Cadmus' throat was dry, thick. He didn't understand.
"Come, I'll show you." Consar III pressed a button. The throne carried
his bulk across the marble floor to the wide windows overlooking the
council tower and the valley of the Machine.
"You see, Cadmus. The Machine is insane. You submitted a problem to
it. I don't know what the nature of the problem was, its details, but
it was planned to be unsolvable to the Machine. Although the Machine
isn't organic, it functions much like an organic brain. Faced with an
unsolvable problem that nevertheless must be solved, a human mind goes
insane. Our Machine did the same thing. Insanity is a decision of a
sort. Sometimes it's the only logical answer to a dilemma. That seems
to be the case this time."
Cadmus stared, but he still found it difficult to grasp the scene
below. What he saw and heard through the opened windows was horrible
beyond the maddest nightmare. The Venusian transmats were still dead.
No Venusians were emerging into the valley. But vast rivers of humans
from Terra, and Martians from all the cities, were spilling in great
masses into the valley--
And to their death!
Wailing, crying in sobbing ecstasy, these rivers were pouring directly
into that half-mile deep area of deadly radioactivity surrounding the
Machine.
Cadmus murmured in sheer horror. Millions were dying. Millions more
would die. The valley was a gigantic pit of carnage. Unless it were
stopped every living person on Terra would march out of those transmats
and die. So would every living Martian.
"Like the lemmings," said Consar III absently. "A suicide drive. See
what you Cadmeans have done with your foolish revolt. Listen to the
voice from the council tower."
Cadmus was listening. A decision from the Machine was automatically
transcribed and broadcast from the Tower.
"Listen to what the Tower is saying. The voice of the god. It couldn't
solve the answer it was forced to answer in any other way except by
this extreme and apparently insane way. Yet if this is the only way it
could answer the question, then it's logical isn't it? Logical that its
answer should be one of defeat, futility, abandonment of all hope."
From the Tower the public address system thundered out over the wailing
shambles of destruction in the valley. Its waves of sound bludgeoned
the helpless, milling hordes into an ecstatic suicidal rush.
"_Life has no meaning. All is futility. There is no hope. The only way
out of this problem is death. Death is the final and complete escape._"
* * * * *
Consar said, "Few are ignoring the Machine's voice. That's natural.
They have long since abandoned hope. Without progress, with no goal,
the Machine's answer is logical to them. It's very interesting, this
end of System life, isn't it, Cadmus? Look at the rabble. Look at the
bawling cattle you dedicated your life to save. What have you done but
pushed them on down into the slime where they belong?"
Cadmus hardly heard Consar's cynical humor. His head throbbed. Blood
rushed his temples as he tried to break that web of amnesia. It was
there, the answer, the solution.
Johlan! He was Venusian. And no Venusians were dying in the valley. The
sudden clarity of the monstrous truth hit him like an explosion. Johlan
had formulated a problem to submit to the Machine. True. But not to
destroy it. Only to cause its reaction to be analogous to those of an
insane brain.
Now it was directing the suicide of its worshippers. But not of
Venusians. The old hates still smoldering....
A few inhabitants of Terra and Mars might remain alive when this
ghastly massacre ended. But Venus would be untouched. Johlan had
brought about a monstrous suicidal drive that would decimate the Terran
and Martian population. And leave Venus the unchallenged ruler of the
System.
And Consar III laughed. Cadmus lunged at his throat. His hands struck
an invisible barrier. From behind the shield surrounding his throne,
Consar smiled.
"You're helpless now, Cadmus. I see you've noticed that the Venusian
transmats are dead. The Guards have investigated. The power generators
have been destroyed so they won't work anymore without being repaired.
You've taken the rule of the System from the unchanging Machine, and
have given it back to the people. Therefore you've destroyed the
System. Already the Venusians are trying to wipe out Terra and Mars."
Cadmus pounded against the invisible barrier.
"You can't touch me, Cadmus. And what would it gain for you if you did?
We probed your girl comrade's brain, too. She came here to kill me, but
she had hidden the explosion somewhere and the Guards couldn't locate
it. She's gone now. She was taken to the slave quarters. But none of
the slaves are in their quarters now. They have all gone into the
valley to march into the Machine.
"You see, Cadmus, everyone is conditioned to carry out the Machine's
dictates. Those who do not follow the commands of the Machine will be
driven into the valley and to death anyway by the Guards. The Guards,
too, will walk into the Machine to their deaths when everyone else is
dead. Including me. The Guards will force me to my death, too, Cadmus.
I have utilized the Guards only within the limitations of the Machine's
laws, you understand. Everyone will die except the Venusians. Let them
have it! I've enjoyed myself. I'm ready to make my exit."
Cadmus ran back to the window.
* * * * *
Policejets were circling above the marching hordes of suicidals, raying
those who fell out of the surging river. Thousands of Guards were
circulating at the edges of the human tide, keeping the lines solid,
threatening stragglers with neutron charges. There were few stragglers.
In that hopeless, un-evolving system, the majority had wanted to die.
The Machine was sanctioning their psychotic desires.
And somewhere, perhaps in that horde, Zaleel was trapped. Or she might
already be dead.
Regardless of the amnesia, his hopeless position, Cadmus saw one
thing he could do if he could escape. Try to destroy as many of those
transmats as possible and stop the flow of doomed Terrans and Martians.
Johlan had stopped the Venusian transmats by destroying the generators.
He could do the same.
From the Tower the thunderous voice of the mad Machine still called:
_Life has no meaning. All is futility. There is no hope._
Cadmus tried to shut out the sound. He knew that if he had to listen to
it very long, its suggestion would overpower him.
His own voice buried the voice of the mad Machine momentarily.
"It isn't over yet, Consar. You're a victim of unchange like every
other poor suicidal out there. The blood of millions who have died in
your enslavement is on your hands. Your only excuse is that there never
was hope for humanity anyway. But there is, Consar. And I'll prove it
to you. You'll die, but I'll prove the truth to you before I kill you."
Consar laughingly waved a flabby white hand. "The magic shadow show
still goes on. Join it. I'm not holding you here. See--the doors are
opening for you. Without the rigid discipline of the Machine, System
life will destroy itself. Every institution contains the seeds of its
own destruction. Even the Machine. Blind tropisms, rabble, robots,
cattle. Those are the stupid dolts you Cadmeans dedicated your lives to
save, to set free. Freedom! Hah!" Consar broke into a rumbling laugh.
But Cadmus didn't hear it.
Freedom.