The Cosmic Computer H. Beam Piper (reader novel txt) đ
- Author: H. Beam Piper
Book online «The Cosmic Computer H. Beam Piper (reader novel txt) đ». Author H. Beam Piper
âOf course, it was the most closely guarded secretâ ââ âŠâ
âBut after forty yearsâ ââ âŠâ
âHah, donât tell me about security!â Colonel Zareff barked. âYou should have seen the lengths our staff went to. I remember, once, on Mephistophelesâ ââ âŠâ
âBut there was a computer code-named Merlin,â Judge Ledue was insisting, to convince himself more than anybody else. âIts memory-bank contained all human knowledge. It was capable of scanning all its data instantaneously, and combining, and forming associations, and reasoning with absolute accuracy, and extrapolating to produce new facts, and predicting future events, andâ ââ âŠâ
And if youâd asked such a computer, âIs there a God?â it would have simply answered, âPresent.â
âWeâd have won the War, except for Merlin,â Zareff was declaring.
âConn, from what youâve learned of computers generally, how big would Merlin have to be?â old Professor Kellton asked.
âWell, the astrophysics computer at the University occupied a volume of a hundred thousand cubic feet. For all Merlin was supposed to do, Iâd say something of the order of three million to five million.â
âWell, itâs a cinch they didnât haul that away with them,â Lester Dawes, the banker, said.
âOh, lots of places on Poictesme where they could have hid a thing like that,â Tom Brangwyn said. âYou know, a planetâs a mighty big place.â
âIt doesnât have to be on Poictesme, even,â Morgan Gatworth pointed out. âIt could be anywhere in the Trisystem.â
âYou know where Iâd have put it?â Lorenzo Menardes asked. âOn one of the moons of Pantagruel.â
âBut thatâs in the Gamma System, three light years away,â Kurt Fawzi objected. âThere isnât a hypership on this planet, and it would take half a lifetime to get there on normal-space drive.â
Conn was lifting his glass to his lips. He set it down again and rose to his feet.
âThen,â he said, âwe will build a hypership. On Koshchei there are shipyards and hyperdrive engines and everything we will need. We only need one normal-space interplanetary ship to get out there, and weâre in business.â
âWell, I donât know we need one,â Judge Ledue said. âThat was only an idea of Lorenzoâs. I think Merlinâs right here on Poictesme.â
âWe donât know it is,â Conn replied. âAnd we donât know we wonât need a ship. Merlin may be on Koshchei; thatâs where the components would be fabricated, and the Armed Forces werenât hauling anything any farther than they had to. Koshcheiâs only two and a half minutes away by radio; thatâs practically in the next room. Look; hereâs how they could have done it.â
He went on talking, about remote controls and radio transmission and positronic brains and neutrino-circuits. They believed it all, even the little they understood. They would believe anything he told them about Merlinâ âexcept the truth.
âBut this will take money,â Lester Dawes said. âAnd after that infernal deluge of unsecured paper currency thirty years agoâ ââ âŠâ
âI have no doubt,â Judge Ledue began, âthat the Planetary Government at Storisende would give assistance. I have some slight influence with President Vyckhovenâ ââ âŠâ
âHuh-uh!â That was one of Klem Zareffâs fellow planters. âWe donât want Jake Vyckhoven or any of this First-Families-of-Storisende oligarchy in this at all. Thatâs the gang that bankrupted the government with doles and work relief, and everybody else with worthless printing-press money after the War, and theyâve been squatting in a circle deploring things ever since. Some of these days Blackie Perales and his piratesâll sack Storisende, for all theyâd be able to do to stop him.â
âWe get a ship out to Koshchei, and the next thing you know weâll be the Planetary Government,â Tom Brangwyn said.
Rodney Maxwell finished the brandy in his glass and set it on the table, then went to the pile of belts and holsters and began rummaging for his own. Kurt Fawzi looked up in surprise.
âRod, youâre not leaving are you?â he asked.
âYes. Itâs only half an hour till time for dinner, and I think Conn and I ought to have a little fresh air. Besides, you know, we havenât seen each other for six years.â He buckled on the heavy automatic and settled the belt over his hips. âYou didnât have a gun, did you, Conn?â he asked. âWell, letâs go.â
IIIIt wasnât until they were down to the main level and outside in the little plaza to the east of the Airlines Building that his father broke the silence.
âThat was quite a talk you gave them, Conn. They believed every word of it. I even caught myself starting to believe it once or twice.â
Conn stopped short; his father halted beside him. âWhy didnât you tell them the truth, son?â Rodney Maxwell asked.
The question, which he had been throwing at himself, angered him. âWhy didnât I just grab a couple of pistols and shoot the lot of them?â he retorted. âIt wouldnât have killed them any deader, and it wouldnât have hurt as much.â
âThere is no Merlin. Is that it?â
He realized, suddenly, that his father had known, or suspected that all along. He started to say something, then checked himself and began again:
âThere never was one. I was going to tell them, but you saw them. I couldnât.â
âYouâre sure of it?â
âThe whole thingâs a myth. Iâm quoting the one man in the Galaxy who ought to know. The man who commanded the Third Force here during the War.â
âFoxx Travis!â His fatherâs voice was soft with wonder. âI saw him once, when I was eight years old. I thought heâd died long ago. Why, he must be over a hundred.â
âA hundred and twelve. Heâs living on Luna; low gravityâs all that keeps him alive.â
âAnd you talked to him?â
âYes.â
Thereâd been a girl in his third-year biophysics class; heâd found out that she was a great-granddaughter of Force General Travis. It had taken him until his senior midterm vacation to wangle an invitation to the dome-house on Luna. After that, it had been easy.
Comments (0)