Eschaton 1 – The Other End of Time

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Patrice

The others were gathered around the guns that lay on the ground, spilled out of the coppery-mesh sack Dopey had brought them in. There were far more than Patrice had expected, and as they approached Rosaleen smiled at them. "Pick a couple for yourselves," she invited. "All the guns are duplicated, so there's plenty to go around."

"But what's going on?" Patrice asked. Dannerman and Dopey were confronting each other; still in the Doc's arms, Dopey's face was at a level with Dannerman's, and they both looked angry.

"Oh, what do you think?" Rosaleen said, sounding exasperated. "Much argumentation. Simply listen and you will hear it all for yourself."

Her voice carried to Dannerman, who twitched slightly but stood his ground. "You stay out of this," he ordered Dopey. "We have to consider our options."

"But you have no options!" Dopey squawked.

"Of course we do! Fighting your damn Horch machines for you is only one of them. We can stay here-"

"You cannot!"

"Why not? You've supplied us with guns. We can defend ourselves in case the amphibians come back… or who knows what other wild animals might be around?"

Dopey said plaintively, "You speak such nonsense, Agent Dannerman. There aren't any wild animals on this planet."

"Not even the ones that killed Patsy?" Jimmy asked.

"Not even them. They are simply control groups-exactly like yourselves, you see! There are eight different species out here, kept in separate reservations, and they're all intelligent. Some of them have been here for many, many generations. They're all that's left of races that have become extinct in their home planets-it is," he added boastfully, "in a sense, a kind of ecological thing. But no wild animals."

"What about the furry lizards?" Patrice demanded.

"I know nothing of lizards. Perhaps they were food animals for one of the species. No. The reason you have the guns is to deal with the Horch machines. They are quite large. They have high-powered torches and cutting instruments, and their job is to destroy this whole base."

"So let them," Martin growled. "I vote with Dannerman. We stay here."

The little alien squealed in irritation. "But you cannot! You will die if we stay here?"

Dannerman said soberly, "Maybe we should take that chance. We may be able to find something growing that we can eat so we won't starve-"

"Not starve!" Dopey said impatiently. "Fry. Here, ask your own astronomers, now that they have finished with this foolish ritual. You should understand the problem, Drs. Adcock. Have you not observed the stars?"

Patrice had a sinking feeling, but it was Pat who spoke up. "Are you talking about dangerous radiation, from black holes, supernovas, all that? But there hasn't been any, or we'd all be dead already."

"Of course there has not been any! That is because the Beloved Leaders long ago established a screen around this entire planet so that all lethal radiation was filtered out. But when the power went down, so did the screen."

That stopped them all. Dopey seized his advantage. "So you see," he said, "you have no other option. No. You must help me. I have given you weapons. I have also provided all these bearers, to carry the excess weaponry and whatever else we need for our task. And, of course, to help with Dr. Artzybachova," he added politely. "Now we must restore power and wipe out the remaining Horch surrogates before they finish destroying so much that took so long to build!"

Jimmy Lin emitted a sarcastic yelp. "What, the six of us? Against machines that defeated your own fighters?"

"But your numbers are not a problem," Dopey said in surprise. "Once the standby power is restored we can make many copies of you, all you need-a whole army if you want them, Commander Lin!"

Lin looked flustered, but Dannerman was the one who responded. "The hell you will! We've had enough of making copies!"

Dopey looked astonished. "You object to this? But why? We need not keep the extra copies forever; once the machines are gone we can simply delete the unwanted ones."

"No!" Pat cried.

Dopey stared at her. "Is this some taboo for your people? Well, perhaps we need not make more copies. It is possible that some of your experimental copies may still be alive."

And there was another conversation stopper. Dopey paused, surprised by the sudden silence as everyone was staring at him.

It was Patrice who asked the question, once more angry and startled-and very nearly fed up with Dopey's habit of dropping unexpected surprises on them. "What experimental copies are you talking about?"

Dopey looked uneasy. "Perhaps I neglected to tell you of them," he said apologetically. "There were only a few. Actually, I do not think many will have survived. There was quite heavy fighting in the laboratory area."

It was Rosaleen's turn to be indignant. "Laboratory?" "To investigate your anatomy and biochemistry, of course. How else could the Beloved Leaders know how best to help your people?" And then, when he saw the expressions on their faces, "I was not personally involved in these studies," he added hastily. "Some of the copies may still be quite fit. Please do not argue anymore! Do you want me to take you to look for these other copies or not?"