Toy Wars (31 page)

“Analyzing.”
It took the
F
actory minutes.
I was beginning to wonder if I had somehow damaged its mind.
When it did return
,
its verdict
was
, “Such a force would control the surface within three standard years,
at least thirty years
in advance of my own best case projections.”

“Would that be acceptable, Factory?”

“If control as you defined it was maintained, it would be acceptable.”

“I could promise that in lieu of my own Factory’s direct communication.”

“It would agree with your unilateral decision?”
The fact that the Factory had actually asked a question instead of a dictum nearly floored me.
It must be interested.

“I think I can guarantee it.
Six, my Factory, is reasonable in decisions concerning me.
I can give you my oath that I will make this happen.”

“That is sufficient, unit.”

“Please call me Don Quixote, or just Don.”

“But your designation is Teddy S12-1 or Teddy 1499.”

“I understand that, but I have gone beyond my initial programming and
believe
I am entitled to choose my own designation.”

“Very well, Don Quixote.”

“Back to the subject at hand.
I’m so certain that Six will agree that I am going to give you something to begin improving your own fighting force.
It should
also
be able to shorten the three years of fighting you mentioned.

“
If you were to build units like myself, we would establish a fighting force
that
would sweep over this land like a heavy rainstorm, flattening everything in our path.”
This was a no
-
lose situation.
If Six would agree to this deal, we would be more ready than ever, having upgraded all this Factory’s units.
If Six would not agree, it
wouldn’t last
anyway.

“I will examine you, unit.
Come and be probed.”
More orders.
Th
is
F
actory’s probe proved to be
no different from anything
I’d not experience by
my own Factory.
I
mmediately afterward it moved to insert a needle into my brain sump.
I pushed the needle away with my hand, breaking it off at the base.

“Whoa, wait a moment.”

“You requested that I produce more of your kind.
Your own records show that only by removing fluid from your sump, and replacing it in kind, can more of the same units be created.”

“It would
be
nice to be asked before you go digging around inside my brain case.
You are being rude.”

“Null words, ‘
n
ice’ and ‘
r
ude.’
Do you consent or not?”

I
lost
this battle, but decided the war had been won.

“I consent.”
A new needle came down.
It took only a few moments of dizziness before the process was over.

“For the time being, I will order my units to cease hostilities with those of 55466.
You must now return to your Factory and get it to communicate with me.
Contact me on the 3Theta7 channel.
As my receivers are covered at night, this contact must be made during the day.”

“Yes.
What Factory number are you?”

“
Factory
55469 is my designation.”

“And may I have
two
boon
s
from you, 55469?”

“If
they are
practical.”

“I would like
two
CCT
s
that
I can attune to you.
This would facilitate my exit from your sphere of control.”

“You shall have it.”

“I am in desperate need of fluid replacements. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t squeak.”

Envoy

After an hour getting my fluids flushed and refilled,
Factory 55469, or just Nine, gave me detailed maps of the areas it had scouted.
It projected detailed loci of
where the additional
F
actories might be located.

“These calculations are exceptional
,
”
I offered.

“Good data ensures correct calculations
,
”
Nine rumbled
.

“I’ll say. You missed my Six’s
location by only
2
kilometers and
55474
you
tagged
within
3
kilometers, as far as my locator can say.”

“I cannot replace your locator in the time you have allocated,” Nine lamented.

“I know, we’ve been through this. It doesn’t help me at all if I arrive
to
o
late to save Six.”

“Affirmative.”

While the map
s
Nine provided
might not have any other immediate use, they would aid in any campaign
we might make
against
a
F
actory that might not be convinced of cooperation.
Mentally
,
such war plans already formed in my head
.
We would offer each Factory the opportunity to
join our cause
when shown reason and our massed forces.
Any who would not listen would have to be destroyed
—
razed
to the ground.
All or nothing.

Nine installed one of its CCTs
within me
in an operation that took a mere
three
minutes, four seconds.
I immediately started listening to the traffic Nine sent over its WAN.
I switched back and forth several times
—
from massive data overload to silence.

“I would like to get my companion examined by your repair subroutines.”

“Companion?”

“Yes, I have an elephant unit, designation Sancho, which I’ve provided with my level of sentience. We’ve been long out of touch of re
furbishment
facilities.”

“Agreed.”

“I’ll go get him.”

For the first time in my near
-
term memory, m
y joints
didn’t grind
and my
hydraulics didn’t look like tar as I went back out into the bright red light.
Sancho stood where I’d left him, his pink coat more red with the constant dust.

“C’mon Sancho
,” I said, motioning as I approached. “
I’ve convinced Nine to everything we wanted
and more. Right now I want you checked over before we take off again.
”

Sancho didn’t move.

“Oh, now is not the time to be stubborn when we are so close.”

Sancho didn’t move.

“Come on, you persnickety pachyderm,” I said, this time getting behind him and pushing. Not only did Sancho not move forward but he actively fought against me.

“Ferweet!”

His trumpet pulled me up short.
Sancho didn’t sound off without a good reason. I took another examination of the situation.

“There isn’t any problem. See? No basilisks. No units riding down on us. There isn’t even any ground cover for me to fall through.”

I tried pushing him one more time. Sancho pushed me back
3
meters.

“Well
,
al
l
right you piece of refuse, stay busted up.” Turning back to return to Nine, Sancho’s concerns slapped me in the face,
physically as well as
figuratively. While still well in the day, the sea level had risen to where it threatened Nine’s audience chamber opening.

“Nine,” I said over a
hastily
started
LAN
,
“
t
he sea level is up. I don’t know if I can get back out if I go in.”

“Affirmative. Units have reported two sigma higher than expected rainfall in the mountains over the last two days. Likely this will cause
a
significant rise in sea levels.”

“Well
,
in that case I’m not going to risk it. Sancho’s systems haven’t been abused as badly as mine so I’m going to move forward with my mission.”

“Affirmative. Train to rendezvous with you in
thirty
-
six
minutes.”

“Thank you, Nine.
O
K
, Sancho, let’s head back the way we came. This is going to be easy compared to the last trip.”

We traveled up the train tracks. I, for one, had a lighter heart. Six now had the ally it needed, if we could get the news in time. I could protect my home. H
ome
—
a word that evoked a sensation nearly as painful as that of a gunshot wound.
Every part of me longed to return.
I needed to once more be in the company of Six, to feel its comforting network surround me, to relax my mantle of independence.
My pessimism of Six’s state and ability to defend itself was high, but I was bringing salvation.

Home
. I
wanted to go back
.
I needed to go back.
My adventures had been interesting, but I wanted nothing more than to return and quit giving orders.
Put bluntly, I
no longer wanted to control
.
Let Six
make the hard decisions.

I had
often
wished
intelligence and feelings didn’t reside within me.
I wished that I could be
the same as my brother teddies
.
Sentience is sometimes a curse to those who really try to live up to it.
The human Thomas Gray said it best, “
Where ignorance is bliss,
’
tis folly to be wise.”

Nine’s estimate on his train was off by two minutes.

“Toot!” a
trio of engines pulled backward
,
bearing the better part of a battalion of troops
.
Four of them, a
T
eddy
Bear
, a Tommy Tank, a Jeff
rey
Giraffe
,
and a Nurse Nan dismounted. The quartet immediately traveled back the way Sancho and I had come.
Experimental subjects, I thought.

“Two to board
?
”
I
asked the
engine.

“Toot, toot.”

Nine arranged a train t
o the end of
his
line.
That would be two easy days of rest
that would save
significant time
.
After dropped we
would have
another two weeks of humping overland to
get
home.
While optimistic in that one part of my mission succeeded,
I feared the worst for Six
. I grant that one less enemy harried it, but having seen the might of the other Factories, I worried that having come so far, I might be too late.

“C’mon
,
Sancho, climb on,” I said, strapping myself down. He
edged
back two paces.

“This is our ride.
If you don’t get on it’ll take
weeks of tromping.
”

Sancho
stepped backward even further, but I noticed he didn’t trumpet in warning. My concerns about Six
be
trifled
with.
I unbuckled and climbed off.

“What is wrong?” I ask
ed
as I moved up next to him. “We have to go.” Another two steps back. I didn’t have time to wait.
I wasn’t going to let my upstart companion
potentially be the death of my
F
actory.

I
quickly opened Sancho’s
access panel and deactivated his motive power,
making sure the power remained active to his brain.
While I no longer thought that Sancho would ever be my intellectual equal, nor did I believe he would ever speak, I
believed
his thoughts, whatever they might be, were his to keep, so I took th
at
extra precaution.

Opening a
LAN
I confidently ordered, “
I want
a new detail designated ‘Loaders
,
’ formed of
chasers from
even
-
numbered
teddy and Nurse Nan
squads
. Loaders to obtain
two replacement rail lengths
off the spares car.
”

“Affirmative,” echoed the response from the net. I watched as units dismounted and gathered
at
a rather bulky car toward the rear of the train.
Working together
,
sixteen units easily lifted each of the steel beams.

“Eight units
take
each end of each rail. I want both rails directly under this uni…I mean fauna, one just in back of the front le
g
s and one just in front of the back legs.

“Now
,
center
each rail on the mass
. Good! All units lift on the count of three.
One, two, three.
”

De
spite my friend’s mass, thirty
-
two units didn’t strain
more than
half capacity to lift
Sancho
.

“
Load the fauna o
nto the flatbed consist forty
-
six.”
The procession looked like a
n English
m
onarch
carried in a sedan chair.
“Lay him down on his side.”

H
alf the detail used the rails to tip Sancho over and the other
s
caught his weight. I didn’t need to tell them to strap him down.
F
our of the Nurse Nans did this automatically as the teddies and the remaining Nans combined to return the rails to their place.

“Excellent. Re-embark soonest.” I took the opportunity to climb aboard as well. One more obstacle overcome
. Fortunately
,
I’d had the resources at hand to deal with a balky pachyderm.

“Loading detail call
ed
off when loaded and strapped in.” It took two minutes to receive thirty
-
two confirmations.

“Locomotives, if you would please get us started.”

“Tooooooot!” came four different horns combining into one chord.

Within just hours I learned the answer to the question of Nine’s industrial complex. Ni
ne
maintained a distributed facility system that straddled the train line
at different locations, unlike the centralized affairs of Six and 55474.

The arrangement offered several advantages in that an attack on any portion wouldn’t completely disrupt production. Certain areas could be specialized for one type of unit or one task set that would increase its overall output of that one type without having to change out dies or molds. It also meant that there were no bottlenecks in any physical area, as Six sometimes experienced when an entire trainload of raw materials showed up at once.

The disadvantages seemed equally clear. Guarding each area took nearly the resources of one large plant, multiplying the defense costs. It took time to gather together units from each of the plants. There also could be very little sharing of raw materials so one could run out of a key ingredient, shutting down production, that another could have in abundance.

I stored away fact
s
.
I never knew when things like this would become important.

For over
two days
I was nothing but a passenger
.
I enjoy
ed this form of
travel
as opposed to
forg
ing
every meter.
Distances flew by at a rate 18.6
times
faster than Sancho and I could have done ourselves. My best known method for this form of travel involved shutting down for PMs.
I opened a
LAN
.