The Robot Brains. ee-2 Page 4

  "That's the end, Captain…" He gave a command: "Take him alive - I want him alive!"

  The next moment Christian was seized by a lot of hands, something heavy struck him on the head, and he fell on the floor.

  "You interfered and spoiled our plans," said Waldo. "And for this you must die. But it will not be a pleasant death - I've something special for you. I am taking you back with me."

  He took a belt with a black crystal from one of the Brains and fastened it round Christian's waist.

  "Very soon all your questions will be answered…"

  Waldo touched the crystal on Christian's belt, and laughed loudly.

  "See you later, Captain Christian!"

  The cellar disappeared. Christian was in complete darkness. It seemed to him that he was hanging in some empty place, between the stars - only there were no stars.

  At last Christian saw a bright light and knew that he had arrived.

  - 25 -

  The Old Man and Doctor Fox were standing in the cellar.

  "Are you sure it was Waldo and not another of the Brains?" asked the head of Military Intelligence.

  "Yes. It was easy to see. I had seen him at the Fair, and recognized him by the scar on his nose."

  "And after you seized Waldo, Captain Christian brought him here, and you took the crystal to a different hiding-place?"

  "That's right," said the doctor, "And when I opened the box, it was empty."

  "Scientists are studying your box," said the Old Man, "But I don't think they will learn anything from it."

  "What do you think: is Christian still alive?" asked Fox. "Yes, I believe so," said the Old Man. "Up to now they have always left the decapitated bodies of their victims. So I think they have not killed Captain Christian. Evidently they have taken him with them - alive. But why? And where?"

  Fox felt better.

  "Then there is a chance," he said: "If Christian is alive, maybe he will escape and bring us the information that we need."

  "I hope so," said the Old Man.

  - 26 -

  Christian was in a very large hall with a high ceiling and no windows. He had an impression that he was deep underground.

  In the walls of the hall there were some doors through which he could see long corridors. The central part of the hall was occupied by a big construction with ladders and balconies. Two Brains stood near a large switchboard with red and green lights. The sides of the construction were covered with black crystals.

  The crystals were placed in pairs. From time to time a Brain appeared from nowhere and put his black crystal into the construction, and then a red light on the switchboard turned into green. Sometimes another Brain took the crystal from the construction and fastened it to his belt. Then he touched the crystal and disappeared.

  Christian understood that this construction was a kind of transmitter, with the help of which the Brains got to the earth and disappeared from it.

  He wanted to jump to his feet and break the machine… but two Brains armed with decapitators were guarding him. The crystal, with the help of which he had got into that hall, was taken from his belt and put into the transmitter.

  He began to wonder where he was.

  Was he still on the earth but underground? Or was it another planet? Or maybe, he was on board a spaceship?

  He decided that he must wait and learn all he could.

  A woman came from one of the corridors. It was a very strange woman. She had long blond hair and was very beautiful. But she was at least nine feet tall.

  She came up to Christian and said something very quickly, but Christian did not understand her. A Brain answered her, and she laughed. Then she bent and easily lifted Christian with one hand. She looked at him a few seconds, then lost interest and dropped him to the floor, like a child drops a doll.

  She turned away and left the hall.

  Christian stood up.

  "We meet again, Captain Christian…"

  It was Waldo's voice. And, indeed, the Brain was standing near Christian.

  "Do you begin to understand now?" asked Waldo. "No? Well, it doesn't matter. You will never leave this place. You will die, but not easily…"

  He called two other Brains who came up and stood on both sides of Christian, holding their decapitators ready.

  "Follow me," said Waldo and went along one of the corridors.

  Christian walked after him.

  - 27 -

  They walked along the corridor, sometimes crossing other corridors. On the side of the corridor there were cells in which Christian saw Brains and giant women. Finally they stopped near an empty cell.

  "You can live here for some time," said Waldo. "Food will be brought to you. You are free to go anywhere, except back to the transmitter hall. If you try to get there, you will be immediately killed. I shall return later."

  Christian was left alone in the cell. The cell was about ten feet in diameter. There was a chair and a low table. Christian sat down. The chair was very comfortable.

  In a few minutes a giant woman brought a tray with food and water. The food was not very tasty, but Christian was hungry and ate it all.

  He tried to speak to the giant woman, but she did not answer him.

  Some other giant women come to look at him. They pointed at him and laughed, but the look in their eyes told Christian that they had very little intelligence.

  In the days that followed Christian walked along the corridor, where he sometimes met Brains and giant women. He noticed that they spoke a language which was very much like English, but still it was very difficult for him to understand them. Sometimes he tried to ask them where he was, but they never answered him.

  One day he was standing in the corridor near his cell waiting for the giant woman who always brought him food. Suddenly he saw another woman who was running very quickly towards him. Some other women were running after her and beating her with metal whips.

  The woman jumped into Christian's cell and stopped at the far wall. At that moment Waldo appeared in the corridor.

  "You are a fool to interfere," he said to Christian. "Let them do what they like." He looked around the cell. "Do they give you enough food? Are you all right?" he asked.

  "I am all right." replied Christian.

  Waldo rubbed his hands and smiled. "Excellent, excellent," he said. "Not long now, you won't have long to wait…"

  He walked away. His smile reminded Christian of a cat playing with a mouse.

  The giant woman brought Christian his food. When she saw the woman in his cell, she said something to her and called her "Alma." Then she went away.

  Alma quickly took some food from the tray and ate it.

  "You can eat all of it if you like, Alma," said Christian, and she ate some more and drank the water. Christian tried to speak to her, but she did not answer, and soon ran out of his cell and along the corridor.

  - 28 -

  Christian thought about Alma. It was clear that she was very hungry and afraid. But why? Why did the other women run after her and beat her?

  He decided to walk along the corridors in the direction in which Alma had run away.

  As he was walking, the corridor was getting wider and wider. At last he could not see the walls. It was already not a corridor, but a large underground cave.

  Everywhere there was tall grass. It was hot and wet. The grass was becoming thicker and taller, it was like a grass jungle.

  Suddenly Waldo walked up to him.

  "A man can hide here," said the Brain.

  "Or a woman…"

  "Or a woman," Waldo agreed and laughed. "You are quite right, Captain - Alma is somewhere here."

  Christian did not want to talk to him and walked away, back to the corridor.

  When he was going along the corridor in the direction of his cell, he noticed that many Brains were standing at the walls of the corridor and looking at him. Instinct told him that his time was running out…

  He saw a group of giant women walking towards him.
They were all carrying metal whips with which they had attacked Alma. One of them gave a command, and they ran to him with loud shouts, waving their metal whips.

  Christian turned and ran. The Brains were standing along the walls and laughing. He ran as fast as he could. He reached the grass jungle and ran into the tall grass.

  He was running through the thick tall grass and heard laughing and shouting behind him.

  He was breathing hard. He began to understand how an animal feels during the hunt. He was running and changing directions, but he heard that the Brains were surrounding him on all sides. He stumbled and fell. When he raised his head, he saw Waldo standing over him.

  "You were running well, Captain," said the Brain, "but this is the end!"

  He raised his weapon -

  Something lifted Christian. He looked up and saw a giant figure. Alma! She threw him over her shoulder and jumped into the green jungle. She did it so quickly, that Waldo had no time to shoot.

  Alma was running very fast, and soon the cries of the hunters died away.

  She stopped near a huge old tree, about twenty feet across, and put Christian down on the grass.

  "We can hide inside this tree," she said. "Get in."

  Christian got after her into the hollow trunk. Alma sat down on the grass that was on the bottom.

  "You are safe here," she said.

  "Thanks," said Christian. "Thanks for saving my life."

  He was looking at her and thinking what questions to ask her.

  - 29 -

  Suddenly Alma said: "Why do you use the archaic language?" Can't you speak properly?"

  "Archaic?"

  "Yes, archaic. Don't think I am a fool. I am intelligent."

  She looked at him.

  "You are not one of us - your body is too big and your head is too small. Where are you from?"

  "From Earth," Christian said. "Earth is the third planet revolving round -»

  "Do you take me for an idiot?" said Alma angrily. "I know that."

  Christian looked at Alma in silence. He did not know what to say. Finally he asked: "What planet is this?"

  "Why, Earth, of course!"

  "If this is Earth," said Christian, "it is certainly not the Earth which I know. We are underground, I suppose?"

  "Of course. No one lives on the surface now… it is forbidden."

  "Now?"

  Alma answered nothing. She was just sitting and looking at him. It seemed to Christian that she was losing interest.

  He said:

  "The Brains brought me here using a black crystal. I arrived in the hall where there was a giant machine with a lot of such crystals. Do you know anything about this machine?"

  Alma nodded. Christian saw that she was falling asleep.

  "Do you know how this machine works? Or what it is?"

  "Oh, some kind of transmitter…"

  "What kind of transmitter?"

  Alma lay down and prepared to sleep.

  "What kind of transmitter?" he repeated.

  Alma was almost sleeping now.

  "A time machine…"

  - 30 -

  Christian woke up. Alma was sitting near him and looking at him.

  "I know who you are," she said. "You are from the past - a prehistoric man."

  Christian began to understand. A time machine… and he was somewhere in the future.

  "How far in the future?" he asked.

  But Alma was not interested. She climbed out of the hollow trunk of the tree and Christian followed her She walked through the tall grass, then sat down and began eating some leaves.

  "It was nineteen hundred and sixty-six when Waldo fastened a crystal on me and brought me here," he said. "What year is this?"

  "I don't know," said Alma.

  Christian felt very sad. Brains and blond giant women - this is what mankind came to in the end!

  "Are there no other people?" he asked.

  "There is no one else."

  "And on the surface?"

  "It is forbidden," said Alma.

  "I want to reach the surface," said Christian. "It there a way? Can you show me?"

  "It is forbidden," Alma repeated. "It is too cold there, and there are the Watchers and others…"

  "What others?"

  "Insects"

  "And men?"

  "No men - only the Watchers."

  "I must see for myself," said Christian. "Show me the way, Alma."

  She stood up and walked. Christian followed her. They walked a long time. Suddenly Alma said: "The Watchers will help you if you can reach them."

  They came to a high metal wall.

  "There is a door in this wall," said Alma. "I don't know what is on the other side of the door, but legends say that there is a moving room there that rises to the surface."

  Soon they saw the door. There was a button in the wall near the door. Christian pressed the button and the door opened. And just at that moment they heard shouts behind their backs.. There was a flash of a decapitator, and Alma fell dead. Somebody's hands caught Christian from behind. He turned and hit the Brain with all the weight of his body. The Brain slipped on the wet grass and fell, and in falling dropped his decapitator. Christian seized the weapon and, quick as lightning, jumped inside. The door closed behind him.

  It was a lift, and it went up as soon as the door closed.

  - 31 -

  The lift stopped, and the door opened. Christian saw a black sky and the ground on which nothing grew. It was very cold.

  He stepped out of the lift cabin.

  The sun was huge, an orange-red disc which hung low on the horison. He could see not a house, not a tree: all around him was desert.

  Christian looked at the world's end and felt very sad.

  Then he turned and walked towards the bloody-red disc of the sun. There was only sand around. An icy-cold wind was blowing. Who were the Watchers? Perhaps only a legend from the long dead past…

  It was a world of silence. He was the last man alive.

  Far ahead he saw a wall. It looked small, but as he was walking nearer and nearer, it grew in size. It took him many hours to approach the wall, and when at last he came near it, he stopped in great surprise. He had never seen such a huge construction. It rose high into the sky and he could not see the sun behind it. It stretched left and right beyond the horison.

  It was old, very old. Who built this wall? And for what purpose?

  He did not know how to get to the other side. He was walking along the base of the wall, and suddenly fell into a hole which he had not noticed in the darkness. The hole was deep and ended in a tunnel. He walked along it. The darkness was complete. By and by the tunnel began to go up, and Christian saw light at the end of it. Finally he got out on the other side of the wall.

  The landscape was the same. There was desert all around him, and the huge red sun was still hanging over the horison. In the distance he saw a little hill and walked to it. From the top of the hill he saw something which looked like ruined buildings. He turned and looked in another direction. And then he saw it. Far across the desert something was moving.

  - 32 -

  Christian began to run, shouting and waving his arms. Movement meant life - he was no longer alone -

  But a minute later he stopped. The thing that was running towards him was certainly not human. He raised his decapitator and waited.

  It was a giant ant the size of a dog, and it was running on its six legs straight at Christian. Christian pressed the button on his weapon, and the giant insect fell dead.

  He looked around. Several other ants were approaching from the distance. He turned and ran in the direction of the ruins.

  Looking back, he saw that the ants had stopped beside the dead body of their comrade and were pulling it to pieces. He ran on, trying to reach the ruins as soon as he could.

  Once it had been a very large house. Now there were only half broken walls with no ceilings and remains of columns.

  Christian was running
from room to room, with the insects hurrying after him. He came into a large hall and ran across it to the opposite wall. When he reached it, the first ants appeared in the doorway through which he had entered. He could not climb over the wall because it was too high. Rather high over the floor there were some niches in the wall big enough for him to get in. With a great difficulty, using cracks in the wall as steps, he managed to climb into one of these niches. The ants came up to the wall and were trying to climb to him. Every minute more and more insects gathered at the wall.

  His situation was desperate. Then he had an idea - to try to burn a hole in the wall with his decapitator. Of course, he did not know how thick the wall was and how much energy was remaining in the decapitator. He did not know what he would find of the other side of the wall if he managed to burn a hole through it. But it was the only way to try to get away from the terrible insects.

  He turned his decapitator to the wall and pressed the energy button. A narrow hot beam touched the wall, and it slowly began to melt.

  It took him a long time to make the hole large enough to get through. Then he had to wait for the wall to cool. At last he jumped out on the other side.

  There were no ants… but he saw far on the horison moving lights. What was it? The Watchers who were coming to save him? Or some new enemies?

  The moving lights were quickly approaching. He saw two machines. They were round, the size of small cars, and they were moving on caterpillars, like tractors.

  Christian was running towards the moving machines, because the ants had already found their way around the wall and were running after him. When the insects noticed the moving machines, some of them turned and started running away, other, tried to hide into the sand. Both machines put out metal discs which were quickly turning, and attacked the insects with them, cutting them to pieces. Soon all the ants which had not run away were killed.

  Both machines pulled back their discs, moved to the place where Christian was standing and stopped.