The dehydration of the planet had taken centuries in all. The Rell had
still been a great race when the process started. Construction of the
canals was a prodigious feat but not a truly remarkable one. But what
use are even canals when there is nothing to fill them?
What cosmic influences might have caused the disaster baffled even the
group-mind of the Rell. Through the eons the atmosphere had drifted into
space; and with it went the life-giving moisture. Originally a liquid
paradise, the planet was now a dry, hostile husk.
The large groups of Rell had been the first to suffer. But in time even
the tiny villages containing mere quadrillions of the submicroscopic
entities had found too little moisture left to satisfy their thirst and
the journey ever southward toward the pole had commenced.
The new life was bitter and difficult and as their resources were
depleted so also did their numbers diminish.
[Illustration]
Huddled at their last retreat the Rell watched the ever smaller ice cap
annually diminish and lived with the knowledge they faced extinction. A
mere thousand years more would see even this trifling remainder gone.
Oh, you might say there was hope ... of a sort. There might be Rell in
the northern hemisphere. The canals girdled the globe and a similar ice
cap could well exist at the opposite pole. Rell perhaps survived there
also.
But this was scant comfort. The fate of the Rell in the South was
sealed. What hope of any brighter future for those in the North? And if
they survived a few hundred thousand years longer ... or if they had
perished a similar period earlier, what actual difference did it make?
There was no one more aware of this gloomy future than Raeillo/ee13.
In the old days a single unit of the group-mind of the Rell would have
possessed but a single function and exercised this function perhaps a
dozen times during his life. But due to the inexorable shrinkage only
the most important problems now could command mind-action and each unit
had been forced to forsake specialization for multi-purpose endeavors.
Thus Raeillo/ee13 and his mate Raellu//2 were two of the five thousand
units whose task was to multiply in any group-mind action involving
mathematical prediction. Naturally Raeillo/ee13 and Raellu//2 did not
waste their abilities in mundane problems not involving prediction. Nor
did they divide, add, or subtract. That was assigned to other units just
as several million of the upper groups had the task of sorting and
interpreting their results. Raeillo/ee13 and Raellu//2 multiplied only.
And it must be admitted they did it very well. It is a pity the Rell
could not have multiplied physically as easily as Raeillo/ee13 and
Raellu//2 multiplied mentally.
With the exception of an occasional comet or meteor the Rell were seldom
diverted by anything of a physical nature. The ice cap was their sole
concern.
But one afternoon a rare physical phenomenon was reported by a bank of
observer Rell.
"In the sky's northwest portion," an excited injunction came through.
"Observe that patch of flaming red!"
More observer Rell were quickly focused on the novel sight and further
data was rapidly fed into the interpretive bank.
The Rell were justifiably proud of their interpreters. With the race
shrinkage it had proved impossible to properly train new interpreters.
So, not without a great deal of sacrifice, the old interpreters, dating
back to when the canals still flowed with water, had been kept alive.
They were incredibly ancient but there was no doubt as to their ability.
It was a truism among the Rell that the interpretive banks arrived at
their conclusions faster than any other group and that these conclusions
could be checked to hundreds of decimal places without finding
inaccuracy.
So it was no surprise to have the interpretive bank respond almost
instantly, "It is quite odd but the flame appears to be of artificial
origin."
"Artificial!" came the rough and questing probe of the speculative bank.
"But how could Rell possibly be out there?"
"Who mentioned Rell?" was the interpretive bank's smug answer. They were
not utterly averse to demonstrating their superior mental abilities on
occasion.
The speculative bank replied, "Artificial implies intelligence, and
intelligence means Rell..."
"Does it?" the interpretive bank interrupted. The speculative bank
waited but the interpretive bank failed to enlarge on the provocative
query.
The Rell had found certain disadvantages accrued to abnormal
prolongation of life and thus were not unused to the interpretive bank's
occasional tendency to talk in riddles.
"Perhaps not," the speculative bank replied after a quick check with the
logical formulae held in reserve by the historical bank. "It is
theoretically possible that Rell-like individuals might have developed
elsewhere, and perhaps even have developed intelligence, although,
according to the historical bank, such an idea has never before been
subjected to consideration. But what is the flame doing?" they
continued, a trifle resentful at having been left to do work properly in
the interpretive bank's province.
The observation and interpretive banks once more came into play,
studying the situation for several minutes. "The flame appears to be the
exhaust of a fairly crude vessel," the interpretive bank finally
reported, "propelled by ignition of some gaseous mixture."
"Is it moving?"
"Quite rapidly."
"Where is it going?"
This called into play the prophecy division of the mind and Raeillo/ee13
and Raellu//2, who had been merely interested onlookers before,
hurriedly meshed themselves with the other forty nine hundred odd of
their fellows. (It was impossible to say at any given time just how many
there were in their computer section, as several births and deaths had
occurred among the group since beginning the current observations. These
would be suspended for the next several moments, however, as there was a
strict prohibition against anyone being born, dying, or otherwise
engaging in extraneous activity while their particular bank was either
alerted or in action.)
Raeillo/ee13 and Raellu//2 felt the group discipline take hold much more
firmly than the free-and-easy mesh which each unit enjoyed with the
complete group-mind during periods of leisure.
With a speed that would have been dizzying and incomprehensible to any
individual unit, the observing banks relayed huge masses of extraneous
data to the interpretive bank. They strained out the salient facts and
in turn passed these to the computing:prediction section. Here they were
routed to the groups who would deal with them. Raeillo/ee13 and Raellu//2
found their own talents pressed into service a dozen or more times in
the space of the minute and a half it took the computing:prediction and
interpretive banks to arrive at the answer.
"It's aimed here," the interpretive bank reported.
"Here!" a jumble of incoherent and anarchistic thoughts resounded from
many shocked and temporarily out-of-mesh units.
"Order!" came a sharp command from the elite corp of three thousand
disciplinary units.
As stillness settled back over the group-mind the speculative bank once
more came in. "By here ... do you mean _right_ here?"
"Approximately," replied the interpretive bank with what would have
sounded suspiciously like a chuckle in a human reply. "According to
calculations the craft should land within half a mile of our present
location."
"Let's go there then and wait for it!" That thought from the now seldom
used reservation of impulse.
The speculative bank murmured, "I wonder if there would be any danger.
How hot is that exhaust?"
Calculations were rapidly made and the answer arrived at. The Rell
prudently decided to remain where they were for the present.
* * * * *
Captain Leonard Brown, USAF, hunched over the instruments in the cramped
control cabin which, being the only available space in the ship, doubled
as living quarters. A larger man would have found the arrangement
impossible. Brown, being 5' 2" and weighing 105 pounds found it merely
intolerable.
At the moment he was temporarily able to forget his discomfort, however.
The many tiny dials and indicators told a story all their own to Brown's
trained vision.
"Just another half hour," he whispered to himself. "Just thirty more
minutes and I'll land. It may be just a dead planet but I'll still be
the first."
There really wasn't a great deal for Brown to do. The ship was
self-guided. The Air Force had trusted robot mechanisms more than human
reactions.
Thus Brown's entire active contribution to the flight consisted in
watching the dials (which recorded everything so even watching them was
unnecessary) and in pressing the button which would cause the ship to
start its return journey.
Of course the scientists could have constructed another mechanism to
press the button and made it a completely robot ship. But despite their
frailties and imperfections, human beings have certain advantages.
Humans can talk. Machines may see and detect far more than their human
creators but all they can do is record. They can neither interpret nor
satisfactorily describe.
Brown was present not only to report a human's reactions to the first
Mars flight; he was also along to see that which the machines might
miss.
"We've never satisfactorily defined life," one of his instructors had
told Brown shortly after he started the three grueling years of training
which had been necessary, "so we can't very well build a foolproof
machine for detecting it. That's why we've left room for 105 pounds of
dead weight."
"Meaning me?"
"Meaning you."
"And I'm your foolproof machine for detecting life?"
"Let's say you're the closest we can come to it at present. We're
banking everything on this first trip. It'll be at least eighteen
months later before we can get a second ship into space. So it's up to
you to get everything you can ... some evidence of life, preferably
animal, if possible. With public support it'll be a hell of a lot easier
squeezing appropriations out of Congress for the next ship and to get
public support we need the biggest possible play in the newspapers. If
anything is newsworthy on Mars it should be evidence of life ... even
plant life."
So here he was, 105 pounds of concentrated knowledge and anticipation,
itching with the desire for action and also from more basic causes
having to do with two months confinement in a small space with a minimum
of water.
"Life is most probable at the poles," the instructor had said. "You
won't be able to stay long so we'll try to set you down right at the
South Pole. You won't have room to bring back specimens. So keep your
eyes open and absorb everything you see. Don't forget anything. What you
bring back in your mind weighs nothing."
"It's just sitting there," the observing banks reported, "and the red
flame has gone out."
"Is it safe now?" enquired the speculative bank.
"In what way?"
"Is it safe to go near that thing?"
"It's very huge," ventured the observing banks unasked. There was a stir
of activity which encompassed practically all except the most simple
units and which lasted for perhaps five minutes while the speculative
bank's last question was processed.
Finally the interpretive bank reluctantly admitted, "We can't arrive at
a positive answer. Too many unknown elements are present. We don't know
for sure what caused the flame, when it might start again, or what, if
anything, is inside."
"But you said it was a work of intelligence. Doesn't that mean Rell
would be inside?"
"Not necessarily. They could have constructed the thing to operate
itself."