The Machine Crusade by Frank Herbert

Author:Frank Herbert [Herbert, Frank]
Format: epub
Publisher: Frank Herbert
Published: 2010-03-25T09:58:46.279000+00:00

Thurr's voice came over the yacht's intercom. "I have detected the asteroid, sir, exactly as predicted." "At least she's reliable," Iblis said. "We are on approach." The Grand Patriarch stared out the window, trying to discern which of the billions of glittering pinpoints might be the artificial hunk of space rock. At last, as the yacht approached, he distinguished the shape of the gigantic uneven lump of cratered rock, growing larger with each passing moment. This time, though, Iblis felt no trepidation. He knew exactly what the female Titan could do for him. In the initial blush of Jihad fervor, everyone had called on the name of little Manion Butler and revered the valiant mother who had first raised her hand against the thinking machines. But after decades of war, most people were growing tired of the never-ending strife, and longed to go about their personal lives and careers. They wanted to work, raise children, and forget about the ebb and flow of military conflict. What fools they were. Despite occasional victories such as Ix, IV Anbus, and Tyndall, he felt the revolt losing its pulse, like an organism dying all around him. The decline came in small and large stages, on small and large planets. Wherever Iblis traveled to deliver inspirational speeches, he saw and felt it. The crowds were losing enthusiasm, slipping from his grasp because they saw no end in sight. People had such woefully short attention spans! The Grand Patriarch was desperate to make others see what he himself saw so clearly. Machines wanted to destroy every human - not only on the Synchronized Worlds, but on League Worlds and Unallied Planets as well. Human beings were a nuisance to Omnius and his metal brethren, a threat. Thinking machines and humans could never co-exist on any basis, whether on individual planets or in the entire universe. Hecate's asteroid loomed closer, craters yawning open. "Our scanners have located the entry passage, sir," Thurr reported. "Hecate is making contact, welcoming you." "Don't waste time with small talk. Take us inside." The space yacht slipped easily through a crater opening, and the Titan's tractor beams assisted the pilot in bringing the craft deep into the mirror-walled interior grotto where Iblis had first spoken with Hecate in her dragon-cymek body. Iblis emerged from the yacht and marched boldly into the chamber. This time, instead of wearing her ornate and intricate, human-sized walker-body, Hecate met him as a shielded preservation canister that held her brain swimming in electrafluid, on a rolling walker form. The protected cylinder adjusted itself to his eye level. "I have important business to discuss with you," Iblis said, getting right to the point. "Important business? I would not wish to discuss any other kind," Hecate's vibrant mechanical voice said. "After all, am I not your secret weapon?" She seemed particularly pleased with the title. Iblis paced nervously as he explained. "The Jihad faces a crisis. In the past year, Serena Butler has taken power away from me.

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