Waking Gods (Themis Files #2)(23)

—Have we learned anything new from the autopsy?

—Nothing a dinosaur like me can understand. You’ll have to talk to Rose. I do know these two were just kids doing their jobs, whatever that was. There’ll be some grieving people where they came from. And grieving people make rash decisions. I think they’ll come back. I think there’ll be a whole lot more of them. And this time, I bet you they won’t stare at the scenery for a week before they start blowing shit up.

—That is a very pessimistic view of things. How about the robot? Has it revealed any of its secrets?

—That, I can answer. We’ve learned so very little about that robot that I actually understand all of it. They pretty much build them like they used to. The basic design’s the same. Same number of parts—it fell to pieces a few minutes after it was disabled. The control room is almost identical to ours. The console has a couple more buttons, but that’s it.

—Can we put it back together?

—You’d like to have another one. Wouldn’t you?

—Well …

—Don’t get your hopes up. That thing’s busted. Nothing works anymore. Themis’s shield cut through the control room. The sphere is broken, all bent up, lost the white stuff it was floating in. Whatever it was, it evaporated almost instantly. The torso’s cut in half. We can’t weld any of it. Duct tape won’t work either. The rest of the robot, well, we don’t understand how it works any more than we understand how Themis can move. You look at the cross section and, aside from the big hole where the control room was, it’s just a big hunk of solid metal. The only good thing I can think of is that the controls are so similar, we might be able to use theirs for spare parts if we break anything. Judging by the way our pilots handle things, I’d say that’s likely. The science team will be happy come Monday.

—Why Monday?

—I’m sending the engineers home. The real nerds can play with it now.

—They could not before?

—They could look at it, but I wouldn’t let them do anything that could damage it any more than it is.

—Why not?

—What do you think? I wanted another one too. But … it’s officially scrap now. They can do with it as they please. Spare parts and happy scientists. That’s what we get for 136,000 dead.

—That is hardly the only positive that came out of the London events. I thought you of all people would find some comfort in the outcome.

—Me of all people?

—I doubt anyone will question the relevance of EDC anymore. Not in our lifetime anyway. Themis has done exactly what we said, and hoped, she could do. The EDC has saved London, perhaps the human race. There is not a government on this planet that will refuse you funding. You will have all the resources you need, for as long as you need. On a more personal level, no one will question your leadership, ever. In the eyes of most, the tragedy that sent all these people to their deaths could have been avoided had the British Government done as you asked. You are perhaps the only person to ever live to enjoy this much credibility on a planetary level. What you say goes, for everyone, everywhere.

—Give it another year. Today, we’re entertaining. People identify. Makes them feel better about their lives. The press is saying nice things about us because that’s what people wanna hear. But you eat the same ice-cream flavor every day, after a while … At some point, saying nice things about the EDC won’t sell as many papers.

—People hardly buy newspapers anymore.

—We’re old. Aren’t we? Well, a few weeks, six months, a year from now, singing our praises won’t sell whatever the hell they sell these days. Then, trust me, they’ll try saying bad things. They’ll question our research, whether we could do anything against a large enemy force. Funny thing is, they’ll be right. It’s not that we aren’t trying, but we haven’t squeezed any new technology out of that thing in ten years. You think we’d have at least a faster toaster, better car brakes, softer toilet paper, but nope. Not a goddamn thing. And don’t get me started on how we’d fare against more than one of those robots.

—I hate having to point out the obvious, but we won. We prevailed. Themis fought the alien robot in hand-to-hand combat and she was victorious.

—You call that combat? They dug a hole!

—They immobilized the enemy.

—They dug a hole! What were the odds that their shield could knock out that energy field? They were just lucky. Our guys were in way over their heads. Not their fault, we should never have sent them. That was like a schoolyard fight. They were getting pounded by a bigger kid and they panicked. I’m happy it worked, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about our chances. The Resnik girl is just insane, if you ask me.

—Some would say she has instinct.

—That’s one way to put it.

—It is not the first time her impulsive nature has paid dividends. There are very few people whose careful planning I trust more than her improvisation.

—Maybe. But it doesn’t matter. She can’t bury more than one of these robots. If they send more …

—What do you think we can do to prepare?

—I’ve asked myself that question so many times. If the stakes weren’t so high, I’d find this funny. On paper, I run a military organization, but the one thing we all agree on is that there is no military response to a large alien force. You saw what it did to three armored regiments. Hell, it even took out the city that was around the three armored regiments. Buildings, cars, people, cats, dogs. Didn’t even spare the cockroaches.