"What does that mean?"

I explained about Carlos running one down and catching it, and Graves seemed tense.

"You have to keep a tight rein on your people, McGill," he said sternly. "We arent marauders. Natives are key to any attempt we make to defeat the squids on this planet. We cant afford bad blood between us now."

I a.s.sured him I wouldnt harm any machines that didnt attack us directly.

"Good, good," he said. "Were working on this. Every tech we have on the surface is stretching their brains around it. Did you catch any transmissions?"

"Any what, sir?"

"Listen, machine life doesnt talk with a voice box. They send radio waves at one another. Did you record anything of that nature?"

"Uh...no sir. Well give it a shot if you want us to."

"All right. Im going to send a tech out there to your position to help with the investigation. Go back into the vicinity of the village and watch the aliens. Dont get too close, however. From the sounds of it, you encountered a mother machine and her brood. You cant threaten her young, do you understand?"

"Loud and clear, sir."

He closed the channel, and I relayed his instructions to my nervous squad.

"Go back there?" Carlos demanded. "Are you nuts? Did you see the size of that thing? It was made out of metal, through and through. We couldnt stop it with these grenade launchers. Its as big as a building!"

"Thats why were going in slowly and staying well back. If it comes at us aggressively, well run. The mother-machine-whatever it was-it didnt seem very fast."

"Maybe thats because she hadnt charged us yet."

Despite Carlos grumbling, we backtracked and came up over a rise to where we could see the village again. The moment our dragons showed their noses, the inhabitants clammed up. We had time to see a few of the small ones rushing to their little huts and slamming them closed. I figured they were probably already bleating for mama.

"Any signals on your scanners?"

"Ive got something down in the kilocycle range," Kivi said.

We tuned in and saw a spray of jagged waveforms. The machines were communicating, but I couldnt make heads or tails of it, and neither could our dragons computers.

"Lets back off," I said, and we retreated again. Once we were out of sight, I dismounted from my machine and walked up to the ridge again.

Specialist Sargon was heading up one of my two maniples. I put him in charge of the mounted troops with orders to rush to my rescue if I ran into trouble. I took Kivi with me as she was doing pretty well today in the absence of a real tech. I knew shed been studying hard for that rank and saw this as her way to get a specialists patch. There was no harm in giving her some field experience.

I felt exposed out on the surface outside of my dragon. We got down low and crawled when we got to the top of the hill. On our bellies in the cold mud, hearing our respirators hiss in our helmets, we crept up on the village and looked down at it curiously.

The village was alive. A half-dozen machines frolicked about, crawling over the landscape with what seemed like random, energetic patterns.

"Are you getting this?" I asked Kivi.

When I spoke, the machines halted and lifted up, looking around. Kivi put her helmet close to mine, and I heard her m.u.f.fled voice.

"Dont use radio. They can hear it."

"Roger that. Voice only."

After lifting up the front part of their bodies and briefly cranking their forms this way and that, the machines went back to whatever they were doing.

They seemed to be excited. They had something inside one of the huts. Something large and metallic. They hauled it out together, working like a swarm of ants.

"You know," I said, "I bet those clamps buried in holes in the river were some kind of trap. They didnt blow up, so they arent mines. Maybe these machines trap other machines."

"Everyone has to eat, I guess," Kivi agreed. "They must be running on methane for fuel, and they need metal to rebuild themselves and to grow larger. Ive read about some forms of machine life in my studies. I think that the big one might smelt metal and have a construction system inside to build smaller units. Its all very strange, but not unprecedented."

"Right," I said thoughtfully, "they get energy from methane, and raw materials from the ground. This is a highly metallic planet with high quality ore outcroppings everywhere. I hadnt thought about it before, but this world is a paradise for a machine race."

"It might be more sophisticated than that," Kivi said. "These could be predatory machines that consume the less sophisticated types that graze on ore directly."

I nodded. "A food-chain. The techs will love this place."

The thing they were hauling up out of the ground was finally in the open. The little caterpillar guys swarmed all over it. We watched in growing concern.

"That metal theyre chewing on-thats fresh and straight," I said. "I think its manufactured."

"Yes. Dont you recognize it, James?" Kivi asked.

"Uh...can you give me a hint?"

"Thats a dragon leg. You see the claw-like foot? Its been torn loose."

Staring at it, I right off I knew she was correct. "Youll make a fine tech someday, Kivi. Lets get back to the others and report this."

We retreated from the hilltop, backing down the way wed come. We had time to stand up on our hind legs-but that was about it.

There were machines behind us. Theyd moved between us and our dragon-driving squad mates.

Seeing just one of these critters at a time from the inside of a dragon c.o.c.kpit, they hadnt looked all that threatening. But standing out here in the open, wearing nothing but smart-cloth skivvies, I felt seriously exposed. The machines had all manner of pincers and scoops around their front sections which seemed to operate like an intake or mouth. They stared at us with their whining little cameras while their mouth-pincers worked the air hungrily.

"I see them, Vet," Sargon said in my earpiece. "Were ready to charge in and take them out. Just give the word."

"No, no," I said over my helmet radio. "Just sit tight. Graves didnt want us to hurt them."

"Thats crazy. Theyre just machines."

"You have your orders, Specialist," I told Sargon. "If I die, you can take command and do whatever you want."

This radio conversation seemed to make the machines nervous. I was sure they could hear it but probably didnt understand it. Maybe it sounded like shouting or like a foreign language to them.

I put my hands up and stepped toward the group. There were seven machine creatures all lined up. Two of them were humped up, resting their fore-claws nervously on the backs of the others.

"They look like a nervous pack of animals," Kivi said, using her voice rather than her radio.

"Yeah?" I said. "Well, Im feeling a little nervous too."

I walked slowly toward them and squatted. This caused a response. The machines rushed closer.

Automatically, I stood up again. "Whoa, whoa!" I told the excited little robots.

When I stood up, they stopped approaching and went back to squirming on top of one another again.

"Im getting the feeling these guys are young," Kivi said. "Young and not too bright. Theyre responding to your physical posture. Some animals are like that. If you stand up, they think youre bigger. If you get down and small, they figure youre food."

"Good observation," I said. "Ill make a point of standing tall. Can you fetch me a stick or something?"

There werent any sticks, of course, as there were no plants on this planet-at least not ones wed found yet. She came up and gave me something that looked like a length of steel tubing, about a meter long.

"Theres trash like this all around their village," Kivi said. "For all we know, its a bone to them."

"Yeah...I hope they dont take offense."

Using my metal stick, I drew a circle in the frosty mud at my feet. Then I backed away from it.

The largest of the creatures scuttled forward to examine the circle with his cameras. After about thirty seconds, he used a stubby leg to draw another circle inside the one Id drawn. His was better than mine, more uniform.

"And thats what we call communication!" I said.

The machines looked at us expectantly. They rustled and churned their feet. Cameras craned to look at the circle, then at me.

"I think they want you to draw something else."

"Yeah, just like a pack of bored kids."

I proceeded to draw all kinds of geometric shapes. Each time, the robots imitated me. At last, my helmet buzzed.

"McGill, what are you doing out there?" Leeson asked me. "You were supposed to report in and return to base half an hour ago."

"Sorry Adjunct," I said. "Ive made contact with the aliens, and they cant seem to get enough of me."

"Thats just grand. Figure out a way to pat them on the head and leave. Its getting dark soon, and I want every dragon inspected and recharged for morning."

As Id hesitated for a long time, the lead machine took the initiative. He-Id started thinking of him as a "he" without being sure why-drew something new. Instead of a simple geometric shape, he drew a circle on top of an oval, with four longer ovals dangling from the central one.

"Ah," Kivi said. "You see that? Hes drawn a picture of you, James!"

I examined the drawing and laughed. "So he has. Youre a better artist than I am, robot!"

-15-.

We got back to camp after dark. Returning late turned out to be a bad move. Trotting our dragons over the icy crust of this planet was hazardous in the foggy light of day. In darkness, it was downright dangerous. Two of us broke through the crust of frozen methane and had to be dragged out with tow cables. The group was weary and irritable by the time we reached camp.

When we did finally get back to our unit, I immediately regretted the fact the expedition had left the relative comfort of the lifter behind. Our new encampment wasnt much to look at without the sheltering roof of the lifters belly above our heads. Our tents were soft, not much more than smart cloth bubbles. They never stopped whipping and flapping in the winds. The mist got inside, no matter how hard we worked to make the tents airtight.

"I didnt know a planet could smell this bad," Carlos complained. "Fart World, thats what we should call it."

"No," I said. "Theyve already got a name, havent you heard? Theyre calling it Machine World."

"Well, I guess that will work. Its full of wacky machines. Did you ever figure out who the lucky trooper was who got eaten by your little friends?"

"No one got eaten. Just the dragon did. It was part of Harris squad. One of the dragons broke down and they left it. When they came back for it hours later, it was gone."

"Scavengers. Jackals. Thats what those little b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are. You were crazy to go right up to them and start a drawing contest. What would you have done if they had torn off your helmet for a snack and burned off your face with acid?"

"Im pretty sure Id have died," I admitted. "But weve made contact. Maybe it will do some good in time. If people whove got more training with this than I do can continue the work, maybe well be able to communicate with these machines someday."

"Ive got a better idea," said Carlos. "Ive been talking it over with Kivi because I need a tech in order to try it out."

I frowned and stared at him. Carlos often got ideas, but they were rarely good ones.

"What are you up to?" I asked. "Why Kivi? Shes not a real tech-at least, not yet."

"Hold on!" Carlos said loudly, lifting his hands up in front of his face. "Dont take a swing at me! I know you and Kivi are doing the nasty again, but thats no reason to-"

I almost hit him. I controlled myself with difficulty. "Listen, quit s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around and tell me your plan. Thats an order."

"Okay, okay. Here it is: well build a little box, see, just like the one you built with Claver back on Tech World."

"A box? What kind of box?"

"A comm box, r.e.t.a.r.d-oh, sorry. I mean Vet."

When dealing with Carlos, a man had to have a thick skin. There just wasnt any other way to get through a conversation.

"Keep talking," I said through gritted teeth.

Carlos seemed honestly surprised I hadnt hit him yet. I was a little surprised, too. But I wanted to hear what kind of c.o.c.kamamie plan hed hatched.

"Okay, heres the deal," he said. "These are machines, right? They have to communicate with codes and protocols of some kind. That means we might be able to hack them, to take them over. Wouldnt that be cool? What if you could just give this army of robots a command and have them all obey you?"

"What kind of orders?"

"You know. Stuff like 'kill that squid or 'rip off Kivis suit."

I nodded thoughtfully. It wasnt as insane as it sounded. But I knew it wouldnt be easy to do, and it might not even be possible. These machines were wild. They werent slaves like our drones from Earth. They werent built to take orders and obey them without question.

"So, why Kivi?" I asked. "You never said."

"Isnt it obvious? First off, none of the real techs would listen to me. But she did, and she needs rank as badly as I do. If we did something cool like this, we could be specialists within hours."

Id often told him to go do something useful to prove himself, and I had to admit that this sounded like he was at least trying. It also sounded like Kivi would be doing all the work.

"As long as it doesnt interfere with your regular duties, Ive got no objection." I heard myself say that. Then I wondered if Id live to regret my words.

"Cool! Thanks James." He left to work on his little scheme.