The Coming Event

CHAPTER ONE

Buried deep beneath the scarred surface of a lonely world the cavern held the awesome grandeur of a legendary tomb- a tremendous mausoleum buttressed by massive columns which formed an adamantine protection for the soaring tiers of featureless ovoids within their embrace, though it was even now being despoiled by men and machines.

To Master Elge, Cyber Prime, the fabrication was the reverse of a tomb, the ovoids far from being coffins, but the desecration was real, and he watched as units were freed from their housings and swung down into the arms of waiting cradles to be wheeled silently away.

And each ovoid held a living, thinking brain.

This was the reward for which cybers dedicated their lives. They worked until they grew physically inefficient then were stripped of hampering flesh, their brains removed from their skulls and placed in containers, sealed from harm while fed with nutrients, at last hooked into series with others of their own kind to form a part of the tremendous complex which was the heart and power of the Cyclan.

But now Central Intelligence was threatened and with it the security of the whole.

"Twelve dozen units," said Jarvet from where he stood at Elge's side. "The entire section. As you instructed, Master."

And how many before them? Elge knew the exact number but even one would have been too many. "Results?"

"As yet totally negative."

"Numbers tested?"

"Eighteen selected at random." That was more than enough for a representative sample. The aide added, "I ordered a halt at twenty for your decision."

The aide could anticipate what the decision would be, Elge knew, but as his was the final responsibility his must be the deciding voice.

He turned, tall, thin, the scarlet robe shielding the taut lines of his body, maintained at optimum efficiency and carrying no surplus fat. To Elge as to all cybers food was to be used as fuel, eaten from necessity not pleasure. Training and an operation performed at puberty on the cortex had rid them of the capacity for emotion.

Jarvet fell into step behind him as Elge moved to a passage where a moving way carried them to a laboratory in which technicians worked over the freed ovoids. Many lay open to reveal their contents and Elge looked dispassionately at the convoluted brains rested beneath transparent covers amid their attendant mechanisms. Components designed never to fail. And they had not failed-the fault lay within the brains themselves.

But the fault was yet to be determined.

"Nothing, Master." Icelus gave his report. "No trace of any foreign bacteria or virus. No radiation-scarring or isotopic accumulation. No discernible tissue decay. No aggravated pressure zones. The Homochon elements are enlarged but only within anticipated parameters. No change in the cortex. Nothing can be discerned in the physical condition which could account for the aberration." He added, "The conclusions are as before."

At that time units had been sterilized with flame and reduced to their component atoms for fear of contamination, and examinations had been conducted in isolated areas by technicians who still remained isolated on distant worlds. Entire banks of machinery had been volatilized-Elge knew the details.

"Is there any traceable pattern?"

"No. The brains are old and that is the only thing we can be sure of."

"Any correlations?"

"None." Icelus was definite. "The thing seems to strike at random. These units are younger than the last yet older than the ones before. There is no similarity as to location or apparent vulnerability. These are from Bank 8 Tier 5. Those before came from Bank 3 Tier 9."

Different caverns and different positions-diversifying the units was an elementary precaution against total loss by unforeseen damage. Yet even that had provided no defense. The aberration must, somehow, be inherent. But what?

"Your orders, Master?" Icelus was waiting. "Shall I continue with the examinations?"

How often must he go over the same ground? There was a point beyond which any further effort would be worse than useless-efficiency demanded the full utilization of each and every facility and the technicians had other work.

Elge said, "Terminate."

"All, Master?"

"All." Every brain to be thrown into a furnace to be consumed by fire, the components dissolved into basic elements, the residue to be blasted deep into space. To Jarvet he said, "Order an assembly. I will meet the Council in an hour."

They sat at a long table, the warm hue of their robes the only touch of color in the bleakness of the chamber. Dekel was the first to speak, as Elge had predicted, but the mental achievement gave him little pleasure. The man was old, patterns established; the merest tyro could have done as well.

"This matter concerns Central Intelligence?"

"Yes."

"You have fresh information?" Boule was swift in his attack. "There is nothing to be gained by discussing what we already have covered."

Like Dekel and the rest, he was old, but that was to be expected-men did not achieve power without the passage of time. But age was relative and small signs betrayed when the fine edge had been crossed; the delicate balance between optimum efficiency and the insidious decline toward senility. Signs watched for by all as they all watched Elge. He with the highest office must demonstrate his ability to hold it.

From where he sat Theme said, "From my study of recent information I arrive at the conclusion that nothing new can be learned of the degeneration of the units by further examinations."

"Agreed. That is why I ordered a termination of all such activity." Elge continued, "There is no need to detail the negative findings. They are as before. Nor is there need to discuss extrapolations of probable consequences should the aberrations continue. The prediction of internal collapse based on an exponential curve leads to near-certain disaster."

This seemed so obvious as to need no comment.

Alder said, "Why have we been summoned?"

"To review the situation. Later I shall want from each of you detailed plans of optimum survival based on all possible contingencies. Now I wish to cover the base problem. From a summation of all findings relevant to the affected units it is logical to accept the premise that there is no mechanical or biological cause for the derangements. The brains involved failed because of some inherent fault other than external cause. Agreed?"

Boule demurred. "That need not necessarily be the case. Because we cannot find a cause does not mean that one does not exist."

"True, but all precautions have been taken as regards shielding and monitoring." Elge was curt. "I submit the fault could lie in the region of the psyche. To illustrate the point I have arranged for a demonstration." A communicator stood on the table before him. Activating the instrument he said, "Now."

Abruptly the room turned black.

It was the complete elimination of all light and for a moment they felt as if blinded and buried deep in a tomb, shielded for eons from the sun. Then, slowly, light came and with it an image.

It floated above the table; a three-dimensional hologram depicting a male, nude, set with wires which sprouted from his skull like the tendrils of some strange and oddly designed creature. The eyes were closed, sunken beneath prominent brows, the ears padded. Mouth and nose were covered by a mask and the medium in which he floated was not air or space.

"Water warmed and maintained at his individual body heat." The accompanying voice whispered through the chamber. "All senses have been blocked or negated so as to deny the intelligence any external stimuli. The electrodes on the skull relay the encephalic readings of the cortex."

Another picture joined the first; a depiction of wavering lines traced by delicate points. The wave pattern of the subject's brain, which all could read.

"Total disorientation was achieved in a remarkably short space of time," continued the voice. "Hallucinations followed leading to a complete catatonic withdrawal. Note the zeta and lunbda lines." A pause, then, "Three hours later." A flick and the figure could be seen with knees drawn up to its chin, arms wrapped around the knees. "The classic fetal position. Twelve hours later when removed from the tank."

They looked at an idiot.

"Enough." Elge had no wish to stare at the drooling, vacuous-eyed, blank-faced vegetable. The point, surely, had been made. "The subject was of low intelligence," he explained. "Run as a comparison with others of a higher level of capability. The greater the intelligence the longer was individual awareness maintained."

Dekal said, "Your conclusion?"

"The derangement affecting the units has some relation to sensory deprivation."

After a moment Boule said, "We are talking of minds accustomed to a degree of sensory deprivation for the major part of their lives. And need I remind you that when sealed in their units they are provided with external stimuli in the form of communication with others of their kind together with cybers in rapport? I find the conclusion lacking in conviction."

Theme said, "If the matter is one of the need for external stimuli I agree there remains a doubt as to the validity of the conclusion. As sanity is being maintained the cause must lie elsewhere."

"Sanity is not being maintained," reminded Elge. "Not in all units at all times. If so there would be no problem. You have studied the recordings made of communication with affected units-what did you find?"

"Delusion," admitted Theme. "Ravings. Systems of logic built on false premises."

"Withdrawal; Intelligences disoriented and drifting in a void of speculation. A denial of accepted fact." Elge looked from one to the other. "I stand by my conclusion."

"That the aberrations are induced by sensory deprivation?"

"That a relationship could exist." Elge was precise. "If so it may be necessary to reaffirm established frameworks of reference. With this in mind I have taken steps to investigate the value of certain methods." Again he activated the communicator. "Continue."

This time the room didn't turn black but color and movement shone where there had been emptiness. The chamber was equipped, like an operating theater, with muted greens and sterile whites, with metal and plastic and the sheen of crystal. To one side lay an opened ovoid, the brain clearly visible. In the foreground stood a squat machine in the shape of a man. A grotesque parody with a domed head, rounded torso and oddly fashioned limbs. Around it, both robot and brain technicians worked in smooth coordination.

"Attempts to provide units with separate, operational vehicles have been made several times," explained the accompanying voice. "All have led to failure. A direct brain transplant to a human body is impossible because of the enlargement of the engrafted Homochon elements which takes place after the unit has been sealed into its container. The use of substitute physical hosts was tried and abandoned because of the low-return anticipated against the high-effort such attempts entailed. We are now attempting to couple the brain to a mechanical analogue of the human shape. Once the attachments have been made and activated the analogue will become an extension of the unit's intelligence. As yet we have had little success in this line of experimentation."

In the glowing depiction figures moved in accelerated tempo, wires and pipes and terminals meshing to form a complex web. A moment later the scene slowed to show the robot now standing alone. As they watched, it stirred, one arm lifting, to lower, to lift again. Then it paused like a child who has made a discovery and now broods over what it has found.

"The first reaction. Two hours later we had this." The arm again, moving like a hammer, up and down, up and down. The dome of the head moved a little, the body tilting to allow the scanners set in the parody of eyes to stare upward at a brightly polished surface. "Thirty-two minutes later."

A man hurtled through the air as a steel arm smashed into his chest and filled his lungs with splintered bone. Spewing blood he fell, tripping another, joined by a third with an oddly twisted neck. A fourth, head pulped, dropped like a stone as the robot moved. It swayed, turned, lurched forward, the massive arm lifting to slam down with crushing force, pulping the exposed brain, sending it to spatter in all directions.

In his office Elge touched a control and watched as a galaxy was born. The air filled with the cold glitter of countless points of radiance interspersed with sheets and curtains of luminescence, the ebon smudges of interstellar dust. A masterpiece of electronic wizardry; each mote of light held in a mesh of electromagnetic forces, the whole forming a compressed depiction of the galactic lens.

With such diminution details had to be lost; the billions of individual worlds, comets, asteroids, satellites, rogue planets, meteors, the drifting hail of broken suns. But the stars were present and, as he watched, scarlet flecks appeared in scattered profusion.

The power of the Cyclan.

A power vast and yet almost invisible. Each fleck represented a world which had lost self-determination in its reliance on the services provided by the Cyclan, though the planets were unaware of the trap into which they had fallen. It did not take an army to move a mountain when a touch could shift the stone which led to an avalanche. One touch could exert pressure where it would achieve the greatest gain, use persuasion and play on lust and greed, envy and hatred, anger and fear-all the weapons forged by emotion-cursed humanity against itself. The Cyclan stood aloof as it manipulated the destiny of captive worlds.

His power was hidden, unsuspected by most, but nonetheless real.

"Master." Jarvet had entered the office to stand beside the Cyber Prime, the blazing depiction illuminating his face, dotting it with rainbow patches. "The reports from Siguri and Guptua?"

These details could not be ignored. On Siguri a drunken young fool had threatened a cyber and had slapped him in the face, the act compounded in its folly by having been done in public. The physical injury was slight, but the man had committed an unpardonable crime.

Elge said, "From a check of his background it is obvious the culprit fears ridicule more than death. Order the failure of the crops on Heght. They provide the basis of his Family's income. At the same time seduce him into making heavy investments in the Chan-Pen Enterprise. It will fail and his House be ruined. He, himself, will be ostracized and vilified."

This was using a hammer to crack a nut and yet no insult to any cyber could be allowed to pass unpunished. The fool would pay with ridicule and dishonor and final death by his own or another's hand. His Family would be disgraced and their power lost-payment for having given birth to the one who had struck the blow. All would know the details and, knowing, would fear the Cyclan. And with that fear would come enhanced respect.

"And Guptua?"

A world torn by internecine war as two brothers fought for a decaying throne. Elge gave orders which would ruin them both and place the future prosperity of the planet firmly in the grasp of the Cyclan. Details would be attended to by local cybers; he plotted the main strategies, but some things demanded his personal attention.

The mania of the brains.

His own fate should he fail to provide the solution.

Nequal had failed and now Nequal was dead and he occupied the vacated position. That position was determined by the vote of the Council and they would be watching for the slightest trace of inefficiency. Who would take his place should he fail? Icelus? No, the man was too circumscribed by his devotion to science. Jarvet? He was a good aide but lacked the subtle attribute which made a leader. Avro? A possibility, as was Marie.

Such speculation had no place and Elge recognized the danger. The love of power was reason enough for any cyber to be denied it and for the Cyber Prime most of all. For him, as for all, the Cyclan must be paramount.

Why had the robot destroyed the brain?

Suicide, Dekal had said, and he could be right, but that in itself was a demonstration of madness. What intelligent mind would seek self-destruction? This was another facet of the problem which had to be tested with further experiments but those were already underway.

The depicted galaxy seemed to expand as he manipulated a control; points of light streamed to all sides to paint transient paths of brilliance over robes and the bleak furnishings of the office. As movement halted greater detail became visible; a sun, planets, a world marked with a glowing arrow.

"Ascelius." Jarvet didn't look at the Cyber Prime. "Where Okos went insane."

A reminder Elge didn't need; he was fully aware of the problem. Aware too of the hammer-blow the incident had struck at the tower of confidence based on the efficiency of Central Intelligence.

It was impossible to tell which units of the gigantic complex were contacted by a cyber in rapport. Relaxing, he activated the implanted Homochon elements with the aid of the Samatchaze formulae and, once a certain stage had been reached, became as one with the massed brains. This union was beyond normal understanding; a merging, a belonging, a communion of minds. Knowledge was exchanged by a form of osmosis; a mental communication conducted at near-instantaneous velocity. This all cybers relished because of the mental intoxication experienced during the aftermath.

Yet Okos had gone insane.

Had he been flawed to begin with? A possibility but one so remote as to be negligible; any such weakness would have been discovered during his training as an acolyte. The impact of external stimuli? Again a remote possibility; a cyber was proof against the mental conflicts which destroyed ordinary men. His insanity could only have originated during rapport-a reflection of the aberration of deranged brains.

A madness which had allowed Dumarest to escape.

That failure merited a harsh penalty but death had put the cyber beyond that and beyond questioning, which could have provided valuable information. A loss but to dwell on it would be a futile waste of time.

And Dumarest had survived.

The depiction changed to show a new sector of the galaxy; a region of close-set suns and a host of worlds. The Zaragoza Cluster into which Dumarest had fled, there to move in a random pattern from world to world. A needle in a haystack but from which he had been lured.

And would soon be captured, the secret stolen from the Cyclan recovered, the man himself rendered into dust. Elge felt the warm glow of mental achievement as he predicted the immediate future. Once the affinity twin was in his hands the problem of the deranged brains would be solved if his suspicions were correct. Given host bodies the question of sensory deprivation would cease to exist. Would the brain have destroyed itself had it inhabited the body of a man?

A part of the whole; with the affinity twin every ruler and person of influence would become a puppet of a dominant cyber. World after world would fall beneath the domination of the Cyclan and the Great Plan would mature within decades instead of millennia.

Dumarest held the key to that vista.

Again the depiction changed to show a mote of light against a background of starred emptiness. Not a world but a man-made structure insignificant against the bulk of planets.

"Zabul." Jarvet echoed his confidence. "The home of the Terridae. A place from which Dumarest cannot escape. Cyber Lim reported him as good as captured."

"Not taken?"

"A preliminary report. The prediction was that he would be on the Saito within the hour."

Yet Lim had not reported the actual capture. Was he waiting until the vessel had left the vicinity? Had there been an unforeseen complication?

"Contact the Saito. Check with Central Intelligence to see that there has been no further rapport with Lim. Have all data appertaining to Zabul and the Terridae on my desk as soon as possible."

"Master?" Jarvet was puzzled. "You suspect something could have gone wrong?"

Elge remained silent. He was thinking of Okos.