[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the forces of the giant machine.
The sky darkened with heavy clouds, and a howling wind sprang up that screamed
and tore at the tiny rounded hull that was F-2. With difficulty he held his
position as the winds tore at him, shrieking in mad laughter, their tearing
fingers dragging at him.
The swirl and patter of driven rain came great drops that tore at the rocks,
and at the metal. Great jagged tongues of nature's forces, the lightnings,
came and jabbed at the awful volcano of erupting energy that was the center of
all that storm. A tiny ball of white-gleaming force that pulsated, and moved,
jerking about, jerking at the touch of lightnings, glowing, held immobile in
the grasp of titanic forcepools.
Page 9
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
For half an hour the display of energies continued. Then, swiftly as it had
come, it was gone, and only a small globe of white luminescence floated above
the great hulking machine.
F-2 probed it, seeking within it with the reaching fingers of intelligence.
His probing thoughts seemed baffled and turned aside, brushed away, a:3
inconsequential. His mind sent an order to the great machine that had made
this tiny globe, scarcely a foot in diameter. Then again he sought to reach
the thing he had made.
"You, of matter, are inefficient," came at last. "I can exist quite alone." A
stabbing beam of blue-white light flashed out, but F-2 was not there, and even
as that beam reached out, an enormously greater beam of dull
red reached out from the great power plant. The sphere leaped forward the beam
caught it, and it seemed to strain, while terrific flashing energies sprayed
from it. It was shrinking swiftly. Its resistance fell, the arcing decreased;
the beam became orange and finally green. Then the sphere had vanished.
F-2 returned, and again, the wind whined and howled, and the lightnings
crashed, while titanic forces worked and played. C-R-U-1 joined him, floated
beside him, and now red glory of the sun was rising behind them, and the ruddy
light drove through the clouds.
The forces died, and the howling wind decreased, and now, from the black
curtain, Roal and Trest appeared. Above the giant machine floated an irregular
globe of golden light, a faint halo about it of deep violet. It floated
motionless, a mere pool of pure force.
Into the thought-apparatus of each, man and machine alike, came the impulses,
deep in tone, seeming of infinite power, held gently in check.
"Once you failed, F-2; once you came near destroying all things. Now you have
planted the seed. I grow now."
The sphere of golden light seemed to pulse, and a tiny ruby flame appeared
within it, that waxed and waned, and as it waxed, there shot through each of
those watching beings a feeling of rushing, exhilarating power, the very vital
force of well-being.
Then it was over, and the golden sphere was twice its former size easily three
feet in diameter, and still that irregular, hazy aura of deep violet floated
about it
"Yes, I can deal with the Outsiders they who have killed and destroyed, that
they might possess. But it is not necessary that we destroy. They shall return
to their planet."
And the golden sphere was gone, fast as light it vanished.
Far in space, headed now for Mars, that they might destroy all life there, the
Golden Sphere found the
Outsiders, a clustered fleet, that swung slowly about its own center of
gravity as it drove on.
Within its ring was the Golden Sphere. Instantly, they swung their weapons
upon it, showering it with all the rays and all the forces they knew. Unmoved,
the golden sphere hung steady, then its mighty intelligence spoke.
"Life-form of greed, from another star you came, destroying forever the great
race that created us, the
Beings of Force and the Beings of Metal. Pure force am I. My Intelligence is
beyond your comprehension, my memory is engraved in the very space, the fabric
of space of which I am a part, mine is energy drawn from that same fabric.
"We, the heirs of man, alone are left; no man did you leave. Go now to your
home planet, for see, your greatest ship, your flagship, is helpless before
me."
Forces gripped the mighty ship, and as some fragile toy it twisted and bent,
and yet was not hurt. In awful wonder those Outsiders saw the ship turned
inside out, and yet it was whole, and no part damaged. They saw the ship
restored, and its great screen of blankness out, protecting it from all known
rays. The ship twisted, and what they knew were curves, yet were lines, and
Page 10
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
angles that were acute, were somehow straight lines. Half mad with horror,
they saw the sphere send out a beam of blue-white radiance, and it passed
easily through that screen, and through the ship, and all energies within it
were instantly locked. They could not be changed; it could be neither warmed
nor cooled;
what was open could not be shut, and what was shut could not be opened. All
things were immovable and unchangeable for all time. "Go, and do not return."
The Outsiders left, going out across the void, and they have not returned,
though five Great Yean, have passed, being a period of approximately one
hundred and twenty-five thousand of the lesser years a measure no longer used,
for it is very brief. And now I can say that that statement I made to Roal and
Trest so very long ago is true, and what he said was true, for the Last
Evolution has taken place, and things of pure force and pure intelligence in
their countless millions are on those planets and in this System, and I, first
of machines to use the Ultimate Energy of annihilating matter, am also the
last, and this record being finished, it is to be given unto the forces of one
of those force-intelligences, and carried back through the past, and returned
to the Earth of long ago.
And so my task being done, I, F-2, like Real and Trest, shall follow the
others of my kind into eternal oblivion, for my kind is now, and theirs was,
poor and inefficient. Time has worn me, and oxidation attacked me, but they of
Force are eternal, and omniscient.
This I have treated as fictitious. Better !io for man is an animal to whom
hope is as necessary 35 food and air. Yet this which is made of excerpts from
lertain records on thin sheets of metal is no fiction, and it seems I must so
say.
It seems now, when I know this that is to be, that it must be so, for machines
are indeed better than man, whether being of Metal, or being of Force.
So, you who have read, believe as you will. Then think and maybe, you will
change your belief.
Page 11 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl rafalstec.xlx.pl
the forces of the giant machine.
The sky darkened with heavy clouds, and a howling wind sprang up that screamed
and tore at the tiny rounded hull that was F-2. With difficulty he held his
position as the winds tore at him, shrieking in mad laughter, their tearing
fingers dragging at him.
The swirl and patter of driven rain came great drops that tore at the rocks,
and at the metal. Great jagged tongues of nature's forces, the lightnings,
came and jabbed at the awful volcano of erupting energy that was the center of
all that storm. A tiny ball of white-gleaming force that pulsated, and moved,
jerking about, jerking at the touch of lightnings, glowing, held immobile in
the grasp of titanic forcepools.
Page 9
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
For half an hour the display of energies continued. Then, swiftly as it had
come, it was gone, and only a small globe of white luminescence floated above
the great hulking machine.
F-2 probed it, seeking within it with the reaching fingers of intelligence.
His probing thoughts seemed baffled and turned aside, brushed away, a:3
inconsequential. His mind sent an order to the great machine that had made
this tiny globe, scarcely a foot in diameter. Then again he sought to reach
the thing he had made.
"You, of matter, are inefficient," came at last. "I can exist quite alone." A
stabbing beam of blue-white light flashed out, but F-2 was not there, and even
as that beam reached out, an enormously greater beam of dull
red reached out from the great power plant. The sphere leaped forward the beam
caught it, and it seemed to strain, while terrific flashing energies sprayed
from it. It was shrinking swiftly. Its resistance fell, the arcing decreased;
the beam became orange and finally green. Then the sphere had vanished.
F-2 returned, and again, the wind whined and howled, and the lightnings
crashed, while titanic forces worked and played. C-R-U-1 joined him, floated
beside him, and now red glory of the sun was rising behind them, and the ruddy
light drove through the clouds.
The forces died, and the howling wind decreased, and now, from the black
curtain, Roal and Trest appeared. Above the giant machine floated an irregular
globe of golden light, a faint halo about it of deep violet. It floated
motionless, a mere pool of pure force.
Into the thought-apparatus of each, man and machine alike, came the impulses,
deep in tone, seeming of infinite power, held gently in check.
"Once you failed, F-2; once you came near destroying all things. Now you have
planted the seed. I grow now."
The sphere of golden light seemed to pulse, and a tiny ruby flame appeared
within it, that waxed and waned, and as it waxed, there shot through each of
those watching beings a feeling of rushing, exhilarating power, the very vital
force of well-being.
Then it was over, and the golden sphere was twice its former size easily three
feet in diameter, and still that irregular, hazy aura of deep violet floated
about it
"Yes, I can deal with the Outsiders they who have killed and destroyed, that
they might possess. But it is not necessary that we destroy. They shall return
to their planet."
And the golden sphere was gone, fast as light it vanished.
Far in space, headed now for Mars, that they might destroy all life there, the
Golden Sphere found the
Outsiders, a clustered fleet, that swung slowly about its own center of
gravity as it drove on.
Within its ring was the Golden Sphere. Instantly, they swung their weapons
upon it, showering it with all the rays and all the forces they knew. Unmoved,
the golden sphere hung steady, then its mighty intelligence spoke.
"Life-form of greed, from another star you came, destroying forever the great
race that created us, the
Beings of Force and the Beings of Metal. Pure force am I. My Intelligence is
beyond your comprehension, my memory is engraved in the very space, the fabric
of space of which I am a part, mine is energy drawn from that same fabric.
"We, the heirs of man, alone are left; no man did you leave. Go now to your
home planet, for see, your greatest ship, your flagship, is helpless before
me."
Forces gripped the mighty ship, and as some fragile toy it twisted and bent,
and yet was not hurt. In awful wonder those Outsiders saw the ship turned
inside out, and yet it was whole, and no part damaged. They saw the ship
restored, and its great screen of blankness out, protecting it from all known
rays. The ship twisted, and what they knew were curves, yet were lines, and
Page 10
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
angles that were acute, were somehow straight lines. Half mad with horror,
they saw the sphere send out a beam of blue-white radiance, and it passed
easily through that screen, and through the ship, and all energies within it
were instantly locked. They could not be changed; it could be neither warmed
nor cooled;
what was open could not be shut, and what was shut could not be opened. All
things were immovable and unchangeable for all time. "Go, and do not return."
The Outsiders left, going out across the void, and they have not returned,
though five Great Yean, have passed, being a period of approximately one
hundred and twenty-five thousand of the lesser years a measure no longer used,
for it is very brief. And now I can say that that statement I made to Roal and
Trest so very long ago is true, and what he said was true, for the Last
Evolution has taken place, and things of pure force and pure intelligence in
their countless millions are on those planets and in this System, and I, first
of machines to use the Ultimate Energy of annihilating matter, am also the
last, and this record being finished, it is to be given unto the forces of one
of those force-intelligences, and carried back through the past, and returned
to the Earth of long ago.
And so my task being done, I, F-2, like Real and Trest, shall follow the
others of my kind into eternal oblivion, for my kind is now, and theirs was,
poor and inefficient. Time has worn me, and oxidation attacked me, but they of
Force are eternal, and omniscient.
This I have treated as fictitious. Better !io for man is an animal to whom
hope is as necessary 35 food and air. Yet this which is made of excerpts from
lertain records on thin sheets of metal is no fiction, and it seems I must so
say.
It seems now, when I know this that is to be, that it must be so, for machines
are indeed better than man, whether being of Metal, or being of Force.
So, you who have read, believe as you will. Then think and maybe, you will
change your belief.
Page 11 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]