Android Karenina Part 32

"An old wives' tale that happens to be true," Mamma had said, so many years ago, cracking the faceplate of the Cla.s.s I ballerina toy with the peen of a hammer. "Just get a bit of rainwater behind the eyes. . . ."

"Grazzle . . . furglazzle . . . ," spat the Veslovsky machine nonsensically, as its insides popped and hissed. "Grllllllll. . . ." Levin, unrelenting, kept him-it, he told himself-- he told himself--it!-under the fierce flow of the rain like a man bathing a reluctant pet. At last the hands on his throat slackened their grip, and Levin breathed hard, watching with grim fascination as Veslovsky melted into some sort of hideous, unwholesome, forced Surcease. Levin then collapsed beneath the window, the robot slumped beside him with its head lolling from the neck at a crooked angle, still spitting out nonsense phrases in wildly modulated tones. "Vizz . . . poj . . . markkkklzz . . ."

Finally, like a real dying man summons one final burst of lucidity, the thing that had been Veslovsky spoke very quietly, in perfect Russian: "You can't escape. You can't win."

With that, the last energy fled from his body, and Veslovsky ceased to be.

"What madness is this?" Stepan Arkadyevitch said when, after hearing from Dolly that his friend was being turned out of the house, he found Levin in the garden. "Mais c'est ridicule! "Mais c'est ridicule! "What fly has stung you? "What fly has stung you? Mais c'est du dernier ridicule! Mais c'est du dernier ridicule! What did you think, if a young man . . ." What did you think, if a young man . . ."

"Please don't go into it! I can't help it. I feel ashamed of how I'm treating you and him," replied Levin, absently ma.s.saging the sides of his neck. "But it won't be, I imagine, a great grief to him to go, and his presence was distasteful to me and to my wife."

And Levin gave Oblonsky an apologetic nod, signaling the conclusion of the interview and dismissing his friend from the garden; when Stepan Arkadyich had angrily departed, Levin returned to smoothing over the uneven patch of soil where he had buried the disa.s.sembled pieces of Va.s.senka Veslovsky.

CHAPTER 6.

SOME WEEKS AFTER the stormy conclusion of Va.s.senka Veslovsky's tenure at Pokrovskoe, Kitty answered the door at the sound of a quiet though insistent knocking, and found on the doorstep a very thin woman wrapped in a ratty old blanket. Immediately Kitty beckoned the bedraggled creature inside, a.s.suming this was one of the poor peasants they had lately heard of, those wandering the countryside, their homes having been destroyed by the alien marauders. Kitty had even heard that some had found employment in the homes of the wealthy as intimate worker-friends-in other words, as poor subst.i.tutes for the absented Cla.s.s Ills, though she herself was horrified by the idea of employing a human in that function. the stormy conclusion of Va.s.senka Veslovsky's tenure at Pokrovskoe, Kitty answered the door at the sound of a quiet though insistent knocking, and found on the doorstep a very thin woman wrapped in a ratty old blanket. Immediately Kitty beckoned the bedraggled creature inside, a.s.suming this was one of the poor peasants they had lately heard of, those wandering the countryside, their homes having been destroyed by the alien marauders. Kitty had even heard that some had found employment in the homes of the wealthy as intimate worker-friends-in other words, as poor subst.i.tutes for the absented Cla.s.s Ills, though she herself was horrified by the idea of employing a human in that function.

But once inside, the woman pushed back the cowl of the blanket, revealing not the haggard face of a hungry peasant, but an obsidian faceplate, flas.h.i.+ng a frantic electric green.

"It's . . ." Kitty put a hand before her mouth. "My goodness, it's a Cla.s.s III!"

"A fugitive," said Levin, hastening down the stairs and closing the front door behind the machine.

The Cla.s.s Ill's name was Witch Hazel, and she would not speak of who her mistress was, or how she had escaped the circuitry adjustment protocol; there could be no doubting, however, that her journey had been a perilous one. Witch Hazel's head unit jerked nervously about as she spoke, and she generally displayed all the sensory twitchiness and navigational confusion inherent in masterless beloved-companions. She insisted instead that she had a communique to deliver, which turned out to be intended not for Kitty and Levin, but for Darya Alexandrovna.

Dolly was duly summoned, and the communique viewed-it was from Anna Karenina, and its substance was simple: Dolly was invited to visit Anna and Vronsky in their secret encampment. Witch Hazel would act as her guide.

Darya Alexandrovna decided right away to accept this invitation and go to see Anna. She was sorry to annoy her sister and do anything Levin disliked. She quite understood how right the Levins were in not wis.h.i.+ng to have anything to do with Vronsky. But she felt she must go and see Anna, and show her that her feelings could not be changed, in spite of the change in her position. It was decided that she and Witch Hazel would leave the next morning; the machine-woman, whose reluctance to speak further of her past and current situation was manifestly clear, gratefully accepted a dosing of humectant and was Surceased for the night.

That she might be independent of the Levins for the expedition, Darya Alexandrovna sent to the village to hire a carriage for the drive; but Levin, learning of it, went to her to protest.

"What makes you suppose that I dislike your going? But, even if I did dislike it, I should still more dislike your not taking my carriage and engine," he said. "Hiring Coachmen in the village is disagreeable to me, and, what's of more importance, they'll undertake the job and never get you there. I have a four-treaded II/Puller. And if you don't want to wound me, you'll take mine."

Darya Alexandrovna had to consent, and Levin made ready for his sister-in-law a four-tread and carriage set-not at all a smart-looking conveyance, but capable of taking Darya Alexandrovna the whole distance in a single day, if the pointedly vague information of the location and direction of travel that Witch Hazel had provided could be believed.

Dolly and the robot, by Levin's advice, started before daybreak. The road was good, the carriage comfortable, and the carriage hummed along merrily, and on the box sat the junker, the mysteriously ownerless robot. With the steering shaft in her end-effectors, Witch Hazel's formerly nervous, scattered mien dissipated, leaving Dolly to wonder whether, before the adjustment protocol had torn her from her duties, this robot had been beloved-companion to a hunter or racewoman.

As Dolly rode, she thought. At home, looking after her children, she had no time to think. So now, during this journey of four hours, all the thoughts she had suppressed before rushed swarming into her brain, and she thought over all her life as she never had before, and from the most different points of view. Her thoughts seemed strange even to herself, the words bouncing around in her skull-how odd, this Cla.s.s-III-less life, without Dolichka to speak her thoughts aloud to! At first she thought about the children, about whom she was uneasy, although the princess and Kitty (she reckoned more upon her) had promised to look after them. If only Masha does not begin her naughty tricks, if Grisha isn't bit by the dog, and Lily isn't upset again! If only Masha does not begin her naughty tricks, if Grisha isn't bit by the dog, and Lily isn't upset again! she thought. she thought.

Witch Hazel, at this point in the journey, pulled the coach off to the side of the road and, with stammering apologies, fit her pa.s.senger with a silken blindfold. "We must be drawing closer to our destination," Dolly thought out loud, her musings turning to her sister-in-law.

They attack Anna. What for? Am I any better? I have, anyway, a husband I love-not as I should like to love him, still I do love him, while Anna never loved hers. How is she to blame?

She wants to live. G.o.d has put that in our hearts. Very likely I should have done the same. Even to this day I don't feel sure I did right in listening to her at that terrible time when she came to me in Moscow. I ought then to have cast off my husband and have begun my life fresh. I might have loved and have been loved in reality. And is it any better as it is? I don't respect him. He's necessary to me, she thought about her husband, she thought about her husband, and I put up with him. Is that any better? and I put up with him. Is that any better? She remembered his dull words of comfort when Dolichka was taken away, and blamed him for that, too. She remembered his dull words of comfort when Dolichka was taken away, and blamed him for that, too.

As the carriage b.u.mped along, the road becoming more rutted and uneven as they drew toward their destination, the most pa.s.sionate and impossible romances rose before Darya Alexandrovna's imagination. Anna did quite right, and certainly I shall never reproach her for it. She is happy, she makes another person happy, and she's not broken down as I am, but most likely just as she always was, bright, clever, open to every impression, Anna did quite right, and certainly I shall never reproach her for it. She is happy, she makes another person happy, and she's not broken down as I am, but most likely just as she always was, bright, clever, open to every impression, thought Darya Alexandrovna-and a sly smile curved her lips, for, as she pondered on Anna's love affair, Darya Alexandrovna constructed on parallel lines an almost identical love affair for herself, with an imaginary composite figure, the ideal man who was in love with her. And Dolichka lived and stood arm in arm with her as she, like Anna, confessed the whole affair to her husband. And the amazement and perplexity of Stepan Arkadyich at this avowal made her smile. thought Darya Alexandrovna-and a sly smile curved her lips, for, as she pondered on Anna's love affair, Darya Alexandrovna constructed on parallel lines an almost identical love affair for herself, with an imaginary composite figure, the ideal man who was in love with her. And Dolichka lived and stood arm in arm with her as she, like Anna, confessed the whole affair to her husband. And the amazement and perplexity of Stepan Arkadyich at this avowal made her smile.

It was with such daydreams she reached the turning of the highroad that led to the rebel encampment at Vozdvizhenskoe.

CHAPTER 7.

WITCH HAZEL PULLED UP the carriage and looked round to the right, to a field of rye, where a dozen or so ragged-looking Cla.s.s III robots were sitting on a cart. Witch Hazel was just going to jump down, but on second thought she shouted to the other robots instead, and beckoned them to come up. The wind that seemed to blow as they drove dropped when the carriage stood still; gadflies settled on the steaming Puller engine and sizzled. One of the robots got up and came slowly toward the carriage, a tall, blue metal android with a conical head who bowed deeply and was introduced by Witch Hazel as Antipodal. A second robot, also moving toward the carriage but much more slowly than the first, must have been built as a regimental Cla.s.s III, for it was in an animal shape-one appropriate to its name, which Dolly learned to be Tortoisesh.e.l.l. the carriage and looked round to the right, to a field of rye, where a dozen or so ragged-looking Cla.s.s III robots were sitting on a cart. Witch Hazel was just going to jump down, but on second thought she shouted to the other robots instead, and beckoned them to come up. The wind that seemed to blow as they drove dropped when the carriage stood still; gadflies settled on the steaming Puller engine and sizzled. One of the robots got up and came slowly toward the carriage, a tall, blue metal android with a conical head who bowed deeply and was introduced by Witch Hazel as Antipodal. A second robot, also moving toward the carriage but much more slowly than the first, must have been built as a regimental Cla.s.s III, for it was in an animal shape-one appropriate to its name, which Dolly learned to be Tortoisesh.e.l.l.

Decoms, thought Dolly, surveying the sorry-looking handful of metal men and women, and shaking her head sadly. thought Dolly, surveying the sorry-looking handful of metal men and women, and shaking her head sadly. A world of poor, pitiful decoms. A world of poor, pitiful decoms.

The scenery was no more inspiring. An iron-sided silo stood bare and slightly tilted, patterns of dust caked over the circular windows. The barn was in little better shape, with stray tiles peeling off the roof and an overwhelming smell of rotting feed coming from within. The farmhouse itself was a ramshackle afair, with weeds and climbing plants growing helter-skelter up the sides, covering the windows and snaking in and out of the doorway.

A curly-headed old man in a ragged mecanicien's mecanicien's jumpsuit, with a bit of bast tied round his hair and his bent back dark with perspiration, came toward the carriage, quickening his steps, and took hold of the mudguard with his sunburnt hand. jumpsuit, with a bit of bast tied round his hair and his bent back dark with perspiration, came toward the carriage, quickening his steps, and took hold of the mudguard with his sunburnt hand.

"Welcome toVozdvizhenskoe," he scowled. "I hope you are a friend, and not foe, for I'd hate to have to kill such a nice-looking woman so early in the day."

"What?"

"I'm only making a jest, madame, a bit of a j.a.pe. But whom do you want? The count himself? Or she, the Queen of the Junkers?"

"Well, are they at home, my good man?" Darya Alexandrovna said vaguely, not knowing how to ask about Anna, even of this unusual man, apparently a mecanicien mecanicien for illegal, decommissioned robots. for illegal, decommissioned robots.

"At home for sure," said the functionary, s.h.i.+fting from one bare foot to the other, and leaving a distinct print of five toes and a heel in the dust. "Sure to be at home," he repeated, evidently eager to talk. "Only yesterday a couple more of these pitiful tin souls arrived." He gestured with genial distaste to Witch Hazel and the others. "What do you want?" He turned round and called to Tortoisesh.e.l.l, who was emitting a ba.s.so tone from somewhere within his eponymous outer covering.

"Ah, here they come now in their finery."

Dolly looked in the direction the queer man indicated and saw two shambling monster-machines: Vronsky and Anna, in homebuilt Exterior battle-suits, making the rounds of their encampment. Out front was the first of the suits, evidently Anna's, measuring some twelve feet or more and painted on its front with the oversize eyes and glittering crown of some royal personage in a children's carnival; then came Vronsky in a new version of his late lamented Frou-Frou, bearing the same powerful shape and weaponry, but homebuilt and therefore more ragged, without the same careful soldering and high quality of materials that typify a regimental Exterior.

Trotting along beside them on a military surplus two-tread was Va.s.senka Veslovsky in his Scotch cap with floating ribbons, his stout legs stretched out before him, obviously pleased with his own appearance. Darya Alexandrovna could not suppress a good-humored smile as she recognized him. (She had no way of knowing, for how could she, that this was not the Va.s.senka Veslovsky she had been so entertained by at Pokrovskoe, although it was externally identical and possessed of the same thought-modeling and a.s.sociative programming.) As Dolly watched, Anna's queenly Exterior shambled to a halt, and Anna climbed out of the torso of the battle-machine, shook out her hair, and began quietly grooming the war-bot: rubbing oil into its joints, testing its reflexes, and so on. The sureness of her understanding of the complicated piece of machinery, combined with the ease and grace of her deportment, impressed Dolly.

For the first minute it seemed to her unsuitable for Anna to ride inside an Exterior. The concept of riding within a battle-suit was, in Darya Alexandrovna's mind, overly masculine for a lady. But when she had scrutinized her, seeing her closer, she was at once reconciled to the idea of her sister-in-law at the controls of one of the motorized death-dealers. In spite of her seemingly out-of-place elegance, everything was so simple, quiet, and dignified in the att.i.tude, the dress, and the movements of Anna that nothing could have been more natural. Vronsky was carefully piloting Frou-Frou Deux (this was the new Exterior's name), trying to "ride the kinks out," as the expression went, and being derided for not taking enough care by the fat little Englishman, Vronsky's engineer, who brought up the rear of the party on foot.

Anna's face suddenly beamed with a joyful smile at the instant when, in the little figure huddled in a corner of the old carriage, she recognized Dolly. On reaching the carriage she leapt out of the torso of her Exterior, pulled free of the wires that controlled the machine, and ran up to greet her friend.

"I thought it was you and dared not think it. How delightful! You can't fancy how glad I am!" she said, at one moment pressing her face against Dolly and kissing her, and at the next holding her off and examining her with a smile.

"Here's a delightful surprise, Alexei!" she said, looking round at Vronsky, who had emerged from his own Exterior and out into the cold country air to walk toward them. Vronsky, carefully plucking free from his own set of sensor-wires, went up to Dolly.

"You wouldn't believe how glad we are to see you," he said, giving peculiar significance to the words, and showing his strong white teeth in a smile. "Lupo! Come!" The wolf-robot bounded from around an outbuilding, his repaired visual sensors gleaming brightly as he raced to the side of his master.

Va.s.senka Veslovsky took off his cap and greeted the visitor by gleefully waving the ribbons over his head. Dolly noticed as she and Anna hugged happily that the small crowd of decom robots focused their sensors on Vronsky and Anna with obvious love and admiration. As her eyes pa.s.sed over the stolid Tortoisesh.e.l.l, the upright Antipodal, and the enigmatic Witch Hazel, Dolly paused to consider the sorry fate of these creatures. Had they escaped their respective fates due to the intercession of loving masters, or through some dumb stroke of luck? What mixed and confusing messages must they be receiving from the Iron Laws coded in their wiring, now that the very Ministry that created them had ordered their destruction!

But as they strolled toward the house, Anna chattering happily about the world they were building at Vozdvizhenskoe, what struck Darya Alexandrovna most of all was the change that had taken place in Anna, whom she knew so well and loved. Any other woman, a less close observer, not knowing Anna before, or not having thought as Darya Alexandrovna had been thinking on the road, would not have noticed anything special in Anna. But now Dolly was struck by that temporary beauty, which is only found in women during moments of love, and which she saw now in Anna's face.

Everything in her face, the clearly marked dimples in her cheeks and chin, the line of her lips, the smile which, as it were, fluttered about her face, the brilliance of her eyes, the grace and rapidity of her movements, the fullness of the notes of her voice, even the manner in which, with a sort of angry friendliness, she answered Veslovsky when he asked permission to climb into her Exterior, just to see how it feels-it was all peculiarly fascinating, and it seemed as if she were herself aware of it, and rejoicing in it. The snide and ironical t.i.tle given her by the mecanicien mecanicien now felt exactly right to Dolly: Anna, dignified and powerful in this pastoral redoubt, seemed like nothing so much as a warrior queen. The Queen of the Junkers. now felt exactly right to Dolly: Anna, dignified and powerful in this pastoral redoubt, seemed like nothing so much as a warrior queen. The Queen of the Junkers.

"Ah, and here she is," Anna grinned as they approached the porch of the dilapidated farmhouse. With fervor she embraced her own Cla.s.s III, Android Karenina.

CHAPTER 8.

ANNA LOOKED AT Dolly's thin, careworn face, with its wrinkles filled with dust from the road, and she was on the point of saying what she was thinking, that is, that Dolly had gotten thinner. But, conscious that she herself had grown handsomer, and that Dolly's eyes were telling her so, she sighed and began to speak about herself. Dolly's thin, careworn face, with its wrinkles filled with dust from the road, and she was on the point of saying what she was thinking, that is, that Dolly had gotten thinner. But, conscious that she herself had grown handsomer, and that Dolly's eyes were telling her so, she sighed and began to speak about herself.

"You are looking at me," Anna continued, "and wondering how I can be happy in my position? Not only separated from my husband, lacking even the benefit of a formal divorce, but now on the opposite side as he in a divide over the very future of our country! Well-it's shameful to confess, but I . . . I'm inexcusably happy. Something magical has happened to me, like a dream, when you're frightened, panic-stricken, and all of a sudden you wake up and all the horrors are no more. I have awoken. I have lived through the misery, the dread, and now for a long while past, especially since we've been here, I've been so happy!" she said, with a timid smile of inquiry looking at Dolly. "For once I know what I want: to be with this man," she indicated Vronsky with a shy gesture, "and to stand alongside him for a principle in which I believe: that the owners.h.i.+p of beloved-companion robots is an ancient right, inviolable, a sacred privilege of the Russian people."

"How glad I am!" said Dolly smiling, involuntarily speaking more coldly than she wanted to. "I'm very glad for you."

But Anna did not answer. "How do you look at my position, what do you think of it?" she asked.

"I consider . . . ," Darya Alexandrovna began, and she would have gone on to say what she knew that Stiva would insist she say, were he here: that there were legal channels through which to express one's grievances with governmental programs; that Cla.s.s III robots were to be mourned, certainly, but it was folly to stake one's own life on the fate of machines; and that "we must put our trust in our leaders."

"I consider . . ." Darya Alexandrovna began again, but at that instant Va.s.senka Veslovsky blundered past them, riding in Anna's majestic Exterior, b.u.mbling heavily along and sending a spray of electrical fire over their heads into the lintels of the farmhouse.

"This thing is out of control, Anna Arkadyevna!" he shouted, laughing. Anna did not even glance at him.

"I don't think anything," Dolly said, and, lacking the courage to bring up those points that she knew her husband would have made, continued vaguely, "but I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be. . . ."

Anna, taking her eyes off her friend's face and dropping her eyelids-this was a new habit Dolly had not seen in her before-pondered, trying to penetrate the full significance of the words.

And obviously interpreting them as she would have wished, she glanced at Dolly. "If you had any sins," she said, "they would all be forgiven you for your coming to see me and for these words." And Dolly saw that tears stood in her eyes. She pressed Anna's hand in silence. Android Karenina sat cross-legged on the porch at Anna's feet, her faceplate calm and still, emitting a calming hum from her Third Bay. It struck Dolly that to say her piece-to urge Anna to abandon this world and this cause-would mean urging her to abandon her Android Karenina . . . and thus to suffer exactly as she had suffered in the loss of her Dolichka.

"Well, tell me more, won't you?" said Dolly, getting to her feet and looking avidly about the grounds of Vozdvizhenskoe. After a moment's silence she repeated her question. "Tell me more! These marvelous fire pits, are they only intended for fixing what things you have found, or do you intend to smelt groznium and build new robots as well? How many there are of them!"

At last Anna was drawn out of her melancholy humor and into conversation. She explained to her friend about the layout of the camp; about the decoms who had arrived and from where they had come; about her hopes that this place could be a safe haven for junkers who would otherwise meet their fiery doom in the furnaces below the Moscow Tower.

As they spoke, crouched unseen just past the porch was Va.s.senka Veslovsky, standing totally-that is, robotically-still, his aural sensors on alert.

Next, Anna and Dolly rose and spent a fascinated hour watching Vronsky drill a small group of decoms in a cleared-out wheat field behind the barn. In tromping lockstep, the dozen or so dented robots formed into rows, the rows s.h.i.+fted into columns, columns merged into little phalanxes, phalanxes split and regrouped and melted in and out of one another in a series of precise military maneuvers. Interlocking, delicate, balletic, their metal torsos glinting marvelously in the noonday sun, the robots practiced these maneuvers, while Vronsky and Lupo prowled amongst them, barking orders and making small adjustments. As Dolly and the obviously proud Anna watched, Vronsky seemed to rage at the slowness of his mechanical charges, chewed on the ends of his mustache with feigned frustration, all the while quite evidently swollen with self-satisfaction at the ever-growing skill of his ragged troops.

And Va.s.senka Veslovsky turned up to make a nuisance of himself, mainly by parading next to Vronsky as if he, too, were a commander of some sort, peppering him with all sorts of questions: "How many precisely do you have? What capabilities do they have? How well do they take such orders?"

CHAPTER 9.

WHEN THE "TROOPS" were dismissed, Anna and Dolly continued their little inspection tour, crossing the vast lawn of Vozdvizhenskoe to one of the small outbuildings, where a pleasant little nursery had been created for Anna's child and her II/Governess/D145. The rosy baby with her black eyebrows and hair, her st.u.r.dy, red little body with tight, goose-flesh skin, delighted Darya Alexandrovna in spite of the cross expression with which she stared at the stranger. She positively envied the baby's healthy appearance. She was delighted, too, at the baby's crawling. Not one of her own children had crawled like that. When the baby was put on the carpet and its little dress tucked up behind, it was wonderfully charming. Looking round like some little wild animal at the big grown-up people with her bright, black eyes, she smiled, unmistakably pleased at their admiring her, and holding her legs sideways, she pressed vigorously on her arms, and rapidly drew her whole back up after, and then made another step forward with her little arms. were dismissed, Anna and Dolly continued their little inspection tour, crossing the vast lawn of Vozdvizhenskoe to one of the small outbuildings, where a pleasant little nursery had been created for Anna's child and her II/Governess/D145. The rosy baby with her black eyebrows and hair, her st.u.r.dy, red little body with tight, goose-flesh skin, delighted Darya Alexandrovna in spite of the cross expression with which she stared at the stranger. She positively envied the baby's healthy appearance. She was delighted, too, at the baby's crawling. Not one of her own children had crawled like that. When the baby was put on the carpet and its little dress tucked up behind, it was wonderfully charming. Looking round like some little wild animal at the big grown-up people with her bright, black eyes, she smiled, unmistakably pleased at their admiring her, and holding her legs sideways, she pressed vigorously on her arms, and rapidly drew her whole back up after, and then made another step forward with her little arms.

VRONSKY CHEWED ON THE ENDS OF HIS MOUSTACHE AS HE BARKED ORDERS AT HIS MECHANICAL CHARGES.

Dolly clapped in appreciation, but Anna only screwed up her eyes, as though looking at something far away, and said suddenly, "By the way, do you know I saw Seryozha? But we'll talk about that later. You wouldn't believe it, I'm like a hungry beggar woman when a full dinner is set before her, and she does not know what to begin on first. The dinner is you, and the talks I have before me with you, which I could never have with anyone else; and I don't know which subject to begin upon first. Mais je ne vous ferai grace de rien. Mais je ne vous ferai grace de rien. I must have everything out with you." I must have everything out with you."

Dolly opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say a word a terrible shrieking noise was heard from outside, and Anna immediately bolted past her, with Android Karenina at her heels. "What-"

"Aliens!" shouted Anna over her shoulder. "We are under attack!"

By the time Anna and her beloved-companion got to the central field, the tall blue junker named Antipodal had been caught in the terrible talons of the Honored Guest; it was holding the poor, stiff decom over his head, shaking him forward and back. "It will dash him upon the ground!" Anna shouted to Android Karenina, who flickered and beeped, looking for a way to help.

Lupo hurtled out from behind the silo, teeth bared, running directly toward the alien, Vronsky stomping along after him inside Frou-Frou Deux, raising his heavy-fire to send a blast at the alien. "No!" Anna cried out. "You will destroy the robot!" Lupo jumped back, hissing and growling, as the large, jagged clawfeet of the alien kicked at him. The Honored Guest shrieked again, the harsh sound competing with Antipodal's wild klaxon beep of alarm. Darya Alexandrovna, heaving breaths after rus.h.i.+ng to catch up, stood warily between Vronsky and Anna, as all contemplated what would happen next; other decoms trundled over from the far corners of the encampment, eyebanks flickering with distress for their captured comrade.

And then Witch Hazel, exhibiting absolutely none of the scattered, nervous energy Darya had observed in her before, suddenly came tearing at the Honored Guest from behind, catching it with a hard, running shove to the midsection. The alien monster stumbled forward, Antipodal flying from his clutches, and landed belly-down on the outer husk of Tortoisesh.e.l.l, who like Witch Hazel seemed to have appeared from nowhere in the aid of their fellow decom. Android Karenina motored to Antipodal and began searching out the damaged portions of his plating to begin repairs; meanwhile, Tortoisesh.e.l.l's back lit up like the star on a Christmas tree, and the dozens of eyes of the alien blinked madly, while its long beak cracked open to let out a hideous caterwaul of agony-for the turtle-shaped regimental Cla.s.s III had heated himself in an instant to thousands of degrees, and was baking the body of the alien.

Darya Alexandrovna stood stupefied, and Anna and Vronsky exchanged glances, astonished at the efficient and effective manner in which the robots had taken on the foe. While Vronsky admired the tactical acuity on display, Anna Karenina reflected that, freed by their masterlessness from the immediate dictates of the Iron Laws, these robots were not reverting to a dumb machine state, they were evolving-becoming more independent, more intelligent, and more empathetic toward one another. More human.

As the alien rolled off Tortoisesh.e.l.l and clutched in evident agony at its burned undercarriage, a new sound welled up, as if from underground: a kind of humming . . . or, rather, a ticking . . . the alien shrieked again, blotting out the new sound for a moment, but in the next moment it returned, louder than before. . . .

tikka tikka tikka tikka tikka tikka tikkatikkatikkatikkatikkatikka And as they watched, a gigantic, long worm shot out from beneath the earth, like a slow-motion bullet fired from a Huntgun, and then loomed above them, a flat eyeless head topping a long, grey, segmented mechanical body following behind, the dread mechanical tikkatikkatikka tikkatikkatikka still radiating from somewhere within. still radiating from somewhere within.

The robots and the humans cowered together, staring wonderingly as this terrible machine.

But the Honored Guest did not stare-instead, it ran toward the prodigious worm, driven as if by instinct, bounding along in three great pumps of its lizard-like hind legs, and jumped on the back of the beast.

Their sounds then combined into one horrifying symphony: tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK-tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK-tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK- tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK-tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK-tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK- The alien, now astride the robot-worm like a cavalry officer, let out one last yowling war cry and spurred its mount with a k.n.o.bby, reptilian knee. A terrible thought struck Vronsky, as the worm contracted along the length of its articulated body and then shot up into the air: They shall come for us in three ways, They shall come for us in three ways, he recalled. This, then, was the second way: these worm-bots, too, were alien, sent to serve and protect the terrible lizard-men. he recalled. This, then, was the second way: these worm-bots, too, were alien, sent to serve and protect the terrible lizard-men.

The sinuous machine, with its rider, arced smoothly over the heads of the astonished denizens of Vozdvizhenskoe, then disappeared into a new hole in the soil.

"Merciful Saint Peter," said Dolly, and fainted to the ground.

When she awoke she was indoors, and Count Vronsky was standing over her and smiling. He told her that Antipodal in Android Karenina's care was slowly being restored and revivified; that Lupo with his powerful olfactory sensors was prowling the grounds of the encampment, looking for more of the wormholes. Darya Alexandrovna was interested by everything. She liked everything about Vozdvizhenskoe more than she might have expected, but most of all she liked Vronsky himself with his natural, simple-hearted eagerness. Yes, he's a very nice, good man, Yes, he's a very nice, good man, she thought several times, not hearing what he said, but looking at him and penetrating into his expression, while she mentally put herself in Anna's place. She liked him so much just now with his eager interest that she saw how Anna could be in love with him. she thought several times, not hearing what he said, but looking at him and penetrating into his expression, while she mentally put herself in Anna's place. She liked him so much just now with his eager interest that she saw how Anna could be in love with him.

CHAPTER 10.