War with the Robots

"A machine that assembled and attached itself to the outer wall of HQ. It was detected as soon as it began operating and the frequencies were analyzed and neutralized in three minutes and seventeen seconds. No equipment or robots were injured since the frequencies used only caused resonance in animal protein. All of the staff, with the exception of Colonel Frey, were killed instantly. Large quantities of food in the lockers —"

"We’ll concern ourselves with the food later. Where is the machine?"

"There," the robot said, pointing towards the far wall. It led the way, its cable trailing smoothly behind it, and pulled a cover from the yard high object resting there. It resembled no machine Pere had ever seen, rather it looked like a tangled mass of tiny gleaming roots: the red earth still packed between them heightened the illusion.

"How does it work?"

The robot reached out — leaning very close to focus its microscopic eyepieces — and carefully pulled one of the strands free. It lay on the robot’s outstretched metallic palm, eight inches long, an eighth of an inch in diameter. Seen close it was not completely flexible, but made instead of pivoted and smoothly finished segments. The robot pointed out the parts of interest.

"The vibration generator is made up of a large number of these machines, all of similar construction. At the front end is a hard-edged orifice that drills a hole in the ground. Debris is carried back through the body of the machine and eliminated here: in operation it is not unlike the common earthworm. Directional apparatus here guides it, orientated by a gravimeter to locate our base. Here a power unit and here a frequency generator. Singly the machines are harmless, their radiation of no importance. But when grouped together and activated at the same time they produce the deadly frequency.

"Why weren’t they detected before going into operation?"

"Their individual mass is too small and they have no metallic components. In addition they move very slowly, it took them a long time to reach HQ and mass for the attack."

"How long?"

"By measuring the sensitivity of their gravimeters in response to the bulk of HQ and timing their speed of movement, it has been estimated that they entered the ground four years ago."

"Four years!" General Pere was aghast at the thought. The miles of dirt and rock that surrounded HQ on all sides, formally so comforting, changed suddenly to the hiding place of countless crawling, remorseless machines, closing in with mechanical patience.

"Can they be stopped from constructing another group-machine?"

"That is no problem now that it is known what we must guard against. Defensive screens and detectors have been installed."

Anxiety seeped slowly away and Pere wiped the trickling sweat from his face as he looked around at his staff. All of the battle stations were manned now and the collapsed form of Colonel Frey had been taken out. Everything was functioning perfectly — except for the damn heat.

"And what’s causing that?" Pere snapped. "Why the rise in temperature? You must have found the cause."

"The increased temperature is caused by areas of in-tense heat in the soil around this station. The cause of this localized heat increase is unknown."

Pere found himself worrying his thumb nail with his front teeth and angrily jerked it from his mouth. "Cause unknown! I should think it would be obvious. If the Enemy can build complex wave generators into something as small as this piece of plastic spaghetti, they can certainly build more of them with some kind of compact heat generator. These things could be coming in a second wave after the coagulator generators."

"This theory was considered, as well as other high probability explanations, but we have no evidence…"

"Then get evidence!" Pere was angry at the persistant logicality of all robots, no matter how theoretically brilliant they might be. This obvious explanation of the mysterious heat seemed to him to be more than a hunch or guess, it was almost a certainty. He thumbed the button labeled IMPLEMENT ORDER on the robot’s chest and issued a command. "Search will be made at once beyond the heat zone to uncover any more of these specialized boring machines."