Barrington Bayley SF Gateway Omnibus: The Soul of the Robot, The Knights of the Limits, The Fall of Chronopolis

When they again met the Temporary Board three hours later, they found that the spirit of disagreement was still present. Further, the rebels had used the time to reconsolidate their position among some complexes of the Ramification. Kord was obliged to resort to strong measures. Within twenty-four hours he had set in motion an efficient and informed state police. Two days later, the general purge began. Within a week public executions were being held daily in the main park.

Kayin was in hiding, having taken Polla with him, in a part of the City that had not been rebuilt for a few hundred years and where he had friends. To his surprise he remained hidden, whereas others failed to evade the combination of delation and electronic scanning by which the Ramification discovered everyone’s whereabouts. The reason, as he at last surmised, was simple: his expulsion from the Society had saved him. He was no longer associated with a subversive movement, and his other crime was not, in the context of present events, viewed with the same gravity.

Accordingly he began to venture out. In the main park he watched as the unrepentant Ham-Ra, Tamm and Barsh received the customary lethal injections in the neck As he wandered away, feeling bitter and sick, he heard someone call his name.

It was Herren, an acquaintance he had not seen for a couple of years. About the same age as himself, Herren appraised him speculatively.

‘How are you, old chap? Everything all right?’

The bright, breezy manner simply left Kayin scowling. He turned away, but Herren followed him, speaking sympathetically. ‘Yes, I know, it’s an awful shame. But the game’s not lost, you know. Things really are moving. I thought you might be interested.’

Kayin shrugged.

‘Well, all right, it is a bit open here. Listen. I happen to know where you’re staying. Surprised?’ He laughed. ‘News travels these days. Friends, you know. I’ll call on you tonight. Pity if you were left out of everything.’

Kayin looked at him thoughtfully. It’s up to you.’ He felt oddly detached. Herren might be a Ramification agent, for all he knew, but he didn’t much care.

In the event, Herren was playing it straight. He called just as Kayin and Polla were finishing their evening meal. The wall screen was showing an old drama from several years ago – the new-style dramas had been taken out of circulation – but they were paying it too little heed to be drawn into the semi-hypnagogic state in which it could have been fully appreciated.

Herren entered the room and rudely switched the screen off. ‘Not interested in that old rubbish, are you?’ He looked around, then produced a small metal cylinder from his pocket and carefully placed it on the table. ‘This will fool any hidden scanners,’ he explained. ‘They’ll pick up nothing but an empty room.’

Kayin stared at the gadget blankly. ‘Where did you get it?’

The other winked. ‘There’s a certain amount of underground stuff being manufactured these days.’

Despite his own misdemeanour, Kayin found the idea hard to grasp. ‘Do you mean insurrection? The City is fragmenting?’

‘They are talking of civil war.’

‘But that’s … crazy …’ Kayin wondered if Herren knew what he knew of City 5’s situation, of the facts concerning the sidereal universe.

‘I haven’t been getting much news lately,’ he said weakly.

‘Let me fill you in. Kord has already killed three members of the Temporary Board. Chippilare and Kuro escaped, thanks to the loyalty of sympathetic elements both in the Ramification and outside. They have organised an opposition and are holding out in the Western Segment, down near the Basement. It’s more or less an enclave. The State Police aren’t strong enough to go in and get them out.’

‘Has Kord given the police arms?’

‘They’re getting arms now. But the opposition is manufacturing arms, too. It’s a revolution! Because the opposition isn’t just in the enclave, it’s all over, gradually being organised. Youth is waking up!’

Polla stared from one to the other of the young men in disbelief. ‘Kayin, can this be true? What’s happening?’

‘Kord is finding out that he can’t enslave the mind of humanity for ever,’ Herren said. ‘We are discovering freedom.’

‘It’s all over a difference of opinion,’ Kayin told her wearily. ‘Kord and his people think that the City can best be preserved by rigid control and a low level of aspiration. Our technology is sufficient, so there’s no need for further development in the arts or sciences. The others, like Herren here, believe that that approach leads to a slow but sure disaster and that the City must be kept bubbling to stay healthy, that life isn’t worth living any other way anyhow. They both feel strongly enough about it to go to war. They’re all in the minority, of course. The great majority of the population have the good sense to interest themselves in nothing much except the inertial stocktaking.’

‘But which side is right?’