WE (20 page)

He wished Lewis
would
go faster! Surely he could drive his crawlers faster than this! But the little utility was barely creeping down the slope ahead. Maybe Lewis was doing it deliberately – to force Paul to be careful. Speed would make no difference now. With the life-support systems off, the main drain on the crawler's power pack would be its speed. And the main danger, apart from running out of power, would be if Paul overturned or tumbled down the cliff. It did not matter what happened to the utility. There were
other utilities. There was no other manned crawler. And there was no other Paul.

‘I can see the valley floor,' said Lewis.

Paul said nothing.

‘Paul – are you still all right?'

‘So far.'

He knew he was feeling cold. There was a heaviness in his limbs. His seat hurt. His feet were going numb. But his brain still seemed to be working – for now.

‘Follow me – there's a flow.'

Paul was still negotiating the last stretch of the descent. But Lewis hadn't waited. He was already guiding his crawler away, tracking first in towards the canyon wall and then away again, skirting the gleam of liquid that welled from within the moon's crust. Paul hurried after him. The curved dome of the station loomed ahead. He did not look at the battery reading.

‘I've opened the airlock. Can you see it?'

A round hole. It looked the size of a mouse hole in that huge, smooth side. Blackness within.

‘Yes.'

‘Drive straight in. Don't stop. Don't wait for my crawler. I'm parking it.'

If he stopped now, he might never start again.

The yellow utility crawler veered abruptly off to his right. As he passed it, its lights died.

In, straight in. The hole of the airlock was ahead of him. Don't look at the display.

The screen brightened suddenly as the automatic lights came on. The motion of the crawler changed, no longer bumping but smooth with the floor of the station beneath his wheels. Inside the airlock he kept the crawler creeping forward all the time the outer doors were closing, fearing that the strain of starting from standstill would be too much for the depleted battery. He was almost touching the inner doors by the time they opened. And now the exterior temperature had begun to climb, all the way up to 90K. And on the floor of the tunnel compartment lay the shards of May's light-hearted experiment with the flask of air.

By the time he docked the crawler, the power display read
4%
.

‘Lewis? I'm in the hangar.'

‘Good. You can reconnect the thing to charge. And then get yourself back to your quarters. I don't want to see you. Neither does anyone else.'

The silence after he broke the link was like a corpse tumbling gently in a low gravity field.

S
hortly after his return, his monitor beeped. It showed him Hunter, emerging from a background of savannah grasses. Angrily Paul blanked the screen. He did not want to talk to Hunter.

He was not asked to perform any watches. He was not trusted with anything. He stayed in his quarters. If he ventured out for food, he did so when he thought the others were asleep or busy. If he heard them in the common room, or the kitchen area, he retreated behind his door again. He would rather starve a little than look into their eyes.

He had been wrong. Thorsten was dead. The man was dead and smashed to pieces, up there on the surface of the planet where no life would ever come. It had been crazy to think that he might somehow still be alive, haunting the station and the transmissions to Earth. Paul had known it was crazy, but still he had followed it because it was all he had left. He had wrenched the frozen body from its rest as if it had been a piece of garbage. In the process
he had nearly lost himself and the manned crawler too.

How could he have been so wrong?

And how could he have been so stupid?

He had missed something. Somewhere back in his search, something had slipped past him—

‘Paul?'

It was May, calling at his door. He did not want to talk to May. He did not want to talk to anyone. They were not supposed to be talking to him and for the moment that suited him.

‘Paul? May I come in?'

‘No.'

Silence.

He had missed something. What? It was not an accident, it was not a program, whether faulty or deliberate. It was not Lewis, or Vandamme or May. And it was not Thorsten.

What had he missed?

He should go on searching. He could be searching now. But he did not know where to look.

He could look at the Knowledge Store but he did not want to. They would have recorded his excursion. They would have commented on it: undertaken with inadequate supervision or backup, with no planning and to no purpose. Disciplinary action pending. They might even have added some of their own reactions.
Paul! Please leave him alone!

He switched on the display of his monitor anyway. There was nothing else to do. And Hunter was still there, looking out of the screen with the blue sky and tall yellow grasses at his back.

‘What do you want?' Paul snarled at him.

‘
I have found a record showing evidence of intelligent interference
.'

‘Have you?' Paul sank into his chair. (On Earth, he would have come down with a bump. But here, of course …) ‘Couldn't you have told me earlier?'

‘
I have been waiting to tell you
.'

‘Earlier than yesterday, I mean!'

‘
The record was not created before yesterday
.'

Paul tensed. Yesterday he had been out on the surface of the planet.

‘Who was the source of interference?'

‘
I do not know
.'

Useless!

‘All right,' he sighed. ‘Where was it coming from?'

‘
From outside the station
.'

‘I meant, which antenna?

The main, or one of the auxiliaries?'

‘
None of them
.'

Not from an antenna? ‘A crawler, then?'

‘
Not from any recognized station equipment
.'

‘Show me the record.'

The screen blinked. The face of Hunter was replaced by a jumble of words.

It took Paul a long second to realize what he was looking at.

Who's in the crawler. Munro. Is that you in the crawler. Yes. Are you going outside. I'm doing an inspection. You should use a utility crawler for inspections outside. This is better for what I have to do. We should have full crew if you are going outside. It's not necessary for this mission.

Paul do you hear me. Yes. Vandamme says you are going outside. Is that true. Yes. I can't permit you to go outside. You are not properly crewed and neither are we. It isn't safe. I'm going outside Lewis. Don't try to stop me. I will certainly stop you. You've given no justification for your actions. You're putting yourself at risk and also the station. We can't afford to lose you or the crawler. You must return at once. I am not going far Lewis. What are you going to do. I'm going to see Thorsten …

‘All right,' he sighed. ‘What are you saying is intelligent interference?'

He was thinking that if Hunter said ‘
Your actions
' or
‘
Leaving the station without permission
,' he would tell the thing that no, that had been
un
intelligent interference. There was no way that a computer program could be made to suffer. But at least he would have confused it.

‘
The improving ability to anticipate the target phrase demonstrates that the source has the capacity to learn
.'

Target phrase?

He scanned down the passionless lines.

Paul. We do not understand. Tell us why you are doing this. Because there must be someone else. There must be. And it has to be ????????? Paul repeat that last please. You broke up. It has to be. Get out of my ear Lewis. Paul you must help us. Get out of my ear and let me drive this thing. Damn. We'll see. Munro. What are you doing. Leave him alone. Paul that's Thorsten's grave. Please leave him alone. He's not there May. Paul I don't understand. What do you mean. There has to be someone ?????????????????? Paul I can't hear you. I can't hear what you are saying. But if you can hear me please please leave him alone. I said there has to be ????????????? Paul can you hear me. Paul you are breaking up. What is your battery reading. Fifty-four per cent. Paul your signals aren't reaching us. Maybe your power is faulty. Maybe the indicator is wrong. You must come back now. Paul.

He wanted to stop reading but he could not. There, spelled out on the screen in silence, was what had happened next.

You understand if you run out of power out there there's nothing we can do. Nothing. I won't run out of power. Please. Paul. Stop. Paul. Damn. Oh damn. Sorry. Sorry Van. I was wrong. She's gone Paul. They both have. They went when you smashed him to pieces.

‘Paul?'

It was May again, back at his door. God! Why now?

‘Paul, are you all right?'

‘Yes, I'm all right.'

‘Can I come in?'

‘No!'

Then he added: ‘Sorry, May.'

‘I want to be sure you're all right.'

‘I'm all right!'

Silence.

He found that he had shut his eyes – screwed them up and hunched his shoulders, like a child weeping in the corner of a room and refusing to be comforted.

He opened them. The words were still there on the screen before him.

… Because there must be someone else. There must be. And it has to be ????????? Paul repeat that last …

And:

What do you mean. There has to be someone ?????????????????? Paul I can't hear you. I can't hear what you are saying. But if you can hear me please please leave him alone. I said there has to be ????????????? Paul can you hear me.

‘That's it?' he said. ‘Those three groups?'

‘
The improving ability to anticipate the target phrase demonstrates that the source has the capacity to learn
,' said Hunter.

‘You're a machine all right. That's exactly what you said a moment ago.'

‘
Thank you
.'

Paul peered at the broken message.

‘Didn't I use that phrase earlier?'

He scrolled back.

Paul. Hello. Paul what are you doing. Please tell us. I'm going to see Thorsten. Paul we don't understand. Why. Because there must be someone else. Paul. Paul please. Whatever you are going to do you have to come back …

‘Why wasn't that jammed, if the others were?'

‘
The phrase will not have been anticipated prior to its first use
.'

No. It would not have been. Not if the interference was intelligent rather than automatic. First it had to be alerted. It had to recognize the possibility that the phrase might be transmitted. Only then could it begin to anticipate the use. And to improve its reactions each time.

‘It's a radio signal?' he murmured.

‘
It is a surge of charged particles affecting the radio signal.
'

‘Charged particles? In the magnetic field?'

‘
Yes
.'

Paul looked up at the display on the ceiling of his bubble.

There it was, as it always was and always would be to the end of his life. The thin crescent of the planet, spanning ten degrees of arc overhead, framed within the shadowed lips of the cliffs, with the Sun poised over it like a diamond on a half-ring.

‘My God!' he whispered.

Then he said: ‘I didn't mean that.'

‘Paul?'

She was back again, at his door. He sat up. Dazedly his thoughts recovered themselves from the paths they had been chasing for so long.

Long? How long?

Hours, perhaps. They had been going round and round and round. Round and round a conclusion that was impossible and yet inevitable, like debris orbiting a planet, neither escaping from its field nor falling to a new home in the bosom of its earth.

‘Paul!'

‘Yes?' he said.

‘May I – may I come in?'

He gripped the back of his chair. His eyes were focused on nothing.

‘Yes,' he said. ‘For God's sake – yes!'

There was a moment's hesitation. Then the seal opened.

It was not May. He had thought it must be May because she had called him ‘Paul'. It wasn't.

It was Erin Vandamme, floating through his doorway towards him, and her eyes widened as she saw how his face was working. And he was not conscious of stepping towards her but he must have done, because they came together in mid-air, spinning gently with the force of the collision, and might have stumbled if they had not already been holding onto one another, holding fast, fast, with her arms around his chest and his face buried in her shoulder. His throat was tight and his eyes were weeping hot tears.

‘I don't know who it is,' he cried. ‘
I don't know who it is!
'

‘
P
aul!' she said. ‘Stop … Do you hear me? I want you to take a breath. Deep breath, now. That's right – now do it again … All right …

‘Now, slowly. Tell me. You don't know who what is?'

Trembling, he showed her Hunter's transcript. And again she made him stop, take breaths and repeat himself, as he stood at her shoulder jabbing his finger at the obliterated phrases.

‘Wait. What are you saying has happened to these messages?'

‘They've been jammed! Like the others!'

‘Which others?'

‘The tail data to Earth. Over the radio.'

‘But that's a natural phenomenon.'

‘
This
isn't natural. Look at it. It anticipates the words! That's
learning
!'

‘So … who are you saying did it?'

‘Someone else! I thought it must be Thorsten. But it wasn't! It's someone else.'