The process of thinking: Where does it begin and where does it end?
— Erasmus Dialogues
When Erasmus arrived at the military parade with his body, his memories, and his personality completely intact, Omnius was quite surprised. As if nothing had happened, the independent robot came to observe the ranks of new battle machines and the fleet of recently constructed warships.
In an intentional imitation of human pageantry, Omnius commanded the elite robots to remain at attention on a viewing stand, while mechanical forces marched, rolled, and flew past. It was all in preparation for his grand conquest of the hrethgir. The parade wound around the streets and airspace of Corrin City, with its broad boulevards and Central Spire. The display of superior weaponry seemed extravagant, impressive— and unnecessary.
Erasmus took his place at the forefront of the viewing stand and observed. Were the thousands of human slaves supposed to cheer? For himself, he would rather have been with Gilbertus. Even the Serena Butler clone was much more interesting than this… spectacle.
“What are you doing here?” Omnius demanded. “How is it you still exist?”
“Am I to infer, then, that you have ceased your constant surveillance of my villa with your watcheyes? Otherwise you would be fully aware of what occurred.”
A flurry of watcheyes buzzed around the robot’s shifting face, like angry hornets. “You did not answer my question.”
“You asked me to study the insanity of human religions. It seems I have returned from the dead. Perhaps I am a martyr.”
“A martyr! Who would mourn the loss of an independent robot?”
“You might be surprised.”
* * *
GILBERTUS HAD BEEN extremely pleased with his solution to the dilemma. Erasmus himself was delighted when he returned to awareness to see the muscular man standing before him among the flowers and lush plants in the greenhouse courtyard.
“What has Omnius done?” Erasmus straightened, saw the huge grin on Gilbertus’s face. “And what have you done, my Mentat?”
“Omnius copied your memory core into himself, and when he was finished, he destroyed it. Exactly as you anticipated.”
Nearby, the Serena clone picked a bright red lily and put it to her face, inhaling with a loud sniff. She ignored them.
“Then how is it I am still here?”
“You are here because I showed initiative, Father.” Unable to restrain himself, Gilbertus ran forward to hug the robot. “I surrendered your memory core to Omnius, as I was commanded. However, the instructions did not explicitly prevent me from making a copy.”
“An excellent conclusion, Gilbertus.”
* * *
“SO, YOUR RESURRECTION was a trick, rather than a religious experience. That does not qualify you as a martyr.” The watcheyes circled Erasmus’s head. All operations in the machine military parade had stopped. “And now I have your disturbing personality and memories isolated inside me, while you still exist on the outside. I do not seem to have accomplished my aims.”
The robot formed a smile, though the demonstration of emotions did little for Omnius. However, with Erasmus’s own identity inside the evermind, perhaps some part could appreciate them. “Let us hope your campaign against the League Worlds achieves better results.”
“After internally studying your obsession with human artistic talents, I see now that there may be some merit to your work. Therefore, I will tolerate your continued existence, for now.”
“I am pleased to… remain alive, Omnius.”
From the small watcheye speakers, Erasmus heard a sound Omnius had never made before, almost a snort of derision. “Martyr!”
To the independent robot’s fascination, the evermind seemed very taken with his grand new extermination army drawn from all the Synchronized Worlds. Where had Omnius developed this idea of a spectacle? And who was the intended audience? Apparently, he had copied the routine from the Army of the Jihad and considered it a necessary part of preparing for the ultimate conquest.
Erasmus flicked a bit of grime off his polished platinum body. His flowmetal face shimmered in the ruddy blaze of Corrin’s sun. He wondered yet again if the primary evermind contained some intangible flaw in its programming, an innate quality that could not be detected by direct inspection of the gelsphere memory core. Occasionally, Omnius committed indisputable errors and his behavior seemed odd… even delusional. Now that he also held a completely separate persona within his programming, perhaps the evermind was even more dangerous.
The voice of Omnius blared from unseen speakers all around him and throughout the city. “The humans are weak and defeated, billions of them killed by our plague. The survivors are distracted with the process of holding the remnants of their very civilization together. According to my returning spycraft, their numbers are greatly reduced, their government is ineffective. The Army of the Jihad is in chaos. Now, I shall complete the annihilation.
“Since the enemy is no longer able to launch offensives against me, I have been gathering the bulk of my robotic warships from across the Synchronized Worlds in preparation for the final offensive. All industries have been put to work augmenting weaponry, combat robots, and warships. This force is nearly complete in orbit over Corrin. With it, I will annihilate the human government entirely and leave Salusa Secundus a sterile globe.”
Exactly as the League Armada left Earth long ago, Erasmus thought. As usual, Omnius did not have any original ideas.
“Afterward, with the rest of the League disorganized and helpless, I will easily impose order. Then I can systematically exterminate the race that has caused so much unnecessary damage to an orderly universe.”
This worried Erasmus. Omnius understood only that humans presented a danger to him and his domain; therefore the evermind concluded that he needed to massacre them. All of them. But humans were such an interesting gene pool, capable of a wide range of emotional and intellectual actions in their comparatively short life spans.
Erasmus hoped they wouldn’t all be destroyed.
As he gazed into the sky, flying machines engaged a mock enemy squadron in a carefully choreographed set of maneuvers. The demonstration squadron finished its programmed work against the enemy surrogates. With a concentrated flash of weapons, they destroyed the mock squadron, and flaming pieces of shrapnel spun toward the ground.
What a silly display, Erasmus thought.
Overhead, the gigantic fleet was being fueled and armed, almost ready to be launched on its month-long journey to wipe out Salusa Secundus.