September 24, 2025 • 27 mins
Dive into the thrilling adventures of Astounding Stories 19, featuring an array of captivating tales that will ignite your imagination! In The Doom from Planet 4 by Jack Williamson, a mysterious ray of fire guides Dan on his ship to an island fraught with otherworldly danger. H.G. Winters The Hands of Aten takes you on a journey as Craig unearths three long-frozen Egyptians from solid ice, leading him into an astonishing escapade. Experience the gripping fate of young Stoddard in H. Thompson Richs The Diamond Thunderbolt, where being locked in a rocket propels him into the vastness of space. A.R. Holmess The Slave Ship from Space explores the chilling reality of three kidnapped Earthlings who reveal to Xantra of the Tillas just how docile Earth slaves can be. In The Revolt of the Machines, Nat Schachner and Arthur L. Zagat delve into the sinister motivations of a master machine as it rebels against its human creators. Finally, in Ray Cummingss The Exile of Time, follow Tugh, the cripple who evades fate until the world teeters on the brink of destruction. Plus, dont miss The Readers Corner, a gathering space for fans of Astounding Stories!
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Section fourteen of Astounding Stories nineteenth July nineteen thirty one.
This is a LibriVox recording. All libri fox recording or
in the public domain. For more information of the volunteer,
please visit lybefox dot org. Astounding Stories, nineteenth July nineteen
(00:21):
thirty one. The Revolt of the Machine by Nadsational and
Arthur Eld's God Part one. Something in the manifested mind
of the master machines pours it into diabolical revolt against
the authority of its human masters. For five thousand years
since that nine legendary figure, Einstein wrote and Tiaovarov Means
(00:43):
of time. The scientists and the forts reduced life and
the universe the terms of a mathematical formula, and they
thought they had succeeded. Throughout the world, machines did the
work of man, and the aristos on norths of the
machines played in the self idleness in their crystal and
gold pleasure cities. Even the prolot Horde's relief of all
but an hour or two per day of toil were
(01:04):
containing their warrants contact with the crumbs of their masters.
Then the eyes began to move down from the north
and up from the south, slowly, inesurably, the jaws of
the great vice closed, till all there was left with
the white Empire of Man was a narrow belt about
the equator. Everywhere else was a fast, tumbled wat of
(01:26):
cold and glaring whiteness, a frozen desert. In the narrow
habitable belt were compacted that teeming millions of Earth's people.
In spite of the best efforts of the scientists among them,
the crowding together of the myriads of Earth's inhabitants brought
in its trained and inefatable plagues of famine and disease.
(01:46):
Even with the most intensive methods of cultivation, even with
the synthetic foot factories running day and night, there could
not be produced enough to sustain life in the hords
of Prolats, And with the lowering of resistance and the
lack of suficii sanitary arrangement, disease began to spread with
ever increasing rapidity and virulence. The Aristots trembled, for there
(02:09):
were few, and the Prolat's many already were rising loud
and dishevelds or radders, inciting the millions to rise against
their masters. The arrists were few, but they were not helpless.
In the blackness of a Moonlas's clouded night, there was
a whispering of many wings and from dog shapes that
loomed against the dark sky. Great beam swept over the
tented fields where the prolocts lay huddled and sleeping. And
(02:32):
when the red sun circled the eye chained Earth, he
found in his path heaps of dust, where on his
last journey he had warmed the swarming villions. The slaves
thus rostlessly destroyed wold will be spared. For the machines
did the work of the world, even to the personal
care of the Aristot's pampered bodies. Only for direction and
(02:53):
sorting and stopping was the brain and the hand of
men required. Now that the inhabited portion of the terrestrial
globe was so straightly circumscribed, radio power, wave, television and
radiophone rendered visible the control of all the machines from
one central station built at the edge of the northern glacier.
(03:14):
Here were brought the scan few of the proluts that
had been spared, a pitiful four hundred men and women,
and they were set to endless, thankless tasks. I was
one of the few, and cats, and my friend, who
was set at the head of the force, I was
second in command. For a decade we labored, whipped our
(03:35):
fellow to their tasks, that the Aristos might loll careless
in the perfume and souls of their pleasure palace or
riot in white gravel, to saying at last, in sudden
stupper spoiled. Thus they would lie until the dressing machines
we guided would leave them gently from their mouse coach,
bat them with warm and fragrant waters, cloth their soft
(03:57):
carcasses in their phones are desce and webb, and start
them on the new day of debauchery. But the slow
vengeance of an inscrutable omnipontence they mockingly denied, overtook them
at loss. And as saw the rendering and payment of
the long past du waccount. As I entered the fast
(04:18):
doom hall, wherein all my waking hours were spent, the
shrill whistle of an alarm signal told me that something
had been wrong. Instinctively, I looked toward the pasts of Abbot.
Three times in the past we had caston, or I
been called upon for swift action to write some errors
of that dull, witted prolat on the oval vizer screen
(04:40):
above the banquet buttons of his station. As of the
impending catastrophe. Two great freight plans, one bearing the glowing
red star that told of its cargo of highly explosive terminite,
were approaching head on with lightning rapidity. The fool had
them on the same level abbut was keeping none at
(05:00):
the screen in paralyzed fright, with no idea of how
to avoid the cataclysm. Just below, I glimsed the soaring
towers of Antarca in a moment that gold and crystal
pleasure city would be blasted to instinction with all its
sleeping dozends. Of course, swift would be the vengeance of
the aristes Olvera. The eye could see Abbot and Caston
(05:22):
and the hundred others melting in the fierce rays of
the death bath. But even as my face blenched with
the swift and terrible vision, the little control score grown
to a smoking stop at a boot's back. With one motions,
Caston slide from leaf from his seat and thrust aside
the gaping prolett. His long white fingers dared deftly over
(05:43):
the gleaming buttons. The red starred plane banging in studd
and swerve of the other deep beneath dis thing from
the speaker. Beneath the screen came the woods of the
riven air. As the fliers flashed fast save by a
margin of scan feet, another rippling place of the prolet
chief fingers, and the plans were back on their proper courses.
(06:04):
The whistle sees its pursing alarmed lafe a throbbing stillness.
See if Casten turned to the brute faced culprit, cold contemptar,
and the thin ascetic ferus of his face. Somehow I
was at his side. I must have been running across
the white floor of the controlsation. While these crisis had
flared and passed in measure tones, each word of a
(06:28):
cutting whip. Last came his well merited rebuke, don't try
me too far. Abb Long before this I should have
belief of your past and ordered you to the death bath.
I am drelick in my duty that I do not
do so. By my weak linency, I imperiled the relief
of your comrades and my own. It is your good
(06:49):
fortune that a council delegate has not been present at
one of your exhibitions. But I dare not ricks more.
Let the warning whistle come from your station. Just once again.
I I shall report you as an incompetent. You know
the law. I look to see the man cring in
a bassment and contrition, But the heavy jaw transford in
(07:13):
truckling defiance had blazed forth from the deep set eyes.
The florid features were improvaled with rage. He made as
if to reply, but turned away from the videring, scorning
cassin face. Ha maren. Here at last, a warm smile
gritted me. I've been waiting for you impatiently. I am
(07:35):
an hour before my time, I replied, then continued exasperately.
See if I hope this lattice in vicility will convince
you that you ought to turn him in. I know
it hurts you to condemn a proletted death bath, but
if you let him go on, his mistakes will bring
us all to that end. I glanced toward where a
(07:57):
black portal broke the stroll of switch and soldered behind
that grim gate, leap and flat eternally the flame of
the consuming ray, the exhaust flew of the solar energy
by which the machines were fed. Once I had seen
a condemned man step through that aperture at the order
of an Aristotle, whom he had offended. For a moment,
(08:19):
his tortured body had glowed with a terrible golden light.
Then there was nothing. My friend pressed my arms calmingly again,
he smiled, Come, come, heroon, don't get all work up.
It isn't his fault. Why look at him? Can't you
see that he's a troll back lost in this role
(08:41):
of science and machines. Besides his voice trope law, it
doesn't matter anymore, man, failure will no longer trouble the
even tenor of the machines. I finish a tremor of excitement.
Seize me. You've completed it, that last and it works.
(09:03):
It works. I tested when the sieve changed at midnight,
kept the oncoming force outside for five minutes. It works
like a charm. Great when will tell the console I've
already sent the message off. You know how hard it
is to get them away from their wines and their women.
But they'll be here soon. But before they come, I
(09:25):
have something to tell you. Let's go back behind the screens.
As we walk toward the huge Torpauline's green mass that
bulk in the center of the great chamber. I glanced
around the hole at the thousand foot circle of seated proluts.
Two hundred men and women were there. Two hundred more
(09:46):
were sleeping in the dormitories. These were all dead, were
left of the world's workers. Before each operative rows the seried,
tundreds of pure buttons dem blued, clicking in and out
under the beausy fingers. Above each an oval vizor's screen,
which its flitting image brought across space the area to
switch his control. Every one of the ten score was
(10:10):
watching his screen with taught attention and listening to the
voices of the machines. There depicted the metallic voices from
the radio speakers broadcasting their needs. The work was going
on as it had gone on for ten years, with
the omnipresent thread of the death bath whipping flag tired
brains to dreary energy. The work kept going on till
(10:32):
they dropped or out at last in their tired seats.
Only in cast and brain and in mind flamed the
new hope of release. Tomorrow. The work would be done forever.
Tomorrow we will be released to take our places in
the pleasant palace, to low. It is breeding the sweet
perfume of idleness waited on by machines directed by a machine.
(10:59):
For as we stood behind the heavy canvas folds that
Caston had drawn aside there toward fifty feet above me,
half way to the arching roof, and a machine that
was the ultimate flowering of man's genius, almost man form.
It was two tall metal cylinders supporting a larger that
soared loft till far above it was topped by a
(11:21):
manifested wall of transparent quartz. Again, I had a fleeting
but vivid impression of something baleful threatening about it. Small
wonder though for the largest cylinder. The trunk of the
man machines Caston had created was covered thick with dangling arms,
and the lot of the sand and tube that floated
(11:43):
the screen space was reflected from the great glass had
till it seemed that the thing was alive, that it
was watching me, till some unguarded woman would give it
its change. A long moment we stood, going again over
each tale of the thing, groans of familiar through long handling,
(12:03):
as it was slowly assembled. Then my friend's voice, low
pitched as was its one, dissipated the vision I was
saying two hours ago, Miren, with none here but me
to see, those arms were extended it to its appointed station,
and as the sensitive cells in the head received the
(12:25):
signals from the visitors screen and the radiuspeakers, the armsots
about the keyboards and pressed the proper buttons, just as
our men are doing now. The work of the world
went on without the falter, with only the master machines
to drag it. Yet a year ago, when I first
spoke to you of the idea, you told me it
was impossible. You have one, I responded, You have taken
(12:51):
the last step in the turning over the function of
mantum machines to the last step, but one routine control.
It's true, cannot be exercised by this. Those fellows out
there are no longer necessary, but there will still be
unexpected on four seen emergencies that will require human intelligence
(13:12):
to meet and copy with them. Hugh and I, I'm afraid,
are still doomed to remain here and serve the machines.
Catherin shook his head, while a little smile plaid over
his fair face, and a glow of pride and triumph
suffers his fine dark eyes. Grumbling again, old Sharper, What
(13:33):
would you say if I told you that I have
solved even that problem. I have given my master machines intelligence.
My wide eyed questionings there must have conveyed my tought
to him, for he loved shortly and said, no, I've
not gone insane. It was an accident. He went on
(13:57):
with amazing calm. My first idea was merely to build
something that would reduce the necessary supervisoryforce to one or
two humans. But when I had almost completed my second
experimental model, I found that I was out of the
copper velopments necessary to find a certain coil. I didn't
want to wait till I could obtain more from the stores.
(14:20):
And remember that on the inside of the door of
the death path was some fine screening that could be
dispensed with. I used the wire from that. Whether the
secret of life as well as of death lies in
those west rise from the sun, or whether some unknown
elements of the human consume and the flame was deposit
on the screening in a sort of visible clothing, I
(14:43):
do not know, But this I do know. When that
second model was finished and the fatality and caring was
turned on, things happened here. Things that could be explained
only on the ground that the missions had intelligence. A
silent moment, then his thin, pale lips to it and
very smoke. You know, Maren, I was a little scared
(15:10):
the thing I had created, simplessessed of a violent antagonism
towards me. Look. He bared an arm and held it
out leaved wi all ran clear round the forearm. One
of the tentacles I had given it whip around my
arms like a flash. If I had not caught off
the current at once, it might have squeezed through flash
(15:33):
and bone. The pressure was terrific. I was about to
speak when from the screen nearest the entrance door, a
beam of green light darts out. Ennish came again, once, twice,
three times. Look shift the signal. They're coming. The console
will soon be here. They're over prompt. My message might
(15:55):
have arose their curiosity, but listened. I inc parated my
new taught coil, as I called it in the large
master machine. But I don't know just what will happen
when the current flows through that so I sensed it.
The machines will work rotently without it. There is a
button that will bring it into action. Well, I shall
(16:17):
have taken the proper precaution, I will switch it on,
and then we shall see what happens. We saw sooner
than caston expected again, the green beam flashed out the
great portal slowly opened through them glided the three travels
coors of the Supreme Console of the Aristos. It had
been almost a year since I saw them, the overlords
(16:40):
of the world, and I had forgotten their appearance. Sprawled
off the glowing sials of their cushen's coach, eyes closed
in language boared them. They were like a huge white
slux sullen to tremendous size by the indolent, luxuriousness of
their lives. The flash that was not concealed by the
bright hued web of theirs, was passed the white and
(17:01):
bags unfold where the shrunken muscles be its refused support.
Great poach dropped beneath swollen eyelids, full lipped, sensual mouths,
and pendulous cheeks merged into the great fat rolls of
their chins. I soddered. These were the master for whom
we slaved. As we bent low, the gliding cards came
(17:26):
to rest, and the warm redolance of sweet perfume came
to me from this fan, softly whirling in the canopies
of the ARSA's hats, Strands of music rose and fell,
and seized as a flat, tired voice breathe, rise, prolats.
I strained up. The eyes of the console were now opened.
(17:47):
Little pig's eyes almost lost in the flash about them,
they glinted with the cold inhuman cruelty. I suddered and
thought of the night of terror ten years before. And
suddenly I was afraid, deathly afraid. Latinum Etuna, head of
the council, spoke again. We have come with repetition. What
(18:10):
is the matter, the grave that it has led you
to disturb us at our pleasures? Casson bowed law, Your excellency,
I would not have presumed to intrude upon you for
a small matter. I have so greatly ventured, because I
have at length solved the final step in the mechanization
of the world. I have invented a master machine to
(18:33):
operate the switchboard in this hole and replace the workers thereat.
The flabby faces of the aristos betrayed not the slightest interest,
not the least surprised. Only Atna spoke interesting, if true?
Can you prove your statement cason S throde to the
(18:56):
canvas screen and pulled a cord. The great canvas curtains
rolled by. Here's the missions, my lord. His face was
slit with the gloved pride of achievement. His voice had
lost its reference. Raply, he continued. The head of this
contravance is a bank of photo and sono electric cells.
Its phasics focuses on one of the screens through a
(19:19):
nerve system of the copper filaments, and the combination of
lights and sounds will act it the proper arm, which
will shoot out the record bank of buttons and press
the ones necessary to make any particulars demand. That is
all the products are doing out there, and they make mistake,
while my master machines cannot the But Lendham Atturney raised
(19:40):
a language hand, spur us this technical explanation, they bore us.
All we desire to know is that the machine will
do as you say, deceive floods and gold. His triumph
was not meeting with the acclaim he had expected, but
he bowed well with your gracious permissions. How I shall
(20:02):
demonstrate its operation. Add Tona nodded, and the quiescence Casin's
voice rang out in creep's command attention, prolats cease working.
The long circling glows suddenly jerked around. Their flying fingers
halted their eternal dartns quickly down to the space in
(20:24):
the front of the door to the death's bath. A
rush of hurried feet the man and women were accustomed to,
incent unquestioning obedience, absolute silence, Keep clear of the floor,
on peril of your lives. The sea wiled to the
master machines and pressed a button. Instantly, the hundreds of
(20:47):
dangling arms telescope out each turbuton bank were a moment
before a prolute had labourne and with the weird simulation
of life, the ten fork end of each arm commands
a rattling depressions of the buttons rapidly, purposefully. The matic
fingers moved over the keyboards, and on the screen we
(21:08):
could see that the machines all over the world were
continuing on their even course. Not the slightest change in
their working betrayed the fact that they were now being
directed by a machine instead of human beings. A great
source of admiration swept me at the marvelous accomplishment of
my friend. Not so the arses expressionless, they watched at
(21:31):
the maze of stretching tentacles vibrated through the crowded air.
Yet not quite expressionless, I thought I could sense in
the covered glance they cast at one another a crafty
winning of the implication of these machines. A question asked
and answered, a decisions made. Then their spokesman turned languidly
(21:54):
to the waiting, triumphant figure of Castan. Evidently your claims
are proven. This means that the force of prolects operative
are no longer necessary. Yes, your excellency, they may now
be released to a well earned reward. The Aristo ignored
the interruption. We take it that only two will not
(22:16):
be required to operate this control station to supply the
less modicum of human intelligence required to make unforeseen emergencies.
I saw that Cassan was about to interrupt once more,
to tell the Council of the taught Coil the most
unbelievable part of the miracle he had wrote. But something
(22:36):
seemed toward me that he should not speak. Standing behind him,
I nuds him while myself replied, yes, your excellency. The
Sief flung me a startled look, but did not correct
me from the packed craft of prolats. At the other
end of the whole, I could hear a murmuring. While
I could not make of the word, the very tone
(22:58):
sold me that in the hearts of those very slaves,
new hope was rising, the same hope that glowed in
Kasan's face. But I was oppressed by an unreasoning fear.
A Tunnau was still talking in his cold, an emotional monotone.
These being so here now our decision, Causton and Meron,
(23:19):
you will remain here to meet over emergencies you others.
Your function is done. You have done your work well.
You are no no longer needed to control the machines. Therefore,
he paused, and my heart almost stopped. Therefore, being no
longer of value, you will be disposed of. A click
(23:42):
sounded loud through the stunned silence. Beyond the white crowd.
The huge black portal slits slowly opened. A simmering radiance
of glowing vaporous blazed from the space beyond. Prolads file
singly into the death bath to not raise his voice
only slightly with the command. I glanced at Caston. He
(24:05):
was livid with fury. Incredible as it may seem so
ingrained with the habit of obedience to the arrests and
the products that not even a murmur to protest came
from the condemned beings. The nearest man to the flaming
death stepped out into the void. His dumb body flared,
then vanished. The next moved to his turn, but suddenly
(24:30):
a great shot rang out. Stop. It was Cassan's voice,
but so changed, so packed with fury and outrage, that
I scarcely recognized it. His spare, tall form was drawn
tensely straight as he shot a clenched fist at the console.
He was quivering with anger, and his eyes blasted, Aristos,
(24:56):
you do wrong. These man have ser few faithfully and well.
I demand for them the reward they have earned, rass
and leisure, and the pleasure that for ten years they
have seen you enjoy well their work, care for you.
They have worked for you, I say, And now that
I have released them, you will destroy them. Aristos, I
(25:21):
demand justice. For the first time I saw expression on
the flashed faces of this council, surprise and astonishment that
the projects should dare dispute arts to command. Then as
near twisted atnus continents. What is this? Who are you
to demand anything from us? We spare these projects because
(25:45):
we need them. We need them no longer, hence they
must die. What madness has seized? You reward justice for
products as well, say we should reward the stone walls
of our house, dispense justice to the machines. Proceed prolats
(26:06):
castin met as if to spring for the arstal truth.
I put out a hand to stop him. An invisible
shield of death rays rimmed the platform the council use.
It was suicide, but suddenly he turned and sprang to
the master machines. He grabs a switch lever and threw
it down. A long fantacle left its keys and switched
(26:29):
menacingly through the air. Maren prolatts under the keyboards. Came
cassin shout. I dived to obey steel fingers, clutched my
jerkins and threw it loose. As I landed tout against
the wall, cast and Tom alongside of me. He was
breathing heavily, and his face was deadly pale. Look he
(26:53):
gasped and no Section fourteen
Section fourteen of Astounding Stories nineteenth July nineteen thirty one.
This is a LibriVox recording. All libri fox recording or
in the public domain. For more information of the volunteer,
please visit lybefox dot org. Astounding Stories, nineteenth July nineteen
(00:21):
thirty one. The Revolt of the Machine by Nadsational and
Arthur Eld's God Part one. Something in the manifested mind
of the master machines pours it into diabolical revolt against
the authority of its human masters. For five thousand years
since that nine legendary figure, Einstein wrote and Tiaovarov Means
(00:43):
of time. The scientists and the forts reduced life and
the universe the terms of a mathematical formula, and they
thought they had succeeded. Throughout the world, machines did the
work of man, and the aristos on norths of the
machines played in the self idleness in their crystal and
gold pleasure cities. Even the prolot Horde's relief of all
but an hour or two per day of toil were
(01:04):
containing their warrants contact with the crumbs of their masters.
Then the eyes began to move down from the north
and up from the south, slowly, inesurably, the jaws of
the great vice closed, till all there was left with
the white Empire of Man was a narrow belt about
the equator. Everywhere else was a fast, tumbled wat of
(01:26):
cold and glaring whiteness, a frozen desert. In the narrow
habitable belt were compacted that teeming millions of Earth's people.
In spite of the best efforts of the scientists among them,
the crowding together of the myriads of Earth's inhabitants brought
in its trained and inefatable plagues of famine and disease.
(01:46):
Even with the most intensive methods of cultivation, even with
the synthetic foot factories running day and night, there could
not be produced enough to sustain life in the hords
of Prolats, And with the lowering of resistance and the
lack of suficii sanitary arrangement, disease began to spread with
ever increasing rapidity and virulence. The Aristots trembled, for there
(02:09):
were few, and the Prolat's many already were rising loud
and dishevelds or radders, inciting the millions to rise against
their masters. The arrists were few, but they were not helpless.
In the blackness of a Moonlas's clouded night, there was
a whispering of many wings and from dog shapes that
loomed against the dark sky. Great beam swept over the
tented fields where the prolocts lay huddled and sleeping. And
(02:32):
when the red sun circled the eye chained Earth, he
found in his path heaps of dust, where on his
last journey he had warmed the swarming villions. The slaves
thus rostlessly destroyed wold will be spared. For the machines
did the work of the world, even to the personal
care of the Aristot's pampered bodies. Only for direction and
(02:53):
sorting and stopping was the brain and the hand of
men required. Now that the inhabited portion of the terrestrial
globe was so straightly circumscribed, radio power, wave, television and
radiophone rendered visible the control of all the machines from
one central station built at the edge of the northern glacier.
(03:14):
Here were brought the scan few of the proluts that
had been spared, a pitiful four hundred men and women,
and they were set to endless, thankless tasks. I was
one of the few, and cats, and my friend, who
was set at the head of the force, I was
second in command. For a decade we labored, whipped our
(03:35):
fellow to their tasks, that the Aristos might loll careless
in the perfume and souls of their pleasure palace or
riot in white gravel, to saying at last, in sudden
stupper spoiled. Thus they would lie until the dressing machines
we guided would leave them gently from their mouse coach,
bat them with warm and fragrant waters, cloth their soft
(03:57):
carcasses in their phones are desce and webb, and start
them on the new day of debauchery. But the slow
vengeance of an inscrutable omnipontence they mockingly denied, overtook them
at loss. And as saw the rendering and payment of
the long past du waccount. As I entered the fast
(04:18):
doom hall, wherein all my waking hours were spent, the
shrill whistle of an alarm signal told me that something
had been wrong. Instinctively, I looked toward the pasts of Abbot.
Three times in the past we had caston, or I
been called upon for swift action to write some errors
of that dull, witted prolat on the oval vizer screen
(04:40):
above the banquet buttons of his station. As of the
impending catastrophe. Two great freight plans, one bearing the glowing
red star that told of its cargo of highly explosive terminite,
were approaching head on with lightning rapidity. The fool had
them on the same level abbut was keeping none at
(05:00):
the screen in paralyzed fright, with no idea of how
to avoid the cataclysm. Just below, I glimsed the soaring
towers of Antarca in a moment that gold and crystal
pleasure city would be blasted to instinction with all its
sleeping dozends. Of course, swift would be the vengeance of
the aristes Olvera. The eye could see Abbot and Caston
(05:22):
and the hundred others melting in the fierce rays of
the death bath. But even as my face blenched with
the swift and terrible vision, the little control score grown
to a smoking stop at a boot's back. With one motions,
Caston slide from leaf from his seat and thrust aside
the gaping prolett. His long white fingers dared deftly over
(05:43):
the gleaming buttons. The red starred plane banging in studd
and swerve of the other deep beneath dis thing from
the speaker. Beneath the screen came the woods of the
riven air. As the fliers flashed fast save by a
margin of scan feet, another rippling place of the prolet
chief fingers, and the plans were back on their proper courses.
(06:04):
The whistle sees its pursing alarmed lafe a throbbing stillness.
See if Casten turned to the brute faced culprit, cold contemptar,
and the thin ascetic ferus of his face. Somehow I
was at his side. I must have been running across
the white floor of the controlsation. While these crisis had
flared and passed in measure tones, each word of a
(06:28):
cutting whip. Last came his well merited rebuke, don't try
me too far. Abb Long before this I should have
belief of your past and ordered you to the death bath.
I am drelick in my duty that I do not
do so. By my weak linency, I imperiled the relief
of your comrades and my own. It is your good
(06:49):
fortune that a council delegate has not been present at
one of your exhibitions. But I dare not ricks more.
Let the warning whistle come from your station. Just once again.
I I shall report you as an incompetent. You know
the law. I look to see the man cring in
a bassment and contrition, But the heavy jaw transford in
(07:13):
truckling defiance had blazed forth from the deep set eyes.
The florid features were improvaled with rage. He made as
if to reply, but turned away from the videring, scorning
cassin face. Ha maren. Here at last, a warm smile
gritted me. I've been waiting for you impatiently. I am
(07:35):
an hour before my time, I replied, then continued exasperately.
See if I hope this lattice in vicility will convince
you that you ought to turn him in. I know
it hurts you to condemn a proletted death bath, but
if you let him go on, his mistakes will bring
us all to that end. I glanced toward where a
(07:57):
black portal broke the stroll of switch and soldered behind
that grim gate, leap and flat eternally the flame of
the consuming ray, the exhaust flew of the solar energy
by which the machines were fed. Once I had seen
a condemned man step through that aperture at the order
of an Aristotle, whom he had offended. For a moment,
(08:19):
his tortured body had glowed with a terrible golden light.
Then there was nothing. My friend pressed my arms calmingly again,
he smiled, Come, come, heroon, don't get all work up.
It isn't his fault. Why look at him? Can't you
see that he's a troll back lost in this role
(08:41):
of science and machines. Besides his voice trope law, it
doesn't matter anymore, man, failure will no longer trouble the
even tenor of the machines. I finish a tremor of excitement.
Seize me. You've completed it, that last and it works.
(09:03):
It works. I tested when the sieve changed at midnight,
kept the oncoming force outside for five minutes. It works
like a charm. Great when will tell the console I've
already sent the message off. You know how hard it
is to get them away from their wines and their women.
But they'll be here soon. But before they come, I
(09:25):
have something to tell you. Let's go back behind the screens.
As we walk toward the huge Torpauline's green mass that
bulk in the center of the great chamber. I glanced
around the hole at the thousand foot circle of seated proluts.
Two hundred men and women were there. Two hundred more
(09:46):
were sleeping in the dormitories. These were all dead, were
left of the world's workers. Before each operative rows the seried,
tundreds of pure buttons dem blued, clicking in and out
under the beausy fingers. Above each an oval vizor's screen,
which its flitting image brought across space the area to
switch his control. Every one of the ten score was
(10:10):
watching his screen with taught attention and listening to the
voices of the machines. There depicted the metallic voices from
the radio speakers broadcasting their needs. The work was going
on as it had gone on for ten years, with
the omnipresent thread of the death bath whipping flag tired
brains to dreary energy. The work kept going on till
(10:32):
they dropped or out at last in their tired seats.
Only in cast and brain and in mind flamed the
new hope of release. Tomorrow. The work would be done forever.
Tomorrow we will be released to take our places in
the pleasant palace, to low. It is breeding the sweet
perfume of idleness waited on by machines directed by a machine.
(10:59):
For as we stood behind the heavy canvas folds that
Caston had drawn aside there toward fifty feet above me,
half way to the arching roof, and a machine that
was the ultimate flowering of man's genius, almost man form.
It was two tall metal cylinders supporting a larger that
soared loft till far above it was topped by a
(11:21):
manifested wall of transparent quartz. Again, I had a fleeting
but vivid impression of something baleful threatening about it. Small
wonder though for the largest cylinder. The trunk of the
man machines Caston had created was covered thick with dangling arms,
and the lot of the sand and tube that floated
(11:43):
the screen space was reflected from the great glass had
till it seemed that the thing was alive, that it
was watching me, till some unguarded woman would give it
its change. A long moment we stood, going again over
each tale of the thing, groans of familiar through long handling,
(12:03):
as it was slowly assembled. Then my friend's voice, low
pitched as was its one, dissipated the vision I was
saying two hours ago, Miren, with none here but me
to see, those arms were extended it to its appointed station,
and as the sensitive cells in the head received the
(12:25):
signals from the visitors screen and the radiuspeakers, the armsots
about the keyboards and pressed the proper buttons, just as
our men are doing now. The work of the world
went on without the falter, with only the master machines
to drag it. Yet a year ago, when I first
spoke to you of the idea, you told me it
was impossible. You have one, I responded, You have taken
(12:51):
the last step in the turning over the function of
mantum machines to the last step, but one routine control.
It's true, cannot be exercised by this. Those fellows out
there are no longer necessary, but there will still be
unexpected on four seen emergencies that will require human intelligence
(13:12):
to meet and copy with them. Hugh and I, I'm afraid,
are still doomed to remain here and serve the machines.
Catherin shook his head, while a little smile plaid over
his fair face, and a glow of pride and triumph
suffers his fine dark eyes. Grumbling again, old Sharper, What
(13:33):
would you say if I told you that I have
solved even that problem. I have given my master machines intelligence.
My wide eyed questionings there must have conveyed my tought
to him, for he loved shortly and said, no, I've
not gone insane. It was an accident. He went on
(13:57):
with amazing calm. My first idea was merely to build
something that would reduce the necessary supervisoryforce to one or
two humans. But when I had almost completed my second
experimental model, I found that I was out of the
copper velopments necessary to find a certain coil. I didn't
want to wait till I could obtain more from the stores.
(14:20):
And remember that on the inside of the door of
the death path was some fine screening that could be
dispensed with. I used the wire from that. Whether the
secret of life as well as of death lies in
those west rise from the sun, or whether some unknown
elements of the human consume and the flame was deposit
on the screening in a sort of visible clothing, I
(14:43):
do not know, But this I do know. When that
second model was finished and the fatality and caring was
turned on, things happened here. Things that could be explained
only on the ground that the missions had intelligence. A
silent moment, then his thin, pale lips to it and
very smoke. You know, Maren, I was a little scared
(15:10):
the thing I had created, simplessessed of a violent antagonism
towards me. Look. He bared an arm and held it
out leaved wi all ran clear round the forearm. One
of the tentacles I had given it whip around my
arms like a flash. If I had not caught off
the current at once, it might have squeezed through flash
(15:33):
and bone. The pressure was terrific. I was about to
speak when from the screen nearest the entrance door, a
beam of green light darts out. Ennish came again, once, twice,
three times. Look shift the signal. They're coming. The console
will soon be here. They're over prompt. My message might
(15:55):
have arose their curiosity, but listened. I inc parated my
new taught coil, as I called it in the large
master machine. But I don't know just what will happen
when the current flows through that so I sensed it.
The machines will work rotently without it. There is a
button that will bring it into action. Well, I shall
(16:17):
have taken the proper precaution, I will switch it on,
and then we shall see what happens. We saw sooner
than caston expected again, the green beam flashed out the
great portal slowly opened through them glided the three travels
coors of the Supreme Console of the Aristos. It had
been almost a year since I saw them, the overlords
(16:40):
of the world, and I had forgotten their appearance. Sprawled
off the glowing sials of their cushen's coach, eyes closed
in language boared them. They were like a huge white
slux sullen to tremendous size by the indolent, luxuriousness of
their lives. The flash that was not concealed by the
bright hued web of theirs, was passed the white and
(17:01):
bags unfold where the shrunken muscles be its refused support.
Great poach dropped beneath swollen eyelids, full lipped, sensual mouths,
and pendulous cheeks merged into the great fat rolls of
their chins. I soddered. These were the master for whom
we slaved. As we bent low, the gliding cards came
(17:26):
to rest, and the warm redolance of sweet perfume came
to me from this fan, softly whirling in the canopies
of the ARSA's hats, Strands of music rose and fell,
and seized as a flat, tired voice breathe, rise, prolats.
I strained up. The eyes of the console were now opened.
(17:47):
Little pig's eyes almost lost in the flash about them,
they glinted with the cold inhuman cruelty. I suddered and
thought of the night of terror ten years before. And
suddenly I was afraid, deathly afraid. Latinum Etuna, head of
the council, spoke again. We have come with repetition. What
(18:10):
is the matter, the grave that it has led you
to disturb us at our pleasures? Casson bowed law, Your excellency,
I would not have presumed to intrude upon you for
a small matter. I have so greatly ventured, because I
have at length solved the final step in the mechanization
of the world. I have invented a master machine to
(18:33):
operate the switchboard in this hole and replace the workers thereat.
The flabby faces of the aristos betrayed not the slightest interest,
not the least surprised. Only Atna spoke interesting, if true?
Can you prove your statement cason S throde to the
(18:56):
canvas screen and pulled a cord. The great canvas curtains
rolled by. Here's the missions, my lord. His face was
slit with the gloved pride of achievement. His voice had
lost its reference. Raply, he continued. The head of this
contravance is a bank of photo and sono electric cells.
Its phasics focuses on one of the screens through a
(19:19):
nerve system of the copper filaments, and the combination of
lights and sounds will act it the proper arm, which
will shoot out the record bank of buttons and press
the ones necessary to make any particulars demand. That is
all the products are doing out there, and they make mistake,
while my master machines cannot the But Lendham Atturney raised
(19:40):
a language hand, spur us this technical explanation, they bore us.
All we desire to know is that the machine will
do as you say, deceive floods and gold. His triumph
was not meeting with the acclaim he had expected, but
he bowed well with your gracious permissions. How I shall
(20:02):
demonstrate its operation. Add Tona nodded, and the quiescence Casin's
voice rang out in creep's command attention, prolats cease working.
The long circling glows suddenly jerked around. Their flying fingers
halted their eternal dartns quickly down to the space in
(20:24):
the front of the door to the death's bath. A
rush of hurried feet the man and women were accustomed to,
incent unquestioning obedience, absolute silence, Keep clear of the floor,
on peril of your lives. The sea wiled to the
master machines and pressed a button. Instantly, the hundreds of
(20:47):
dangling arms telescope out each turbuton bank were a moment
before a prolute had labourne and with the weird simulation
of life, the ten fork end of each arm commands
a rattling depressions of the buttons rapidly, purposefully. The matic
fingers moved over the keyboards, and on the screen we
(21:08):
could see that the machines all over the world were
continuing on their even course. Not the slightest change in
their working betrayed the fact that they were now being
directed by a machine instead of human beings. A great
source of admiration swept me at the marvelous accomplishment of
my friend. Not so the arses expressionless, they watched at
(21:31):
the maze of stretching tentacles vibrated through the crowded air.
Yet not quite expressionless, I thought I could sense in
the covered glance they cast at one another a crafty
winning of the implication of these machines. A question asked
and answered, a decisions made. Then their spokesman turned languidly
(21:54):
to the waiting, triumphant figure of Castan. Evidently your claims
are proven. This means that the force of prolects operative
are no longer necessary. Yes, your excellency, they may now
be released to a well earned reward. The Aristo ignored
the interruption. We take it that only two will not
(22:16):
be required to operate this control station to supply the
less modicum of human intelligence required to make unforeseen emergencies.
I saw that Cassan was about to interrupt once more,
to tell the Council of the taught Coil the most
unbelievable part of the miracle he had wrote. But something
(22:36):
seemed toward me that he should not speak. Standing behind him,
I nuds him while myself replied, yes, your excellency. The
Sief flung me a startled look, but did not correct
me from the packed craft of prolats. At the other
end of the whole, I could hear a murmuring. While
I could not make of the word, the very tone
(22:58):
sold me that in the hearts of those very slaves,
new hope was rising, the same hope that glowed in
Kasan's face. But I was oppressed by an unreasoning fear.
A Tunnau was still talking in his cold, an emotional monotone.
These being so here now our decision, Causton and Meron,
(23:19):
you will remain here to meet over emergencies you others.
Your function is done. You have done your work well.
You are no no longer needed to control the machines. Therefore,
he paused, and my heart almost stopped. Therefore, being no
longer of value, you will be disposed of. A click
(23:42):
sounded loud through the stunned silence. Beyond the white crowd.
The huge black portal slits slowly opened. A simmering radiance
of glowing vaporous blazed from the space beyond. Prolads file
singly into the death bath to not raise his voice
only slightly with the command. I glanced at Caston. He
(24:05):
was livid with fury. Incredible as it may seem so
ingrained with the habit of obedience to the arrests and
the products that not even a murmur to protest came
from the condemned beings. The nearest man to the flaming
death stepped out into the void. His dumb body flared,
then vanished. The next moved to his turn, but suddenly
(24:30):
a great shot rang out. Stop. It was Cassan's voice,
but so changed, so packed with fury and outrage, that
I scarcely recognized it. His spare, tall form was drawn
tensely straight as he shot a clenched fist at the console.
He was quivering with anger, and his eyes blasted, Aristos,
(24:56):
you do wrong. These man have ser few faithfully and well.
I demand for them the reward they have earned, rass
and leisure, and the pleasure that for ten years they
have seen you enjoy well their work, care for you.
They have worked for you, I say, And now that
I have released them, you will destroy them. Aristos, I
(25:21):
demand justice. For the first time I saw expression on
the flashed faces of this council, surprise and astonishment that
the projects should dare dispute arts to command. Then as
near twisted atnus continents. What is this? Who are you
to demand anything from us? We spare these projects because
(25:45):
we need them. We need them no longer, hence they
must die. What madness has seized? You reward justice for
products as well, say we should reward the stone walls
of our house, dispense justice to the machines. Proceed prolats
(26:06):
castin met as if to spring for the arstal truth.
I put out a hand to stop him. An invisible
shield of death rays rimmed the platform the council use.
It was suicide, but suddenly he turned and sprang to
the master machines. He grabs a switch lever and threw
it down. A long fantacle left its keys and switched
(26:29):
menacingly through the air. Maren prolatts under the keyboards. Came
cassin shout. I dived to obey steel fingers, clutched my
jerkins and threw it loose. As I landed tout against
the wall, cast and Tom alongside of me. He was
breathing heavily, and his face was deadly pale. Look he
(26:53):
gasped and no Section fourteen
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