinking process. No objections
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: at all, sir, thought sixty three seventeen B, all the
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: while smoldering with resentment, his time would come. What was
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: the old human expression about every dog having his day?
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: Then you will report at once to repair Bay one
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: fifty one. Do you know its location? I will find it?
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: That was the prescribed answer. One rarely asked questions. One
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: found out for oneself from central information. Sixty three seventeen B.
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: Half thought he was still being tested in some less
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: obvious and hence all the more deadly fashion. But to
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: be placed in charge of a gang of humans it
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: was degrading in time. Sixty three seventeen B. You shall
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: be tested again. If it is our opinion you have
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: gained back what we thought you once possessed, you will
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: again be elevated to a higher station. Sixty three seventeen
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: B cursed central intelligence on a private wavelength. Central intelligence
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: was the creator of perfect plans. If a plan misfired,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: central Intelligence could not be held responsible. Since accidents of
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: nature had never been considered valid excuses, blame always fell
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: on the executing robot. Until recently, sixty three seventeen B
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: had managed to beat the system largely through luck. Now,
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: while he realized it was the most mechanical thing in
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: the world to do as you were told, he could
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: not hide his bitter disappointment, but he pushed it from
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: his mind all at once. When he felt another mind
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: nibbling at his private wavelength. No one could be trusted,
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: not when each robot tried to outdo every other robot
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: in the eyes of Central intelligence, Not when private thoughts
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: could be intercepted by monitors, not when communal thinking was
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: considered preferable to individual thinking. That thought made sixty three
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: seventeen B shudder, his joints clanking as a sudden surge
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: of power, the electrical equivalent of a dreanal secretions coursed
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: through his frame. He was, indeed thinking, not along the
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: prescribed lines. Probably something was wrong with him. This is ironical,
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: said Amos Westler, as the first inert robot came sliding
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: down the conveyor belt to stop a rusted man shaped
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: creature twice man's size, with huge conical head and withdrawn
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: antenna in front of his bench. We'll never learn anything
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: this way. You won't learn the whereabouts of Diana at
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: this bench, and I won't learn what I've come to
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: find out. We're not on duty twenty four hours a day,
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: Johnny reminded him, unfastening leg joints with a large wrench
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: like instrument and wiping the parts with an oily rag
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: before he reassembled them. If Diane is here, I'll find her. Well,
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: we've learned nothing so far. They took us into the
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: citadel through a tile walled tunnel. Surely one of the
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: wonders of the world, Johnny cried, remembering the world has
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: many wonders, natural and man made, if we could but
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: see them anyway. They then deposited us in those underground
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: quarters where all the humans seemed to live. Here, the
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: old hag interviewed us. Yes, she wouldn't say if she'd
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: seen Starbuck and Diane or not when I described them,
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: but it sure made her smile. I think they're here
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: in the citadel. Amos then assign us to this repair
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: bay for work. Do you realize that, except for the
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: brief time it took to go from the tunnel exit
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: to the underground quarters, we haven't seen the light of day.
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: Tried learning something in these caves. Without warning, the conveyor
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: belts were stilled hidden. Lighting in the walls flared brighter.
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: As a group of robots entered the large vault attention,
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: A voice blared at them, oddly metallic. Johnny could not
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: tell where it came from. Robots, sixty three seventeen B
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: is now entering the vault as your supervisor. Sixty three
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: seventeen B is to be obeyed as if he were
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: Central Intelligence itself. He is to be addressed not directly,
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: but through your human supervisor. The robot numbered sixty three
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: seventeen B, but the numbers were hidden under the central
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: face plate, and you hardy could tell. The machines apart,
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: made a brief inspection of the vault, then climbed to
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: his niche in the wall, where he sat completely without motion,
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: while the other robots filed from the chamber. Although we
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: can't address the robot, our supervisor can, Wesler said eagerly.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: That means at least communication of some sort is possible.
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: I guess, so why don't you get to know the supervisor.
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: You're much better at that sort of thing than I am, Johnny.
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: We came here for different reasons. Don't forget there's an
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: old hag. I'd like to answer more questions when I
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: find her. Here comes our supervisor. Now, Wesler whispered, then aloud.
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: My name is Amos Wesler. I don't care what it is.
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: It's recorded Cape Warwicking friend. The supervisor was a brutal
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: faced man who snarled out his words. His jaw, cheekbones,
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: and forehead were silver sheened with plague scar With the
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: plague silver remaining there as well as on his limbs,
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: his face seemed metallic as a robot's see Wester whispered
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: in despair as another damaged robot slid to a stop
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: in front of them. Johnny offered a wan grin. Take
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: it easy, he said, but hardly felt more than the
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: last remaining shreds of patience within himself. If the old
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: hag wouldn't talk when he saw her tonight, don't bother
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: calling me names, young man, cackled the hag. I am
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: virtually immune. It is against existing regulations to give you
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: that information, since it has felt all ties with the
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: past and the outside world must be broken, not gradually,
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: but at once. Listen, Johnny said, desperately. You must remember
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: your own youth. He had tried every other verbal assault
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: he could think of. Now he hardly thought flattery would
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: work on the ancient bag of bones in front of him,
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: but it seemed his last hope. You must have had
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: your lovers in your day. Were you as attractive for
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: your years as a younger woman? Something melted in the
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: Hag's eyes. She scrubbed her breastbone with the knuckles of
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: one parchment hand, as if preening. Why yes, she admitted,
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: I am in love with the girl. You must know
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: how I feel. He he took her, at least in part.
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: It was the truth in love with Diane. He never
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: thought of it yet what had impelled him to battle
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: kelle Her in an uneven fight, to set out for
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: New York when he could have ruled the encampin instead
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: to surrender himself to the robots of the citadel. Johnny smiled,
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: trying to awaken something in the hag. He had succeeded
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: in awakening something, all right, but in himself such information
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: I cannot give you young men, and I I thought
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: you remembered your youth. But they say the view from
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: the Corridor thirteen exit is magnificent. To reach it, one
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: travels along Corridor fourteen, which is a dormitory for some
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: of our young unmarried women. The hag cackled, don't get caught.
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: I won't thank you. Good luck, my boy. The hag
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: patted his shoulder, crowed something which he failed to hear,
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: disappeared from the room outside. At a forking of four corridors,
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: Johnny found a map and studied it lights recessed high
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: on the walls showed him his direction, and soon he
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: was pounding down the corridors and praying silently that the
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: hag knew what she was talking about. By the time
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: he reached corridor fourteen, he was breathless. Several young women
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: stood in the corridor talking. Their chatter was stilled when
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: they saw Johnny, and those who had been invarious stages
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: of undress hastened to cover themselves. Clearly, it was not
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: common for a man to venture this way, particularly at night.
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: Are you lost, man? No, I'm looking for someone, a
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: girl named Diane. They were smiling, and Johnny began to wonder.
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: He suspected that corridor trysts were not particularly uncommon. Is
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: she expecting you? Demanded the boldest of the women who
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: had stepped to the four while her more timid companions
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: drew back, ready to dart into the surrounding cubicles. I
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: cannot truthfully say, Johnny admitted. If she knew I was
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: in the citadel, I think she would be expecting me.
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: But even that was with tongue in cheek. For ever
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: since he had refused to fight with Starbuck, Diane had
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: said not a word to him. This, Diane, What does
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: she look like? Johnny described her. When he finished, the
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: woman chuckled, Could you perhaps be twisting from your description?
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: I would say you loved the girl, for no woman
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: could be so beautiful. I think I know who you mean,
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: Though still chuckling, the tall woman entered one of the cubicles,
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: while her companions melted away into the others. Soon Johnny
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: stood alone in the corridor, waiting as nervously as a
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: youth in Hamilton Village might wait. While the village match
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: maker entered a house to fetch his bride. Some one
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: appeared in the doorway, not the tall woman, Diane, Johnny
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: Johnny hope, Diane. I never thought I would see you again.
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: I thought Starbuck. I was so afraid for you because
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: you couldn't adjust to your new life, because I thought
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: you might do something desperate. I was a fool. I
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: should have known why you refused to fight with Starbuck. Johnny, Johnny,
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: let me look at you. Look later, he said, his
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: eyes suddenly unexpectedly misty. He drew her to him and
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: for a long time stood there with her, feeling the
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: beat of her heart tied against him, the warmth of
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: her body and long, smoothness of limbs. She was trembling,
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: the warmth of her all a flutter against him. She
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: was murmuring something softly against his shoulder. He was whispering
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: in her ear. I love you, I love you, Diane.
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: Her lips were perfumed and yielding. Her arms went behind him,
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: hands joining behind his neck, then playing with his hair.
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: The plague, his exile from Hamilton Village, the fight with kelliher,
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: the long trek, even captivity in the citadel, all were
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: a small price to pay, he thought dreamily, then abruptly
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: drew back. We don't want to stay here all our lives,
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: he said, I'll go anywhere with you, Johnny. Save that
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: for later, darling, but I love to hear it. I
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: don't think we'd have much trouble leaving the citadel. Not
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: if we go to night. We wouldn't every day I
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: work with Starbuck. But if we left at once now
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: to night. Her new found enthusiasm not only matched his,
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: but added wings to it. He was on the point
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: of saying yes, of leaving her through the quarters in
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: a dash for freedom, when he remembered, we can't. He said,
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: not to night. We've got to include Amos Westler in
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: our plans. Wesler is here. Johnny explained the situation to her,
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: then added to night, Wesler went looking for some information
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: about the robots. He feels certain they have an Achilles'
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: heel some place, if only he can find it. Actually,
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: it won't be easy dragging him away from the citadel,
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: even tomorrow night. We can wait one night longer, sweetheart,
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: you convince him tomorrow. I don't like the thought of
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: leaving you alone again until tomorrow night. Diane stilled his
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: words by placing cool fingers to his lips. We have
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: no choice. I can take care of myself one night more, Starbuck,
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: I can take care of myself in that respect too.
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: Go back to your dormitory and get some sleep. Tomorrow night,
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: same time, same place. Westler will be with me. They
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: came close and drank of each other again. They parted,
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: Johnny edging down the corridor backwards until the last shaft
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: of light disappeared from the entrance to Diane's cubicle. His
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: head was whirling in a giddy new delight, in a
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: rapture which clouded his mind with a buoyant optimism which
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: almost made him forget the citadel. The robots and men
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: like Harry Starbuck. Footsteps pound down the hall, heavy, too
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: heavy for a woman's Quickly, Johnny flattened himself in the
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: darkness of a niche which served some nameless purpose. With
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: the light behind it, a shadow loomed reared up toward him.
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: It was Harry Starbuck. Johnny held his breath until the
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: big man with the smug boy's face strode past, heading
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: for Diane. In all probability, yes, follow him, stop him,
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: attack him. Wild thoughts ran their course through Johnny's head
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: and lose everything all they were looking forward to. For
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: his impulsiveness, footsteps receded, the shadow vanished. Even if he
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: could follow Starbuck, overpower him and escape with Diane, their
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: secret would be secret no longer, which would leave Amos
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: Wesler to fare for himself. Wait for tomorrow, Johnny hope.
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: His course seemed clear, Yet he had to fight himself
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: all the way back down the corridor until he had
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: reached the male dormitories. For many hours, which seemed like days,
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: he waited up for Amos Westler, but his thoughts were
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: all with Diane. If Starbucks so much as touched her,
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: end of chapter six, Chapter seven. I found it, Johnny.
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: It was so obvious. It seems incredible. No one has
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: tried to end the robots reign. Before we can do it.
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 1: One man could do it alone, one man with careful planning.
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: Diana is here, Amos. I saw her tonight. We're going
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: to try to break out tomorrow night, the three of us,
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: you see, Westler went on, there are two items of
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: importance to consider. The first is central intelligence, the mind,
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: the ellin vital, the sentience which motivates the robots. Did
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: you know could you ever imagine that there was but
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: one central intelligence for the entire western hemisphere, Johnny? It
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: seems incredible, but it is not. That was the Achilles Heel.
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: We sought the seed of destruction which some pessimistic scientist
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: had sown into the robots in case man had created
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: a Frankenstein. Can you believe it? Tomorrow night, the three
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: of us will be on our way out of here.
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: I think we stand a good chance, Amos, if we
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: the second item, why what in the world are you
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: talking about? Escape now? Never? Within our grasp is the
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: chance to free humanity from a thraldom, which it does
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: not yet fully recognize. Would you give up the chance
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: to render the robots harmless in exchange for your own
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: personal safety, not mine Diane's. We love each other, Amos,
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't expose her to any danger. We're leaving tomorrow,
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: and we want you to come with us. Wester paste
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: back and forth, caged in spirit more than in body.
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: Look at you, he said bitterly. You call yourself a man,
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: but have you the right to a woman's love? When
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: you think only of tomorrow, of one day out of thousands,
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: of one small life, out of all that humanity has
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: to offer, you want to hold the girl and kiss
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: her and show her your virility, eh, while the rest
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: of the race goes to pot That's enough, Amos, Johnny cried.
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: My motives are my own. We leave here tomorrow. You're weak,
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hope, you're a coward, Johnny said, shut up, damn you.
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: He couldn't deny all that Amos was saying. But his
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: parents had perished at the hands of a man made plague.
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: He had been driven from his home, rejected by the
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: Shining Ones, even until he proved himself in battle. What
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: did he owe to humanity, to that big, sprawling concept
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: which took in all kinds of men and their women, men, children,
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: good people, bad ones, big and small, with every type
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: of mind and every type of body. All right, marry
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: the girl. Will you raise a family? Your shining was Johnny,
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: both of you. The rest of humanity fears you, and
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: rightfully your children will be stoned away if they venture
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: near normal people. Perhaps life with the robots will be
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: best for them. After all, here you have the chance
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: to stop all that. Not only could we negate the
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: power of the robots, but we could destroy the plague
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: as well. Did you hear me? We could destroy the plague.
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: Before you give me your final answer, let me tell
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: you what I found. I'm listening, but but nothing. Only
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: listen this Central Intelligence is a vast cybernetics machine occupying
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: an entire building. Ironically, it is the United Nations Building
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: where once were housed dreams of mankind. Now understand this, Johnny.
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: Every robot in North and South America has its own
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: particular wavelength. Although the Master Intelligence is in tune with
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: all of them, each individual robot sentience is dependent for
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: its existence upon the great cybernetics machines in Central Intelligence.
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: In other words, if you were to destroy them. At
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: one blow, you would kill every robot in the hemisphere.
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: How did you find out all that? Wesler smiled. There
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: was one thing the robots did not bargain for an
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: ex college professor. The information was available in, of all places,
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: the main library for humans here in the city. It
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: took some finding, but as an old hand at research,
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: I had an edge even on the robots with their
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: mechanical minds. Anyway, all you'd have to do is destroy
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: this central intelligence, and might as well say, destroy the moon, Amos.
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: It's probably so well guarded a whole army of men
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: couldn't break through, let alone two of us. That's right,
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: Wester said eagerly. Men could never hope to get through,
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: but robots could. What are you talking about? The second
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: thing I learned tonight. Once again, it was so deeply
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: cross referenced, so thoroughly hidden away, that although it was
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 1: available if one knew where to look. The science of
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: research is such a dead thing that no one knew
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: of its existence, probably not even the robots. Johnny. The
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: earliest model robots were built of function in a double fashion.
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: They were robots, yes, but they are also compartments in
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: which a man can fit for manual control. They were
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: originally designed, you might say, as glorified suits of armor. Well,
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: the research material is naturally old. All I could gather
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: seems to indicate that no changes have ever been made
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: structure in those early models. In other words, a man
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: could climb inside a robot to day right now and
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: no one would know the difference. You're forgetting one thing,
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: Johnny pointed out. Are you going to walk up to
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: a robot and tell him pardon me, old fellow, I'd
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: like to borrow you and use you for a disguise
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: for a while. I'm not forgetting anything. We work in
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: the repair bays. Remember we have access to partially dismantled robots.
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: We could find ourselves two dismantled old ones, somehow manage
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: to get inside make our way to Central intelligence. I
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: still haven't said I'm going to do it. I'd like
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 1: to help you, Amos. I'll take your word about the plan.
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: It has possibilities, but that has nothing to do with
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: my own problems. Right now, Diane is the most important thing.
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: Diane's future, your future, all our futures ultimately depend on this.
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: What's the matter with you? You fail to see the
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: forest for the trees. Tomorrow. What's tomorrow when all mankind's
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: days ahead of us, slave or free. Perhaps one man
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: could do the job alone, although two would have a
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: better chance. But I think you know I'm not the
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: man for the job. I don't await your answer, Johnny Hope,
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: I've no one else to turn to. Humanity awaits your answer,
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: Let me think, said Johnny, waving Westler away. When he
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: would have continued talking more quickly than he dared Hope,
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: he had found Diane. With equal swiftness, Wessler had discovered
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: what he sought. That left Johnny in the middle of
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: a tug of war which wouldn't wait indefinitely for his answer.
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: As the closing gong sounded, sixty three seventeen B watched
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: the Shining Ones shuffle away from their benches and make
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: their way down the corridor toward the cafeteria, which would
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: serve them unimaginative but well balanced evening meal. But two
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: humans remained behind, talking avidly over the gleaming bodies of
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: two stripped down robots. Strange thought sixty three seventeen Bee,
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: who was now confronted with the first even mildly unusual
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: event since taking over the dull routine of his new job,
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: that they should continue working after the closing gong had sounded.
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: He could summon Hartness, the scarred human supervisor, and have
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: him talk with the two, or Hartness his metal jointed foot.
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: He would do no such thing. If perhaps the humans
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: were up to some mischief, and if it did not
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: endanger sixty three seventeen bees own position still further, then
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: let them play. If it gave a few robots and
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: even Central Intelligence a hard time for a while, it
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: served them right. Of course, nothing really serious could come
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: from the tampering of two helpless humans. What about that
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: eye up there? Johnny raised an eyebrow in the direction
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: of the supervising robot, motionless on his stone perch. Is
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: he watching us? It appears that he is. Unfortunately, we
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: can't do a thing about it, at least not until
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: we find out if these gadgets will work with us
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: inside them. Here, Johnny, you see these tiny items. These
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: are transistors using germanium instead of a vacuum grid to
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 1: activate electrons. Smaller, more compact, more powerful, of longer life
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: without them. The whole science of cybernetics, which ultimately made
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: the robots possible would never have advanced beyond the RUDI
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: entry stage. For with transistors replacing vacuum tubes, you still
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: need the entire u Win building to house central intelligence.
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: Under the older system, all New York City would not
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: have been enough. Tell me later, Johnny pleaded, I want
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: to get started. The longer we delay here, the longer
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: it will take. So we're finished, and I still have
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: that appointment with Diane Tonite. I couldn't contact her during
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: the day because she said she works with Starbuck. We've
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: got to hurry. Wessler's hands guiding the complex. Tools moved
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: with swift efficiency, as if indeed he had worked with
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: the robots all his life. Wires were crossed, insulated, rearranged,
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: gaps and relays were tested and retested. Gears changed, long,
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: unused parts oiled, cleaned, checked for defects. Surface plates were
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: clamped into place over layers of insulation. At last, the
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: two robots lay there, supine, but Wessler hoped ready for
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: human use. He's still watching, said Johnny let him. We
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't prevent him, only hope he suddenly doesn't decide to
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: come down here for a closer look or send for help.
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: It seems amazing. He's done neither so far. Maybe he's asleep.
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: Robots do not sleep. I assure you well, it's ready.
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: Wessler reached into the robot's interior before clamping on the
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: final headplates. Each robot stood up in ponderous silence. You first, Johnny,
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 1: I can clamp my plate from the inside. Are you
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: sure my explanations on how to work this were satisfactory?
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: Once inside, we'll have to contact each other by signals only?
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: What about the radio sets inside? I don't know much
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: about radio, but you said they worked. They do, but
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: the wavelength might be too close to a robot wavelength,
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: and we give ourselves away. Remember, we are to be
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: nothing more or less than two robots once we climb inside.
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: That way, there shouldn't be any trouble. Already, up you go.
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: Johnny was boosted up, pulled himself within the cramped interior
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: of the robot. There was barely room for him to
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: stand upright, his shoulders hunched, arms tight in front of him.
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: A dizzying mass of dials and levers confronted him suddenly,
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: and although Wesler had explained them and diagrammed them and
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 1: made Johnny memorize them. He was still bewildered by direct contact.
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: He was almost afraid to try his first movement lest
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: the robot remain immobile. The face plate slammed home. Johnny
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 1: could see through the one way plastic of the robot's
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: eyes as Wesler climbed into his own machine. Johnny pulled
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: the starting lever and felt his robot lurch forward. Must
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: learn to control the motion, so he was now aware
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: of a lumbering gait, of a steady advance toward the
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 1: farther wall. Something made him whirl and peer through the
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: rear eyes. The robot's supervisor was coming toward them at
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: a rate of speed they couldn't match, you, see, said
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: starbut proudly, I am no longer a servant. I guess
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 1: you would call me a junior executive now. But I'm
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: on the way up, definitely on the way up. In
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: a while. There is no telling how far I can go.
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: I am sure of it. Diane nodded agreement. She didn't
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: want to be bothered by Starbuck to day, not when
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: her thoughts were all on the night and Johnny. She
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: was so nervous she couldn't keep from looking anxious if
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: only Starbuck, all wrapped up in himself the way he was,
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: would fail to see it for a few hours longer.
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: I suppose you wonder how I can advance so rapidly.
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: It's quite simple, Diane. I look around me, I make contacts.
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: I miss nothing. As an example, I even know of
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: your meeting with Johnny Hope last night. What I wouldn't
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: really mind it, except that my informant said, you are
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: considering escape from the citadel. That, of course is out
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 1: of the question. In his short time at the Citadel,
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: Diane realized Starbuck had effected a way of speaking which
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: hardly fit his booming voice or boyish face. It was
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: as if he had decided to ape the shining ones
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: who stood highest in the robot's confidence. To Diane, it
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: was contemptuous. Although now her mind was a world with
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: the thought that she and Johnny had been discovered. What
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: are you going to do, she asked in a small,
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: helpless voice. Hope will be arrested, naturally, he will never
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: be permitted to see you again. Diane stared at Starbuck
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: in horror. Johnny must be found, and warned. There was
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: still time they could alter their plans. This time in secrecy,
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: without any women around who could spy on them for Starbuck.
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: But she had to find Johnny before it was too late.
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: In sudden despair, she realized she didn't even know where
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: to look. End of chapter seven, Chapter eight, Stop Stand
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: perfectly Still. The thought was unexpected, peremptory, driving into Johnny's
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: brain with more authority than any words. He wanted to stop,
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: wanted to immobilize the robot in which he hid. But
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: where had the thought come from? Wessler's robot was pointing
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: a many jointed metal arm at the supervising robot, which
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: rushed toward them. Then did the thought originate there? Could
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: the robot somehow send a soundless message to them, stop
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 1: let me dismantle you. The urge to render his own
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: robot motionless became stronger within Johnny. It was as if
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: the unbid thought originated outside his head, but tried to
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: direct his own muscles as surely as his own mind.
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: Something made soft beeping noises in his ear, and it
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: took a while before he realized Wesler wanted to break
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: their radio silence, so soon after they had started, the
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: other robot was almost upon them. Awkward and uncomfortable, in
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 1: his cramped quarters, Johnny found the radio switch and pulled it.
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: We've got to destroy that robot, Johnny, now, at once,
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: or we're finished. But how the robot was upon them,
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: its unbidden thought, stronger halt. It was Johnny who struck
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: the first blow, clumsily lifting his great right arm up
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: and bringing it down stiffly on the other robot's head.
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: Metal arms came up, swung blurringly, A clanging tumult deafened
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: Johnny as dance appeared inside the chamber of his own
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: robot's head. He triggered the levers mechanically, now aware that
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: they were fighting under a tremendous disadvantage, for their fingers
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 1: were still stiff on the unfamiliar control, and their artificial
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 1: reflexes could not hope to match the robots. Look out, Johnny.
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: Two metal shapes loomed Wessler and the real robot. The
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: three of them came together, clashing, clanging metal arms, swinging,
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: and wrecking metal bodies. It was Wessler's robot which went down,
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: first slowly, buckling at the knee joints, and then collapsing.
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: Metal feet drove down upon it, ponderously, crushing the head
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: section Wessler's robot was still. Johnny hammered with huge metal
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: hands at the other robot, hardly knowing where he might
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: strike a mortal blow. But the robot slowed its reactions,
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: grew feeble, its blows, denting Johnny's head chamber no longer. Finally,
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: it sprawled across Wesler's robot, then rolled away and was
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: still cursing to himself. Johnny climbed down from his robot,
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: found the battered headplate of Westerners forced it open. He
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: saw at once he could never hope to extricate the
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 1: older man, for the metal walls of his chamber had
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 1: been crushed, knifing into bone and flesh and trapping him. Amos,
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: can you hear me? The eyelids fluttered open with pain.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: I never will see the end, Johnny, what are you
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: talking about? Don't fool me. I'm all broken inside. I
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: will get you out of there in no time. You'd
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 1: have to melt the metal down to do it, and
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: you know it. We'll do it. Your only hope is
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: that the robot did not have time to broadcast a warning.
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 1: If he did, you will have to hurry. But they
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 1: still don't know our plans. Maybe they think we only
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: want to escape, using these robot bodies for a disguise.
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 1: Perhaps I hadn't thought of that. Wes lapsed into silence,
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 1: his face twisted with pain. If you can do it,
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: if you can destroy their cybernetic center, new start for humanity.
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: I was going to tell you about the plague, Johnny.
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 1: The robots have been using a particularly virulent form of
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: the toxin, which does not exist naturally, spreading it in
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 1: the air all over the earth. That, combined with the
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: toxin carried by a shining One, causes illness and death.
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: Wessler's words were harder to hear now, low the barest
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: whisper of sound, Johnny leaned close to the glazed eyes,
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: the barely opening lips. When the robots are gone, the
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: plague will die out almost at once. Shining Ones even
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: will be harmless. You see why it's so important. You
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: see I could never do it without you. We'll hide
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: away somewhere, nurse you back to health. Stop fooling an
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 1: old man. We both know I'm dying. That's ridiculous. Please
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: don't interrupt me. I want to finish telling you. The
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 1: robots communicate with humans by telepathy. You witnessed it yourself
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 1: a few minutes ago. They can make it seem like
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 1: your own thoughts, And who can say thought waves are electromagnetic.
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 1: Like so many other things, there is nothing mysterious about telepathy.
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: Give humanity a chance to study what the robots have done,
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: and you'll have civilization flourishing again within a generation. Give
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: humanity the chance. It was a whisper, a prayer. On
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: that final note of hope, Weser died. The human has
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: emerged from the underground within his robot and is heading
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 1: northeast across the city. I still think we ought to
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: stop him now while we know we can do it,
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: silence think on the primary level. In unity, we will triumph.
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: It is our one weapon they cannot hope to match.
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: But sixty three seventeen B warned us before he perished,
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: precisely that the humans were attempting something other than mere escape.
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 1: We must find out what that is, what they have learned.
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 1: Don't you realize that if this man fails, another might
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: succeed in his place. Whatever knowledge he has, perhaps it
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 1: is widely disseminated. We must find out before we kill him.
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 1: There was a silence among the conclave of motionless robots,
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: their unblinking eyes intent upon a huge three dimensional map
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 1: of the city, following a tiny pip of light in
• 2:28:04
  Speaker 1: its slow progress. He seems to be heading straight for
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 1: Central Intelligence. That's hardly possible, unless it is mere coincidence.
• 2:28:16
  Speaker 1: I don't think so. See not half a mile away. Now,
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: have the supervisors discovered who is missing? Yes, he was
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 1: employed in the very repair bay where sixty three seventeen
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 1: B perished a defective robot. Incidentally and no great loss.
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: We have given his name to the top level Shining
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: Ones in the hope that they can help us. There
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 1: is a shining one, a human here right now. He
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 1: wants an audience concerning the rebel very well, although we'll
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 1: have to make it brief. Starbuck entered the chamber cockily,
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: then lost his poise when he saw the solemn on
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 1: moving conclave of robots I have outside. He began moistening
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 1: his lips and talking rapidly. A woman who this man,
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: this Johnny Hope loves? Can you understand me? Do you
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 1: know what love is? He won't do a thing that
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: might harm her. We can understand. I thought that we
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 1: can read your thoughts. Leave your name with the robot outside.
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: Take this woman within the U. N Building and hold
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 1: her there until you hear from us the un building.
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 1: No questions, go Starbucks shuffled from the room, self conscious
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 1: and fearful under the mental command. I doubt if we'll
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: need the hostage, but you can never tell. It seems incredible,
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: that does it. The man has almost reached the U. N. Building.
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: It will take him perhaps half an hour, for the
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: rubble is piled high there underground. He could reach it
• 2:30:07
  Speaker 1: in a few moments. But apparently he is unfamiliar with
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 1: the passages. He has only recently arrived at the citadel.
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: Somehow they have learned something. It is why we cannot
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 1: kill the man until we are sure have them alerted
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: at Central Intelligence. But let him enter. Watch him if
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: he blunders about, as if he has arrived there by accident.
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 1: Kill him if he knows something, Take him alive. Some day.
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: We must learn the secret of Central Intelligence. If we
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: are to survive. We must learn how to duplicate it,
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: or face the possibility of perishing in a single accident.
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 1: Men built at once, Men could do it again. Defective silence.
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 1: Man can do nothing he cannot do. Then they were quiet,
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: watching the tiny darting pip on the three dimensional map
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 1: as it struggled through the uncleared rubble southwest of the
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 1: u N Building. Even in ruin, the city held more
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 1: wonders for Johnny Hope than he had ever thought possible.
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: In many ways, it was like a scar on the
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 1: face of the earth, pitted with bomb craters, strewn with
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: a debris of topple towers, its streets choked with fallen,
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: crumbling masonry, and blocked by the skeletons of buildings which
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: once had stood bare and rusted now but not always so,
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 1: as monuments to the greatness of man. Yet it was
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 1: a scar which could be healed, a broken, dying city
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: which could be made great again, with men and women
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: roving its streets, repairing the structures, making the living city
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: function once more. That was Amos Wester's dream. It was
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 1: the dream of all mankind, Johnny thought philosophically, although they
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: did not realize it, as they rove the earth in
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 1: hunter bands of shining ones, or tilled its soil in
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 1: small communities fearful of the plague. Now directly ahead of him,
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 1: he could see the monolithic slab of the UN building
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 1: like one structure in five it stood incredibly intact, a
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 1: remembrance of the past and a promise of the future.
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 1: We can build again, Johnny thought. Without the robots and
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: the plague, they could build again, or they would die.
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 1: Natural world or artificial world, men or robots, they could
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: not survive. Jointly battered and broken, but still functioning adequately,
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: Johnny's robot pushed through the debris south of the un
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: building to the edge of the river. He stood there
• 2:32:55
  Speaker 1: a moment and stared up stream at the gaunt ruins
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 1: of a bridge now tumbled down the river and resting
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: on the river bottom, thrusting its towers up beyond the
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: surface of the water and toward the sky. Men had
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: used that bridge once, long ago, but within the memory
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: of Johnny's father to reach the country beyond, the bridge
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 1: might be rebuilt, men might learn to use it again.
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: It was as if, in dying Amos Wessler had transferred
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: his own vision to Johnny, showing him a dream of
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: the unborn tomorrow, his birth or still born death, depending
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 1: entirely upon Johnny's success or failure. Today, half a dozen
• 2:33:38
  Speaker 1: robots stood about the wide terrace leading to the building,
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 1: but Johnny ignored them. For he had passed many in
• 2:33:44
  Speaker 1: the broken streets of the city and grown accustomed to them.
• 2:33:48
  Speaker 1: He entered the building through a door of glass and metal,
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 1: and was not aware of the robots entering it behind him.
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: His impulse was to climb down from his robot, to
• 2:33:58
  Speaker 1: stretch his cramped arms and legs, and find something to eat,
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: then explore the wonders of this new place above his head.
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 1: The seating was high and vaulted. Ramps led away, curving
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 1: and graceful in all directions, and he longed to feel
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 1: his feet, his own feet upon them, and to explore
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 1: until he satiated himself with this wonder and sought another.
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: To leave the robot would be suicide, had the thought
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: been his own, or a metal maid thought instilled in
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: him some unknown way, an unbidden suicide thought. It was
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 1: less specific than the commands of the robot that had
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 1: perished in the repair bay, but Johnny guessed it came
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 1: from outside. Nevertheless, he advanced mechanically, for Wesler had given
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 1: him careful directions. The ramps led up, higher and higher,
• 2:34:54
  Speaker 1: passed the rooms in which men from many lands once
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 1: long ago used to debate their future. Then higher still climbing.
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 1: There was a noise behind him. He whirled in cramped quarters,
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 1: peered from the robot's second set of eyes. A dozen
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 1: robots climbed the ramp behind him, gaining He let his
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 1: mind drift blankly, let their thoughts reach him. He is
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: not wandering aimlessly. Somehow he learned, He learned capture him.
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: He ran now awkwardly, his own robot not smooth and graceful,
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: a flawless piece of machinery like the others. He clumped
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 1: and clattered up the ramp and prayed for time. The
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: ramps soared upward, curved to the left. Once he looked
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: down at the floor of the rotunda so far below,
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: and became giddy with the distance and the thought of falling.
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 1: He leaned over the railing and looked. His head whirled.
• 2:35:55
  Speaker 1: At the last moment, he drew his robot back from
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 1: the edge, stabbing half blindly at the controls which propelled it.
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 1: They had almost driven him to suicide. He must keep
• 2:36:07
  Speaker 1: his mind a perfect blank or better still, think of
• 2:36:10
  Speaker 1: something which would keep them at bay. Diane his love
• 2:36:15
  Speaker 1: for her, Diane, A robot waited for him at the
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: top of the ramp. Those behind him were gaining rapidly,
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 1: driving death wishes deep within his brain. The robot above
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 1: him abruptly swung into motion, but Johnny desperately sidestepped the lunch,
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: which would have sent him hurtling to the floor of
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 1: the rotunda. The other robot checked his own inertia and
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 1: came for Johnny again, huge arm swinging, trying to crush
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: him within the metal chamber as Amos Wessler had been crushed.
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 1: Johnny parried the blows with his own metal arms, then
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: reached out and heard machinery groan within his metal frame.
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: As he lifted the other robot and hurled it in
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 1: the path of his pursuers. There was a grinding, clattering
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 1: crash of metal. Johnny saw three forms detach themselves from
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: the arcing ramp and tumble, swinging and twisting in air
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 1: grotesquely to the floor, where they struck resoundingly and broke apart,
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 1: the metal arms and legs flying. Then he was climbing again.
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 1: The remaining robots far below him and disorganized now, but
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: soon he knew they would be capable of following. It
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: was as amos Wessler had predicted. After a time, the
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 1: ramp grew smaller. It no longer climbed. Now it had
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 1: soared high, and now was just below the girdered ceiling.
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: It was hardly wide enough for Johnny's robot. It shook
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: dangerously with the tread of metal feet. Here, Johnny knew,
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 1: was the sanctuary. This was the Achilles' heel. This was
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 1: the entrance, this ramp, which no robot could traverse. Here
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 1: the way led to self functioning, self repairing machinery to
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: Central Intelligence. Here was man's final hope in the eyes
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: of the original inventor. Here was the guarantee that the robots,
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: if they became some Frankenstein monster, could be met and conquered.
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: For no robot could guard the final portal to Central Intelligence.
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: No robot could even draw close enough to alter the
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: thin rap. Johnny smiled grimly as comprehension grew. If robots
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 1: could become neurotic, this was the place for it. They
• 2:38:32
  Speaker 1: could have employed their human servants, the Shining Ones, to
• 2:38:35
  Speaker 1: alter the place, but would have divulged their secret in
• 2:38:38
  Speaker 1: the process. Still smiling, Johnny halted his robot, opened the
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 1: face played clumsily from the inside, and climbed out. He
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 1: sat on the rap and flexed stiff arms and legs,
• 2:38:51
  Speaker 1: then stood up and heard the robots below him. He
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 1: could see them now, no longer advancing, milling about in confusion.
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 1: Their weight would destroy the ramp, and they knew it.
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 1: They could never hope to reach him. It was all
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: so incredibly simple, was it? One robot had been above him,
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 1: then they knew he was coming? What had they prepared
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 1: for him? Beyond the point where the robots could not climb? Shrugging,
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: he advanced warily. Soon he could see where the ramp
• 2:39:27
  Speaker 1: reached a small doorway, much too low and narrow to
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 1: admit a robot, even if one of the machines could
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 1: have climbed the ramp this far hold it, Johnny, Hope,
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 1: don't come any closer. Startled, He looked up. Harry Starbuck
• 2:39:44
  Speaker 1: stood in the doorway, holding Diane in front of him.
• 2:39:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not fooling, Hope. If you'll come any closer, I'll
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 1: throw her off. It's a long way down. You're crazy, Starbuck.
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 1: You'll never leave this place alive. But even as he spoke,
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 1: he knew he could never reason with the man. The
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 1: robots can't let you carry their secret from here. Your
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 1: only hope is to co operate with me. Is that
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 1: so they're sending some more men up to get you.
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 1: All I have to do is hold a fort until
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 1: cut it out. Hope, stay right there. Starbuck edged out
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 1: of the doorway, dragging Diana along with him to the
• 2:40:26
  Speaker 1: railing at one side of the ramp. I'll do it
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 1: if you make me. Don't listen to him, Johnny, I'm
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 1: not afraid. Hair disheveled, clothing torn, face bruised, she still
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: looked beautiful to him. All at once. She stood for
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: everything Wesler had mentioned, for the future of man, for
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 1: the dreams of tomorrow, for a free world with no
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: plague and no robots. But for Wesler, the choice would
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 1: have been easy, the girl or humanity. Wesler had not
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 1: been in love. Now Starbuck had forced Diane back, arched,
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: breast thrust forward out over the railing. She struggled in
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: his grip, but futally he could hurl her out over
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 1: the edge and into space, or not, as he wished,
• 2:41:17
  Speaker 1: back up, Hope. I want you to go back down
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 1: the ramp and surrender to the robots. You're only delaying things.
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: More men will be here soon. You're licked, and you
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 1: know it. Wearily, Johnny retreated, don't hurt her, he said,
• 2:41:35
  Speaker 1: promise me that you crazy. I want her for myself.
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 1: The thought numbed Johnny. He hadn't considered it that way.
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: A live Diane or a dead one was one thing,
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 1: but a Diane forced to submit to Starbuck. He reached
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 1: his own iMobile robot, saw the others not twenty yards
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 1: below him, waiting thought he heard shot out somewhere behind them.
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 1: He must do what he had come to do, as
• 2:42:04
  Speaker 1: if Diane did not exist, it was Starbuck who had
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 1: made the choice for him, But there was a wild possibility. Quickly,
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: he climbed within his robot, activated it lumbered forward. He
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: could feel the ramp shaking with each step he took.
• 2:42:22
  Speaker 1: At any moment, it struts might collapse and send him
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 1: hurriedly to his death, trapped in his man shaped metal
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 1: coffin far below. Soon he could see Starbuck again on
• 2:42:33
  Speaker 1: the ramp, outside the doorway, holding Diane. Starbuck's eyes went wide.
• 2:42:39
  Speaker 1: Starbuck frowned, then began to lick his lips anxiously. You
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 1: can't come up here, he cried. They won't hold you.
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 1: I sent the man down to surrender anyway, do you
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: have him? Is he dead? What do you want anyway?
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 1: I can come down myself. Don't come any closer, not
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 1: unless you want the ramp to collapse. Keep away, do
• 2:43:02
  Speaker 1: you hear me? Johnny advanced slowly, the ramp shaking with
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 1: each stride, no longer but dipping and rocking constantly. Now
• 2:43:11
  Speaker 1: almost ready to go, Starbuck retreated, taking Diane with him
• 2:43:16
  Speaker 1: through the doorway. They went out, fell the face plate
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 1: of Johnny's robot. He tumbled after it as the ramp shook,
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: metal grinding against metal, then snapped. He leaped forward as
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 1: the ramp caved in. He felt his feet shoot out
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 1: from under him, saw metal dropping away. Twisting to his left.
• 2:43:37
  Speaker 1: He clawed out with his hands gripped a jagged edge,
• 2:43:40
  Speaker 1: pulled himself up slowly as blood made his hand slip.
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 1: He stood in what was left of the doorway, trembling
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 1: as reactions set in his heels on the brink of nothing,
• 2:43:51
  Speaker 1: his bloodied hands aching. Starbuck roared and charged at him,
• 2:43:56
  Speaker 1: attempting to drive him back a few inches to his death,
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 1: but Johnny caught him, met him half way, with no
• 2:44:02
  Speaker 1: room to evade the charge, and they grappled there teetering
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 1: on the edge. A knee blurred up at Johnny, exploding
• 2:44:10
  Speaker 1: in violent pain. He felt himself falling and managed to
• 2:44:14
  Speaker 1: twist away from the edge of the sundered ramp. He
• 2:44:17
  Speaker 1: hit the floor, with waves of nausea boiling up from
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: his stomach. He lay there, blinking his eyes. Starbuck came
• 2:44:25
  Speaker 1: for him. He drew his legs up instinctively. The knees
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 1: bent then straightened as Starbuck leaned over him. His feet
• 2:44:32
  Speaker 1: caught the big man squarely on the chest, lifted him pushed.
• 2:44:37
  Speaker 1: Starbuck went over the edge of the ramp, screaming all
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: the way down. Inside, Johnny found Diane dazed on the floor.
• 2:44:45
  Speaker 1: He ignored her. She could wait for now. He was
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 1: a man possessed the machinery, which he could never hope
• 2:44:52
  Speaker 1: to understand, was all about him, bank on bank of it,
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 1: lining the walls, humming with its strange scentiate energy, glowing
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 1: and flickering with a million lights. Kill yourself, two words
• 2:45:07
  Speaker 1: clamoring insistent inside his skull, their final hope. He felt
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: himself edging back toward the doorway and the death which
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: awaited him just outside. He looked at Diane, huddled on
• 2:45:20
  Speaker 1: the floor, her lips parted, Johnny, I love you. He
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 1: thought the words of death and those of life and hope.
• 2:45:30
  Speaker 1: Fought inside his skull, twisting his brain, battling there for mastery.
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: He found something, a length of metal rod. He ripped
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: it loose and began to attack the machinery. He would
• 2:45:41
  Speaker 1: never understand. He was a wild man. The strength flowed
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 1: in from elsewhere, raising his arm, swinging it high over
• 2:45:50
  Speaker 1: his head and down. Sparks flew as his metal club
• 2:45:54
  Speaker 1: battered the crystal in tubes, the delicate wiring, the metal cases,
• 2:45:58
  Speaker 1: glass shattered, spring brought blood from a dozen cuts on
• 2:46:02
  Speaker 1: his face. Electricity hummed, then shrieked, then wailed off distantly
• 2:46:08
  Speaker 1: on a register too high for his ears. Raise his
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 1: arm and plunge, lift it and bring it down, battering
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 1: the metal club part of him. It was Diane who
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 1: eased the twisted rod from his fingers, soothed him with
• 2:46:23
  Speaker 1: her words, It's finished, easy, Johnny, You've done it. The
• 2:46:30
  Speaker 1: place was a shamble's bank, on bank of gutted machinery
• 2:46:33
  Speaker 1: lay silent there on a floor strewn with glass, with wire,
• 2:46:38
  Speaker 1: with filaments, with nameless things which were the brains for
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 1: a million robots. There's another way out, Johnny Starbuck took
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 1: me here behind that wall you. She took his hand,
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 1: and they went. The passage was dark and cool, and
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 1: smelled musty, as if air did not circulate very well
• 2:46:57
  Speaker 1: within it. It was a place for thinking and dreaming
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 1: of tomorrow. It was a place for realizing. You could
• 2:47:04
  Speaker 1: go back to the hills and find Kelliher and his
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 1: Shining Ones and convince them they should at least look
• 2:47:10
  Speaker 1: at the city, the city which belonged to them now
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 1: to them, and Reggio and his villagers and all the others.
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 1: And there must be a coming together of Kelliher and
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 1: a Reggio, with Johnny as mediator, and a realization that
• 2:47:26
  Speaker 1: the last plague victim had been smitten, and humanity had
• 2:47:29
  Speaker 1: a long path to travel, but could set foot upon
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 1: it right now at once. Outside it was growing dark,
• 2:47:38
  Speaker 1: but Johnny could make out the still forms of the robots,
• 2:47:41
  Speaker 1: gleaming red with final sunlight, sprawled upon the broken streets.
• 2:47:47
  Speaker 1: The Shining Ones within the city stalked about furtively in
• 2:47:50
  Speaker 1: small groups, not yet knowing what it meant to live
• 2:47:54
  Speaker 1: without their masters. Perhaps in time, Kelliher and all the
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 1: others could teach them. Hungry, said Johnny, we could stop
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 1: and eat no you in a different way, they followed
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 1: the last slanting rays of the sun to the western
• 2:48:12
  Speaker 1: River and the mainland beyond it. End of chapter eight,
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 1: The End of Slaves to the Metal Horde by Stephen
• 2:48:23
  Speaker 1: Marlowe