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"Machine Major Boysie Gann! Do you know what became of the Together ship?" Gann cried hopelessly: "The what? General, I never even heard of the what is it? The Togethership. I don't know what you're talking about." Like the steady pulse of a laser scan, the general tolled: "The Togethership went into space forty years ago. It was never heard of again. Major Gann, what do you know of this?" "Nothing, sir! Why, I wasn't even born!" For a moment the mask cracked, and the general's face looked almost human. Worried. Even confused. He said after a moment, "Yes. That's true. But.. ." Then he tightened up again, bent forward stiffly from the hips. His steel eyes narrowed. "Are you loyal to the Plan of Man?" he asked softly. "Yes, sir!" The general nodded. "I hope so," he said bleakly. "For the sake of the Plan and for your own sake, too. For I am going to tell you something that cannot ever be told again. If you whisper a word of it, Machine Major Boysie Gann, your death will come at once. At once. "You see, the Planning Machine is not unique. There is another one." Gann's eyes widened. "Another . . ." he stopped, and had to begin again. It was like being told there were two Jehovahs, a second Christ. "Another Planning Machine, sir? But where is it?" The general shook his head. "Lost," he said somberly. "Another Machine as great, as powerful, as complete as the one that guides the Plan of Man. And we do not know where it is. "Or what it is doing." There was a man named Ryeland, the general told Boysie Gann. A great mathematician. A brilliant scientist. The husband of the daughter of the then-Planner, and close to the center of power surrounding the Planning Machine itself. And decades before he had gone into space, just as Gann himself had done, and seen the Reefs of 202 Space, and come back with the tale of countless thousands of unplanned humans living their lives out on the fusorian worldlets, outside the scope of the Plan. "What he said," rasped General Wheeler sternly, "was false! But the Machine Page 129 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html wisely determined to test it out! The Planning Machine does not leap to conclusions! It weighs the evidence learns the facts makes a plan!" "Yes, sir," said Boysie Gann. "I've heard of this Ryeland, I think. A leading scientist even file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...2001-03%20-%20The%20Starchild%20 Trilogy.txt (94 of 206) [12/28/2004 10:49:11 PM] file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/LoPL%20full%20...child%20(3 )/Starchild%2001-03%20-%20The%20Starchild%20Trilogy.txt today!" The genera! nodded. "Today," he said cryptically, "Rye-land has abandoned error. A loyal servant of the Plan. And so is the former Planner, Creery, who also has turned away from falsity. But then . . ." He sighed, like the wheezing of a high-vacuum pump. Then, he told Gann, both men had been duped and had caused the Machine to commit . . . not an error, of course that was impossible to the Machine but to conduct an experiment that failed. The experiment was to bring the Plan of Man to the Reefs. The Machine had directed the construction of a mighty spacecraft called the Togethership, The biggest space-going vessel ever built, a mobile spacefort. it was fabricated at the yards on Deimos, and powered with six detachable jetless drive units that were themselves great fighting ships. And more than half of its hull was filled with a slave unit of the Planning Machine a linked bank of computers and storage banks, as advanced as the Machine itself, lacking only the network of communications and implementation facilities that the Machine had developed out of the race of Man. The Togethership was built, launched, tested, and fitted out. A selected crew was assembled and came aboard. Supplies were loaded for a ten-year cruise. The slave Machine assumed control . . . the Togethership flashed out past Orbit Pluto passed the Spacewall and was gone. Days later a message came back via laser relay chain. All was going well. The Togethership had sighted a major cluster of the Reefs of Space. No other message was ever received. Machine General Wheeler paused, his steel-gray eyes on Gann. "No other message," he repeated. "It has never been heard from again. Scouting vessels, attempting to locate it, came back "without having found any trace. Or 203 did not come back at all. Or returned early, damaged, having been attacked by pyropods or something worse. 'That is the story of the Togethership, Major Gann. Except for one thing: the cluster of Reefs it last reported sighting was in the same position as what you have called Freehaven, And you were there, Major. What did you learn?" Wonderingly, Gann shook his head. "Nothing, sir. Believe me. Not even a rumor." The general looked at him for a long second. Then he nodded. "Gann," he said bleakly, "I will tell you one more thing." Abruptly he snapped three switches on his desk, glanced at a monitoring dial, nodded, "We are cut off," he declared. "Not even the Planning Machine can look in on us now. What I have to tell you is for no ears but your own. "You see, Gann, it is not only the welfare of the Plan of Man that is involved here. I have a special interest in solving these mysteries. Solving them myself. "Major Gann, I intend to be the next Planner." Boysie Gann was adrift in dangerous waters, and he knew it. He had heard rumors of the power struggle of the human leaders who surrounded the great central power-fact of the Machine, jockeying for position, seeking personal advantage. The Technicorps Academy had been filled with sly jokes and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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