I rocked back on my heels, stunned.
“Entities?” Crow cried aloud. “He’s talking about the bloody Macros! That little tin traitor!”
I leaned forward again, trying to think. All my nightmares were returning. Giant, titanium nightmares that stood a hundred feet tall. I understood what had happened now, as incredible as it seemed. Marvin had explored, as inquisitively as ever. He’d gone too far, exploring outside the system. He’d gone past the Venus ring to the blue giant star system I’d once visited. That system was full of Macros who were mining the various rocks that floated nearby.
Understanding Marvin’s psychology, I supposed the blue star system was a mystery that drove him to desperation with curiosity. We’d more or less quarantined the region, not bothering to send even an occasional scout through the ring to check out what was happening on the far side. Normally, when dealing with a human opponent, it was best to keep close tabs on the enemy activity. With the Macros, even scouting might well prove to be a trigger. We didn’t have much of a fleet yet, and we’d figured it was best to lie low, building up as fast as we could for as long as we could. When the Macros finally came back to Earth, hopefully months or years from now, we hoped to have built a force that could withstand their assault.
The Macros had other ideas, however. They were building up on the far side of the ring even now and they knew about our minefield. When Marvin had talked to them, they had offered him a trade. If he turned off the minefield they’d allow him to explore their territory and they promised to end the conflict with Earth.
I knew what they’d really meant by that. They had no intentions of granting us peace. Ours would be the peace of the dead. The final peace all extinct species come to know.
-6-
Conversing with Marvin under the best of circumstances had always been difficult. He wasn’t human, and his thought processes didn’t follow patterns that seemed completely rational to our minds. Additionally, he was deceptive. Sometimes he seemed childish to me—at other moments he was more like an ancient, evil genius.
On this occasion, instead of having him within easy reach, I had to deal with the vast distance between Earth’s orbit and that of Venus. With the fate of Earth’s security hanging in the balance, I found the ten minute round trip for each exchange exasperating.
It was a full minute after digesting Marvin’s last statement indicating he was cooperating with the Macros before I could put together a sane response. I waved the rest of my staff to silence and lowered my chin to my chest. I cleared my throat and keyed open the microphone.
“Marvin, we’ve been friends for a long time. I built the body you’d always wanted, allowing you to explore to your heart’s content. I did not however, anticipate you exiting the system so soon. I know you can’t have visited every planetary body near Earth so quickly. I urge you to focus your explorations here around our star for now. The Macros are not like humans, Marvin. They do not always keep their arrangements. We on the other hand have kept ours. If you will help us and do as we require today, I’ll guarantee you access to other star systems to satisfy your curiosity to the fullest in the future.”
I sent the message. Crow stared at me with narrowed eyes.
“Yeah…good talking, mate,” he said. “I get it now. Make the little bugger think we’re his best friends, still. With the next message, try to get him to move up higher, away from the surface of Venus. Our lasers can’t penetrate those upper clouds. Even if I send the ships down closer, it’ll be hard to get a lock on him down in that high-pressure soup. Talk him up out of that thick atmosphere and my boys will burn him to atoms.”
I looked at Crow thoughtfully for a second.
“What you describe may well happen,” I said. “But I still hold out hope we can work with Marvin, that he can reverse this situation.”
Crow’s jaw sagged. He closed it again with an audible smacking sound. “What the hell are you talking about, Kyle? We’ve got to kill him while we can. He’ll dump everything he’s got to the Macros, if he hasn’t already. Our codes, everything.”
I shook my head slowly. “He could have done that already. He clearly hasn’t as he’s out there turning off mines rather than just inviting the Macros in.”
Major Barrera rumbled, clearing his throat. I looked at him expectantly.
“With all due respect, sir,” he said to me. “Admiral Crow is correct. Marvin has gone rogue and has had contact with the enemy. We can no longer do anything other than destroy him at the earliest opportunity.”
I glanced at Major Sarin, thinking she might offer an opinion. She frowned down at the screen, not meeting my eyes. I knew her well enough to read her thoughts. She didn’t know what to do. She knew Marvin better than the others and was as conflicted as I was.
“We haven’t seen the nose of a single Macro ship yet,” I said. “Let’s see what Marvin says, first.”
The clock ticked down. We all watched it, and the yellow blip that was Marvin. It seemed to me that it had shifted slightly closer to the ring.
“Is he moving toward the ring?” I asked.
Major Sarin nodded. Everyone stared quietly, except for Crow, who muttered a steady stream of curses in Aussie slang. I understood the sentiment. It appeared Marvin was going toward the ring, which could only mean one thing. He had thought it through and decided to act before we could carry out our threats.
“He’s going to run back to his new Macro friends,” Crow said. “I’m giving the order to my ships to fire Kyle, whether you agree or not.”
Reluctantly, I nodded. Crow ordered his ships to move. It would take them time to receive the order then time to travel down through the atmosphere and to reach effective firing range. In any case, time was definitely running out for Marvin. It was running out for all of us.
At long last, the timer went negative. The response came in quickly. “What do you want me to do, Colonel Riggs?” Marvin asked. “As you can see, I’ve reset one of the devices.”
I could see it now, a new tiny contact lit up on the board. It hardly mattered, however. It would take him hours to turn them all back on. At least as long as it had to turn them all off. He was hovering very close to the ring now. Our ships were descending. They’d entered those turbulent clouds. They already had orders to fire.
“Put up another timer,” I ordered Sarin. “Estimate how long we have until our ships are within range. Subtract five minutes from it for the propagation delay.”
Major Sarin worked the screen with her fingers. A timer swam up with light blue digits displaying twenty-two minutes. That was how long Marvin had to convince me I should let him live.
I tilted my head up and reviewed the worried faces. Everyone was staring at me. “I want to hear opinions. You each have ten seconds to give them.”
“You know what I think,” Crow said. “No choice. No choice at all. Talk him into standing still long enough for us to blast him.”
I shifted my eyes to Major Barrera.
“The Admiral is correct, sir,” he said. “The risk is too high. I have to vote with him.”
I turned to Major Sarin next.
She sighed, shaking her head. “I’ll miss Marvin, but I can’t see any other path. We can’t trust him. The stakes are too high.”
My eyes lingered on her face. Of all of them, her opinion meant the most to me. She’d worked with Marvin, and she wasn’t quick to pull a trigger on anyone.
Something caught my eye then, out the window. It was Sandra, still outside clinging to the ledge. I reflected that she never seemed to get cold or hot anymore. She rarely reported discomfort of any kind. Crouching on ledges out in the elements seemed to agree with her, in fact. When she saw that she’d caught my eye, she gave me a thumbs-down gesture. I nodded, accepting her vote along with the others.