20.
It was as if the faucis of a gigantic invisible monster had nibbled the ship: first there was the big vehicle from the surface uniform, then two wide slices detached, almost contemporarily.
The tracked one was the first one; oscillating and coughing slightly in the wiped away air the mean separated him from the ship and it climbed a pair of dunes under the lights projected by the immovable vessel. When you/he/she had gotten further enough turned on his/her own lighthouses of position: small but numerous poliedris studded the mean earthling, throwing around deep lightnings and before. The sound of the motor was light but the tracked one was great. The box, proper for to comfortably receive four people, you/he/she was screened by the radiations and by the worse bumps, the system trainante had hinged apiece on three ample wheels some four sides; every wheel dragged thick tracks endowed with hooks. To the necessity the hooks could have lengthened becoming some long daggers twisted by to plunge in the most untrustworthy grounds.
There was no necessity to steer: the twelve wheels traenti and independent among them they made the manoeuvre of rotation of aces superfluous or cut-off; this reduced the probability of mechanical damages.
The only one, further possible movement, was the lifting of every wheel, so that to avoid that, in case of breakdowns or if the mean proceeded in perpendicular direction to the line of march of the same wheel, this ended up serving as brake to the vehicle.
The tracked one had estranged of about ten meters from the ship, when on this a long black crack appeared; it slowly widened, then another piece of the hull separated him and gradually changed geometry: he/she was seen first the fuselage, with two tiled and immovable figures to the place of guide, therefore a portion of structure rotated and skidded above the fuselage, it seemed to swell himself/herself/themselves and they went out from there three great gilded nozzles; these started to climb in vertical, few to few, estranging himself/herself/itself from the fuselage, I suspended to a telescopic pylon that reached a dozen of meters high. The nozzles were tilted of quarantacinque degrees in comparison to the ground and radially prepared in comparison to the axle of the pylon. When they ignited the motors, the nozzles sputtered a halo of vapor and the paradoxical body of the dragonfly it began to take quota; the fuselage, endowed with roller skate and wheels, it was the lowest part of the vehicle; aloft the nozzles didn't upset there in some way the ease of the occupants, neither how much it was under of them, but the eccentric form of the mean exposed to the gusts, that could produce insidious oscillations. The dragonfly also had a big merit: if the motors had surrendered the occupants you/they would have struck the ground from a reduced quota and the dragonfly you/he/she would be fallen and been standing, with the nozzles aloft because of the particularly low position of the baricentro of the vehicle. Impossibility to overturn himself/herself/themselves was a desirable factor, on Mars; in that way the system propulsivo could not damage him against the rocks or to get dirty himself/herself/themselves of sand.
Everything, however, the advantages didn't compensate the troubles in case of sudden refoli: the project of the dragonfly had been abandoned, that was the last existing sample with good peace of the crew that would have had to use him/it up to its rottamazione.
Dragonfly and tracked they estranged in different directions from the ship proceeding subrate.
«Here dragonfly» it said Lidya. «First control, everything well.»
«Here Robin» it said the pilot of the tracked one. «Also our checks are on the green. We proceed to destination. Our time of arrival: four minutes. Let's keep in touch. Every ten minutes.»
«His/her mother is us I set» you/he/she commented Benson.
Lidya ignored him/it.
«Here Lidya. Time of arrival anticipated three minutes and ten seconds.»
The point of landing of the ship had been select in base to the equidistanza from the installations of ownership of New Sealon, over that to the protection from the bad weather thanks to tall rocks.
The sandy fund made the movimentazione of the vehicles sure and reduced the probability of bumps with wandering pebbles.
The tracked one devoured the dunes in impressive way; under the guide of experienced hands it avoided rocks and it grinded impietosamente the minute rubble, leaving wide stripes complicated on the surface Martian.
The dragonfly diverted, crossing a deprived gully of concretions lapidee; you/he/she seemed of sorvolare a long calm river. The gully continued for three hundred meters, then it continued in the wrong direction; Lidya got up of a pair of meters, bringing himself/herself/itself to a quota than no more than five meters in everything, it jumped the edge of the gully and it lowered for caressing the scabrous surface of a hold depression. The dragonfly roared again, to follow the line of the ground in ascent: overcome an ample jagged hill Lidya you/he/she brought the vehicle in low. In front of them there was a vast level area; the two astronauts contemplated the game forms of the catapult, four hundred more meters before. The dragonfly lowered to few more than a meter from the ground, docilely swinging. It seemed a great bottle from the slender too neck.
Benson you have to check the impulse to aim the feet: they were so low that seemed him to feel the sand inside the shoes.
The aircraft docilely slipped toward the station of sieve, that began now only to see him: it was a predominantly underground installation, both to escape the instrumentation to the insolences of the climate Martian, both to facilitate the phase of unloading of the materials from the trucks, that could confine to throw the mineral one in an ample conic tub to level of the ground.
The dragonfly was deposited without too attention on the reddish sand, to motor already practically out. The keel of the mean, strong as that of a ship rompighiaccio, he made road between dusts and stones without so many compliments. The nozzles were immediately closed as umbrellas to the capolinare of the sun: once extinguished the motors, the open nozzles were good solo to take dust. The telescopic pylon gradually lowered, until almost to disappear in the capacious back of the aircraft.
«Arrived» it said Benson.
Lidya checked his/her own overall and his, therefore it went out on the ground Martian walking with caution. Benson followed her/it, uncertain on the to make himself/herself/themselves.
«We go to give a glance to the sieve, everything» it said Lidya. «I want to see if the fittingses work.»
The two slowly brought him toward the entry, a well shut dirty hatch. The television cameras of the dragonfly recorded the opening of it, then they observed the entry of the two earthlings in the station.
And these were the last data accumulated in the computers of the ship riguardanti Benson and Lidya. Of the two there was not more trace, as volatilizzatis were him in the nothing.
Hut replaced Robin with the guide of the tracked one, on suggestion of the same woman; the youth was learning in hurry, even if it was not still skilled as her. Zeld swung on and down to the irregular rhythm of dunes and curves, observing a tiny sun that began his/her descent toward the horizon Martian. That sballottiis didn't bother him. It was found very more to his/her ease there that on the Earth. Down there life was done too complicated; nobody almost appreciated anymore the good and healthy job manual, the cars they had to replace the man in all the possible works. He/she knew very well not to like to anybody on the Earth. And even on Mars. However Robin showed to appreciate his/her competence, and not only that: Zeld loved Mars, he/she saw him/it beautiful, and Robin understood him/it. The other ones were so assembled on their affairs that you/they lived only of economic perspectives, figures and accounts. They were not there never.
The man was received: Hut had been smart, you/he/she was already parking in the square in front of the shelters of the mine. The tracked one skidded and it oscillated with impetuousness, then it appeased him gradually arresting himself/herself/itself, correct in front of the entry of the ample cavern. There was a robot miner that you/he/she was going out with his/her walk of i
t caracollante: it was a stupid car, that understood only elementary events. It had an imposing aspect, however: it was tall two meters and a half, showily metallic, with strong legs trattrici and clogs with four thick fingers distributed around the feet to give stability. The braccias were four, two for side, engaged in a toothed ferrule that acted from shoulder and that you/he/she could bring in before the limb with the most proper characteristics. The right braccias were demolitrici: one finished with the pointed extremity of a pneumatic hammer, the other one was a manual spicconatore from the a little reassuring air. The left braccias were cleaning; there was the limb with a wide and versatile bucket and that with a cylinder aspirator for the sands: a small hole to the height of the elbow served to expel to high speed how much ingluviato, freeing the outskirtses from thin particles and corpuscles.
The robot had features umanoidi, but only vaguely: the legs had shown for a long time their value in the obstructed burrows and ruined of the mine; the head was how much more remote from a human face: a box, a cube of entangled sensors, not very sophisticated, thesis to allow the camminamento on the surface Martian and the prudent incision of the rocks.
The robot directed him to one of the huts. It opened him. It inserted the superior limbs, all and four inside a form of maintenance. It was a kind of semitransparent large case; you/he/she could glimpse the mess of tools and servomechanisms. From inside the large case the sound of an in operation avvitatore originated; the pneumatic hammer, showily deformed, you/he/she was surrounded from regulating elettromeccanici that got off him/it and they replaced him/it with a new piece. The robot attended the green light from the form, then resumptions the walk toward the mine, perfectly funzionante.
The astronauts followed the operation with gratification, then they verified the state of their spatial overall and they went down from the tracked one.
«I don't see truck» it observed Hut.
«You don't owe, if the drawn out material has not reached the quota yet» it said Robin. «They have nearby here their zone parking lot. Until they don't serve it is well that is out of the feet.»
Hut looked at her/it without understanding, verifying again the helmet. It was a vice of the inexperienced persons: the phobia for the radiations that continually invested the planet was a constant worry. There was not the terrestrial atmosphere to protect them from the solar wind but the weak atmosphere Martian: nevertheless, the quality of their equipment made only the adverse environment conditions a bother. Robin smiled, but you/he/she kept silent: she had also done so the first times.
«The threatening robots are dull» he/she explained. «They don't know how to manage complicated situations.»
«Ah, understands» it said Hut.
Him he intended of mechanical bruta, in the group it was Robin the experienced one of logic robotics.
«Let's move us» it spurred Zeld. «I want to see those rocks.»
The astronauts took the cavern, they overcame three turns and they met a robot intent in his/her work: with the bucket you/he/she was freeing the passage to favor the transit of workers and a halves. Now the entry to the mine was not more visible; if it were everywhere for the shed bright bastoncellis the three you/they would be found again in complete obscurity.
Hut observed the fluid movements of the robot and continued over; later you/he/she would have given him a very careful look, but to glimpse it didn't seem it had functional problems.
The youth wanted to follow the two elderly colleagues to learn the more possible. The others didn't have anything to repeat.
Zeld drove the line: it knew very well the road, the new front of excavation had launched him himself some months before. It followed Robin, it sues as always to observe every thing you/he/she could represent a trap; therefore Hut came.
The lights drew their oscillating outlines on the rocks sbreccati of the walls.
As soon as the careful eyes of numerous sensors proceeded they noticed them following them in their moves.
The astronauts continued walking for two minutes, they met a second robot, intent to remove other stones from the path; they found again from now on then him to a wall semioscura: the front.
Zeld caressed with attention the flaked rock, taken among the hands guantate the biggest fragments and it studied them with attention, ignoring completely his/her own equipment in the backpack; there were some good sensors, there inside, but experience told him that the eye of the man was well other thing.
«The vein is exhausted» concluded.
Zeld felt from the radio that Robin.
«I suspected him/it» it said the woman. «We will have to close the mine.»
«Thing? Cannot we open a new front?» he/she asked Hut.
Zeld stared at him/it for an instant; through the reflexes of the helmet Hut could not decipher the expression of it.
«He is not able» it said Zeld. «We have already tried in all the directions. This area has almost been exploited to the one hundred percent. To go over it would be antieconomic.»
«New Sealon has another concession, on Mars» he/she explained Robin. «We will have to look for elsewhere, that's all. Meanwhile we end our job. We close the mine, dismettiamo the robots and the equipments in the shelters. Lidya and Benson provvederanno to use the catapult to empty the station of sieve. We will have to bring down here the ship to load everything how much and then to go to the catapult.»
«To do what?» he/she asked Hut.
«To dismantle every transportable thing. We are earned three days of extra job there» it said Zeld.
«Lidya, feels me? Our plans are some changed. Lidya?» he/she called Robin operating the amplifier.
To chat among the presents in mine not us n'era need but the others two were brought out, especially considering that there were thick walls of rock to separate her/it from the outside. The woman attended an instant.
«Lidya, can Benson, feel me?» he/she insisted.
«Benson, race of soft.» it made Hut. «We are busy, down here.»
«Perhaps the mine. we have never gone down I know much» it said Zeld.
Robin looked at him/it sceptic.
«Of accord» it admitted then. «It is possible. Now. The organize to link I know that the systems of the mines asks control to the room on the ship to bounce my communication to the overall of Lidya and Benson. And vice versa.»
This way saying, Robin took to briskly work on the right polsiera of the overall. It was a cinch, even if unusual.
«Lidya, Benson?» it made then Robin.
When the answer came, the three was alarmed: white noise, as if the others didn't have the radio anymore funzionante.
«Something has happened» concluded Robin.
Hut got excited a second, then smiled.
«You/they will have put as us» it suggested the young one. «But in a place I deprive of sensors.»
«No» it said Zeld, dry. «The station of sieve doesn't have environmental sensors, it is true, but he/she is known that the radios work very well there.»
«Or you/they have extinguished her, or they are broken» it said then Hut.
«Exact» it approved Robin. «We have to go down there. In hurry. I have an ugly presentiment.»
A sudden noise covered their chatters: one of the robots had started to hammer backer furiously a wall some meters.
«What devil happens?» it thundered Zeld.
Hut looked at him/it without understanding; for him it was at work only a robot. Then the young one turned him to Robin and he worried: you/he/she had never seen the astronaut frightened, but now the expression of the woman was also evident through the pale reflexes of the helmet.
«What happens?» it made echo Hut.
Robin looked around, looking for a street of escape.
«The robot» it said the woman. «If it continues he/she will kill us.»
«Thing?» it shouted Hut overhanging the noise of the hits.
Around the walls seemed there to wav
e, some pebble rolled verse of them. One went to stay himself/herself/themselves close to the foot of Hut, that instinctively withdrew him.
«Impossible» it murmured Zeld.
«The robots are programmed for not demolishing, if there are us. Zeld is right. It is impossible» it said Robin.
«He/she doesn't perhaps know what we are here» it screamed Hut.
«With all these sensors?» it howled of rhyming Zeld.
«Perhaps. he/she doesn't succeed in serving him of it.»
Shook Zeld the capoccione.
«Safety protocol. If it were so the robot would go to the maintenance. To the worse it would be disabled alone.»
«And then?»
«Someone has him riprogrammato» Robin exclaimed.
Hut stared at her/it without understanding.
«To kill us» concluded Zeld.
Hut opened wide the eyes.
The robot kept on working ignoring completely the presence of the human beings. As soon as it destroyed, widening the tunnel, it slowly advanced: now some pebble squirted on the wall close to Zeld. If you/he/she had struck the man, nothing would not be happened, but only because the robot was far still. The stones arrived until there only after having completed a lot of rebounds.
«We wait that the robot stops him and we takes the run. We will go out from here before you restart» it suggested Zeld.
«He won't stop» it said Robin.
«You listen better» it howled Zeld, with the more head next to the dusty wall.
The other ones included to the flight: it was not only the robot to work. They felt there other more hits in, toward the exit of the mine. If you/they were escaped that robots, you/they would have met another of it finding himself/herself/itself among two fires: with their power the robots projected the stones to great speed. The overall were strong, but a sharp splinter was able you opened a breach. To that point it was the end. You/he/she could hardly be reached the congelation, even if around the temperature was there on the less one hundred degrees Celsius, because death came first for asphyxia.
And perhaps other robots were at work, still over.
«It doesn't seem me that we have put well» it said Hut.
«We contrive something. In hurry» it said Zeld with colorless voice.
«Robot» it thoughtfully said Robin. «They are stupid. They will have a stupid rescheduling. They know that we are here, even if they don't directly see now us. It is thanks to the sensors that are around there. That's why they work.»
The three looked around him: there were everywhere television cameras, in the burrows, suspended to the ceilings; sensory infrared and who knows of what other kind.
«If we break them, they won't give signal» it observed Robin.
Taken a big stone and it demolished the two television cameras of the vain one whose were found. Zeld imitated her/it, eliminating three scatolottis antennuti with a stroke and some spark, without not even knowing what they were. It was easy, in reality; it was yes armored stuff, done on purpose for withstanding the bumps of the wandering pietrame. But there was always, on the back, in the points less statements, the possibility to access the vital elements of the equipment for the normal maintenance. In ten seconds among all the suspended stuff of entire the lamps had remained only. The robots stopped destroying.
«Fantastic» it whispered Zeld.
«There is no need to talk to low voice. The robots have not heard. If they don't see us, recognizing us as human, you/they cannot know that we are here» it said Hut.
«Uhm» it added however, immediately later. «Then they will perhaps restart to break really for this. It is their job.»
«If you/they have not done him till now, they won't do him/it more» it said Robin. «Who riprogrammati has them you/he/she has integrally replaced surely their software. Easier and sure. The robots don't have any function anymore whether not to destroy us.»
«Logical» it said Zeld.
Hut he was relaxing, but Robin didn't allow him him.
«We are not at all out of it. If we stay here, among a few times we will remain without oxygen, and if we try to slink away out.»
«. the robot catches us» it finished Zeld.
Robin looked at him/it smiling.
«You have seen too many old films. The robot is not made for catching anybody. It is slow and it doesn't have the proper physical structure. No. If that robots see us, it limits him to take back the demolition. Very more lethal.»
«Because it doesn't now continue also? It has to know for strength that we are here» churches Hut.
«The robot if he/she doesn't remember him/it. Planners faciloni. The sensors are submitted to that have demolished and to those on the body of the robot. His/her eyes. According to them it was not necessary to equip the robots with memory. And it seems me that they were not wrong. Even if we are out now sight we are in trap however.»
«Of accord, they have been good. It will seem an accident, even. Now we look for of us to be good» it spurred Hut.
Zeld began an accurate examination of the walls: the unexpected excavations had perhaps disclosed a passage how first it didn't exist, a small breach as soon as to force. Hut included and started lending him a hand. Robin knelt and analyzed the ground; you/he/she tried to remember something, something of far in the time, when she was still a pivella and that mine you/he/she was young.
«The line of the oxygen.» it murmured.
«Thing?» they said in unison the two men.
«Nothing. I was remembering.»
Robin looked around, then been said of the fool.
«There is a possibility. Not great, but there is» it said. «Once the threatening human beings. To the beginning. The pneumatic hammers were not used for the rocks, obviously, but chemical solvents. He/she wanted us a beautiful po' and it cost. It was also polluting. However it worked well. The men worked for times, but you/they could not bear the weight of the respirator with his/her ballast of oxygen. A duct was realized buried that you/he/she was lengthened as soon as the mine he expanded. Every tot meters there were some bocchettonis where they connected the respirators. Continuing the excavations, the men detached him from a point and they were connected more before.»
«Old stuff. And it is not certain here» it observed Zeld.
«True» it admitted Robin. «This is recent zone. But they still have to be of the points in which the line has remained there. The first areas of excavation.»
«Perhaps» it said Zeld. «But it won't work. You/he/she has not been used for years.»
«Yes. But I am certain that it works, instead. The line was never removed, too much job. And not even the generator of oxygen. It has to be in some shelters, there out.»
«They won't have more him supplied» it objected Hut.
«Nonsense. The generator is autonomous. The oxygen is present in the atmosphere Martian, all it takes is extracting him/it. The generator did this way. Not you understand: the maintenance is automated everywhere. The cars don't understand that a thing is useless, they keep on managing her/it, even if you/he/she is not used anymore.»
«Unless someone doesn't tell him him» it observed Zeld.
«You/they have not done him. From what I remember me any shelter you/he/she has ever been dismesso. It is more economic to leave the things as they are; the small reactor Williamson that this field feeds is able to make to work him/it for thousand of years.»
The two men I will be dictated a rapid glance.
«Let's try us» it said Zeld.
«Yes» it made Hut.
Robin grabbed the polsiera and connected him with the database of the ship. In few second the polsiera projected in the air an image of the mine of some years before; the most ancient tunnels recognized well him, the ramifications were reduced and they missed whole portions well notes to all and three.
«Here are the old galleries» it said Robin. «It is here that it has to be us the line oxygen.»
&
nbsp; «Qual is the more point next to us?» he/she asked Hut.
Robin learned for well the course of the burrows; the things you/he/she was not easy you/they were changed enormously in few years.
«There are» it told the end. «But we will have to overcome that robots. You look.»
Robin put in evidence the run to do on the suspended scheme in the middle of them. There were two curves and a pair of rectilinear, in everything centoventi meters.
«Centoventi meters» it said Zeld. «Under the sassaiola.»
«Hut» it said Robin. «How long it employs us a robot to start over hammering? After having taken the decision to do him/it, I intend.»
The young one thought of us on.
«Be', it everything has to bow himself/herself/themselves. It supports the hammer against the rock. It makes to depart the point. The hammer immediately is not to the maximum power, there would be a strong tide of I sprout and the feeder would suffer some.»
«How much?»
«Four seconds, perhaps more.»
«Four seconds. Pochino» he/she ascertained Zeld. «The robot is behind this curve. It needs to overcome the curve, to overcome the robot and also the curve that follows, to put on to the sure one. At least twelve seconds. Do you agree?»
The other ones nodded.
«Let's distract him/it» it said Hut.
«How?» he/she asked Zeld.
Hut tightened him in the shoulders.
«We cannot distract him/it, but we can blind him/it» it said the woman. «The lights here around. We have saved her but we had to also destroy them. Without lights and without external sensors with which to communicate the robot cannot see us.»
«The robots see how us, in our same ghost» it said Hut. «If we don't see us we, don't see them to us. But to that it serves to eliminate these lights? We have to break see you later here all those from the robot, to do complete dark. And to also break all the remained sensors, until and over the robot.»
«There are not sensory around that robots, have you noticed him? And it doesn't serve the complete dark» it said Robin. «It is not enough but the robot I/you/he/she see us, it also owes us to recognize as human. Does The physical form, understand? Legs, braccia. if he/she sees badly us, it recognizes badly us.»
«Clear» it said Zeld. «Robin, salt me on the shoulders.»
The woman stared at him/it without understanding; then you/he/she lifted the eyes and she saw the metallic canaletta that raced to three meters high, suspended to the ceiling: from this they were issued other smaller canalette, each continued up to a lamp to bastoncello. Zeld crouched him and Robin, clumsily because of the overall, it turned him to the shoulders and him he/she sat astride him above; the man got up, thanking the low gravity of Mars. The head of Robin was really under the principal canaletta, now. The woman lengthened the hands, grabbing her/it, and you/he/she tried to tear her/it from the rock. The canaletta resistette. Hut passed her a long splinter lapidea and Robin it inserted her/it to work between the metallic platform and the ceiling; it struck the base of the wedge with strength: the canaletta didn't even deform him, but the wedge that held back her/it to the wall grew loose. Robin repeated the operation until the metal you/he/she lowered of five centimeters. Over, however, he/she didn't want to go. Robin allowed to lose the splinter and grabbed on to the canaletta with both the hands, inserting the fingers in the intercapedine that had created. You threw on weight, leaving the shoulders of Zeld, then takings to hang pushing, with the feet to eighty centimeters from the floor.
You raised almost touching the ceiling with the helmet, then he allowed to go with the whole weight of the body trying to make to surrender the wedge.
«Be', curse, lend me a hand!» Robin exclaimed, with the fiatone.
Hut grabbed her feet and started to throw downward; to the third tear the wedge cedette, the canaletta fell on the head of Robin and Robin it fell on the head of Hut.
«Everything well?» he/she asked Zeld.
It helped the two to rise again himself/herself/themselves. The canaletta was folded up, the terminal part was fallen down for a line of a pair of meters and the extremity now grazed the ground oscillating. The rest of the duct was still hung to the ceiling.
Zeld extracted the cables of it and frayed them with the help of a thin pietruzza. Without so many histories it put in short the conductors. The lights of the room extinguished him, but those over the curve stayed turned on.
«Merda» it said the man.
«Good idea» it said Robin. «You/they would have had to go off all of himself/herself/themselves, the lights.»
«They have to be protected lines from the overloads. Segment for segment. The effect of the short one stays located to an alone segment. But it doesn't care» it commented Zeld.
The man knelt, then you/he/she made a leap: despite the overall you/he/she hindered him/it, he succeeded in jumping up to the ceiling, three earth meters; you/he/she grabbed the canaletta in the point of folding, where possible to grab well him was, and you/he/she reverted taking to throw with energy, arching the backs to increase the intensity of I strive him/it. A second wedge cedette and a bystander: other four meters of canaletta distorted him folding up himself/herself/itself toward the floor. Two lights to the beginning of the first one it bends they extinguished him: the cables that brought to those lamps from the duct had been torn. Over the channel it followed the curve, it passed above the robot and then it made the second curve. Zeld was flattened against the wall and crossed the curve until, with other two footsteps, you/he/she would not have been in front of the robot.
«Enough, Zeld» Hut admonished.
Zeld jumped again, it grabbed the canaletta in the point of inflexion and it repeated the manoeuvre. It scurried about, it premises even a foot against the ceiling in acrobatic laying. The duct cedette anchor, with a left sound. Another couple of wedges unthread him from the wall and four meters channel they were deformed of ugly, sadly hanging. Three lights extinguished him, those around the robot. By instinct the astronauts held back the breath a reaction waiting himself/herself/itself from the automaton, that didn't obviously come. Robin peered at rapid over the wall of rock: the robot was still immovable, in the semi-obscurity. You spin voters they swung as stars filanti frustrated around the iron monster.
«Good» it said Robin. «We will do to turn, now.»
«How?» it objected Hut. «We have to go next to the robot to keep on tearing.»
The canaletta was true it hung from a point to around a meter from the robot and it was there that you/he/she had to be grabs and pushed, to hope to get something.
But Hut was beautifully ignored.
«He/she remembers, four seconds» it said Zeld breathing in worry.
Robin nodded and him taken his/her times. Another peered at fleeting to the threads and the robot. Then it went off. It seemed to everybody that it walked in the molasses, from how much the sense of urgency permeated the earthlings; the woman overcame the curve and made a single leap, amazing. The experience of so many missions on Mars and a good physical form they paid: Robin grabbed to the flight the canaletta, little bottom the point of inflexion, was curved throwing and twisting himself/herself/itself as a monkey, but nothing didn't happen.
«Now!» it howled someone.
Robin fell to the ground, in time to see the robot stir: a big mechanical arm brought him on the ground and while the woman hocked him in the first falcade, the hammer waved. The curve was there, near. It is distant. Robin jumped again. The hammer sent forth a low rhombus a crackling. Robin landed and still jumped twisting the trunk to turn. The first pebbles skipped about while Robin put to the sure one, draws back from the companions. The robot worked for a pair of seconds, then he interrupted: he/she didn't see Robin anymore. There were no human beings in the galleries.
«It is my turn» it said Hut.
Robin appropriated his shoulder.
«No. You are smart, but not enough. It takes time to
learn to stir well quassù. Don't pick her/it up.»
Hut not if the takings at all; in a moment of incoherence you/he/she was offered, but if reformed n'era immediately. Robin was right.
«I don't surrender at all me» it added the woman.
It inhaled deeply, then it repeated the sequence of the operations in amazing way: gesture for gesture referred same footsteps, jumps and contortions. This time it felt him a crack and fifty-fifty vaulting Robin it found again him to earth with the canaletta in hand: other meters of canaletta were fallen, but now she was in danger. He/she jumped standing as a cat and it threw him over the curve while the robot started over doing noise. Some pebble reached the stivalone of Zeld.
The pneumatic hammer kept silent.
«We cannot do more» it said Zeld. «The canaletta has gone, up to the entrance of the second curve. Now the robot is to the dark.»
Hut said a rapid glance. It twisted the mouth.
«There is light, in the corridor that follows, and there are other sensors. But above all light. The reflexes arrive until here.»
It was true. Now that the three human he was getting used to the dark, they made him account that obscurity was not complete. They his/her own bodies and, looking over the first curve the body of the robot. After the automaton, the light did him more intense and to the entrance of the following curve the walls were decidedly well you illuminate.
«We try» it said Robin.
Before the other ones could beat the woman it was set to the wall and takings to cross gropingly her. You hocked in the dry turn, slowly, until you/he/she could not directly observe the robot in front of her.
«What devil.» Zeld shouted, taken of surprise.
«I have to do him/it me» it said Robin. «You know him/it. I will go plain. The robot recognizes us for the form, but also for the movement. Its visual field is of trecentosessanta degrees, therefore it needs to be cautious, even if him he is to the shoulders.»
«It is silent» it said Zeld. «You pay her/it to me, this. He/she thinks only now about to get by her/it.»
The woman snickered. It walked as a sloth, with the hands it rubbed against the rock and meanwhile it looked at sottecchi the robot; it drew near nearby him so much from trovarglisi: if he had now individualized her, for her you/he/she would have been the end. It continued, trying to set him to the wall to escape to the reflex of the light of the little corridor over. It was successful, but to the beginning of the following turn you/he/she could not avoid the shines. Ten centimeters still and its arm would have reverberated the first clear lights of the illuminated portion.
«This point» it said Robin the tense voice. «This is the critical point. From here it is worthwhile to spin as a rocket.»
It exactly did that: it jumped folding up the body from a side, concerned on a foot and been said a new push in before. The robot started to hammer destroying and sprinkling everywhere stones. But Robin was to the sure one, in the little corridor over.
The robot kept on hammering. It didn't stop anymore.
«Planners dilettantes» it said Robin. «I/you/they are brought out, by now.»
Nobody had felt her with that noise.
«Robin!» he/she called Hut.
«I am well. For a hair.»
«Because it doesn't stop?» he/she asked Zeld.
«The sensors here in the tunnel. They notice me» it said Robin.
«Be', break them» it said Zeld.
«No» Robin answered. «This time they help us. If the robot keeps on shattering, it draws near to you and it estranges from the light. I will break all the sensors except one. Put you more distant possible from the robot and tell me when the things begin to make himself/herself/themselves risky.»
«Understands» it said Hut.
The two men inserted him in the more distant dark angle and they remained to listen to the industrious noise of the destroyer one. After few minutes, the first stones began to reach the wall on which you/they were supported. Shortly the sassaiola did him worrisome.
«Now» it said Hut.
The sound of the last sensor that broke him came until there.
The robot stopped shouting. Zeld lengthened the neck to understand where the robot had arrived: it was nearby there, immediately behind the angle.
They were found in full obscurity, now. One for time, the astronauts crawled along the wall, toward the light, and they made the same run of Robin; now however it was simpler a great deal: when the robot started over demolishing the man it was already distant and the risks were reduced. The three was found again in safe in the illuminated corridor. Two television cameras and three sensors of proximity dangled without life from their supports. They were out sight of the robots, for the time being. They threw the breath.
«Well» it said Robin. «We see our map again.»
The woman projected the ancient scheme of galleries pointing out with a finger the point in which you/they were found: an indefinite zone, not distant from an old line that lengthened for about ten meters and that then you/he/she had been abandoned for the exhaustion of the vein.
«It is near» it said Zeld.
They put on in walk along the gallery, they made a curve and they followed a rectilinear that approached them to the exit. After all to that rectilinear there was a robot: he/she saw them to distance, with his/her own eyes, and it started to hammer as a madman. The three stopped him observing him/it.
«From there him it doesn't pass» it said Hut.
«Already» it made Zeld. «There is no way of drawing near without making to be seen. For an instant I had hoped to be able to reach the exit.»
«We reach the oxygen, meanwhile» it said Robin. «For this there is no need to climb over that robots, there is to the right here a turn, and then we find again there in the old zone.»
The astronauts slowly walked leaving the automaton to his/her job, they turned to the right after few meters and they found again him in a narrow gut illuminated ache. There was a small television camera, that was suffered disemboweled. The robot stopped working. Robin fixed for earth touching and moving stones and sand.
«Here it is!» it exulted.
A channel of uncertain invoice raced subsoil appearing on the surface every now and then from the ground. Zeld touched him/it with the hand guantata and polished up him/it crossing him/it for different meters, until it didn't finger something more consistent: four bocchettonis put to cross.
The three looked him.
«Be'» it commented Hut smiling. «Even four. There is from scialare.»
It extracted the extremity of his/her own respirator from the overall and it connected him with a well audible clang to one of the bocchettonis. The sudden depression operated a presser remote and new oxygen it entered the overall of the man.
«It works!» it shouted Hut, incredulous.
The others imitated him/it. They sat to earth and they remained in silence for quite a lot minutes. They were safe, for the time being. They leaned the shoulders against the wall. They reflected, each for really account.
«There is the matter of that robots, boys» it told the sudden Hut.
Laughed Zeld.
«Inexperienced person. I knew that you would have spoken for first.»
Hut not if the takings; smiled in turn.
«Of accord, of accord. What I/you/he/she speak the veteran. How do you think about get by now?»
Zeld rippled the forehead.
«We can wait only for the paramedics.»
«Which assisted?»
«Those that I call me now» it said Zeld.
It operated the polsiera and it connected him to the ship. It tried to realize a bridge with the Earth, but the transmitter of long distance of the ship didn't want to work. Robin tried in turn, without success.
«Clear» concluded the woman. «You/they have cut out us.»
«Who?» it said Hut.
«Those that have riprogrammato the robots, those t
hat you/they have taken Lidya and Benson. Any communication with the Earth, would have been able to warn them before dying. We are not dead, but we cannot warn them however.»
«They will come to look for us when they will see that we don't answer to the radio» it said Zeld.
«Yes» it admitted Robin. «When you/they will have organized a consignment. Ten days, perhaps. Otto with some fortune.»
«We will be dead of silk, for then» it said Zeld, dismal.
«Already» it said Robin.
«Better to do immediately ends her/it» Hut exclaimed, shaken; it shook him the hands with strength fighting for maintaining the control.
«Cries her/it, inexperienced person» it said sour Zeld. «Here ended nobody does her/it. We will keep on trying with the ship. Perhaps Lidya and Benson if I/you/they are gotten by. Even the Earth cannot help us, but perhaps some other consignment Martian, of some other cities, it is about to arrive from these parts. We could succeed in contacting her/it. We don't have to surrender us. We save the energies. Let's soothe us. Every fourth of we will now look for a contact radio, to turn.»
Hut reassured him in front of the calm of the companion. Also Robin seemed relaxed. Could The situation be less desperate than he/she believed? Hut sat him with greater ease and removed a pair of troublesome stones.
You/he/she would have been a long attended.