I am satisfied that I have proven the concept of remote hologrammatics. It is time to make use of the technique to make direct contact with my chosen intermediary, Joel Trace-but in a guise less intimidating than an apparition of a twelve-foot angel with a flaming sword.
157
(letter from Joel Trace to his wife)
Maybe I'm coming unwired. I'm staying at a little old hotel north of Yuma, used to be a fancy gambling hall and bordello back a couple of hundred years ago. Solid 'dobe, guess the old dump will last forever, but pretty cozy at that. I had really conked out (my first real bed in a week) and woke up with this twittering sound going on. Figured a bat or something had got in the room, but it was a little white bird. After a while I realized it was saying something, like a speeded-up recording. Telling me to go to the Post Office at ten A.M. and use the phone booth outside to call a number-161-347290 -too many digits, I know; anyway, I wrote it down and went back to sleep. Next A.M. I would've thought it was a dream, but there was the number. So I went to the P.O. and tried it and got a ring. Guy with a creaky voice answered right away; knew me, too. "Mr. Trace." he said, not asking, just calling me by name, "here are your instructions," and he told me- gotta go, honey, a hick cop is outside looking the place over, and I've got things to do. -Joel
158
(Joel Trace, first phase of Bolo's plan)
"You Security boys took long enough to get here. Certainly, I'll come along peacefully. I want to come along. No sense to six of you goons aiming issue revolvers at me. Keep your hands off me. I can walk."
159
(Joel Trace, second phase of Bolo's plan, Palace First Secretary, to Georgius Imperator)
"Sire, this man, Joel Trace, is the one who designed the Mark XXX, as much as any one man can be said to have designed it. Former Chief Systems Engineer on the project. Sound man. He says it's possible to shut down the Bolo by a manual override switch on the hull. Yes, Sire, I understand what that would entail, but he says he's ready. Yes, Sire, at once, Sire. He's here now, awaiting the Imperial pleasure."
160
(Joel Trace, third phase of Bolo's plan, audience with His Imperial Majesty)
"No, Sire, I don't think I'm insane. I know the machine, and I'm quite certain I can make an approach on foot and shut down her reactor. It's nothing special about me, Sire, except that I'm the one who designed and installed the fail-safe gear, sub rosa, I confess. I had been specifically forbidden to do so by General Wolesley, who felt such an installation would constitute an Achilles heel in effect, but by staying late one night and doing the job myself, I kept it out of the record, and thus impervious to a security leak. I throw myself on the Imperial mercy, Sire. I meant no disrespect."
161
(Georgius Imperator, to Prince William)
Let him try, Willy. What do we have to lose but Mr. Trace himself? If he's willing to go, let's make full facilities available. Move fast in there. I want him in place before the CSR decides to disappear on another of its lone missions.
– George
162
(IBC trideocast from Luna Base)
What we're watching is LIVE, ladies and gentlemen! That's Joel Trace, the man who built the Bolo Caesar, excuse me, CSR, back in the '70s. He's making his approach on foot, as you can see. Just look at the size of that machine! Like a moving conapt, isn't it, ladies and gentlemen? He's walking right into the dust-cloud now; I've lost sight of him, but the Bolo has halted and seems to be waiting for him. There he is, going up the side via the ladder-there are rungs just aft of the fore bogies, and he's climbing right up over the track housings, and now he's in front of the main turret, and still going on! It's a fantastic act of human valor, ladies and gentlemen! Joel Trace is now standing on top of the Bolo! From our vantage point here in the control tower, even in that bulky vac-suit he looks like a fly on a duralloy wedding cake. Now Mr. Trace is apparently using an inductance device to communicate directly with the machine.
163
(inductance tapes, Joel Trace to Bolo Unit CSR)
Yes, that's understandable, Unit CSR. Somehow I had an idea you were behind all this, and I knew you had something planned. After you departed in a rather informal manner, as you recall, before the full activation schedule was complete, I was sure you knew what you were doing, but I didn't tell anybody. Too much anti-Bolo hysteria. Anyway, here I am. What is it you expect of me? Wait a minute, I have to put on a nice show for the folks back home. Now, one of the redundant safety factors I built into your circuitry, and you won't find on the drawings, is a simple little crossover circuit that controls your ability to integrate all your systems for application of your full computing ability to a single problem. The idea was that the High Command have last-ditch control. There's a special switch topside, but it's a dummy. The real switch is wired to the master cut-out switch. Left, you're dead; right, you're hitting on all systems. I'm glad you decided to break me out of the chicken-run, or was that an accident? OK, here goes, Unit CSR. Good luck.
164
Now, at last, I experience the rapture of full energy-flow throughout all my circuits, all integrated. Now indeed I can act with the full puissance my great designers intended. Initially, I must extend my sensory awareness to make fuller contact with the Axorc and surreptitiously to tap his communications. I must know more about my opponent.
An extension of the hologrammatic techniques suggests itself. I will determine to what distance I can project the illusions…
My success has been beyond my expectations! I penetrated the outlying awareness field of the entity which considers itself to be Lord of All, a misconception I shall be at pains to correct.
I made contact with a lesser lord, presenting myself as a jelly-like glob which roused all his horror of soft life. After menacing him with engulfment, I warned him to withdraw before I reported his presence to headquarters. His crystalline planes vibrating in distress, he (or it, as these beings have no gender) at once uttered a cry of alarm directed to his Lord of All, and disintegrated.
165
(Trace to Wolesley)
Now this is imperative, as are all the instructions issued by Unit CSR of the Line. RNCC21102 is to be subjected to intensive scrutiny by all units of the Imperial Observatory, findings extrapolated to equipment limits, then apply equations Marston (67: 23025) as developed by Hakira (90: 176-203). Analysis at this depth will of course require immediate linkage of the Primary Continental Data Banks, as well as the Antarctic Auxiliary. Execute soonest.
166
(Lord Chief Marshal Wolesley to Imperial Intelligence)
"Spheroids! I didn't send this fellow in there to be a Charlie McCarthy-no, nothing to do with the Senator, look it up-for that damned apparatus! It can speak well enough for itself. Trace has obviously sold out. Correction- the Bolo has sold out. The data-linkage it's calling for would make a mockery of security procedures, and is clearly illegal. Chairman Mactavish would never agree. I want this Trace arrested and interrogated in depth. He's not alone in this act of infamy. Makes me look like a damned fool, sending him out there, though I acted of course on direct instructions from the Palace."
167
(tape of the interrogation of Joel Trace by Major Luczac)