The Plague of Oblivion Read online

  "We'll bring it all box by box from that sandbank back to the ship," the mouse-beaver added, "providing, of course, the robots don't spot us. Those tin-men are outfitted with sensor devices, you know."

  "Not to mention energy-beamers too," John warned somberly. "You've got to be careful."

  "Okay, we will," Pucky assured the telepath. He took Tako by the hand to guide him during the jump. "Ready?"

  The other teleporter nodded and made an attempt at a smile. "I know the co-ordinates for the spring already, so holding hands isn't really necessary. Still, we're less likely to get separated this way."

  "We'll land on the sandbank," Pucky directed. "If we run into trouble, don't spring blindly. Instead, jump back to the ship." He nodded. "Ready?"

  John and both his friends watched as the mouse-beaver and the Oriental dematerialized. It was done as it always was: first, the teleporters appeared to be standing behind a glass-clear, shimmering wall of water. And then they were gone.

  John, Kitai and Tama were alone in the cabin.

  2/ THE ENIGMATIC ENEMY

  The river flowed in the direction of the sea, which was not too far away. It cut through half that continent the natives called 'The Land of the Gods' but it saw little of the indigenous population. Unlike the other continents, the Land of the Gods supported a high level of civilization, due almost entirely to the Springer installations housed there. The contrast between the planet's two unequal cultures was especially emphasized by the technically advanced harbor facilities on the coasts: the equipment there was far too modern for sailing ships and consequently could not be used with full efficiency.

  Most worthy of note was unquestionably the spaceport, which had to be regarded as the focus of the colonial administration. Here the Springer spaceships were brought in for repairs. There existed no home planet for the nomadic Springer race but various colonial worlds like Goszul's Planet had been made into outposts as necessary for the Springers' continued smooth-running operations in interstellar space.

  Since Springer policy was anything but kindly towards underdeveloped races, all ground-based installations had to be protected against possible acts of sabotage by the natives. Thus the robots—highly developed, positronically controlled machines vaguely humanoid in appearance. Whatever weapon or defense mechanism a mobile and independent miniature fortress required for combat with any conceivable enemy, the robots were equipped with it. By no means was their resemblance to the Arkonide war-machines coincidental: the Springers had once been a part of the great Arkonide empire themselves and had later broken off to found their own cosmos-spanning network of wealth and power.

  Precise boundaries were not to be found in the Springer realm. Wherever business could be done and a profit made, the Springers were there. Their business was business and they dealt with anyone in anything, so long as they could make a profit.

  The Land of the Gods was supervised less by the Springers personally and more by the robots, reinforced by those Goszuls who had undergone hypno-training. As the Servants of the Gods, the latter were at once highly esteemed and feared by their more primitive brethren. In reality, their service to the Springers rendered the 'Intelligent Goszuls' traitors to their own people.

  At its highest point, the sandbank was not even three feet above the surface of the water passing placidly by. The riverbanks on both sides were some distance away, but not far enough removed to insure 100% safety. The river was no obstacle for the heavy battle-robots.

  Pucky emerged from nothing into something and watched as Tako appeared to form out of thin air in his turn. A fast look around assured the pair that they were alone. Besides, who would chance to pass by a lonely sandbank at this hour of the morning?

  "It's cold out," Tako shivered unhappily. "Are we really going to take a bath at this temperature?"

  "I'll go first," Pucky offered, "and make a test jump. I'll bring back the exact co-ordinates and then we'll spring together. We'll materialize on the river bottom, which at no point is more than 15 feet deep. Then we'll take a box and spring back here. At the most, we'll only be under the water 10 seconds each time."

  "Ten seconds is a long time when you can't breathe," Tako ventured.

  "I'm more concerned about somebody accidentally spotting what we're doing," replied the mouse-beaver.

  Tako took stock of the surroundings. The north shore was flat and offered no cover. No human could approach from that direction and avoid being seen, to say nothing of a robot. The south bank was wooded and uneven, broken up by small inlets and protruding tongues of land. If there was going to be an attack, it would have to come from that side.

  "As long as the sentry-robots don't report us, there won't be any attack," the Oriental said, reassuring himself and Pucky. "Let's get started now so we don't waste any more time."

  Pucky agreed with that sentiment—and disappeared.

  Tako waited.

  Ten seconds later, Pucky and a glistening, dripping metal box materialized next to him.

  "Even brought one back with me," the mouse-beaver panted. "Good thing the current is hardly worth mentioning or otherwise half the boxes would have been washed downstream. As it is, all the boxes are in an area of about 50 yards. The water's muddy but not enough to bother us. We'll find everything easily enough, I'm sure. The distance from here to the boxes is exactly fifteen hundred feet due east. Now, shall we try it?"

  "Alright," said Tako and sprang with the mouse-beaver.

  They were able to retrieve nearly everything inside half an hour. The work was easy at the beginning when the boxes were not hard to find but grew progressively more difficult as Tako and Pucky proceeded to the several boxes half-buried in the shifting sands on the river bottom. During the course of a number of jumps, however, they were able to dig some of them out and then transport them to the sandbank. There the boxes were piled up, towering to a respectable pyramid.

  Regarding the pile, Tako decided to make a suggestion. "Why don't we get these boxes here to safety before we go on? The rest are fine where they are, which is more than you can say for this batch stacked up here in plain sight of the sand."

  "You're right," Pucky said. "It's a good idea. I'll take this case with the bombs and you take that one with the provisions. Okay, let's go!"

  It is a well-known law of physics that two objects cannot occupy the same space simultaneously. When the crate materialized in the middle of the narrow cabin, just about where John Marshall was already standing, one or the other had to give way. The loser was John. He was hurled to one side by what was almost a shockwave. He stumbled and fell into the nearest bunk, where he decided to remain until things calmed down.

  Pucky materialized atop the box and looked around in the manner of a conquering hero. "Special delivery!" he twittered, and stepped from the crate to the highest bunk in an effort to get out of the way of the newly arriving second crate.

  Tako slid down from the box and stood on the wet wooden floor. His clothes dripped.

  "Is that everything?" John inquired from the bed, rather happy that at the moment Kitai and Tama were taking a walk around the ship to make sure no trouble was brewing among the crew. "There isn't much room in here for anything else."

  Pucky's neck fur bristled. "You can do a little work, too. Find a storeroom we can lock and put the boxes in there. Tako and I will be bringing back the other boxes while you're doing that. There are about 20 altogether."

  "Twenty?" John groaned, leaping from his bunk hurriedly. "Twenty boxes like this?"

  "Most are smaller and better packed," Pucky replied. "They've suffered some from my having to drop them but fortunately they stayed watertight." He motioned to Tako. "We've got some more work to do, so let's get at it."

  And they sprang.

  Right into a trap.

  • • •

  RK-071 was one of the battle-robots detailed to maintaining the security of a specific area. Along with other robots like it, it generally stood inert in a shelter, waiting for a ca
ll to action from the sentry-robots on duty. There were substantially more sentry-robots than battle-robots in existence and it remained for the former to continually patrol their assigned sectors.

  Such measures were only precautionary, of course. Certainly no one really anticipated an uprising of the relatively harmless Goszuls, not even the Governors of the Land of the Gods, who were suspicious by nature. The Springers believed the Goszuls were willing vassals, thankful for the 'Gods' personal guardianship over them.

  The robots were not affected by feelings or suspicions. They were programmed by the central positronic brain to carry out the orders it dictated to them. The robots acted on facts and nothing else.

  The change in the sandbank was a fact.

  Sentry-robot RW-895 registered the change and reported it to the central computer at command headquarters. There the report was evaluated and appropriate counter-measures were initiated. The battle-robot assigned to that particular area was the previously mentioned RK-071. It received the activation signal and moved out of the shelter, heading in the direction of the river.

  Those on duty in the surveillance department at command headquarters apparently remembered the events of the past few days–in any event, they did not consider just one robot sufficient for the job. There was a mysterious enemy at large, too dangerous to underestimate, and in all likelihood no one born on this backward world.

  The positronic brain in charge had concluded as much, anyway. But nothing more. When the question was put to it as to who was the enigmatic enemy, the brain remained obstinately silent. The identity of the troublesome foes was still unknown.

  Six battle-robots marched from different directions towards the sandbank and RK-071 took command. On the south bank of the river a company of armed Goszuls stationed itself under orders to allow no one through the line and to arrest any suspicious persons.

  While all this was going on, Pucky and Tako had been under the water, searching for the remaining sunken boxes and piling them up on the sandbank. The activity was difficult to make out from the riverbank; the scouts now and then spotted a human figure which could just as easily have been a Goszul as a Springer. What caused the central positronic some confusion was the small animal with reddish-brown fur.

  And then the two creatures disappeared along with two boxes, seemingly dissolving suddenly into thin air.

  That was the cue for the battle-robots to take over the sandbank. They marched forward, not even hesitating to plunge into the river. Water meant nothing to robots designed to operate in the conditions of outer space. They marched directly along the riverbed as if no water existed, emerging again at the shallower water around the sandbank. Then they buried themselves in the sand with the intention of not being immediately noticed when the strangers returned. The robots' orders were clear: the unknown agents were to be captured alive, not destroyed.

  That—and only that—saved Pucky.

  • • •

  Pucky and Tako materialized about 15 feet away from the stack of boxes. Their astonishingly sudden appearance did not perturb the robots in the slightest: robots wonder about nothing, not even the apparently impossible. Yet, before the robots had a chance to react and leave their cover, Tako had already picked up a box and disappeared with it.

  That left Pucky, who was then looking around for a convenient box to take back. He heard a noise from behind and whirled around to see the four metal monsters lumbering threateningly towards him across the loose sand. Two of them were moving to the side in an attempt to cut him off from any retreat—which, as they were about to learn, is a difficult feat to accomplish with a teleporter.

  Pucky let the box drop and teleported. He materialized 600 feet in the air above the sandbank, where his telekinetic ability allowed him to remain aloft and watch developments below undisturbed.

  There was no problem in making out what was going on. Posted over on the north bank were three more robots awaiting orders. The Goszuls on the south shore had camouflaged themselves better but Pucky spotted them easily enough now that his suspicions were aroused. He had to admit that the Springers' surveillance system and functioned swiftly and flawlessly: the discovery of activity on the island and response thereto had all been accomplished inside half an hour.

  And Tako, who had no inkling of what was taking place, could return at any moment.

  Pucky decided to take immediate counteraction. He did not teleport but instead simply let himself drop. He hurtled down towards the robots like a falling stone, then shunted to one side and landed gently on the sandbank's western edge, about 150 feet from the robots. Only now could he concentrate sufficiently to use his telekinetic power.

  Before it could turn around and comprehend the situation, one of the battle-robots was effortlessly raised into the air. It shot up like a bullet for a hundred yards, its trajectory enough to the horizontal that it shortly hovered over the wooded, partly rocky south shore where the Goszuls were emplaced. All things considered, Pucky had no time to play, but he could not resist the temptation. Instead of letting the robot merely drop, he made it loop the loop twice and then simulate a dive-bombing run on the astounded Goszuls. For the grand finale, the robot slammed into a rock on the beach at enormous speed. The impact smashed its metal head completely and the rest of it, a worthless mass of scrap metal, slipped slowly into the water, never to be seen again.

  Now for the second robot.

  That one ended its days on the same rock after a similar command performance of aerial stunts. The difference with the second robot was that just before impact it had managed to bring to bear its energy-beamer and melt a part of the rock into glowing lava. All to no avail, as it turned out, for the molten rock only helped hasten the robot's demise. Both sank with a hiss in the river current.

  Just as Pucky was about to turn his attention to the third robot, Tako materialized directly between the two surviving robots. He was so surprised he could not move but luck was on his side. The robots paid no heed to his presence, occupying themselves with Pucky. They saw a dangerous enemy in the mouse-beaver—and were quite right in that observation.

  Once received, an order had to be carried out faithfully. No command had been given for the enemy's annihilation. Robots had only little concern for their own existence, although the battle-robots constituted a definite exception to the rule. When the latter were in imminent danger of destruction, the inhibiting block-relays could be released to allow free use of their deadly weaponry.

  "Back to the ship!" Pucky cried shrilly, knowing he had only a few seconds left in which to warn Tako. "I'll come just as soon as I'm done here!"

  Tako obeyed and disappeared.

  Pucky remembered John's views on humanitarianism and decided to put on an especially impressive show this time. At the same time he hoped that it would have an awe-striking effect on the Goszuls who were later to be made allies.

  The last two robots became stunt-planes, performing directly over the Goszuls' heads. The natives didn't understand what was going on at all and believed the metal gods had gone mad. The 'gods' looped the loop, somersaulted, spun in spirals and performed other daring manoeuvres. Finally, as the climax of the show, they backed off from each other, turned, and rocketed towards one another. Short circuits set both off to wild shooting with the built-in beamers. Then they collided. Smashed together and half-melted, the two erstwhile stunt flyers plummeted into the river and sank amid steaming and hissing.

  Even if they could not explain it, the Goszuls had watched the action with undivided attention. They were left with the belief that the two 'gods' had quarreled and wiped each other out. No one suspected the little furry animal on the sandbank was responsible.

  It was left for RK-071 to come to that absurd conclusion and thus it gave orders to its two metal compatriots for attack without quarter. Events had countermanded the old orders: the little enemy was too dangerous to be taken prisoner.

  The metal colossi marched up to the river's edge and prepared to enter the wa
ter. Pucky recognized the danger at once. He knew that water would have no effect on the robots' internal machinery. He took a box and teleported to the ship.

  When Pucky showed up in the cabin, Tako was just explaining the situation at the sandbank to John. Since Kitai and Tama had returned by this time, quarters were rather close.

  "There he is!" Tako exclaimed, obviously relieved. "What happened? Did you have to flee?"

  Despite the seriousness of the occasion, Pucky had time to feel insulted. "Flee?" he twittered, astounded and reproachful at the same time. "How can you even think such a thing? I just had an idea, that's all. Kitai, there's a whole company of Goszuls at the river, just waiting for you to give them the business. Maybe you can make good allies out of them."

  Kitai's eyes went wide. "A whole company? What are we going to do with it?"

  "Quite a bit," Pucky told him. "You're going to suggest to them that they ignore all their orders and march to the harbor. We'll be waiting for them here. I have an important mission in mind for those fellows."

  Kitai wanted to ask something else but a wave from John's hand made him hold his peace. The telepath had already understood what Pucky was planning.

  John turned towards Pucky. "Kitai will do what you say. Is all the equipment at the sandbank still safe?"

  Pucky was getting ready for the jump. He had fixed his gaze on Kitai, whom he had to take along, and had also grasped his hand in his paw. "Not yet," the mouse-beaver answered John. "Three battle-robots are on the way to take possession of it. Those walking tin-cans aren't going to find that job as easy as they think!"

  John was shocked. "Battle-robots? How are you going to...?"

  "Don't worry about it. I've already tried to give four of them flying lessons but they all flunked. Three more or less won't bother me." With that cryptic statement, Pucky disappeared. For that matter, Kitai was no longer in the cabin either.

  Tako, who felt as though he had been left out of things, asked John: "What about me? What should I do?"