Harry Harrison War with the Robots

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

five years later airplanes were in production with a wingspan greater than the
total distance of this first flight, not to mention the size of the plane.
Homo sapiens is a born improver. Everything keeps getting bigger and bigger
and better and better.
This applies to war too. Space wars only give an illusion of being bigger and
better than other wars, no doubt due to the gigantic size of the field of
action. But they can be frustrating because so few people can be involved and
blown up at the same time. Sooner or later, in spite of all the forces of
enlightenment, war will return to battered old Mother Earth. Different groups
will find important things to differ about, and very logically, differences of
opinion will be settled in the tried and true manner-by combat.
Of course the robots will help since by this time, after so much training,
they will be getting very good at the game themselves. This robot
participation will take away a great amount of the pleasure gained from hand-
to-hand combat, but a perfecting trend cannot be stopped. As long as one side
gets a little bit ahead, the other side has to rush to catch up.
Until in the end we will have global warfare of a truly majestic sort, where
the entire surface of the planet, the air and the seas will be a single
gigantic batt1eground...
WAR WITH THE ROBOTS
ONLY THE SLIGHTEST VIBRATION could be felt through the floor of the hurtling
monorail car. There was no sensation of motion since the rushing tunnel walls
Page 63
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
could not be seen though the windowless sides. The riders, all of them in
neatly pressed uniforms with buttons and decorations shining, swayed slightly
in their seats on the turns, wrapped in their own thoughts and mumbled
conversations. Above them, thousands of feet of solid rock sealed them off
from the war. At an effortless one-hundred and fifty miles an hour the car
rushed General Pere and his staff to their battle stations.
When the alarm screamed the driver clamped the brakes full on and reversed his
motors. There was not enough time. At full speed the metal bullet tore into
the barrier of rocks and dirt that blocked the tunnel. Steel plates crushed
and crumpled as the car slammed to a halt. All the lights went out;
and in the empty silence that followed the ear-shattering clamor of the crash
only a faint moaning could be heard.
General Pere pushed himself up from the chair, shaking his head in an effort
to clear it, and snapped on his flash. The beam nervously danced the length of
the car, gleaming on settling dust motes and lighting up the frightened white
faces of his staff.
"Casualty report, verbal," he told his adjutant, his voice pitched low so that
no quaver might be heard. It is not easy to be a general when you are only
nineteen years old. Pere forced himself to stand still while the metal back of
the adjutant robot moved swiftly up the aisle.
The seats were well anchored and faced to the rear, so it was hopeful that
there would not be too many casualties. Behind the backs of the last chairs
was a rubble of dirt that had burst in through the destroyed nose. The driver
was undoubtedly dead under it, which was all for the best. It saved the
trouble of a court-martial.
"One killed, one missing in action, one wounded, total active strength of unit
now seventeen." The adjutant dropped the salute and stood at attention,
waiting further orders. General Pere nervously chewed his lip.
Missing-in-action meant the driver. Presumed dead, damn well dead. The
"one killed" was the new captain from Interceptor Control, who had had the bad
luck to be leaning out of his chair at the time of the accident. His neck had
been cracked on the edge of the chair and his head now hung down at a
sickening angle. The moaning must be the wounded man, he had better check on
that first. He stamped down the aisle and shined his light on the sallow,
sweatbeaded face of Colonel Zen.
"My arm, sir," the Colonel gasped. "I was reaching out when we crashed, my arm
whipped back and hit the metal edge. Broken I think. The pain..."
"That's enough, Colonel," Pere said. A little too loudly, because the man's [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne