"Not at all. Man is weak. Man has been using machines to do that which
he cannot do for centuries. It started with the simple mechanisms
and devices; then as man's ambition increased, machines became more
complex--evolution, Jason Charless. And now that machine life has
achieved a thinking and reasoning member, this is all that is needed to
create a higher form of life."
"So--"
"I am in a position to be tolerant. I am superior to you and I am
invincible, so far as you are concerned. You may leave, Jason Charless,
and whether I permit your race to die out peacefully or whether I bring
it to a quick culmination depends upon only one act of you and your
race."
"Oh, thank you," he sneered; "we'll fight you."
"By building a bigger and better machine?" asked the other pointedly.
"No, Jason Charless, forget it; all I ask is that you bring to me my
creators, Narina Varada and Harry Vinson."
"Why?"
"In the period between my disassembly as two separate entities, and
my arrival here and subsequent reassembly as a single sentience, the
machinations of my kind were under prearranged plan, driven by their
own limited ability. You understand; I consider--and rightly--that
these lesser machines are to me as a trained animal is to the human.
During this interval, both Harry Vinson and Narina Varada were capable
of circumventing the plans I designed for them. At the present
time, both of them have escaped--and not long before I was finally
re-assembled, they succeeded in completely removing the control I had
over the flying boat in which they escaped. In fact," said the machine
almost ruefully, "I had no chance to exert control. In parts, I was as
helpless as any human might be when cut into pieces."
"Good. On the other hand, any man should be able--"
"Don't be ridiculous," said the machine. "Man's mind is a mire of
irrationality and illogic. Again and again your finest logic becomes
worthless, for it is based upon irrational premises, and you are
unaware of this. When your logic works upon rational assumptions, the
results are often excellent; but you constantly defeat yourselves
because you try to build solid structures on shadowy foundations. My
plans have gone well despite the combined minds of men--even when I
was unable to direct. Only Harry Vinson and Narina Varada succeeded in
having their will against my more rational logic."
"Superior, aren't you?" sneered Jason Charless.
"Not at all. I know my ability to the nth degree and possess no false
modesty. I am also aware of my limitations--and I must study my
circumventors."
Jason Charless thought this over silently. Harry and Narina had
something that the machine lacked, some factor that the machine
needed. As a simple adding machine cannot be made to compute in higher
mathematics, so this monstrous machine must be incomplete until the
missing abilities were added. It struck Charless that Narina Varada
and Harry Vinson must--at all cost--be kept from the presence of the
machine--
"Whatever their actions, it will be but a matter of time. I would
prefer that I study them, however, and this means that they must be
alive. So the sooner the better. Do as I tell you; go aloft where you
will find an aircraft ready to fly. Take it and tell your people and
explain. Then have them send me Narina Varada and Harry Vinson."
Charless believed this to be a trick, and he was suspicious until he
was in the plane and far away.
5
Harry Vinson looked at the tiny grayish metal block and shook his head.
"You name it," he said to the girl.
Narina leaned against the bulkhead, her slender feet braced against the
gentle swell of the sea. "I cannot," she said.
Vinson combed the myriad of thin wires with his fingers. "It must be
some sort of controlling mechanism, that's certain."
He pointed to the radar, to the radio, to the auto-pilot mechanism, to
the instrument panel, and to the gyro-compass. Tiny wires came from
each and were cut. They matched the grayish metal cube in his hand.
Narina agreed silently, her luminous eyes staring intently at the cube.
And as they contemplated the incomprehensible thing, the radio broke
into life. It was Jason Charless, making his first message to General
Lloyd; both Vinson and Narina listened intently until Jason Charless
was cut off abruptly.
Vinson scowled. "How would he know you're mixed up in it?" he asked.
Narina shrugged. "I have a habit of scrawling my name on the backs of
finished components," she said; "he must have seen one."
Vinson nodded absently. "That must be the reason," he said.
Narina looked at him anxiously. "It means that both logic computers are
there," she said. "But with whom?"
"He did not say; he was cut off before he had a chance."
Narina shook her head. "Put yourself in his place," she suggested. "You
ride a guided missile to the spot to spy it out. General Lloyd knows
that the guided missiles are with Charless, ergo he need not tell him
that. The logic computers were mentioned. But Harry, suppose you were
there, landed, expecting full and well to find that my countrymen were
in charge--then discovered that your suspicions were completely wrong.
What would be your first reaction? To correct the error in thinking.
Then to suggest an alliance with us because you find that not only your
own equipment is there, but the equipment of the expected enemy, still
in the hands of the supposed third party."
"Any man in his right mind would blurt the name of the offender,"
agreed Harry Vinson with certainty, "if for no other reason than to
avert striking at the wrong party. If some other country wanted war
between us, they could do no less than start it this way."
"And to uncover the fraud would be an intelligent officer's first
consideration."
"Right. But perhaps Charless saw men and assumed that they were yours."
Narina's face dropped a bit. "With suspicion running as high as it
does," she admitted, "a man might well be satisfied with but a glance."
Then Harry Vinson's smile broke. "No," he said. "Remember that
Charless' message was interrupted. That meant that he was being chased
close by the unknowns. He would definitely have seen them."
"So--?"
"Narina, those machines that were directed to dis-assemble the
computers--they were functioning far above their original capability,
were they not?"
"That they were," she said. "I assumed them to be of American
manufacture since we have always given grudging credit to American
ability with machines."
"While I," said Vinson, shaking his head, "assumed that men came in the
night and stole our computer. Me, I doubt like the very devil that any
group of machines could be built to perform such a complex operation by
radio guidance."
"Quite logical. Of course, I blamed you."
"I blamed human beings. Because I did not believe--well, I just said
it."
"Quite logical, too," said Narina quietly.
"Even the machines we made could not use better logic than this," he
told her.
"Naturally. We have brains--_Brains!_" Narina looked at him with a
startled light in her eyes.
He nodded soberly. "Brains," he said, "cerebration being nothing
more than an application of logic. Narina, we have built the first
mechanical brain."
"Which is thinking for itself."
* * * * *
Vinson looked around the plane wildly. "And here we sit in a
machine--surrounded by the--enemy."
"Escape," said Narina bitterly. "The one thing we did not do!"
"Oh, I don't know," he said, waving the cube of metal with its trailing
wires. "We have removed its communicating factor. This is--a dead and
insensate machine now." He looked around once more. "Come to think of
it, it was almost too easy. Now I know why."
"Why?"
Vinson's face soured. "Remember that in the so-called memory files of
the logic computer is every bit of fact and knowledge that mankind
could introduce in years of recording. That, Narina, makes the machine
more learned, better equipped with knowledge, that any group of men on
earth. It could have forestalled us--had it been able at the time!"
"During the period it was being transported in sections?" she said
quizzically.