Underhill tried, but he was not an actor. He went dutifully home for his meals. He tried painfully to invent conversation—about anything except detonating planets. He tried to seem enthusiastic when Aurora took him to inspect some remarkable new improvement to the house. He applauded Gay’s recitals and went with Frank for hikes in the wonderful new parks.
And he saw what the humanoids had done to his family. That was enough to renew his waning faith in Sledge’s integrator, to redouble his determination that the humanoids must be stopped.
Aurora, in the beginning, had bubbled with praise for the marvelous new mechanicals. They did the household drudgery, brought the food and planned the meals and washed the children’s necks. They turned her out in stunning gowns, and gave her plenty of time for cards.
Now, she had too much time.
She had really liked to cook—a few special dishes, at least, that were family favorites. But stoves were hot and knives were sharp. Kitchens were altogether too dangerous for the use of human beings.
Fine needlework had been her hobby, but the humanoids took away her needles. She had enjoyed driving the car, but that was no longer allowed. She turned for escape to a shelf of novels, but the humanoids took them all away because they dealt with unhappy people in dangerous situations.
One afternoon, Underhill found her in tears.
“It’s too much,” she gasped bitterly. “I hate and loathe every naked one of them. They seemed so wonderful at first, but now they won’t even let me eat a bite of candy. Can’t we get rid of them, dear? Ever?”
A blind little mechanical was standing at his elbow, and he had to say they couldn’t.
“Our function is to serve all men, forever,” it assured them softly. “It was necessary for us to take your sweets, Mrs. Underhill, because the slightest degree of overweight reduces life expectancy.”
Not even the children escaped that absolute solicitude. Frank was robbed of a whole arsenal of lethal instruments—football and boxing gloves, pocketknife, tops, slingshots, and skates. He didn’t like the harmless plastic toys which replaced them. He tried to run away, but a humanoid recognized him on the road and brought him back to school.
Gay had always dreamed of being a great musician. The new mechanicals had replaced her human teachers, since they came. Now, one evening when Underhill asked her to play, she announced quietly:
“Father, I’m not going to play the violin ever anymore.”
“Why, darling?” He stared at her, shocked at the bitter resolve on her face. “You’ve been doing so well—especially since the humanoids took over your lessons.”
“They’re the trouble, father.” Her voice, for a child’s, sounded strangely tired and old. “They are too good. No matter how long and hard I try, I could never be as good as they are. It isn’t any use. Don’t you understand, father?” Her voice quivered. “It just isn’t any use.” He understood. Renewed resolution sent him back to his secret task. The humanoids had to be stopped. Slowly the director grew, until the time came finally when Sledge’s bent and unsteady fingers fitted into place the last tiny part that Underhill had made, and carefully soldered the last connection. Huskily, the old man whispered:
“It’s done.”
VIII
That was another dusk. Beyond the windows of the shabby little rooms—windows of common glass, bubble-marred and flimsy, but simple enough for a man to manage—the town of Two Rivers had assumed an alien splendor. The old street lamps were gone, but now the coming night was challenged by the walls of strange new mansions and villas, all aglow with color. A few dark and silent humanoids still were busy about the luminous roofs of the palace across the alley.
Inside the humble walls of the small man-made apartment, the new director was mounted on the end of the little kitchen table-which Underhill had reinforced and bolted to the floor. Soldered busbars joined director and integrator, and the thin palladium needle swung obediently as Sledge tested the knobs with his battered, quivering fingers.
“Ready,” he said, hoarsely.
His rusty voice seemed calm enough, at first, but his breathing was too fast, and his big gnarled hands had begun to tremble violently. Underhill saw the sudden blue that stained his pinched and haggard face. Seated on the high stool, he clutched desperately at the edges of the table. Underhill hurried to bring his medicine. He gulped it, and his rasping breath began to slow.
“Thanks,” his whisper rasped. “It’ll be all right. I’ve time enough.” He glanced out at the few dark naked things that still flitted shadowlike about the golden towers and the glowing crimson dome of the palace across the alley. “Watch them,” he said. “Tell me when they stop.”
He waited to quiet the trembling of his hands, and then began to move the director’s knobs. The integrator’s long needle swung, as silently as light.
Human eyes were blind to that force, which might detonate a planet. Human ears were deaf to it. A small oscilliscope tube was mounted in the director cabinet, to make the faraway target visible to feeble human senses.
The needle was pointing at the kitchen wall, but that would be transparent to the beam. The little machine looked harmless as a toy, and it was silent as a moving humanoid.
As the needle swung, spots of greenish light moved across the tube’s fluorescent field, representing the stars that were scanned by the timeless, searching beam—silently seeking out the world to be destroyed.
Underhill recognized familiar constellations, vastly dwarfed. They crept across the field, as the silent needle moved. When three stars formed an unequal triangle in the center of the field, the needle steadied suddenly. Sledge touched other knobs, and the green points spread apart. Between them, another fleck of green was born.
“The Wing!” whispered Sledge.
The other stars spread beyond the field, and that green fleck grew. It was alone in the field, a bright and tiny disk. Suddenly, then, a dozen other tiny pips were visible, spaced close about it.
“Wing IV!”
The old man’s whisper was hoarse and breathless. His hands quivered on the knobs, and the fourth pip outward from the disk crept to the center of the field. It grew, and the others spread away. It began to tremble like Sledge’s hands.
“Sit very still,” came his rasping whisper. “Hold your breath. Nothing must disturb the needle.” He reached cautiously for another knob, and his first touch set the greenish image to dancing violently. He drew his hand back to knead and flex it with the other.
“Watch!” His whisper was hushed and strained. He nodded at the window. “Tell me when they stop.”
Reluctantly, Underhill dragged his eyes from that intense gaunt figure and that harmless-seeming toy. He looked out again, at two or three little black mechanicals busy about the shining roofs across the alley.
He waited for them to stop.
He didn’t dare to breathe. He felt the loud, hurried hammer of his heart and the nervous quiver of his muscles. Trying to steady himself, he tried not to think of the world about to be exploded, so far away that the flash would not reach this planet for another century and longer. The loud hoarse voice startled him:
“Have they stopped?”
He shook his head, and breathed again. Carrying their unfamiliar tools and strange materials, the small black machines were still busy across the alley, building an elaborate cupola above that glowing crimson dome.
“They haven’t stopped,” he said.
“Then we’ve failed.” The old man’s voice was thin and ill. “I don’t know why.”
