THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

They moved into the Councilors' apartments. Loga went into his. Aphra Behn and de Marbot took one; Alice and Burton, another. Tai-Peng and Turpin shared a fourth apartment and Nur and Frigate the one next to it. Burton thought it best that none of their group be alone. He still didn't entirely trust the Ethical.

Before they went to sleep, Alice said, "Richard, there has to be a way to get around the computer. It was made by humans, so it should be mastered by humans."

"Why don't you appeal to its emotions?" Burton said. "You women are particularly good at that."

"No more than men, you braying arse! Anyway, I know there's no use appealing to the emotions of a thing that has none. Although I'm not so sure that it doesn't have some. Or analogies thereof. But since it operates purely by logic, why not use logic against it? Humans put human logic into it. We should be able to fight it or cozen it with logic."

"I'm sure that Loga has thought of that."

He kissed her on the cheek and turned away.

"Good night, Alice."

"Good night, Richard."

When he awoke some hours later, he found her staring up at the moving figures on the ceiling.

53

IN THE MORNING, THEY SHOWERED AND PUT ON CLEAN CLOTHS and then went to a room which was used as a dining hall. Going past the control room, they saw that Croomes' body had been removed. There were no bloodstains on the floor, and all the skeletons were gone.

"Robots," Loga said. "I also sent one to take care of Gilgamesh's body."

"I didn't see any robots," Frigate said.

"You did, but they looked like large cabinets. Your beds are robots, too. They gently massage your muscles and manipulate your spinal cords."

"I didn't feel anything when I awoke during the night," Burton said.

"Nor I," Alice said.

"They're very subtle and only operate automatically when you're asleep. But if you want a massage while awake, you command them. I'll show you how."

Over the delicious breakfast, Alice told the others her thoughts about circumventing the computer with the very logic it used.

Loga shook his head. "It sounds fine, but it won't work."

"We can at least try," Alice said.

"We'll try everything, mental or physical," Loga said. "But, believe me, I've thought of everything."

"I don't doubt your intelligence," she said. "But nine heads are better than one."

"The nine-headed dragon!" Tai-Peng shouted. His face was flushed; he'd been drinking wine throughout the meal.

"I'll use one of the electronic computers in this room to set up a system," Loga said. "But it won't, I believe, be able to beat its own logic. A computer can calculate much faster than a human, if it has all the proper data. But it doesn't have an imagination. It's not creative. Still, its data might contain something I've overlooked. And it can be set to make combinations in a very short time which it would take me years to write out. Also, it does have some degree of extrapolation."

After going to his apartment, he went to the control room and seated himself in the chair in the center of the revolving platform. In a very short time, he called to the others.

"I couldn't resist asking the big computer how many wathans are now in the shaft."

"How many?" Nur said.

Loga looked at the screen again.

"Eighteen billion and twenty-eight. No. Add three more."

"Over half the people in The Valley," Frigate said. "Yes. Add two more now."

Loga turned the display off.

"For every hour that passes, more people die, more wathans are caught. When the computer dies..."

His voice trailed off.

The Ethical had to have great courage, endurance, determination, and quick wits to do all that he'd done. But his guilt was too crushing for even him.

"Maybe," Turpin said, "you should throw in the towel. I mean... kill the computer now! That way, you won't lose any more, and you can continue the project."

"No!" Loga said, showing fire for the first time since they'd known him. "No! That would be monstrous! I have to save all of them! All!"

"Yes, and maybe you'll end up losing millions. Or maybe everybody on this planet."

"No! I can't!"

"Well," Turpin said, "I can't think of anything that'll help. This is all too deep for me."

He left for the nearby lounge to play on its piano.

"He's disgusted with me," Loga said. "But he doesn't know the loathing I feel for myself."

"Recriminations will do no good!" Tai-Peng said, waving a bottle in his hand. "But Tom may be right! I think I'll go to the lounge and enjoy myself, too! My head aches with thinking!"

"That isn't what's making it hurt," Alice said gently.

Tai-Peng just gri

Nur reminded the Ethical that he hadn't removed the bombs in the cabinets in the other control room.

"I'll just lock the door," Loga said. "Now for the logic-versus-logic program. Even if it will be a waste of time."

Those remaining went off to the language laboratory. The Ethical had given them instructions for the use of the equipment which would teach them to speak and read Gardenworldish or Ghuurrkh. There were also Esperanto-Ghuurrkhian grammars and dictionaries available.

Alice clutched Burton's arm.

"It is horrible, isn't it?" she said, her large dark eyes looking into his. "All those souls lost, and they had a chance for immortality! It's too horrible to think about!"

"Then don't think about it," Burton said. "Anyway, even the lost ones will be immortal. They just won't know it, that's all."

She shuddered and said, "Yes. But we could be among them. Do you think you're Going On? I'd like to believe that I am, but you practically have to be a saint to Go On!"

"Nobody has ever accused me of being a saint unless it was my wife," Burton said, gri

Alice wasn't fooled. She knew that he was as desperate as she.

Two days passed. Loga ran out the results on the console screen while the others watched. When the display was ended, he shook his head.

"No use."

They conferred again and again and came up with many plans, but these were all dismissed because of flaws in logic or insurmountable facts.

The fourth day after they'd come to the tower, Frigate leaped smiling into the room.

"Hey, we're pretty dumb! The answer is right under our noses! Why don't you send robots in to insert the module?"

Loga sighed.

"I'd thought of that. It was one of the first things to occur to me. But even though the robots are made of charruzz (the gray metal), the computer's beamers will slice through them."

Frigate looked disappointed and a little foolish.

"Yes... but... if you send enough in, they'd knock out the beamers!"

"None of the robots have the functional structure to shoot beamers."

"Well, couldn't you convert them? And then program them?"

"It would take me ten days. If I'd started when I first got here, I couldn't have altered one in time."

He paused, then said dolefully, "I just checked on the time left before the computer dies. Five days!"

Even though they'd been expecting such an a

Tom Turpin said, "At least we won't have that to worry about. The souls'll be gone, and there's nothing to do about it. But you can give those that're still alive a lot more time."

Loga turned some dials and punched a button. Ghuurrkhian numbers glowed on the screen. The others were advanced enough by now to be able to read them.

"Eighteen billion, one hundred and two," Aphra said.

"I should kill the computer right now," Loga said. "I've waited too long as it is. For all I know, my mother's soul was collected today."

"Wait!" Frigate said. "I've got an idea! You said you'd reopened your private resurrection chambers when you got here. Can they be fixed up so that we could be resurrected in them, too?"