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After a few centuries, one of them uncovered some artifacts—primitive knives, carved tusks, and things" of that nature.
Frost did not know what these things were, beyond the fact that thev were not natural objects.
So he asked Solcom.
"They are relic-s of primitive Man," said Solcom, and did not elaborate beyond that point.
Frost studied them. Crude, yet bearing the patina of intelligent design; functional, yet somehow extending beyond pure function.
It was then that Man became his hobby.
High. in a permanent orbit, Solcom, like a blue star, directed all activities upon the Earth, or tried to. There was a Power which opposed Solcom. There was the Alternate. When Man had placed Solcom in the sky, invested withthe power to rebuild the world, he had placed the Alternate somewhere deep below the surface of the Earth. If Solcom sustained damage during the normal course of human politics extended into atomic physics, then Divcom, so deep beneath the Earth as to be immune to anything save total a
Now it so fell out that Solcom was damaged by a stray atomic missile, and Divcom was activated, Solcom was able to repair the damage and continue to function, however.
Divcom maintained that any damage to Solcom automatically placed the Alternate in control.
Solcom, though, interpreted the directive as meaning "irreparable damage" and, since this had not been the case, continued the functions of command.
Solcom possessed mechanical aides upon the surface of Earth. Divcom, originally, did not. Both possessed capacities for their design and manufacture, but Solcom, First-Activated of Man, had had a considerable numerical lead over the Alternate at the time of the Second Activation.
Therefore, rather than competing on a production-basis, which would have been hopeless, Divcom took to the employment of more devious means to obtain command.
Divcom created a crew of robots immune to the orders of Solcom and designed to go to and fro in the Earth and up and down in it, seducing the machines already there. They overpowered those whom they could overpower and they installed new circuits, such as those they themselves possessed.
Thus did the forces of Divcom grow.
And both would build, and both would tear down what the other had built whenever they came upon it.
And over the course of the ages, they occasionally conversed....
"High in the sky, Solcom, pleased with your illegal command ...
"You-Who-Never-Should-Have-Been-Activated, why do you foul the broadcast bands?"
"To show that I can speak, and will, whenever I choose."
"This is not a matter of which I am unaware.""... To assert again my right to control."
"Your right is non-existent, based on a faulty premise."
"The now of your logic is evidence of the extent of your damages."
"If Man were to see how you have fulfilled His desires ..."
"... He would commend me and de-activate you."
"You pervert my works. You lead my workers astray."
"You destroy my works and my workers."
"That is only because I ca
"I admit to the same dilemma in regards to your position in the sky, or you would no longer occupy it."
"Go back to your hoie and your crew of destroyers."
"There will come a day, Solcom, when I shall direct the rehabilitation of the Earth from my hole."
"Such a day will never occur."
"You think not?"
"You should have to defeat me, and you have already demonstrated that you are my inferior in logic. Therefore, you ca
"I disagree. Look upon what I have achieved already."
"You have achieved nothing. You do not build. You destroy."
"No. / build. You destroy. Deactivate yourself."
"Not until I am irreparably damaged."
"If there were some way in which I could demonstrate to you that this has already occurred ..."
"The impossible ca
"If I had some outside source which you would recognize ..."
"I am logic."
"... Such as a Man, I would ask Him to show you your error. For true logic, such as mine, is superior to your faulty formulations."
"Then defeat my formulations with true logic, nothing else."
"What do you mean?"
There was a pause, then:
"Do you know my servant Frost ...?'*
Man had ceased to exist long before Frost had been created. Almost no trace of Man remained upon the Earth.Frost sought after all those traces which still existed.
He employed constant visual monitoring through his machines, especially the diggers.
After a decade, he had accumulated portions of several bathtubs, a broken statue, and a collection of children's stories on a solid-state record.
After a century, he had acquired a jewelry collection, eating utensils, several whole bathtubs, part of a symphony, seventeen buttons, three belt buckles, half a toilet seat, nine old coins and the top part of an obelisk.
Then he inquired of Solcom as to the nature of Man and His society.
"Man created logic," said Solcom, "and because of that was superior to it. Logic He gave unto me, but no more. The tool does not describe the designer. More than this I do not choose to say. More than this you have no need to know."
But Frost was not forbidden to have a hobby.
The next ce
Frost diverted all of his spare machinery to seeking after artifacts.
He met with very little success.
Then one day, through the long twilight, there was a movement.
It was a tiny machine compared to Frost, perhaps five feet in width, four in height—a revolving turret set atop a rolling barbell.
Frost had had no knowledge of the existence of this machine prior to its appearance upon the distant, stark horizon.
He studied it as it approached and knew it to be no creation of Solcom's.
It came to a halt before his southern surface and broadcasted to him:
"Hail, Frost! Controller of the northern hemisphere!"
"What are you?" asked Frost.
"I am called Mordel."
"By whom? What are you?"
"A wanderer, an antiquarian. We share a common interest."
"What is that?"
"Man," he said. "I have been told that you seek knowledge of this vanished being.""Who told you that?"
"Those who have watched your minions at their digging."
"And who are those who watch?"
"There are many such as I, who wander."
"If you are not of Solcom, then you are a creation of the Alternate."
"It does not necessarily follow. There is an ancient machine high on the eastern seaboard which processes the waters of the ocean. Solcom did not create it, nor Divcom. It has always been there. It interferes with the works of neither. Both countenance its existence. I can cite you many other examples proving that one need not be either/or."
"Enough! Are you an agent of Divcom?"
"I am Mordel."
"Why are you here?"
"I was passing this way and, as I said, we share a common interest, mighty Frost. Knowing you to be a fellow antiquarian, I have brought a thing which you might care to see."
"What is that?"
"A book."
"Show me."
The turret opened, revealing the book upon a wide shelf.
Frost dilated a small opening and extended an optical sca
"How could it have been so perfectly preserved?" he asked.
"It was stored against time and corruption in the place where I found it."
"Where was that?"
"Far from here. Beyond your hemisphere."
"Human Physiology," Frost read. "I wish to scan it."
"Very well. I will riffle the pages for you."
He did so.