‘Take this,’ he said, thrusting a metal mesh into her hand. ‘Pull it over your head. Don’t take it off until you’re told to.’
She did so automatically. The mesh interfered with her hearing, muffling it. Well, that was good.
The second human ship was lifting up now. What if Nettie was on board that one? The devices were aiming for it, but it seemed just too large to bring down. What if it escaped with Nettie still a prisoner?
There was nothing she could do about that.
She made up her mind and ran for the compound. Maybe Nettie would be there.
She couldn’t just stand still, that was for sure.
Kavan saw the second human ship lift into the breaking dawn, the cables of several devices trailing uselessly from it.
‘It’s escaping,’ said Ada, the disappointment audible in her voice.
‘It will be back,’ said Kavan. ‘They’ll all be back.’
‘The Generals have taken the first craft,’ said Calor. ‘Do you think it’s wise to leave them in control of it?’
‘I don’t think it matters,’ said Kavan. ‘Everything will be different by tomorrow. Artemis City is changed for ever.’
Behind him the Centre City burned. Ada had set up a radiation detector that pinged a signal of the atomic destruction there.
‘Calor,’ said Kavan. ‘There are still humans left in the compound. I think it would be well to remind the troops we want as many of them alive as possible.’
‘Okay, Kavan.’ Calor’s words trailed behind her as she sprinted off.
‘She needed to expend the energy,’ observed Ada. She watched Kavan, running the fine metal mesh she had handed him between his fingers.
‘You should put that on,’ she said.
‘When it’s time. Are you sure it will work?’
‘The Faraday Cage? It’s the best solution given the time we’ve had. The humans will want to inflict maximum damage over the widest range.’
‘I notice you haven’t put yours on yet.’
‘What we have been told is plausible, but I want to see if it’s true. I want to see this weapon as best I can. I want to learn as much about it as possible, and so I’ll put my cage on at the last second.’
‘And if you die?’
‘Then there are other engineers to take my place.’
Kavan smiled.
‘You are a true Artemisian, Ada.’
‘Look, here it comes.’
The second ship had climbed out of view, lost in the pale dawn sky. Now something was falling back down to Penrose. Kavan could just make out the lightning forking around it.
‘It’s beautiful,’ he said. ‘In its own way.’
‘There is something strangely beautiful in everything the animals do,’ replied Ada. ‘It’s an unearthly, twisted beauty, but it’s there if you know where to look.’
The device was falling faster now. Kavan saw the lightning reaching down from it, seeking the robots of the battlefield, most of whom were pausing to pull the mesh over their heads. It was like waves in the water, all those silver and black bodies kneeling for a moment and pulling.
‘What about the humans left behind?’ asked Kavan. ‘Will they die too?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ada. ‘Perhaps the animals are closer to being Artemisians than we allow.’
‘Put on your mesh, Ada.’
‘Not yet. You put on yours, Kavan. You’re more important than I am.’
‘That concept does not exist in Artemis.’
They gazed upwards as the crackling fell ever closer, illuminating the brightening sky in blue and silver. The robots on the field gazed upwards in awe and horror as the few remaining humans continued to fire at them. The Centre City burned in the background and Ada and Kavan found themselves looking at each other, and for the first time in his life he felt a sense of understanding.
They both pulled on their meshes. The lighting raced across the battlefield…
Spoole had seen this before. Battlefields where defeat had been bought at such cost to those still standing that it could scarcely be said that victory had been won.
The humans had been driven from Artemis, but Artemis City was broken, and the surviving robots wandered aimlessly across the plain.
There were so many robots dead. Robots who had failed to pull the protective mesh across their heads, or those who had simply never received one. Their bodies were pulled apart and picked over by others looking for spares.
There were humans there too, so fragile-looking in defeat. For the most part they were under the guard of infantryrobots, but a few of them wandered free, or attempted to fix their broken vehicles under the interested gaze of engineers.
If there was one impetus left to those shell-shocked forces, it seemed to be the force that was driving robots towards the downed ship. It lay, huge and alien in the middle of the plain, halfway between the remains of the compound and the shattered city, trails of plastic and soot and cable and spent metal radiating out from it. Robots were congregating around its broken side.
Spoole walked to the centre of the crowd, the robots who saw him coming recognizing him and pulling back as he approached. He made his way to where the surviving Generals still stood. San-dale was there.
‘Spoole,’ he said, all polite efficiency. ‘What are your orders?’
His deference made sense, he supposed. It was woven deep inside: Sandale had tried rebellion and had failed, but that wouldn’t stop him clinging to power by any means. And if, in a few weeks, or months, or years, he thought it safe, then he would turn upon Spoole again. Him and the rest of the Generals.
‘Orders will come soon,’ said Spoole. ‘For the moment, round up the surviving humans.’
Spoole looked around at the wreckage, looked around at all the robots. They were waiting for him to speak, he realized.
He turned his voice up full.
‘This is only a temporary victory,’ he called, and as he had done so many times before, he heard his words relayed out through the listening crowd. ‘Only temporary. The animals will return. They have more metal, they have better machinery. They have the capability to destroy us.’
He paused. He saw the robots shifting, heard the hum and the buzz as his words sank in.
‘But to despair is to have forgotten the lessons of history, because it was ever thus!’ he cried. ‘Robots stood on this plain before, surrounded by superior forces and technology, and they triumphed over them. Those robots had little metal, they were few in number, but they had something more powerful than guns and flying craft and bombs! They had Nyro’s philosophy!’
Somewhere in the crowd, feet were stamped. One, two, just like in the old days, back when Spoole addressed the newly built troops on the parade grounds.
‘Well, I say that those same robots stand here today! Because today, all of you who have fought on this battleground are the true children of Nyro! And Nyro’s children were not defeated in the past, back when Artemis was young, and so they will not be defeated in the future. Artemis will never be defeated!’
More stamping, but this time there were shouts too. Shouts of approval. Spoole saw the way the Generals looked at him. Envious, but there was a grudging respect there as well. They couldn’t have done this, he knew. They needed a figurehead. For the moment it may as well be Spoole.
‘The animals will return,’ he called. ‘When they do, we will be ready for them! We will have studied their craft and we will have built our own machines. We will take the fight to them, and we will defeat them!’
The earth shook now to the sound of stamping. A group of Storm Troopers took up a chant that was spreading through the metal ranks.
‘Spoole! Spoole! Spoole!’
He raised his hands for silence. Gradually, order returned.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Not Spoole. Listen to me Artemisians, I have a confession to make.’