of power in the near future, I want to you to reconsider our offer. Make your decisions very carefully.”
“We always do.”
The conversation went on for a minute or two, but the critical elements had been covered. We’d saved their world, but they weren’t ready to join us despite the fact their current allies were trying to kill them.
I understood their reasoning, to a degree. They knew they were weak militarily and what they really wanted was some kind of neutrality. Unfortunately for them, neither
Star Force nor the Macros were in a peace-loving mood.
As the crisis seemed at least temporarily averted, I headed for the mess hall to eat the first real meal I’d had in days. Then I had a shower and flopped onto my bunk.
Sandra joined me a while later and we had celebratory sex. Today hadn’t gone the way I’d thought it might, and I was happy about that. So was she. Somehow, she figured I was a hero now, and Marvin was an even bigger hero.
“That robot is the strangest thing,” she said. “He’s a traitor one minute and a savior of billions the next. I really don’t know what to think of him.”
“Well, you’re probably trying to understand him as a human personality. He really isn’t one of us. That’s not entirely a bad thing, but you can never forget it while dealing with him. His motivations are his alone. He’s effectively a species of one.”
“When you talk like that, it makes me think we should quietly turn him off.”
I looked at her in surprise. Her head was resting on my chest, and her eyes looked up at me seriously. I could tell she meant it.
“Why?” I asked. “You just got done telling me he was a big hero.”
“Sometimes he is, but sometimes he’s evil. Remember what he did when experimenting on the Centaurs? On their young ones?”
“I try not to think about that.”
“Yeah, me too. But something you said forced me to start thinking: You said he was as species of one. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. What if he decides to reproduce? To copy himself? What if there were a thousand Marvins—or even a million? He’s much smarter than the Nanos or the Macros. An army of Marvins might kill us all, if they decided it was for the best. Maybe they’d do it just for curiosity’s sake, for the fun of cutting us up and poking around in our guts.”
We both fell silent after that. A few minutes later, Sandra fell asleep with her head still resting on my chest. It was a nice feeling, and I was very tired, but I found I couldn’t let go and relax.
I laid there for the next hour, listening to her soft, rhythmic breathing. My thoughts didn’t let sleep come. Her words had disturbed me.
-10-
Our ships spent two more full days hanging over Yale. Captain Sarin had joined us with her carrier, and the fighters patrolled constantly. I was impressed by her carefully maintained vigilance.
We watched the ring in the seabed that Marvin had somehow switched off. For the first day or so, we were nervous, waiting for something bad to happen. But nothing did and by the end of the second day, I began to feel confident that we’d solved the problem.
Below us, the oceans settled and the storm clouds dissipated. It was going to take years for the climate to reorganize itself. The planet had lost about three percent of its mass, and that translated into about four miles of ocean depth gone down the drain. There were spots of land now on a world that had previously been covered by seamless ocean.
The new lands were alien-looking. The freshly revealed sea floor was white and rocky. The newly revealed lands formed islands which dotted the surface of Yale. These islands steamed and were covered in rotting seaweeds and dead fish. Seen from above, they reminded me of the jagged teeth of an ancient leviathan, revealed for the first time in a billion years.
We sent down probes to the ring when the currents and storms had subsided. But when the probes went through the ring, which was still
“We always do.”
The conversation went on for a minute or two, but the critical elements had been covered. We’d saved their world, but they weren’t ready to join us despite the fact their current allies were trying to kill them.
I understood their reasoning, to a degree. They knew they were weak militarily and what they really wanted was some kind of neutrality. Unfortunately for them, neither
Star Force nor the Macros were in a peace-loving mood.
As the crisis seemed at least temporarily averted, I headed for the mess hall to eat the first real meal I’d had in days. Then I had a shower and flopped onto my bunk.
Sandra joined me a while later and we had celebratory sex. Today hadn’t gone the way I’d thought it might, and I was happy about that. So was she. Somehow, she figured I was a hero now, and Marvin was an even bigger hero.
“That robot is the strangest thing,” she said. “He’s a traitor one minute and a savior of billions the next. I really don’t know what to think of him.”
“Well, you’re probably trying to understand him as a human personality. He really isn’t one of us. That’s not entirely a bad thing, but you can never forget it while dealing with him. His motivations are his alone. He’s effectively a species of one.”
“When you talk like that, it makes me think we should quietly turn him off.”
I looked at her in surprise. Her head was resting on my chest, and her eyes looked up at me seriously. I could tell she meant it.
“Why?” I asked. “You just got done telling me he was a big hero.”
“Sometimes he is, but sometimes he’s evil. Remember what he did when experimenting on the Centaurs? On their young ones?”
“I try not to think about that.”
“Yeah, me too. But something you said forced me to start thinking: You said he was as species of one. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. What if he decides to reproduce? To copy himself? What if there were a thousand Marvins—or even a million? He’s much smarter than the Nanos or the Macros. An army of Marvins might kill us all, if they decided it was for the best. Maybe they’d do it just for curiosity’s sake, for the fun of cutting us up and poking around in our guts.”
We both fell silent after that. A few minutes later, Sandra fell asleep with her head still resting on my chest. It was a nice feeling, and I was very tired, but I found I couldn’t let go and relax.
I laid there for the next hour, listening to her soft, rhythmic breathing. My thoughts didn’t let sleep come. Her words had disturbed me.
-10-
Our ships spent two more full days hanging over Yale. Captain Sarin had joined us with her carrier, and the fighters patrolled constantly. I was impressed by her carefully maintained vigilance.
We watched the ring in the seabed that Marvin had somehow switched off. For the first day or so, we were nervous, waiting for something bad to happen. But nothing did and by the end of the second day, I began to feel confident that we’d solved the problem.
Below us, the oceans settled and the storm clouds dissipated. It was going to take years for the climate to reorganize itself. The planet had lost about three percent of its mass, and that translated into about four miles of ocean depth gone down the drain. There were spots of land now on a world that had previously been covered by seamless ocean.
The new lands were alien-looking. The freshly revealed sea floor was white and rocky. The newly revealed lands formed islands which dotted the surface of Yale. These islands steamed and were covered in rotting seaweeds and dead fish. Seen from above, they reminded me of the jagged teeth of an ancient leviathan, revealed for the first time in a billion years.
We sent down probes to the ring when the currents and storms had subsided. But when the probes went through the ring, which was still
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