‘The humans have done a lot of work in a very little time,’ said Ada.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Calor. ‘They were here already. The animals were in Shull before they came to Artemis City. I’ve spoken to the other robots from round here.’
‘Spoole and the General must have given them this land as a staging post,’ said Kavan.
‘There was an Artemisian refinery to the east,’ said Calor. ‘The humans have taken it over. They must have been there for some weeks. You can see the changes they’ve made to it. They’ve modified the railway lines out here too. Straightened their courses.’
‘Then the fact they have been here for some time makes me feel a little happier,’ said Ada. ‘Perhaps they are not so different to us.’
‘What do they use the railway lines for?’ asked Kavan
‘They’re taking refined oil to Artemis City. Their trains can move at incredible speeds.’
‘They plan well,’ said Kavan. ‘They’re not stupid.’
‘Train approaching now,’ said Calor.
‘I can hear it,’ said Kavan. That high-pitched whistle. He could see it, too. So much metal moving through an electrical field, it lit up in a rainbow of colours, an elongated raindrop that drew a shrieking line across the countryside.
‘It’s the way they put all their technology on display,’ he mused. ‘Don’t they realize what they are doing?’
‘I don’t think they do,’ said Ada. ‘But they think so very differently to us. Comes of being organic, I would guess, comes of being a statistical fluke. They don’t design themselves, like we do. They accept the good and the bad in their bodies, they can’t omit the flaws when they make themselves, like a robot would.’
‘I know,’ said Kavan. ‘But look at that. How can they be so stupid and so clever at the same time? It’s like they’ve handed us a loaded gun.’
And then the train was upon them. It made far less noise than Kavan had expected, so smoothly did it cut through the air. There was virtually no engine noise, just that shrill whistling.
‘If only I could examine one of those motors,’ said Ada wistfully. ‘It’s impossible to stop one of those trains without destroying it. They move so fast. And as for the fuel it’s carrying…’
There was a zip and the train passed. The engineer followed its course, thinking.
‘No,’ said Ada. ‘We don’t need it. We can make a good enough copy for our own purposes.’
‘Very well,’ said Kavan.
‘Okay, time to get down there.’
Ada and her engineers were up and gone. Four of them ran down the tracks, measuring, touching the rails, looking up at the wires that looped overhead, talking all the while. Calor stalked up and down the gravel nearby, kicking stones, expending the energy that constantly built up within her.
‘Okay!’ called Ada. ‘Bring it down.’
It took four engineers to carry the device down to the tracks. They pointed its nose towards distant Artemis City.
‘Nice and straight,’ said Ada. ‘A good test.’
Twenty minutes until the next train. More than enough time.
‘Do you think it will work?’ called Calor, skittish with underuse.
‘It doesn’t matter what I think,’ said Kavan. ‘I’m not an engineer.’
They looked down at the device Ada and her team had put together. It was about as long as two robots lying end to end, and shaped like the blade of a knife.
‘Ada, I’m impressed,’ said Kavan. ‘Barely two weeks since you first saw a flying machine, and already you’ve built this.’
‘We wondered whether to place the eyes on top or underneath,’ said Ada, modestly, as she lifted a flap and adjusted a lever inside. ‘In the end we put them below. We thought that it could watch the ground, fly closer to it that way.’
Kavan crouched down to look under the machine. He saw two blue eyes there, midway along the smooth underside of the device.
‘The engine design is our own. We tried to copy the animals’ designs, but there are too many unknowns. We can’t make the alloys they can, we can’t refine fuel so well.’
‘Are they cleverer than us, Ada?’
‘I don’t think so. But they’ve had to work harder than we have to stay alive. They’ve needed to develop faster than us: they are such fragile creatures.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Kavan, and he looked once more at the device. ‘Still, you’ve done well. Out here on the plain, constantly moving, and you manage to build this.’
‘That’s the difference between us and the animals,’ said Ada. ‘I’ve been thinking about it. Animals need food and water. They will naturally congregate around sources of both. Rivers, fields. They will stay there, like young robots around the family forge. You’ve heard what the Scouts say. The animals have set up base near Artemis City.’
Kavan said nothing, but he was surprised. It was unusual for an engineer to even notice a Scout, never mind listen to what they had to say. Things were changing…
‘Well, there could be good reasons for that.’
‘Maybe there are, Kavan. You should know, you’re the leader, you’re the strategist. But staying in one place has never been your tactic, has it? You’re constantly on the move, constantly on the attack. If you’d landed on this planet you’d be halfway across the continent by now, making new soldiers as you went.’
‘Maybe…’
‘Look at us! They chased us away from Artemis City. You didn’t make a new base, you spread out your army! All those little cells across the land, planning, moving, waiting for the next assault.’
‘You understand that, Ada?’ said Kavan in surprise. ‘You can see that?’
‘Why not? The animals are here, and there are a whole set of new engineering problems to think about. Isn’t it great?’
Kavan gazed at her. Sometimes he just didn’t know what other robots were thinking.
‘Ten minutes to the train,’ said Calor, still dancing back and forth. Kavan looked at the blunt arrow shape, lying on the tracks. ‘Has your device seen enough?’
‘I think so,’ said Ada.
‘Okay. Let’s go,’ said Kavan. ‘We don’t want the animals to get suspicious. Keep moving, keep preparing.’ He looked at the device.
‘Is it ready? Can we send the plans to the other engineers?’
‘I think so,’ said Ada.
‘Yes!’ shouted Calor, swiping her blades through the air.