‘You think I’m from the Top of the World?’ he was saying, and there was something about the timbre of his voice that wasn’t quite normal. ‘Yes, yes, that is right. You would think that, of course. You see the aluminium in my body and so you naturally assume that’s where I would come from.’ He held his arms wide as he spoke, each of them twice as long as he was tall. He shook them, sending a sine wave sinuating to each hand and back again to his body. ‘No, No. I’m not from the Top of the World.’
‘Then where did you find aluminium?’ asked Karel. ‘There is no such metal anywhere else in the whole of Shull!’
‘Karel, Karel! Shull is riddled with it! Yes, Yes! I noted limestone hills to the south of here that are doubtless full of aluminium, but the quantities therein will be too diffuse to be mined! The same is true of the lands around your former home. What they lack, though, is this hot, wet climate that will lead to the chemical weathering, which concentrates the metal as stone erodes. The central coast of Yukawa is rich in aluminium! It has such a climate! Yes, Yes!’
‘Yukawa? I’ve never heard of it.’
‘Yukawa is probably the most advanced state on Penrose,’ said Morphobia Alligator. ‘They have certainly heard of Shull, yes, yes!’
‘Are you from Yukawa then? Do all the robots in Yukawa look like you?’
‘No, No! I’m not from Yukawa, Karel. No land can lay claim to a pilgrim.’
Karel felt the familiar anger rising within him.
‘Don’t play games with me, pilgrim. I have just learned that my wife is a prisoner, way south of here in Artemis City. Why am I wasting my time with you?’
Morphobia Alligator shook his arms again in that sine wave pattern. Karel wondered if he was being laughed at.
‘Why are you here, Karel? Why are you here? Because if you’re left to your own devices you will rush towards Artemis City in such a great temper and you will probably get yourself killed or captured in the process. Yes, yes! It’s true, isn’t it, yes, yes? I’m right!’
Karel calmed himself. Morphobia Alligator was speaking the truth, and they both knew it. A long arm snaked around his shoulder and gently turned him.
‘Come, look out over this seascape with me, Karel. Though you do not have the mental capacity, the senses, the learning to enjoy it as I do, you may still gain some small measure of peace as we speak.’
‘I don’t want to gaze at the scenery, I want to see my wife.’
‘But which way would you go, Karel? South, straight into Kavan’s arms, or west to Presper Boole and the Northern Road? Or maybe north, to where the past lies?’
Karel pushed the arm from his shoulder. He looked out across the grey waters.
‘I don’t know, Morphobia Alligator. You tell me, which way should I go?’
‘Ah! A pilgrim would not presume to tell you what to do, Karel. No, no! Your mind is a special thing; it is free to make its own decisions. Not many robots on this planet could say the same.’
‘So I’ve heard. I have free will, and what difference has that made to me? My child is dead and my wife a prisoner. I was captured by Artemis and forced up here to the top of Shull, where I watched as two armies destroyed each other, and then I was abandoned to my own devices. Believe me, my life these past few months has not been of my choosing. Free will has made precious little difference to my circumstances, Morphobia Alligator. Dare you say any different?’
He gazed at the other robot in challenge, noted the odd glow to his eyes. Was there any part of Morphobia Alligator that was normal? The other robot answered in that strange voice.
‘Dare I say any different? Long ago we won a battle and lost a war over robots like you. But Penrose is changing. For centuries the robots on this planet have woven the minds of their children to believe definite things and to possess definite skills. Some patterns of mind were more appropriate to the world than others, and those robots and their descendants prospered, so that now this world is a suitable place for robots with certain mindsets to live.’
What Morphobia Alligator said was true. Karel thought of Artemis, and how their state of mind had enabled the conquest of Shull.
‘But all of that is changing,’ continued the other robot. ‘A new species has arrived on Penrose. Animals! They stand like robots, they walk and think and talk like robots, but they are animals!’
‘Animals?’ said Karel, disbelievingly.
‘Yes, yes! Animals! I speak the truth, Karel. Animals! They have not yet visited Shull, but they will. They are clever, these creatures. They build ships to bring them here, ships that carry them across the stars from their own planet, many, many miles away. They use materials that we have never seen, plastics and alloys manufactured by processes we cannot begin to guess at! These animals are rich in knowledge and learning and metal. They have strong machinery that rips apart the land and rocks without effort, they have delicate devices that can change the passage of a breeze, machines so large you could build a city inside them, and devices so small you could hold one in your hand, balance it on a finger tip; devices so fast they fly across this land in minutes-’
‘What are they doing here?’ interrupted Karel. A sudden suspicion seized him. ‘If they exist at all, of course.’
‘Oh, they exist, Karel. Yes, yes they exist! You will see them soon. As to why they are here, well, they have come to trade, or so they say. The Emperor of Yukawa has granted them land to grow their crops, given them mines so that they may own metal-’
‘Crops?’ asked Karel.
Morphobia Alligator tilted his head, and then his eyes glowed with understanding.
‘Of course, you’re from Turing City! You don’t know that the robots of Yukawa have not sterilized their land like the robots of southern Shull. You don’t realize that in Yukawa they still plant crops and farm animals, harvesting the oil and skin and bone that they produce! Yes, yes? And so the animals, presumably seeing these crops and farms as they approached Penrose from space, have landed in Yukawa and have begun trade with the robots there. They take metal and work it to make wondrous devices that they give as presents to the Emperor in order to flatter him. The animals are skilled in agriculture – a Tokvah word relating to the growing of crops, Karel, and they are teaching the Emperor this lore.’
Karel looked around at the shiny grass, blown in patterns of light green and dark green by the fresh sea breeze. He found the sight vaguely unpleasant. Now he imagined the whole of the continent covered in the same vegetation, farmed by the animals. The thought made his gyros spin. It was obscene!
‘But what has all this to do with me?’ he asked.
Morphobia Alligator turned his head towards the silver sea, a strange movement given his odd body.
‘What has this to do with you Karel? Everything or nothing! Who knows which it will be? You are unusual, Karel, in these times. Not unique, understand, there are other robots with minds such as yours. But not many. You are unusual. Yes, Yes!’
‘So I’m unusual. So what?’
‘Think of this. Suppose the animals had come to Shull forty years ago, how would the robots have responded?’
Karel gazed at the robot, hurt to be asked such questions. They reminded him of his past.
‘I’ll tell you,’ said Morphobia Alligator, not seeming to notice his silence. ‘The robots of Stark would have studied their technology so that they could become stronger, the robots of Wien would have traded coal and their own serfs and slaves with the animals in order to gain more power, and the robots of Bethe would have observed them and waited to see what they did next. And as for the robots of Turing City-’
‘We would have spoken to them. We would have tried to understand who they were and what they were.’ Karel spoke softly. That had been his job. He used to negotiate with outsiders. To think that he might have been summoned to speak with the animals, back when Turing City was at its height. What an opportunity that would have been!