The Second Science Fiction MEGAPACK®. Robert Silverberg
“Any kind of an orbit—”
“No. I’ve just explained that.”
“Then what do you propose to do, Captain?”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking you.”
There was a babble of voices from the loudspeaker, punctuated by bursts of static. The lights flickered and reception began to fade. Rajcik, working frantically, managed to re-establish the contact.
“Captain,” the official on Mars said, “we can’t think of a thing. If you could swing into any sort of an orbit—”
“I can’t!”
“Under the circumstances, you have the right to try anything at all. Anything, Captain!”
Somers groaned. “Listen, I can think of just one thing. We could bail out in spacesuits as near Mars as possible. Link ourselves together, take the portable transmitter. It wouldn’t give much of a signal, but you’d know our approximate position. Everything would have to be figured pretty closely—those suits just carry twelve hours’ air—but it’s a chance.”
There was a confusion of voices from the other end. Then the official said, “I’m sorry, Captain.”
“What? I’m telling you it’s our one chance!”
“Captain, the only ship on Mars now is the Diana. Her engines are being overhauled.”
“How long before she can be spaceborne?”
“Three weeks, at least. And a ship from Earth would take too long. Captain, I wish we could think of something. About the only thing we can suggest—”
The reception suddenly failed again.
Rajcik cursed frustratedly as he worked over the radio. Watkins gnawed at his mustache. Somers glanced out a porthole and looked hurriedly away, for the stars, their destination, were impossibly distant.
They heard static again, faintly now.
“I can’t get much more,” Rajcik said. “This damned reception.… What could they have been suggesting?”
“Whatever it was,” said Watkins, “they didn’t think it would work.”
“What the hell does that matter?” Rajcik asked, annoyed. “It’d give us something to do.”
They heard the official’s voice, a whisper across space.
“Can you hear…Suggest…”
At full amplification, the voice faded, then returned. “Can only suggest…most unlikely…but try…calculator…try…”
The voice was gone. And then even the static was gone.
“That does it,” Rajcik said. “The calculator? Did he mean the Fahrensen Computer in our hold?”
“I see what he meant,” said Captain Somers. “The Fahrensen is a very advanced job. No one knows the limits of its potential. He suggests we present our problem to it.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Watkins snorted. “This problem has no solution.”
“It doesn’t seem to,” Somers agreed. “But the big computers have solved other apparently impossible problems. We can’t lose anything by trying.”
“No,” said Rajcik, “as long as we don’t pin any hopes on it.”
“That’s right. We don’t dare hope. Mr. Watkins, I believe this is your department.”
“Oh, what’s the use?” Watkins asked. “You say don’t hope—but both of you are hoping anyhow! You think the big electronic god is going to save your lives. Well, it’s not!”
“We have to try,” Somers told him.
“We don’t! I wouldn’t give it the satisfaction of turning us down!”
They stared at him in vacant astonishment.
“Now you’re implying that machines think,” said Rajcik.
“Of course I am,” Watkins said. “Because they do! No, I’m not out of my head. Any engineer will tell you that a complex machine has a personality all its own. Do you know what that personality is like? Cold, withdrawn, uncaring, unfeeling. A machine’s only purpose is to frustrate desire and produce two problems for every one it solves. And do you know why a machine feels this way?”
“You’re hysterical,” Somers told him.
“I am not. A machine feels this way because it knows it is an unnatural creation in nature’s domain. Therefore it wishes to reach entropy and cease—a mechanical death wish.”
“I’ve never heard such gibberish in my life,” Somers said. “Are you going to hook up that computer?”
“Of course. I’m a human. I keep trying. I just wanted you to understand fully that there is no hope.” He went to the cargo hold.
After he had gone, Rajcik grinned and shook his head. “We’d better watch him.”
“He’ll be all right,” Somers said.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Rajcik pursed his lips thoughtfully. “He’s blaming the situation on a machine personality now, trying to absolve himself of guilt. And it is his fault that we’re in this spot. An engineer is responsible for all equipment.”
“I don’t believe you can put the blame on him so dogmatically,” Somers replied.
“Sure I can,” Rajcik said. “I personally don’t care, though. This is as good a way to die as any other and better than most.”
Captain Somers wiped perspiration from his face. Again the notion came to him that the problem—the real problem—was to find a way out of this hot, smelly, motionless little box.
Rajcik said, “Death in space is an appealing idea, in certain ways. Imagine an entire spaceship for your tomb! And you have a variety of ways of actually dying. Thirst and starvation I rule out as unimaginative. But there are possibilities in heat, cold, implosion, explosion—”
“This is pretty morbid,” Somers said.
“I’m a pretty morbid fellow,” Rajcik said carelessly. “But at least I’m not blaming inanimate objects, the way Watkins is. Or permitting myself the luxury of shock, like you.” He studied Somers’ face. “This is your first real emergency, isn’t it, Captain?”
“I suppose so,” Somers answered vaguely.
“And you’re responding to it like a stunned ox,” Rajcik said. “Wake up, Captain! If you can’t live with joy, at least try to extract some pleasure from your dying.”
“Shut up,” Somers said, with no heat. “Why don’t you read a book or something?”
“I’ve read all the books on board. I have nothing to distract me except an analysis of your character.”
Watkins returned to the cabin. “Well, I’ve activated your big electronic god. Would anyone care to make a burned offering in front of it?”
“Have you given it the problem?”
“Not yet. I decided to confer with the high priest. What shall I request of the demon, sir?”
“Give it all the data you can,” Somers said. “Fuel, oxygen, water, food—that sort of thing. Then tell it we want to return to Earth. Alive,” he added.
“It’ll love that,” Watkins said. “It’ll get such pleasure out of rejecting our problem as unsolvable. Or better yet—insufficient data. In that way, it can hint that a solution is possible, but just outside our reach. It can keep us hoping.”
Somers and Rajcik followed him to the cargo hold. The computer, activated now, hummed softly. Lights flashed swiftly over