The Terran Empire had spread far across the Galaxy, it's contacts maintained by the mighty Power Station complex that drove the force beams across to the farthest ends of the Galaxy, and those slender ships that rode the mighty beams. But, suddenly the Power Station blew up, reducing its base planet, Pluto, to atomic dust. The result was that interstellar travel was paralysed. The colonies were isolated, for at sub- light speeds, it took over five years to reach even the nearest star. The colonies in the far spiral arm became, in time, just a dim memory to the races of Earth, who had virtually attained eternal life by replacing their vital organs with mechanical parts. The colonists, however, remained human, living and dying in their average life spans of ninety years. Three centuries passed while the Mechanika, the new master race on Earth, laboured to rebuild the Power Station and reconnect their links with other systems. They laboured in vain. Out in the stars, Earth became a dim memory, and, without the vital trade links, many systems lapsed into decadence and decay. Others, more self sufficient, such as Manco 3 flourished and grew in power. When the Mechanika finally accepted they were unable to reopen the beams, they decided upon a different use for their rebuilt Power Station. There were some humans who had refused to have their bodies replaced with Orgometallic parts; refused to accept a mechanical existence. A meeting of the High Imperium of the Mechanika was convened. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "And that, basically is our plan," Mer23 concluded. "I think you will agree that our terms are generous." Jack Beech, leader of the Human delegation, looked individually into the faces of each member of the High Imperium, seeing the cold, hard, metallic expressions set on them. "We don't have much choice," he muttered. "I take it this is an ultimatum?" "It has been found essential that humans are segregated from our people," Mer23 replied. "We do not mix. In every city where humans are present, trouble blows up." "We are persecuted," Beech interrupted. "We're looked on as inferior beings, but we are the rightful rulers of Earth." "You are treated as inferior," Mer23 continued unruffled, "because you are inferior. You are vulnerable to disease, death from ageing, the animal emotions that cloud your reasoning, and all the other defects that we have eliminated; pride, arrogance, love, stupidity. We are perfect. You need not fear us, for we do not wish to destroy you. On the contrary it is we who fear your motives. We are unable to hate your kind, but we mistrust you as an adult mistrusts a deceitful child. In ourselves, we have eliminated all the problems that have dogged the human race since its inception; we have not destroyed those of you who could not accept existence as one of the Mechanika, for your type were needed to spread out across the Galaxy; the pioneering spirit that put Earth in its present position of power. But now it is time to call a halt. Time to decide that progress has gone far enough. Time to eliminate those factors that could lead to our self destruction. It was ridiculous to perfect machines to think for us, if we continued as little more than animals. So, it was the only answer; to incorporate our machines into our own bodies. We are all equal now, all perfect, all incredibly intelligent, far more so than any of your kind could ever hope to be, even if they were to spend each moment of their ninety short years cramming their minds full of knowledge." Beech got to his feet and waved a finger at Mcr23, who had now finished his speech, all of which had been delivered in the same flat monotone. The cyborg regarded Beech with impassive eyes as the man shouted: "Don't you see, by making yourselves into machines you may have eliminated the so-called 'human' errors, but, at the same tine, you are unable to progress, and this must inevitably lead to the quick decay and fall of your race. Do you know what's going on in the Galaxy outside? The real human beings - the ones that you sent out there - they may already be advanced beyond your level. They may repair the space link and return, to destroy you, for you will be the children then, and they the adults. They will have new thoughts, new weapons, new ideas, and your kind will be wiped from the face of the Earth. Look at you. You remain in the same form that you held when you were human, but your skins are orgo-plastic, your eyes crystal, your voices synthesised, your brains computers that mechanically control your synthetic limbs. You have retained the forms of male and female, but neither sex feels any love for the other. You can never reproduce. You are finished." Mer23 held up his hand for silence, and Beech fell back into his seat, his angry rhetoric exhausted. "In our studies of the races of Earth, and their empires through the centuries," the cyborg droned, "we have found that they have risen, reached a peak, and declined into decadence. It has always been the same. We have now reached what we believe to be our climatic development, but, instead of decaying due to human failings, we will maintain our position. Admittedly there has been a grave recession, but this was caused by the failure of the Power Station you humans built. In time the link will be reconnected and we will re- establish our relations with the other parts of the Galaxy. However," he continued, "I recall that we have had this argument many times before. Let us return to the subject at hand. As you know we have been unable to reconnect any of the links with our bases out in the Empire. Thus, it is the intention of the High Imperium that all humans of the Solar System should be rehoused in the new Power Station we built, and work to reopen the link with the outer Galaxy. This will not only keep you out of our way but will occupy your minds at the same time. The exodus will commence immediately. The only condition is that you report back to us regularly. We shall, of course, monitor you ourselves for signs of any relinking that you might achieve." "What you really mean," Beech interrupted, "is that you are unable to find the cause for the broken link, and therefore you are putting us 'poor' humans onto the job in the hope that we'll do your work for you." "You are entitled to your point of view," Mer23 said, "however misled it may be. We assume that you are in agreement with our proposals?" "As I said before," Beech said, "we don't have much choice." "Good," Mer23 concluded. "The plans will commence tomorrow. At the end of the final phase we shall expect all humans to be housed on the Power Station. Any humans found on any of the planets will be assumed to be traitors and will be executed accordingly. We have drawn up a work progress chart for the operation, and each of you will receive a copy. That is all." ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Lan Breck and his wife, Lin, gazed out of the porthole at the ever growing mechanical mass that was the Power Station. It grew larger every second as the space-ship carrying them from Earth drew nearer. This was the first time that they had ever seen the gigantic station, and it exceeded any of their wildest dreams. The vast globes that housed the mighty three mile long, wide and high atomic furnaces which provided the necessary power to warp the ships past the speed of light out to the farthest points of the Galaxy reflected the starlight from their colossal metallic hides. At the centre of the four giant globes were the vast computer banks that projected the ships in the correct trajectory from the blast-off area, and also the living quarters. But all this seemed dwarfed by the mighty armada of ships that hung in silent ranks to the right of the complex. Ten thousand ships had been built, after the destruction of the original fleet, to ply the routes out into the Galaxy, but none of them had ever left the Solar System. They hung in Space, silently waiting for the station's beams to send new life into them. The journey out had not been comfortable. The Mechanika, forgetting human weaknesses, had crowded the men and women into the ships like packages, leaving little room for them to breath, and less for movement. The oxygen systems in the ships had not been designed to carry such a load, and the air was stale and sweaty. But the journey would soon be over now.. Lan and Lin were lucky in that they had been allocated spaces near the viewing portal and were thus able to gaze out into the blackness of space when they grew tired of surveying the sea of faces in their compartment. This was the first shipment of humans, and this compartment held what the Mechanika considered to be the more important members of the race: the ruling council of humans, the scientists and the mathematicians. The others would follow, in degrees of lessening importance. They had all been given a final chance to become 'altered' but only a few had accepted. A slight bump made Lan look out of the window, and he realised that the ship must have been travelling faster than he had imagined, for they had just docked in the centre of the complex. The orders for disembarkation rang out over the loudspeaker system. As they had entered the ship, each human had been given a number, and they filed out in numerical order. The Brocks had been allocated low numbers, and thus found themselves amongst the first group to be herded across the travellater tube that connected the ship with the station. They were met inside by a group of altered humans, one of whom spoke to them in the now familiar monotone. "You," he began, "will oversee the transportation and accommodation of the others of your race. We are leaving at once, as we are wary of our safety in the face of such overwhelming odds. But do not forget that we will be monitoring you at all times, and if your reports do not reveal the entire truth, disciplinary action will have to be taken. A programme of work, showing the distribution of labour forces, has been drawn up, and will be put into operation at the earliest possible moment." The cyborgs filed out of the room via another airlock to a waiting spaceship. The final android deposited a set of discs into Jack Beech's hands. "Here are your instructions," he stated, "plus a plan of the Power Station. More detailed information will be found in the computer banks. You may alter anything you like, so long as the Mechanika find the alterations in keeping with the operation." The creature then strode from the room, leaving the humans alone. Beech studied the plan that he'd been given. Although the more important members had been briefed by the Mechanika back on Earth he wanted to be sure that they hadn't pulled off any trick alterations in the meantime. "Right," he said. "Your accommodation is numbered, and is to be allocated in accordance with the numbered disks that you were given earlier. I suppose the easiest way to get things going is for us in the first group to supervise the others..." It was many hours later that Lan and Lin finally arrived at their own quarters, situated near the computer bank main controls. The place was strangely large and eerily empty at the moment, with only a few hundred people aboard. Later, when there were ten thousand or more, things would begin to get cramped. They collapsed onto a couch, exhausted, and gazed around the room. It was rather small, but comfortable in a frugal way. Lin wiped beads of perspiration from her forehead. "Well, I'm glad that's over," she said. "Perhaps now we can get settled in ourselves." As she spoke, a buzzer sounded. The face of Beech appeared on a screen. "Whatever you're planning," he said tiredly, "forget it." "What's wrong?" Lin asked. "trouble?" "Not really," Beech replied, "but I think you'd both better get some sleep in right away. The work programme is scheduled to begin tomorrow, and you're marked down for the first shift. As scientist- engineers, you've been allocated the task of checking the circuits from-" he paused to check his chart, "control section 12ci to Input 94. I'll show you exactly where it is tomorrow, I know it's short notice," he continued, "but we've got to keep in right with the Mechanika, at least in the beginning, if we're going to make this our new home." "What do we do when we've completed that job?" asked Lan. "Move on to the next section?" "I wouldn't worry about that," replied Beech, smiling. "There are 953 main circuits, 8,500 sub-circuits, about ten thousand miles of cabling. Plus about 3,000 unaccounted for connections that seem to lead to dead ends." He paused. "Eventually you two will have a large work force under you, but at the moment you've got it all to yourselves." Lin smiled at the scowl on Lan's face as Beech cut the connection. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Early next morning Beech accompanied the two of them to the work area. He supplied them with a plan showing the set-up of the section they had been allocated, together with a master plan showing the main power lines etc. of the entire station. "I think that you can eliminate the testing of the circuits," Beech stated, "that will be left to the manual work force following. I suspect that the cyborgs may already have run such a checking programme and in any case; it's well within the limits of their rigid minds. What we want to find is an explanation for all those superfluous connections that lead nowhere." "Surely the Mechanika had a reason for putting them in. They must know what they're for?" Lin argued. "On the contrary," Beech corrected. "You see, the original station was built by humans, and they retained only the master plans; all the subsidiary information being in their own heads, or in the station's own computers. They lived in the station, so that when it blew, they and their computers went up with it. "The Mechanika rebuilt the station, but were unable to create anything new. They worked entirely from the incomplete plans that were all that that original construction team had left behind them. They easily built the main shell and fired the mighty atomic furnaces; that was all in the plans - complete. They also knew the general - well, no, to be fair, almost the complete principle of the light-drive power, but there seems to have been something missing, and it's that something that we've got to find. I'm sure that the answer lies in all those connections that are unaccounted for - they must lead somewhere and join up with something or other. I've obtained the following information from the computer: There are getting on for 6,000 dead ends altogether in the section linking the computer to the power supply, over half of which are in the section that you'll be working on, They could be joined up in approximately 69 billion different sequences, and it's likely that only one of these will give us the secret of the light drive." "So it's going to be virtually impossible to us to find the right one," Lan breathed. Beech agreed. "Short of a miracle, it is impossible for us and not worth the time that it would take - that's the way the machines see it, anyway. But we know that nothing is impossible to the human mind. Remember, back in the early part of the twentieth century they said that we would never exceed the speed of light. They proved it was impossible, but we did it. Admittedly the odds of us finding the right series of connections is so small as to be almost worthless, but we must try. If we can link up again with one of the bases out there in the stars, we'll find other human races. Maybe we can unite with them to regain control of our own Solar System once more." "We live in hope," Lan muttered. "But you're right. We must try." ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The weeks passed and Lan and Lin studied the miles of baffling circuits that led nowhere. More humans arrived frown Earth, and a society of sorts began to form on the base, or New Earth as it's new inhabitants had renamed it. The Brecks, however, were too busy to notice the alterations springing up all around them. Lan had produced a master chart of the whole system showing every circuit, no matter how minute. This covered half of a large conference room. The other half of the room was occupied by a plan showing what was known of the old station and emblazoned on the wall in large letters was the only co- ordinate relating to one of the colonies that was salvaged from the wreckage of the old Station. Lanva 3 - 34bi6e49n53dm9t32. The long study was paying off now, and the unconnected circuits seemed to be forming a pattern, although their computers, despite constant and repeated scanning of the data yielded nothing. Finally it hit Lan, and he jumped into the air with a yelp of joy. "It's so simple," he shouted. "How could I have missed it?" Lin grabbed him by the arm. "What is it?" she asked. "Look" he pointed. "These dead ends fall into eleven separate groups. One near the computer, which is fixed; nine rotating sections in between, and another here at the power intake from the atomic furnaces." He scribbled circles and connecting lines across the plan. "Join these to these," he babbled. "Look, the power amplifiers should be joined to this set of circuits here. At the moment they're only drawing a fraction of the energy, and they should be going here, here and here." He scribbled in more lines across the plan, and Lin was quickly left behind despite a quick eye and high intelligence. Lan finished and stood back. "That will boost the power eighteen thousand times." "But none of it makes any sense, " Lin argued, beginning to catch up with his reasoning. "That would destroy us in a puff of smoke if we attempted it. You can't feed power like that into the space-drive." Lan looked smug. "Exactly. But look; all these rotating blocks of circuits come into contact with the power supply when they reach a set point in the rotation. The sequence in which they are set determines the destination. See, here are the leads to the directional selector on the computer. The power is filtered through these, and the energy beam warped into a unique complex pattern. That pattern, using the co- ordinates we have salvaged will send a ship to Lanva 3." "But that's a ridiculous way of operating," Lin protested. "No-one in their right mind would construct something that way!" "Don't forget," Lan argued, "the original station was built by humans. I'm sure they deliberately did it like that to ensure the Mechanika could never master it, with their intellect inhibited by logic. Our own computers couldn't cope with the concept and must have discarded it in their scans. Don't forget, as well, how much data the original engineers kept close to their chests." "But there are God knows how many circuits there," Lin argued. "How can we find the right ones for a particular destination?" "But don't you see that the circuits are in nine groups. Look on the wall. That's the setting for Lanva 3: 34-bi-6e-49n-53-dm-9-t-32! It's all falling into place. I'll bet you the Universe to an atom that those leads should be connected to the directional selector on the station's computer. No wonder the Mechanika couldn't make it work. What little energy is coming through is not being filtered or bent into a warp, and it's just escaping into space. There's not enough power to push a bolt from here to Uranus." He calmed down. "I think we've got it," he whispered, "but we're only just scratching the surface at the moment. There's a hell of a lot to do. I've got to identify all those moving circuits and correctly link up everything up. It's going to a long job!" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It WAS a long job. It took almost a year's continuous work, and the task was not helped by the fact that the humans had to continuously cloak their true work and dispatch false information to the Mechanika back on Earth. Finally, the triumphant day dawned when the last circuit was linked to the power supply. The power began to flow, and previously silent screens burst into life displaying data as they responded to the surging power. Lan was given the honour of selecting the coded co-ordinates for Lanva 3 cautiously checking each number as he input them. The displays surged towards full power. Lin clutched at Lan's hand as the growing curve on the graph crept towards the red line at which point the beam would break through normal space-time, and be thrown at incredible speed across the Galaxy. Lanva 3 was in the other spiral arm and therefore the power required was almost the maximum, so that there was still the possibility, if things went wrong, of the whole station being blown to bits. Time seemed to stand still as the red line was approached. Then the pattern of displays on the computer's board changed abruptly as it switched a multitude of machines into action. The system was working at full power! The clustered technicians waited for the other eleven screen shapes to illuminate. That would mean that everything was working correctly at both ends of the link-up, which would imply that conditions were right for travel to begin. Of course, no-one knew what the intervening years had done to the receiving station at Lanva 3. Even if it had survived the passing centuries, it might not be operational after so many years of silence from Earth. A hush fell ever the room as minutes ticked by and nothing happened. This did not mean failure, however, for when the beam arrived and failed to make contact, a series of red characters would illuminate. They had not yet done so. More minutes ticked by, and then, suddenly, the eleven shapes were illuminated in green. "Incredible," breathed Beech. "After all this time." "Transmission of pictures and sound," ordered Lan. The computer responded, and the screen lit up. Lan turned to Beech. "May I?" he asked. Beech nodded. "I think you've earned it," he said. Lan bent forward and spoke into the microphone. "This is Earth calling Lanva 3. We have reconnected the beam and intend to send through a team to your system. Please acknowledge." The message was thrown out into hyperspace. They waited in the great room, hushed with expectation. Only a few of the leaders on the Station knew of the plan - the great mass of it's new inhabitants having been kept in ignorance. They waited and waited, but there was no reply. "Is it possible for us to switch on from here, if it's just a matter of their receiver being switched off at the other end?" Beech asked. "After all, let's face it. If I was them I'd've given up listening out for messages a very long time ago." Lan nodded "Yes, it's possible," he confirmed. "But it'll take a few hours to construct the data set I'll need to transmit to them." The small party toiled with feverish haste, and, in a few hours, the self running program was beamed to Lanva 3. The initial excitement of the watching group was beginning to fade towards a sense of failure as nothing happened. But, finally, to the surprise of most of the group, a picture flickered onto the screen. It was incredibly hard to distinguish, but it looked like the control room of the receiving station at Lanva 3. The scene was one of desolation and decay. The room was empty and seemed to have been so for a long time. It was quite clear, from a gaping hole in the roof that the whole area had fallen into ruin. The picture vanished. A red light flashed on at the console and the computer advised them that the transmitting equipment at the other end of the link-up had burnt out. With feverish haste they checked that the beam was still functional. It was only the picture that had gone. They switched off all the circuits and Beech convened a meeting to try and decide on their next step. "It looks as though they have given up hope of contacting Earth again," Lester, one of the administrators, commented. "That much is obvious from the state of the building and the lack of technicians. Of course, I'm assuming that there's still people alive on Lanva 3." "We didn't gather much information about the place," Beech said. "We can't ask for data from Earth's central memory store, or the Mechanika will become suspicious. All we really know is that it is, or was, a planet on the far side of the Galaxy, somewhat similar to Earth. At the time of the blow-up they had a fair degree of civilisation. They relied somewhat heavily on trade, but I think that they could've survived without us. There's a good chance that life remains on the planet." He paused. "Therefore, as leader, I'm in favour of sending through a ship. But there's a problem. I can only allow two people to go, or we will be unable to continue our pretence of following the Mechanika's work programme, they ensured we would work to maximum capacity. Under the circumstances, I nominate the Brecks as the crew." The vote was unanimous in favour. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ After three days of tests everything was ready for the takeoff. In view of the small crew, one of the tinier ships had been selected, but even in this the Brocks felt small and insignificant. For two hours they had sat in the ship waiting for the moment that was about to come, when the ship would be hurled through space and then outside space and time. Takeoff. For a few seconds nothing happened, then there was a gigantic plopping noise and everything outside was no longer black, with the pinprick points of the stars, but a pure white. Fear gripped Lan, as he clutched Lin's hand. He found with a start that he could no longer see her, there was just a white light that blotted out everything. They lost track of all time, but the period that followed seemed like hours. Then with a sucking noise, they were back in space once more, and the mighty retro rockets were bursting into action with an atomic roar. They saw that they were flying towards a star system at terrific speed. Surely they must fly right past; they could never slow down in time. Then the Sun was flashing past them and the and their first stage retros had burnt out. The second stage lit and they began to slow as they approached their target - Lanva 3! Retros roared in a final crescendo as they burst into the planet's atmosphere. "We'll crash," Lan gasped. They hurtled towards a giant inverted dome; the ship was landing, soft as a feather. "Anti-gravity," breathed Lan. "So that was the purpose of those odds circuits in our docking bay." The skip's computer was relaying information back to the Power Station, and, when it had finally satisfied itself that everything was in order a series of controls became operational. From a nearby hangar a machine with a huge, tube-like attachment rumbled out towards them. "Look," exclaimed Lin. "Life-" "No," Lan disagreed. "it's a machine. See, it has no observation windows." "What's it for?" Lin wondered. "I think that the outer hull must be drenched in radiation from our motors. I bet it's going to spray us." "After all these centuries it still works?" Lan nodded. "Yes. Just as well for us! Though our short link with their control tower did suggest that most of the mechanisation on this planet will still be functioning, if it's been properly sheltered. I wonder whether any people are left to appreciate it?" They sat expectantly in the cabin while the machine carried out it's task. Satisfied at last, the computer in the ship opened the air lock. The two eagerly clambered down the escalator that carried them to the surface of the bowl-shaped dome. Lin pointed towards a cluster of buildings nearby. "This way," she said. In both directions buildings thronged, some housing rusted space ships. Lan pointed about them as they walked. "When we get back," he said, "I shall have to study the whole Power Station. Think of the bases like this there must be dotted all over the Galaxy. The mechanisation of this one alone must be a house of wonder, and it all still seems to mainly be in working order." The building that they were approaching seemed to have shared in the same fate as had stricken the control room that they had viewed from the Solar System. Maybe it even housed that room, The windows were broken or dirty, and parts of the walls had crumbled away . "This looks like the scene of a battle," Lin commented. "Yes," Lan agreed. "But many years ago, I'd say." "It at least proves that there was life here not that long ago," Lin observed. They walked into the crumbling building, and discovered that it did indeed house the room they had seen on the screen. In general things were in better condition inside than out, and most of the machines seemed still to be in working order, but, from the dust that lay about it was obvious that they were not in general use. Lin wiped the grime from one of the windows and peered through. Then, abruptly, she recoiled with a gasp. Lan looked up. "What's the matter?" he demanded. "Come and see," mumbled Lin. Lan peered out of the window looking along the spacefield in the direction they had been travelling. He found himself looking at the Spaceport's main gate. Beyond the gate was a high, spiked fence, and clustered around it was a group of fifty to seventy people. It was hard to make out details at this distance, but the mob appeared to be dishevelled and dirty. Fearless for their own safety, the two ran towards the exit and up the cracked roadway to the main gate. As the crowd saw them, a gasp of surprise went up. As Lin and Lan drew nearer they could see the crowd was made up of human beings, although they looked in generally poor health and condition. The crowd appeared to be unarmed and Lan approached them to speak. "We're from Earth," he proclaimed. "Do you understand me? Understand what I'm saying?" It appeared that they did. "Erf," they moaned. "Ay ur fram Erf." They milled about, fearful expressions on their faces. The two sides stared at each other for several moments, then, at the sight of a strange vehicle floating towards them from the opposite direction the crowd broke and fled in terror, leaving Lan and Lin staring at the floating craft which was descending towards them. It hovered to a halt at the other side of the fence. A door opened in the machine and a creature got out. it looked as though it had been human once, but now wires trailed back from it's body into the floater. It touched the fence, which began to sink into the ground. A section of the fence disappeared, leaving a gateway for the two voyagers to pass through. "What is it?" Lin gasped. "It looks like a symbiotic man! It's connected up to it's power supply of the machine. It's almost like the Mechanika," she observed coldly. "You don't think-" "It can't be anything to do with them," Lan said. "They vowed they'd never leave the Solar System themselves; that was the human's job." "I don't think we'd better argue with it," Lin decided. "Though it seems to be just a servant of the real rulers of this place, and I don't like the look of that gun it's pointing at us." They walked through the gap in the fence that the android had made for them, and were motioned into the hovercar. Inside were two other androids, similarly connected to the floater's power supply. As the first android seated itself by Lin and Lan, the floater rose into the air and zoomed across the broken town. During the journey the two humans caught glimpses of other groups of humans sitting by the roadside, staring blankly into the air. Then a huge castle loomed up ahead of them. This was their destination they realised as the floater began to descend. They were hustled out of the vehicle, and met by more androids, this time with their own large, cumbersome, but portable power supplies. They were chivvied into the castle and along a series of broad corridors. Finally they found themselves in a vast central room, where sat their captors. "Mechanika," Lin gasped, as they saw the gigantic metal bodies, twelve feet high. "No, not quite," Lan muttered. "We should have known though. Evolution is parallel on parallel worlds, or almost so. Cyborgs developed on this planet too. But they seem dependent on external power supplies , whereas the Mechanika have their own in built supplies. "Silence," the giant cyborg boomed. "So, you have come from Earth at last. We, the Cybers, have waited a long time for this. But we are patient. We shall use your ship to travel back to Earth. The first step in our conquest of the Galaxy." "God," muttered Lan. "These are worse than the Mechanika. They're warlike. If we don't stop them they'll spread all over space. If they get through to the Solar System they'll find the Mechanika and learn the secret of mobile power sources. With internal power they could be invincible. Without it I bet they can only temporarily leave this world." "But what can we do? muttered Lin hopelessly. The humans were hurried back to the spaceport, and shepherded back into the control room. Lan stared about him as the cyborgs ordered him to make the connection. He turned to Lin. "I'm sorry," he said. "There's only one thing I can do to stop these things. Something they'd never comprehend." "Whatever you do," she said. "I'm with you." Lan began to adjust the controls. Lin realised he was about to move the reflector bowljust slightly. When full power was activated, the beam would now rip right through the planet. Lan grabbed Lin and hugged her close to him. The cyborgs turned to see what was going on. A huge white beam of fire suddenly appeared in the sky and lanced down at the spaceport, ripping it up and tossing it miles into the sky, to rain down as finely divided dust. Now there was just a vast crater. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Back in the Solar System, Beech received a call from Mer23. "We have noticed," the cyborg droned, "that a ship was launched recently. Why was this not reported. Do we understand that the Power Station is functional once more?" Beech shook his head. "No," he replied sadly. "It was just an experiment. It failed. Two human lives were lost, and a spaceship. It will be in our next report." "No doubt a human failure," Mer23 stated. "We cannot afford the continued loss of ships in this manner. You must pass details of all future experiments to us for vetting first. We cannot put up with human error." The screen blanked. Beech screwed his fists into tight balls, until his nails drew blood from the palms. "Soon, Mechanika," he cursed, "soon we shall succeed in our link with our colonial brothers and then your days will be numbered!" |