He had been talking about the coming war, talking about Turing City’s defeat. It had been easy to be defiant when City Guards such as Maoco O still patrolled in their sleek, over-engineered bodies. But now she was here, alone, in the middle of the enemy city, she was confronted with the real answer.
No. When the time had come, she had sacrificed her principles in order to stay alive.
And so what? Was that anything to be ashamed of? Wouldn’t any other robot do the same in her position? A remnant of her old life as a statistician came to her aid. Yes, most other robots would. At least, all the ones who had lived to make new robots. So why did she feel so guilty, if that was the way that robots were made?
At the front of the room Gretel was talking about the half fuse, and Susan realized what she was doing. She was hiding from the new reality. Circumstances had changed. She was no longer the frightened, dented woman who had been led into this room those months back.
She was a mother of Artemis, she had something like respect in this city. She was free to come and go as she pleased, within reason. So what was keeping her here now?
Nothing. Nothing but fear and momentum.
Nettie was gone, reassigned. Reassigned where? To what purpose? Nettie wasn’t allowed to make children, was this the final reassignment?
And that wasn’t all.
Karel was out there somewhere. Her husband was alive, somewhere in Northern Shull. So she had been told, anyway. What would she tell him, if he ever found her? That she just sat here and waited for him? That the one friend she had here had vanished, and she had just let her go?
That decided her.
She was going to get out of here. If it was too big a step to leave the city for the moment, then at the very least she would find Nettie.
And then, if he hadn’t come to her by then, they would go look for Karel.
Karel
South of Blaize, the valleys were full of dead towns. Hollow shells of stone buildings, long stripped of any metal, shedding their flat slates across the grass-grown road.
‘What are they doing here?’ wondered Karel.
‘Perhaps they mined the surrounding hills to make robots, and the robots just walked away down the road, leaving these buildings behind them to rot.’
‘Could be,’ said Karel, looking down yet another narrow valley crowded with dead buildings. Grey slate held together with green moss, all crowded higgledy piggledy together.
‘They remind me of something…’ began Melt.
‘What?’ asked Karel.
‘… nothing.’
‘Were you remembering something about your past?’
‘I remember lots of things. Morphobia Alligator told me this would happen. The metal of my mind is pushed together.’
‘I would have thought that would short it out,’ said Karel, suspiciously.
‘You would have to ask Morphobia Alligator about that,’ said Melt.
‘I’d like to ask Morphobia Alligator about a lot of things,’ snapped Karel, and he immediately felt bad about it. He had never seen a robot in such pain as Melt. He had tried to imagine himself trapped in the body, and had failed. He couldn’t have even stood up in it, he was sure.
Melt stumbled, a hiss of static pain briefly escaping from his voicebox.
‘Do you need a rest?’ Karel asked.
‘I’m fine.’
‘No, you’re not. You can’t go on much further.’ Karel scanned their surroundings. ‘That building over there looks like it used to be a forge. Come on. We can sit in there for a while. There may be some coal or metal remaining.’
‘The place will have been stripped centuries ago,’ said Melt. ‘You can feel the emptiness in this land. Let me keep on walking.’
Karel felt it too. There was nothing here but wind and grass and stone. The echoes of whatever life had once hammered metal here had long since faded. Then, up there, on the hillside, shaking green hands at the wind he saw…
‘Trees! They burn! I saw that in the Northern Kingdom. I could climb up there and cut some pieces from them. We could make a fire and dry our electromuscle at least. Heat some metal and bend it-’
‘It’s too wet,’ said Melt. ‘The wood will be too green.’
‘So you know something about trees?’ asked Karel, who knew nothing. There had been virtually no organic life back in Turing City.
‘I remember forests, and wood and carving,’ said Melt, gazing at the floor. Once more Karel had the impression he knew more than he was saying. It was as if the robot was deciding just what it would be safe to reveal. ‘But I don’t think it was me who did it. I remember that you need a sharp blade to cut into wood.’
‘Are there forests at the Top of the World?’
‘The Top of the World?’
‘You say that Morphobia Alligator brought you here, Melt. Do you think it was from the Top of the World?’ He gazed at the strange half-melted body of the other robot. Even before it had been damaged it would have been nothing like his own.
‘The Top of the World,’ repeated Melt. ‘I don’t know. I don’t remember.’
Liar, thought Karel, and then he immediately felt a surge of shameful panic as he watched Melt freeze in place. Slowly, the great lead and iron body toppled forward, landing on the ground with a crash that sent Karel’s own body rattling.
‘Melt!’ he called, ‘Melt! I’m sor-’ He stopped himself just in time. He was being ridiculous. Thinking that Melt was a liar hadn’t caused this failure. He knelt down and looked into the other robot’s eyes. They barely glowed, such was Melt’s exhaustion.
‘I’m okay,’ he said.
‘No you’re not!’ said Karel, and the sky unfolded a fall of rain that began to patter upon their metal shells.
‘Bullets,’ said Melt.
‘Rain,’ said Karel. ‘Just a shower. Come on, let’s get you into shelter.’
‘Soon pass,’ said Melt.
Karel took the robot by the shoulders and began to drag him awkwardly to the nearest building. He weighed so much! Melt said he had once been a soldier. What sort of a soldier would fight in a body like this?
Slowly, painfully, he dragged the other robot to shelter, metal grinding and scraping on the wet ground. Finally, he pulled him across the threshold and let him go.
Karel looked around the ancient room in which he found himself. Nothing but dry brick and stone and crumbling mortar. Green organic life grew around the cracks where water had made its way in. The place was long stripped of anything useful: he could feel the hollowness of his surroundings, empty of all metal.