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working
with me. However, because Worsel and I once fought the Eichwoor, our
assignment is
logical. Because of your involvement with the datadrone technology you
certainly belong
with Nadreck.
"Now, about the facts you need. . ." She quickly read off to him all the
references to
datadrones and aberrant machines. To Cloudd, there was nothing he didn't know
already.
"Anything about your father's spirit?" he asked cautiously. "We all know he
was in bad
trouble. What's new? If I can, I'd like to know."
"There isn't anything. When Worsel and I heard about his danger, about the
time I arrived
here, we joined our minds in a strenuous effort to reach him through the veil
across the
other existence. We encountered total emptiness-which is ominous. I tried to
sense him as
the robotic 24of6; there were no frequency patterns. My psyche tried to touch
his Deuce
0'Sx psyche; again, nothing. Worsel joined with me for enormous amplification
of my
el-sike penetrations without results. However, as I have not had any feeling
of tragedy or
any bad intuition, I feel that Deuce is still an intelligence whose
otherworldly existence has
not been destroyed."
A shadow and a breeze came across their area briefly and departed. Worsel had
arrived
with a beating of his vast wings. He folded them away unobtrusively against
his back as he
came to them in eight giant strides.
"We've received our signals, they've been decoded, and I'm ready to leave.
I've set up a
command post here at the Institute staffed with our best Velantians and our
most
accomplished Rigellians. My associate Hobdyll, the South Velantian Lensman, is
chief of
operations, with Bluebelt as my personal communications aide. Nadreck has just
finished
turning his destroyer into his command post for Operation Robot Revolution, or
Rob-Rev,
with himself as chief of operations and his new Lensman Yadsue as his aide."
From the tables scattered around the circular conference area, Worsel was
picking up
certain spools, cassettes, and tiny boxes of recorded information and stuffing
them in
pouches in the belts around his. abdomen.
"Kallatra, you've got to get to Togra as quickly as possible. Nadreck's cadets
report they're
on to something there. You'll have to go alone. However, I'm going to take up
a position at
a central point between Velantia, Tellus, and Togra, to back you up, yet able
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to meet any
contingency. You need a Lensman to monitor you who is familiar with the Eich
and
Eichwoor. Chon could have done it. Now I'll have to do it at long range.
'As for you, Cloudd, not being a Lensman, your effectiveness is limited. You
have to be
telepathic in both directions, able to transmit as well as receive. I thought
of sending you
along with Kallatra, but that's no more practical than me going, if for
different reasons. Then
I thought of Tregonsee taking over for me as head of Operation Eichwooren, and
me going
with Kallatra, but Tregonsee's got his tentacles full of his complicated
S.I.S. and M.I.S.
probes, searches, and investigations for some information on the current crop
of menaces
we're facing. However, Nadreck and Tregonsee have come up with a good idea to
use
you, as you've no doubt guessed. You're going out on a personal search. To
keep in
contact, I've arranged for your own setup from my staff Bluebelt will help.
You are to put
together every detail you can on the mystery ships. You'll stay in constant
touch with
Bluebelt and your staff, who remain here.
"I see you're wondering how to keep in contact without a Lens. Well, Lensman
Dick
Armstrong has reported in from his rim patrol encounter, which we all know
about. He's
been debriefed and he's going with you in the Tellurian speedster we keep on
this planet. If
there's one thing you're good at, Cloudd, it's hot rodding a personal
spaceship. Go down to
the spaceport and meet. Armstrong. You'll be leaving as soon as Nadreck briefs
you and
releases you. Find those invisible ships. And good luck to you both."
Worsel had stopped picking up things, but all of his eyes were waving around
on their
stalks, making certain he had not overlooked anything.
"QX, Kallatra?" Worsel asked. "Ready to go? I'll take one more update, and
we'll make
another stab at reaching Deuce O'Sx. And then we'll be off for Togra aboard
Flame."
Kallatra nodded in her awkward way. Flame, Cloudd recalled, was Worsel's name
for his
own personal speedster. "I'll drop you off there and then take up my position
as planned."
Worsel bounced over to one of the control boards placed behind the chairs and
with
incredible speed, sent his slender fingers with their trimmed yet still sharp
claws dancing
over a hundred buttons. He cocked one eye on the input, one eye on the reply
screen, one
eye on Kallatra, and one eye on Cloudd, the others still roving, and said,
"Ready, Kallatra?
We'll join in one more effort to reach Deuce. I've had two hundred of our best
Rigellian
perceivers with high level psychic indices working on that situation for
the.past two hours
with no luck. Mental frequencies are crystal clear, but equipment and
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communications
channels are contaminated and fouling up electrical systems. This robot
revolution is some
kind of anarchy. The invasion fleet might be a false alarm, but the disorders
in our robotry
and semi-intelligent automata are for real."
Worsel pretended to kick the machine with one of his powerful hind legs and
then gestured
Kallatra into position before the board.
"You have the ability to give me a hint as to what's happening, Kallatra. Tune
into the lines
and give me your impressions."
She rolled forward so her trunk and legs pressed against the metal front. She
laid her
shining fingers along the outer edges of the keyboard and placed her forehead,
with its
glimmering Lens, against the upper cabinet.
"I've done this before," she said in her impersonal voice. "Nowhere has there
been a hint of
any independent, intelligent thinking machines. There must be, however, a
source for all the
troubles. I'll look again. I'll look as hard as I possibly can while I drop
all safeguards--"
Without warning her arms jerked up and she rolled rapidly backward with a
squeal of
gears, almost knocking Cloudd off his feet. He instinctively wrapped his arms
around her
waist and hung on grimly to prevent her from toppling over.
"Let go of her!" Worsel commanded sharply. As Cloudd obeyed, Worse] himself
picked
her up in his sinewy arms, froze stiffly in intense concentration for a split
second, swung
himself around, and dashed for the edge of the platform. As he sprang outward,
his thirty
feet of body and tail strung out like a winged snake, he planted a series of
thoughts in
Cloudd's mind: "Get to your ship and check with Nadreck! Kallatra's caught a
case of the
gremlins.... Her prostheses are malfunctioning. We're off to the hospital for
her new body. .
. . What a lucky chance, a propitious time; it's fate!"
Within seconds Worsel and Kallatra were gone. Worsel's thoughts didn't end in
Cloudd's
head; they sort of trailed off into a jumble of ideas. He had never seen
Worsel so excited,
even happy, yet at the same time so enormously serious. A new body? What did
he mean
by that? Words came back to him that Worse] had spoken when he had introduced
Cloudd
to the girl in the mechanical body. "Some day she'll have a natural face."
Only now did he
realize Worsel had not said "natural-looking face."
Cloudd was running out of the main building to jump on a passing electric
freight cart going
toward the spaceport when Nadreck reached him.
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