The Voyage by David Drake

Author:David Drake [Drake, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780812513400
Google: lelCHAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0812513401
Barnesnoble: 0812513401
Goodreads: 662717
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Published: 1994-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Describe the behavior of the tanks,” the bunker directed.

Ned was beginning to get used to the omnipresence of the voice. What he still found disquieting was the background vibration. The longer he listened to it, the more it sounded like a battle of enormous scale going on in the far distance.

“They circle the lake,” Carron said. “They shoot at anyone or thing that comes within six kilometers of it”

“They’ve been operating for at least five hundred years,” Ned added.

Perhaps the hum was merely the operating frequency of the vastly complex computer in which they stood. Or again, Ned might be reading his own fears into random images which the system displayed as it booted.... But he didn’t believe that

“The tanks are on autopatrol,” the bunker said. The system’s designers had made no effort to humanize the voice. The words were dead and wrong without a tone of satisfaction to accompany them. “They can be disarmed by anyone they’ve been programmed to recognize as friendly.”

Ned and Lissea exchanged glances—she frowning, he with lips pursed in consideration.

“It is unlikely after five hundred years,” the bunker continued, “whether standard or local, that anyone from the contemporary population would remain alive. Did you have another type of year in mind?” “No,” said Carron tightly.

“Then the only way the tanks can be disarmed is through the use of a standard key,” the bunker said. “This is a standard key.”

A flat, square object some sixty millimeters per side appeared in front of Lissea and the two men. It had a wristband, though Ned thought the object was too large to be comfortable when worn that way. There were no distinguishing marks on the smooth gray surface.

The third image appeared withIover the topo map and the vision of the tank maneuvering across rocky terrain. The combined views were simultaneously clearer than any one of them should have been, no matter what distance from which they were seen. The bunker’s display certainly wasn’t holographic, and Ned now wondered whether it had any presence in the physical universe whatever.

“All right,” Lissea said. “That’s how the tanks can be disarmed. Now, how can they be destroyed?”

“The tanks can be destroyed by the application of suffi-cientenergy,” the bunker said. “The flux required is of stellar magnitude. Nothing within the information you have provided me suggests that you have knowledge of the principles necessary to apply such volumes of energy.”

Ned didn’t look at his companions. He was also only marginally aware of the map, tank, and key before him. The rumble of warfare, cataclysmic and unimaginably distant in time, filled him like flame in the nozzle of a rocket.

“I’ve seen a ... a key like that,” Carron said. “My father has one in the collection of Old Race artifacts in the palace.”

“You’ve got one?” Lissea said. “Wonderful! When can you bring it to me?”

“The top lifts up,” Carron said, gesturing toward the display. “There’s points marked on the inner surface. When you touch them, light flashes from the back of the lid.”

The bunker changed the image as Carron spoke.

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