The Machine That Saved The World Read online

abruptly. Betsy's screen went blank. The colonel wasnotified. A courier took tapes to Washington by high-speed jet. Life inResearch Establishment 83 went on sedately. The barracks and the marriedquarters and the residences of the officers were equipped withMahon-modified machines which laundered diapers perfectly, and with dialtelephones which always rang right numbers, and there were police-upmachines which took perfect care of lawns, and television receiverstuned themselves to the customary channels for different hours withastonishing ease. Even jet-planes equipped with Mahon units almostlanded themselves, and almost flew themselves about the sky in simulatedcombat with something very close to zest.

  But the atmosphere in the room in Communications was tense.

  "I think," said Howell, with his lips compressed, "that this answers allyour objections, Graves. Motive--"

  "No," said Lecky painfully. "It does not answer mine. My objection isthat I do not believe it."

  "Huh!" said Sergeant Bellews scornfully. "O' course, you don't believeit! It's phoney clear through!"

  Lecky looked at him hopefully.

  "You noticed something that we missed, Sergeant?"

  "Hell, yes!" said Sergeant Bellews. "That transmitter diagram don't havea Mahon unit in it!"

  "Is that remarkable?" demanded Howell.

  "Remarkable dumb," said the sergeant. "They'd ought to know--"

  The tall young lieutenant who earlier had fetched Sergeant Bellews toCommunications now appeared again. He gracefully entered the room whereBetsy waited for more broadcast matter. Her standby light flickered withsomething close to animation, and the similar yellow bulbs on Al and Gusresponded in kind. The tall young lieutenant said politely:

  "I am sorry, but pending orders from the Pentagon the colonel hasordered this room vacated. Only automatic recorders will be allowedhere, and all records they produce will be sent to Washington withoutexamination. It seems that no one on this post has the necessaryclearance for this type of material."

  Lecky blinked. Graves sputtered:

  "But--dammit, do you mean we can work out a way to receive a broadcastand not be qualified to see it?"

  "There's a common-sense view," said Sergeant Bellews oracularly, "and acrazy view, and there's what the Pentagon says, which ain't either." Hestood up. "I see where I go back to my shop and finish rehabilitatin'the colonel's vacuum cleaner. You gentlemen care to join me?"

  Howell said indignantly:

  "This is ridiculous! This is absurd!"

  "Uh-uh," said Sergeant Bellews benignly. "This is the armed forces.There'll be an order makin' some sort of sense come along later.Meanwhile, I can brief you guys on Mahon machines so you'll be ready tostart up again with better information when a clearance order does comethrough. And I got some beer in my quarters behind the Rehab Shop. Comealong with me!"

  He led the way out of the room. The young lieutenant paused to close thedoor firmly behind him and to lock it. A bored private, with side-arms,took post before it. The lieutenant was a very conscientious young man.

  But he did not interfere with the parade to Sergeant Bellews' quarters.The young lieutenant was very military, and the ways of civilians werenot his concern. If eminent scientists chose to go to Sergeant Bellews'quarters instead of the Officers Club, to which their assimilated rankentitled them, it was strictly their affair.

  * * * * *

  They reached the Rehab Shop, and Sergeant Bellews went firmly to astandby-light-equipped refrigerator in his quarters. He brought out beerand deftly popped off the tops. The icebox door closed quietly.

  "Here's to crime," said Sergeant Bellews amiably.

  He drank. Howell sipped gloomily. Graves drank thoughtfully. Leckylooked anticipative.

  "Sergeant," he said, "did I see a gleam in your eye just now?"

  Sergeant Bellews reflected, gently shaking his opened beer-can with arotary motion, for no reason whatever.

  "Uh-uh," he rumbled. "I wouldn't say a gleam. But you mighta seen aglint. I got some ideas from what I seen during that broadcast. I wannaget to work on 'em. Here's the place to do the work. We got facilitieshere."

  Howell said with precise hot anger:

  "This is the most idiotic situation I have ever seen even in governmentservice!"

  "You ain't been around much," the sergeant told him kindly. "It happenseverywhere. All the time. It ain't even a exclusive feature of the armedforces." He put down his beer-can and patted his stomach. "There's guyswho sit up nights workin' out standard operational procedures just tomake things like this happen, everywhere. The colonel hadda do what hedid. He's got orders, too. But he felt bad. So he sent the lieutenant totell us. He does the colonel's dirty jobs--and he loves his work."

  * * * * *

  He moved grandly toward the Rehab Shop proper, which opened off thequarters he lived in--very much as a doctor's office is apt to open offhis living quarters.

  "We follow?" asked Lecky zestfully. "You plan something?"

  "Natural!" said Sergeant Bellews largely.

  He led the way into the Rehab Shop, which was dark and shadowy, and onlyvery dimly lighted by flickering, wavering lights of many machineswaiting as if hopefully to be called on for action. There were theshelves of machines not yet activated. Sergeant Bellews led the waytoward his desk. There was a vacuum cleaner on it, on standby. He put itdown on the floor.

  Lecky watched him with some eagerness. The others came in, Howell dourlyand Graves wiping his moustache.

  The sergeant considered his domain.

  "We'll be happy to help you," said Lecky.

  "Thanks," said the sergeant. "I'm under orders to help you, too, y'know.Just supposing you asked me to whip up something to analyze what Betsyreceives, so it can be checked on that it is a new wave-type."

  "Can you do that?" demanded Graves. "We were supposed to work onthat--but so far we've absolutely nothing to go on!"

  The sergeant waved his hand negligently.

  "You got something now. Betsy's a Mahon-modified device. Every receiverthat picked up one of those crazy broadcasts broke down before it wasthrough. She takes 'em in her stride--especial with Al and Gus to helpher. Wouldn't it be reasonable to guess that Mahon machinesare--uh--especial adapted to handle intertemporal communication?"

  "Very reasonable!" said Howell dourly. "Very! The broadcast said thatthe wave-type produced unpredictable surges of current. Ordinarymachines do find it difficult to work with whatever type of radiationthat can be."

  "Betsy chokes off those surges," observed the sergeant. "With Gus and Alto help, she don't have no trouble. We hadn't ought to need to make anysix transmitters if we put Mahon-unit machines together for the job!"

  "Quite right," agreed Lecky, mildly. "And it is odd--"

  "Yeah," said the sergeant. "It's plenty odd mygreat-great-great-grandkids haven't got sense enough to do itthemselves!"

  * * * * *

  He went to a shelf and brought down a boxed machine,--straight from thetop-secret manufactory of Mahon units. It had never been activated. Itsstandby light did not glow. Sergeant Bellews ripped off the carton andsaid reflectively:

  "You hate to turn off a machine that's got its own ways of working. Buta machine that ain't been activated has not got any personality. So youdon't mind starting it up to turn it off later."

  He opened the adjustment-cover and turned something on. The standbylight glowed. Closely observed, it was not a completely steady glow.There were the faintest possible variations of brightness. But there wasno impression of life.

  Graves said:

  "Why doesn't it flicker like the others?"

  "No habits," said the sergeant. "No experience. It's like a newbornbaby. It'll get to have personality after it's worked a while. But notnow."

  He went across the shop again. He moved out a heavy case, and twistedthe release, and eased out a communicator of the same type--Mark IV--asBetsy back in the Communications room. Howell went to help him. Gra
vestried to assist. Lecky moved other things out of the way. They werehighly eminent scientists, and Metech Sergeant Bellews was merely anon-commissioned officer in the armed forces. But he happened to havespecialized information they had not. Quite without condescension theyaccepted his authority in his own field, and therefore his equality. Ascivilians they had no rank to maintain, and they disagreed with eachother--and would disagree with the sergeant--only when they knew why.Which was one of the reasons why they were eminent scientists.

  Sergeant Bellews brought out yet