Owner 03 - Jupiter War Read Online Free Page B

logical conclusion, and beyond. The robots must be designed as parts of a logical whole – all their components rendered interchangeable down to even their minds. Robots that consisted of three body parts and three sets of limbs should be made capable of both separating and conjoining. He visualized robots with just one body section and one pair of limbs mating up with similar fellows to create robots with any number of body sections and pairs of limbs, even up to centipede monsters. Outlining this general idea, he next concentrated on the specific: the alloys and meta-materials to be used, the dimensions of all the components, a new design of processor to run a whole new kind of software. Seven hours later, by the time Var reopened her eyes, he had perfected every detail.
    ‘I’m sorry about that,’ she apologized.
    ‘No problem at all,’ he replied, standing up. He really didn’t resent the delay at all because he felt stronger after those hours of respite, and knew he had designed something truly inspired, even for him.
    When they moved on again, Var wanted to talk. Hours passed as she picked at him for details of recent events. In turn, he tried to fill in some of the blanks in his recollection of her history, and occasionally ventured to fill the blanks in his own. He thus learned more about their parents, about their sheltered upbringing, about the tutors he drained of knowledge and discarded, and his steady progress to adulthood. It was all distantly interesting, but Saul could find no emotional connection there. Really, Var was telling him stories about someone else. Then, coming with a kind of inevitability, her next question focused on something he had been skirting around within his own mind.
    ‘So, you’ll turn Argus Station into something bigger and better – a spaceship the like of which has never been seen before,’ she said. ‘Then what?’
    There was the question. Until they first started up the Rhine drive, every effort made had been towards survival. Now the
Scourge
was no longer a problem and, with luck, it would be some time yet before Earth could send anything else against them.
    ‘Then I leave,’ he replied.
    ‘Leave?’
    ‘The solar system.’
    ‘There will be some aboard Argus who won’t like that.’
    ‘I’d like to offer them an alternative, but that’s not feasible. I could take Argus to Earth right now, but there are Earth’s defences to consider and also the fact – which I have made plain to them – that their next destination once they set foot on Earth would be an adjustment cell.’
    Glittering dust still hung in the air in front of them, even though it had been several days since the mining ahead had ceased. Many more hours had passed since their rest and, glancing at Var, Saul could see that she was again as weary as he himself felt. It would be better, he reckoned, if they did not approach the base in this state. Recollecting what he had seen on the way down, he said, ‘There are some pressurized cabins at the head of the shaft this Martinez began opening out?’
    ‘Yes – and I don’t think Rhone would have had time to close them down.’ She paused thoughtfully. ‘In fact, I wonder what he is doing, and what he now thinks is best for the base. He must know by now that the
Scourge
isn’t coming here, and that puts him in a bad position. The base either has to be moved underground entirely or everything that has already been moved underground has to be brought back to the surface. Will your people up above have spoken to him?’
    ‘I left instructions for them to ignore any communications sent from anyone but me.’
    ‘He’ll be shitting himself,’ said Var. ‘He gambled on Serene Galahad and lost, so he might now be desperate enough to do something stupid.’
    Metal glinted under their suit lights and in the next moment they stepped out onto an area of compacted rubble. Looking up, Saul could see, silhouetted against the night sky of Mars, the scaffold