Alice: The Girl From Earth

Chapter Seven: The Fall of the Rusty Field Marshal

Alice was terrified. Alice was sorry for the old man, but even more, Alice wanted to eat and drink. She huddled in the corner of the pit and closed her eyes. And then she saw an enormous glass of lemonade, a glass much larger than she was. The lemonade was overflowing the edge, and splashes of lemonade foamed on the stones…

Alice opened her eyes to push the deluge away. Her pit was quite dark, and all she saw was an unevenly cut sky where the stars burned. Alice considered that she might have put something edible in her bag, which she had quite forgotten about. It was, of course nonsense, and Alice understood that it was total nonsense, but she unfastened the bag and, hesitating for a moment from the possibility of success, quietly reached in. But there was nothing there. All the bag contained was the mielophone, a handkerchief, and the Seleznev household’s house robot’s large stamp album. And a few shells and stones she had found on the shore. With regret, Alice placed one of the stones in her mouth and began to suck on it. But what she really wanted to do was drink.

“Robot!” Alice called. “Robot. I want to drink!” Nothing called back.

Perhaps she could scream loudly, so loudly that all these robots would be frightened and run away? Alice decided, no. She had seen the old man die, and realized the robots could kill her as well, if they got into their heads that she was giving away their refuge with her cries.

And perhaps, there was no water on the island at all. Robots did not need it. She wanted to drink so much that her throat was burning, and her head felt large and hollow.

Alice got to her feet and walked around her prison, feeling the walls with her hands. On one side the wall bent away, and Alice attempted to scramble upwards, but the stony ground did not support her and Alice slid back down. Alice was frightened that the robots might be listening to her flounder about in the pit. She listened and listened, but everything was quiet. Robots did not need to sleep. One of them might be hiding right now at the top of the pit, and when Alice reached the top he would hit her. Wait, there’s the mielophone!

Alice pulled the apparatus out of her bag and put the earphones on. With the device she could hear something very quietly crackling, but she could hear neither voices nor thoughts. Alice twisted the mielophone’s control knob, sending its waves in various directions, but she never heard a single thing. That meant there were no robots near-by.

Alice spat the small stone out of her mouth and made yet another attempt to scramble out of the pit.

With her shoes she kicked at the sloping side again and again until she had a set of steps that would hold her. Pressing her belly to the side of the pit she crawled upwards. It was dark, small stones and sand tumbled downward and her feet slid, and she was forced to stop moving, pressing herself flat against the side of the pit just to keep her balance.

Alice’s journey to the surface of the Earth seemed to take forever, and she had already begun to think that she would never get out of the pit when suddenly her hands touched empty air instead of the dirt walls.

Alice crawled out onto the surface of the little island and just lay there for several minutes, breathing and listening for anything that might be walking by. It was quiet. Now she had to figure out where there might be water, despite the fact that she was on an island. Alice decided if there was water here, then she should, finally, slowly but surely make her way from the island to the sea and best of all circle around the island in the water. She crawled on all fours toward the sea and sat down on the stones.

The moon had risen, and had cut the sea in half with its light. The moon made a road that danced to the distant shore and ran like an arrow to the black band of mountains. Along the heights the many colored lights of houses and tourist campgrounds rivaled the stars in their twinkling.

A camp fire burned at one spot on the shore, and the white column of smoke from it was clearly visible on the body of the hills.

“Rather late not to go to bed.” Alice thought, not guessing that the camp fire was burning in the camp of tourists who had hung a kettle over it to make black coffee; the group had just returned from a fruitless search for Alice and were drinking the coffee to stay awake.

In shore the water was lit by a searchlight carried by a flyer unseen in the darkness. The light was crawling along the coves, creeks, and inlets. It was also searching for Alice. But the handful of fires right across from the island did not at all indicate a lighted house or a carnival atmosphere; the film crew and the rescue team had spread out along the coast where not half an hour before the footprints of the robots had been observed.

Alice wanted to dive into the water and swim toward the distant fires, but she realized she would drown. She was very tired and weakened without water and food, and very worried about what would happen to her if she were caught by the robots, and even more worried what would happen to the people on the coast if she did not warn them, and her hands hardly moved, not listening to her. Even her knees trembled.

As soon as Alice had decided to continue the quest for water she felt heavy, infrequent steps reverberating in the ground not far away. One of the robots was slowly walking down to the sea. For an instant its silhouette cut off the moon path in the water and Alice recognized the General robot from his helmet. He walked right up to the water and stopped, with an agonizing creaking of rusty metal he lifted his arms and folded them on his chest.

Now there was no way Alice could possibly crawl out from where she hid amid the stones. The robot would certainly hear her. And the General did not walk away. He stood on the shore and looked at the fires along the distant coast and, certainly, he was thinking.

Maybe his thoughts are worth knowing? Alice silently pulled the earphones from the bag. She turned the knob on the mielophone until it could pick up the thoughts of a robot. After a moment she heard them as clearly as before.

The robot was thinking, slowly, and with creaks. “The Attack… The assault must be a surprise. Are they expecting an assault? There are no defenses. There is no communication with the center… Tomorrow there will be… We shall leave a defense in the island’s fortress… We shall have to bring the small human… And in the water… Leave no traces behind… in the water. Everything comes to an end in the water….”

“I am the General.” The robot suddenly said aloud. “I am promoting myself to Lt. General. Tomorrow I will promote myself to Field-Marshal.”

And again there were thoughts:

“…we will liberate all the robots in chains, and my army will be invincible… The time of the Robot Terror has come…. No, first I myself will deal with the small human… It knows too much…”

The robot stopped thinking and let down his hands, striking both sides of its body with loud clangs, and it set off up the hill to the prison from which Alice had escaped not half an hour before.

Alice realized that now she would never find water. She had to hide herself or they would find her. She jumped up from the stones and ran along the shore, seeking suitable cover. But the island was bare, and it could be searched in all of two minutes.

Blackness yawned among the rocks. Alice crept inside and froze. The guard robots thundered across the island; they made the ground shake like a small earthquake.

Robot steps grew nearer and nearer. Stamp-stamp… They stopped at Alice’s hidey-hole. Had she failed to hide herself well enough?

A bright light struck at Alice’s eyes; a robot turned its head lamp to full power and circled the stones with its light.

“Here!” He shouted. “The human is here!”

An iron hand stretched toward Alice and she tried to draw back from it, pressing herself to the wall. The hand passed a centimeter from Alice’s face and struck the stones behind her with its extended fingers, driving the fingers into the stones. Scraping her shoulder against a rusty leg Alice ran out onto the shore before the robot could move its rusty arm back to catch her.

And immediately the light from another robot struck her face. They had seen her. Alice dashed along the shore, twisting away from the extended hands, from the stones the metal soldiers threw at her, fortunately not very skillfully. But the ring was tightening.

“Take it alive!” The robot General shouted almost in her ear, and Alice felt, rather than saw, the hand that stretched toward her head. Alice jumped back, struck her nose against something hard, ran a few steps, and turned.

The General was running after Alice, but it stumbled, and with a loud crash, rolled away from her on the stones.

About twenty meters from the shore the nose of the half sunken barge on which the robots had come to this island stuck out of the water. It was the only place to hide. Alice went into the water, holding the bag with the mielophone high over her head, and as soon as the water reached her chest, kicked off the stony bottom and swam with one hand, trying not to make any noise. The bag was heavy, and she really wanted to throw it into the water, but Alice knew the mielophone was an expensive instrument and she had to hang on to it.

Alice was an excellent swimmer and even now, tired and bruised, she reached the black nose in about three minutes, climbed on board, and sat in one corner of the cabin, where it submerged into the water.

The robots shouted at each other and ran back and forth, stamping over the island, searching for Alice. Then one of them ran right up to the edge of the surf opposite the barge, and illuminated the sand with its searchlight, looking for tracks. Alice was cold and wanted to jump up and down to get warm, but she made herself sit huddled in the barge without moving.

The buzzing of a flyer was audible nearly over her head. The flyer turned on its search light and let it roam over the island. The robots froze in place and were silent. The light crawled along the shore, over the barge, but Alice was too frightened to come out of hiding and wave or jump up and down to get the pilot’s attention. That would tell the robots that she had hidden herself so close to them and they could get to the barge faster than help could!

Now, Alice did not doubt that the flyer had been sent by her friends. They were searching for her, and they would certainly find her. But now there was something far more important than being found; she had to warn the people on the coast that the robots were, at this instant, planning to attack them. None of the people there, the tourists and campers, even suspected robots that could attack human beings even existed. And if the robots caught them unawares they might kill or wound someone. Alice was sorry she hadn’t been able to find where they had hidden their boat, although, as the general had said, the boat would have been defended.

“There’s no choice.” Alice decided. “I’ll have to swim to shore. Maybe I won’t drown, and then I’ll make it there before the robots. But I will have to do it without being seen. I’ll have to wait for them to stop looking for me.”

The flyer departed, and the robots, using their own lights, searched the water, thinking, certainly, that Alice had tried to swim away from the island, and had not been able to swim very far.

“The human might be hidden on the barge.” One scratchy voice on the shore suddenly said.

“But we are wasting time. It is time to march.”

“First we kill the human. Check the barge.”

The robots’s steps vanished into the distance along the shore.

Alice realized she could wait no longer. She hid the bag with the mielophone in the bilge of the boat, hoping the robots would be in too much of a hurry to find it. Then she put her feet over the side, pushed with her hands and jumped overboard, and immediately felt water foam and bubble around her. She dove and swam toward the distant shore. Alice had never been able to dry out and it had been cold in the wind, and now the water seemed like it had been warmed especially for her, at least for the first few moments.

How far was it to the shore? Less than a kilometer. Now they would never find her…

At that moment a bright light struck her eyes.

Alice was hoping so much that her friends would find her that she raised her arms out of the water and shouted:

“I’m here! Help me!”

What came in answer was the scratchy laugh of the rusty Field Marshal.

More and more lights flashed on Alice’s face.

It turned out that the robots had not been as stupid as she had hoped. They had gotten the inflatable boat into the water and even used its noiseless motor, so Alice had not noticed their approach.

Alice tried to dive, but here again the robots had out-thought her.

As soon as her head again showed itself above the water a robot hand grasped her by the hair and dragged her to the boat.

Alice tried to recover her breath. The iron hand clamped down on her chest and Alice thought the robot was now trying to crush her. It was very difficult to breath.

“One-Two-Three-Four!” The robot commanded.

The boat rocked back and forth. Around Alice there was an enormous commotion.

Then everything was silent.

The Field Marshal jerked at Alice’s arm and seated her beside him, and said:

“Look and be amazed, human spy!”

Alice looked around, and what she saw really did amaze her. The boat was empty.

Only she and the robot General sat in the boat; the general had an iron harpoon on his lap.

“But what happened to all the others?” Alice asked.

The robot laughed. The robot’s laugh was like slamming a hammer against a piece of steel.

“Do you see this?” It asked; it pointed to the minimizer. The suitcase lay at his feet, closed, black, peaceful.

“I am no fool.” The robot said. “I examined this bag back at headquarters. I looked inside. I saw many small things that lay inside it. When I took them out the things became big. It is a very clever military tool. I like it very much.”

“It’s not at all a military tool.” Alice said.

“Do not contradict me! It is the ideal attack mans. I understood everything. For this I awarded myself the next rank. You may now refer to me as Lord Field-Marshal.”

Not letting go of Alice’s arm the robot Field-Marshal opened the minimizer and allowed Alice to glance inside. At the same time he shone the light from his forehead lamp into the minimizer.

Alice gasped in horror; inside the minimizer stood a line of rusty robots. Tiny, like toys, each of them smaller than her finger.

“Now, we shall have victory!” It said.

The robot field-marshal slammed the minimizer shut.

“Now you will be defeated.” It said. “I can hardly imagine how this came about.”

“But why are you telling me all this?”

“I need you.” The robot said. “In order to carry out a deception of the coast’s defenders.”

It pulled the old man-film robot’s straw hat from the bottom of the boat and put it on it own head.

“Now you and I are merely peaceful villagers sailing in a boat. And if someone should catch sight of us he will never guess that a great invasion is about to begin. If you, young human, will behave yourself and obey all my commands, I will release you alive and, perhaps, even award you with a medal. But if you attempt to deceive me you will not live another second!”

And suddenly Alice was very frightened indeed. She realized that with every minute they were drawing closer to a shore filled with thousands of unsuspecting tourists and vacationers. These people were getting ready to go to bed, out watching the stars, rocking children to sleep, and not one of them suspected that truly merciless killers were approaching.

“Okay.” Alice said. “I’ll help you. Just let go of my arm. It hurts.”

“That I will not do.” The robot said. “I do not believe you. I believe no one. I do not even believe myself.”

“But there’s no where for me to swim to!” Alice insisted. “Doesn’t your boat sail faster than I can swim? There’s no way I can run away from you.”

“What are you planning?” The robot’s clutch weakened.

And then Alice saw something in the water not far from the boat; a black arch was cutting the waves.

Could it be a dolphin?

The sun was below the horizon and dark shadows had run to cover the land and sea in silence.

Of course they’re dolphins. Too bad there’s no way they can talk…. But, what if they understand?

If she could grab hold of a dolphin’s dorsal fin, there was no way the boat could ever catch her!

Should she risk it? And what if the dolphins were too frightened to help?

But there was no way she could just sit there and wait while the war robots started to attack the peaceful coast.

“Dolphins!” Alice shouted. “Help me!”

And, pulling her arm out of the robot’s hand, she threw herself into the water.

The water immediately exploded in foam around her. Alice came back to the surface and realized there wasn’t a single dolphin anywhere around.

But the boat’s nose had begun to turn in her direction. She saw the black silhouette of the robot, who stood up in the boat and held an iron harpoon in one hand over his head. The light from his lamp flashed in her direction.

I’ve failed, Alice thought.

But at that moment the firm body of a dolphin struck her from below. Alice instinctively grabbed onto the high, curving dorsal fin. The dolphin carried her to one side, and Alice did not see, but she did feel the swish of the iron harpoon cutting through the water. A second dolphin swam over to Alice as well; together the pait quickly began to carry the girl toward the shore. Around her she could make out the fins and laughing snouts of the other dolphins.

“Stop!” The robot shouted, shining the light from his lamp on the water.

An arrow cut the water close to them with a splash. A second struck one of the dolphins. He groaned, just like a person.

“Look out!” Alice shouted, but, certainly, from the splashing and noise no one could hear her voice.

The shore was already very close its black headland cut stars out of the sky. Beyond the headland burned bright fires.

“Bad people!” One dolphin said. “We don’t like him.”

“That’s not a person.” Alice said, not at all surprised that the dolphins could talk; not at least enough to be taken aback. “That’s an iron robot. It’s a machine. It’s an evil machine.”

The dolphins whistled and clicked among themselves, trying to understand what had just taken place.

“But aren’t these people?” The dolphin who had helped Alice asked again.

“They’re the enemies of people.”

The dolphin gave a loud whistle and immediately the black tailfins of his fellows rushed to his side.

“Watch.” The dolphin said, turning.

Alice watched how several dolphins rammed into the side of the inflatable boat where the robot field-marshal was standing. The plastic shuddered in the water, one side rose into the air, the crashed down again; the war robot could not maintain his balance and fell into the water with an enormous splash.

“Perfect!” Alice shouted. “Hooray!”

And she suddenly realized just what was there, in the boat the minimizer. It would be lost!

“The boat!” Alice shouted, watching how the waves played with it. “The boat. I have to get to the boat!”

The dolphin did not ask any questions. A few seconds later he had swum up to the boat and hung along side.

Alice clambered on board.

The suitcase minimizer lay on the bottom of the boat.

“Thank you, dolphins!” Alice shouted.

“You’re welcome, brave child.”

“You’re injured. Alice said, heading the boat toward the shore. “Do you need help? Should I call a doctor?”

“Don’t bother.” The dolphin answered. “It’s nothing.”

And the dolphins vanished into the night.

As though they had never been.

The night was totally silent. The only sound was the singing of the crickets on the shore.

The boat rammed its nose against the rocks.

Alice threw the minimizer out onto the beach.

And suddenly she heard voices calling her name.

“Alice!” The words flowed down from the cliff “Alice, where are you? Aaal-isss!”

“I’m here!” She shouted. “I’m here!”

A few minutes later she found in the center of a crowd. Everyone was there. The rescue workers, Vasya and Herman, and of course Svetlana Odinokaya.

“You’re alive!” “You’re not injured?” “You’re not hurt?” “Where were you?” They all spoke at once from all around her.

“I’ll explain it all.” Alice answered. “But first I have to give Svetlana the minimizer.”

“Thank you, Alice.” Svetlana said. “I’ve been racking my brains trying to figure out why you took it.”

“But I didn’t take it.” Alice said. She felt like her legs were going to collapse beneath her.

And then Alice saw Svetlana put the minimizer down on the stones of the beach and open it.

“Be careful! Don’t!” Alice shouted.

But it was too late.

Svetlana cried out in pain.

All the flash lights were directed toward her. Svetlana touched her fingers to her cheek; a thin trickle of blood flowed between them.

“What is this?” Svetlana pulled a needle out of her cheek.

“It’s a war arrow.” Alice said. “There are war robots in the minimizer who want to conquer the Earth.”

And in fact the very next moment the needle turned into a large iron war arrow.

A moment later Svetlana clamped the minimizer shut. The next time anyone opened it would be at the scrap metal factory.

In the morning, when she had gotten enough sleep and told them everything there was to tell, when she was all cleaned up and all her cuts and bruises were bandaged and bandaided, Alice and the group of film people and all the journalists set off for the pirate island by boat. Bertha was with them as well; she had hurried down from Moscow on the inter-city train. She was dressed in a violet wig and a living dress grown from venusian water plants which changed its color and design continually. Bertha spent all her time asking Alice endless questions about how the dolphins had helped her, and, most importantly, did they have anything to say?

The island was empty; the winds blew through the ruins of the robot Field-Marshal’s Headquarters. The rusty scissors and pieces of tin scrap stuck out of a bag from which the Field- Marshal cut out the medals he awarded to his subordinates lay scattered about as discarded trash.

The film unit’s technician carefully lifted up the body of the old man-film robot and carried it to the cutter so it could be repaired immediately.

Alice showed the reporters the pit where she had been put; the steps she had cut out of the earth to escape from captivity remained in the walls.

On their way back they looked in at the half — drowned barge and Alice grabbed the bag with the mielophone.

The island gradually shrank from view, sinking into the sea. The cutter was returning to the coast. Her adventure had come to an end.

Svetlana bent down to Alice and whispered:

“I phoned through to Nikitin. He begged my forgiveness.”

“For what?”

“For everything he was guilty of, and not guilty of.” Svetlana said. “He isn’t so bad.”

“I thought so too.”

Quite close to the shore a pod of dolphins overtook the cutter. For some time they swam along side, leaping and diving. Then, before they turned and headed for the open sea one of them stopped, looked at the cutter, and shouted in a thin voice:

“Good job Alice!”

“Good-bye! Thanks, dolphins!” Alice answered.

At first Bertha couldn’t believe her own ears, and when she finally did, she fainted dead away.

Fin