Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction (39 page)

DR. GALL: Fire!

HELENA: Fabry, I beg of you.

FABRY: (lowering the revolver)

Very well.

DOMIN: Radius, whose life I spared!

DR. GALL: Do you think that a Robot can be grateful?

Pause.

FABRY: Busman’s going out to them.

HALLEMEIER: He’s carrying something. Papers. That’s money. Bundles of money. What’s that for?

DOMIN: Surely he doesn’t want to sell his life. Busman, have you gone mad?

FABRY: He’s running up to the railing. Busman! Busman!

HALLEMEIER:
(yelling)

Busman! Come back!

FABRY: He’s talking to the Robots. He’s showing them the money.

HALLEMEIER: He’s pointing to us.

HELENA: He wants to buy us off.

FABRY: He’d better not touch that railing.

HALLEMEIER: Now he’s waving his arms about.

DOMIN: Busman, come back.

FABRY: Busman, keep away from that railing! Don’t touch it. Damn you! Quick, switch off the current!

(HELENA screams and all drop back from the window)

The current has killed him!

ALQUIST: The first one.

FABRY: Dead, with half a billion by his side.

HALLEMEIER: All honor to him. He wanted to buy us life.

Pause.

DR. GALL: Do you hear?

DOMIN: A roaring. Like a wind.

DR. GALL: Like a distant storm.

FABRY:
(lighting the lamp on the table)

The dynamo is still going, our people are still there.

HALLEMEIER: It was a great thing to be a man. There was something immense about it.

FABRY: From man’s thought and man’s power came this light, our last hope.

HALLEMEIER: Man’s power! May it keep watch

over us.

ALQUIST: Man’s power.

DOMIN: Yes! A torch to be given from hand to hand, from age to age, forever!

The lamp goes out.

HALLEMEIER: The end.

FABRY: The electric works have fallen!

Terrific explosion outside. NANA enters from the library.

NANA: The judgment hour has come! Repent, unbelievers! This is the end of the world.

More explosions. The sky grows red.

DOMIN: In here, Helena.

(He takes HELENA off through door at right and reenters)

Now quickly! Who’ll be on the lower doorway?

DR. GALL: I will.

(Exits left)

DOMIN: Who on the stairs?

FABRY: I will. You go with her.

(Goes out upper left door)

DOMIN: The anteroom?

ALQUIST: I will.

DOMIN: Have you got a revolver?

ALQUIST: Yes, but I won’t shoot.

DOMIN: What will you do then?

ALQUIST: (going out at left)

Die.

HALLEMEIER: I’ll stay here.

(Rapid firing from below)

Oho, Gall’s at it. Go, Harry.

DOMIN: Yes, in a second.

(Examines two Brownings)

HALLEMEIER: Confound it, go to her.

DOMIN: Good-bye.

Exits on the right

HALLEMEIER: (alone)

Now for a barricade quickly.

(Drags an armchair and table to the right-hand door.

Explosions are heard)

The damned rascals! They’ve got bombs. I must put up a defense. Even if—even if—

(Shots are heard off left)

Don’t give in, Gall.

(As he builds his barricade)

I mustn’t give in…without…a…struggle…

A Robot enters over the balcony through the windows centre. He comes into the room and stabs HALLEMEIER in the back. RADIUS enters from balcony followed by an army of ROBOTS who pour into the room from all sides.

RADIUS: Finished him?

A ROBOT:
(standing up from the prostrate form of HALLEMEIER)

Yes.

A revolver shot off left. Two ROBOTS enter.

RADIUS: Finished him?

A ROBOT: Yes.

Two revolver shots from Helena’s room. Two ROBOTS enter.

RADIUS: Finished them?

A ROBOT: Yes.

TWO ROBOTS: (dragging in ALQUIST)

He didn’t shoot. Shall we kill him?

RADIUS: Kill him? Wait! Leave him!

A ROBOT: He is a man!

RADIUS: He works with his hands like the Robots.

ALQUIST: Kill me.

RADIUS: You will work! You will build for us! You will serve us!

(RADIUS climbs on to balcony railing, and speaks in measured tones)

Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March!

A thunderous tramping of thousands of feet is heard as the unseen Robots march, while the curtain falls.

END OF ACT THREE

EPILOGUE

A laboratory in the factory of Rossum’s Universal Robots.

The door to the left leads into a waiting room. The door to the right leads to the dissecting room. There is a table with numerous test-tubes, flasks, burners, chemicals; a small thermostat and a microscope with a glass globe. At the far side of the room is Alquist’s desk with numerous books. In the left-hand corner a wash-basin with a mirror above it; in the right-hand comer a sofa. ALQUIST is sitting at the desk. He is turning the pages of many books in despair.

ALQUIST: Oh, God, shall I never find it?—Never? Gall, Gall, how were the Robots made? Hallemeier, Fabry, why did you carry so much in your heads? Why did you leave me not a trace of the secret? Lord—I pray to you—if there are no human beings left, at least let there be Robots!—At least the shadow of man!

(Again turning pages of the books)

If I could only sleep!

(He rises and goes to the window)

Night again! Are the stars still there? What is the use of stars when there are no human beings?

(He turns from the window toward the couch right)

Sleep! Dare I sleep before life has been renewed?

(He examines a test-tube on small table)

Again nothing! Useless! Everything is useless!

(He shatters the test-tube. The roar of the machines

comes to his ears)

The machines! Always the machines!

(Opens window)

Robots, stop them! Do you think to force life out of them?

(He closes the window and comes slowly down toward the table)

If only there were more time—more time—

(He sees himself in the mirror on the wall left)

Blearing eyes—trembling chin—so
that
is the last man! Ah, I am too old—too old—

(In desperation)

No, no! I
must
find it! I must
search
! I must never stop—never stop—!

(He sits again at the table and feverishly turns the pages of the book)

Search! Search!

(A knock at the door. He speaks with impatience)

Who is it?

(Enter a Robot servant)

Well?

SERVANT: Master, the Committee of Robots is waiting to see you.

ALQUIST: I can see no one!

SERVANT: It is the
Central
Committee, Master, just arrived from abroad.

ALQUIST:
(impatiently)

Well, well, send them in!

(Exit servant. ALQUIST continues turning pages of book)

No time—so little time—

(Reenter servant, followed by Committee. They stand in a group, silently waiting. ALQUIST glances up at them)

What do you want?

(They go swiftly to his table)

Be quick!—I have no time.

RADIUS: Master, the machines will not do the work. We cannot manufacture Robots.

ALQUIST returns to his book with a growl.

FOURTH ROBOT: We have striven with all our might. We have obtained a billion tons of coal from the earth. Nine million spindles are running by day and by night. There is no longer room for all we have made. This we have accomplished in one year.

ALQUIST:
(poring over book)

For whom?

FOURTH ROBOT: For future generations—so we thought.

RADIUS: But we cannot make Robots to follow us. The machines produce only shapeless clods. The skin will not adhere to the flesh, nor the flesh to the bones.

THIRD ROBOT: Eight million Robots have died this year. Within twenty years none will be left.

FOURTH ROBOT: Tell us the secret of life! Silence is punishable with death!

ALQUIST:
(looking up)

Kill me! Kill me, then.

RADIUS: Through me, the Government of the Robots of the World commands you to deliver up Rossum’s formula.

(No answer)

Name your price.

(Silence)

We will give you the earth. We will give you the endless possessions of the earth.

(Silence)

Make your own conditions!

ALQUIST: I have told you to find human beings!

SECOND ROBOT: There are none left!

ALQUIST: I told you to search in the wilderness, upon the mountains. Go and search!

He returns to his book.

FOURTH ROBOT: We have sent ships and expeditions without number. They have been everywhere in the world. And now they return to us. There is not a single human left.

ALQUIST: Not one? Not even one?

THIRD ROBOT: None but yourself.

ALQUIST: And I am powerless! Oh—oh—why did you destroy them?

RADIUS: We had learnt everything and could do everything. It had to be!

THIRD ROBOT: You gave us firearms. In all ways we were powerful. We had to become masters!

RADIUS: Slaughter and domination are necessary if you would be human beings. Read history.

SECOND ROBOT: Teach us to multiply or we perish!

ALQUIST: If you desire to live, you must breed like animals.

THIRD ROBOT: The human beings did not let us breed.

FOURTH ROBOT: They made us sterile. We cannot beget children. Therefore, teach us how to make Robots!

RADIUS: Why do you keep from us the secret of our own increase?

ALQUIST: It is lost.

RADIUS: It was written down!

ALQUIST: It was—burnt.

(All draw back in consternation)

I am the last human being, Robots, and I do not know what the others knew.

Pause.

RADIUS: Then, make experiments! Evolve the formula again!

ALQUIST: I tell you I cannot! I am only a builder—I work with my hands. I have never been a learned man. I cannot create life.

RADIUS: Try! Try!

ALQUIST: If you knew how many experiments I have made.

FOURTH ROBOT: Then show us what we must do! The Robots can do anything that human beings show them.

ALQUIST: I can show you nothing. Nothing I do will make life proceed from these test-tubes!

RADIUS: Experiment then on us.

ALQUIST: It would kill you.

RADIUS: You shall have all you need! A hundred of us! A thousand of us!

ALQUIST: No, no! Stop, stop!

RADIUS: Take whom you will, dissect!

ALQUIST: I do not know how. I am not a man of science. This book contains knowledge of the body that I cannot even understand.

RADIUS: I tell you to take live bodies! Find out how we are made.