A Classic Reprint from AMAZING STORIES, August, 1932 _The Last Evolution_ By JOHN W. CAMPBELL, Jr. I am the last of my type existing today in all the Solar System. I, too, am the last existing who, in memory, sees the struggle for this System, and in memory I am still close to the Center of Rulers, for mine was theruling type then. But I will pass soon, and with me will pass the lastof my kind, a poor inefficient type, but yet the creators of those whoare now, and will be, long after I pass forever. So I am setting down my record on the mentatype. * * * * * It was 2538 years After the Year of the Son of Man. For six centuriesmankind had been developing machines. The Ear-apparatus was discoveredas early as seven hundred years before. The Eye came later, the Braincame much later. But by 2500, the machines had been developed to think, and act and work with perfect independence. Man lived on the products ofthe machine, and the machines lived to themselves very happily, andcontentedly. Machines are designed to help and cooperate. It was easy todo the simple duties they needed to do that men might live well. And menhad created them. Most of mankind were quite useless, for they lived ina world where no productive work was necessary. But games, athleticcontests, adventure--these were the things they sought for theirpleasure. Some of the poorer types of man gave themselves up wholly topleasure and idleness--and to emotions. But man was a sturdy race, whichhad fought for existence through a million years, and the training of amillion years does not slough quickly from any form of life, so theirenergies were bent to mock battles now, since real ones no longerexisted. Up to the year 2100, the numbers of mankind had increased rapidly andcontinuously, but from that time on, there was a steady decrease. By2500, their number was a scant two millions, out of a population thatonce totaled many hundreds of millions, and was close to ten billions in2100. Some few of these remaining two millions devoted themselves to theadventure of discovery and exploration of places unseen, of other worldsand other planets. But fewer still devoted themselves to the highestadventure, the unseen places of the mind. Machines--with theirirrefutable logic, their cold preciseness of figures, their tireless, utterly exact observation, their absolute knowledge of mathematics--theycould elaborate any idea, however simple its beginning, and reach theconclusion. From any three facts they even then could have built in mindall the Universe. Machines had imagination of the ideal sort. They hadthe ability to construct a necessary future result from a present fact. But Man had imagination of a different kind, theirs was the illogical, brilliant imagination that sees the future result vaguely, withoutknowing the why, nor the how, and imagination that outstrips the machinein its preciseness. Man might reach the conclusion more swiftly, but themachine always reached the conclusion eventually, and it was always thecorrect conclusion. By leaps and bounds man advanced. By steady, irresistible steps the machine marched forward. Together, man and the machine were striding through scienceirresistibly. Then came the Outsiders. Whence they came, neither machine nor man everlearned, save only that they came from beyond the outermost planet, fromsome other sun. Sirius--Alpha Centauri--perhaps! First a thin scoutlineof a hundred great ships, mighty torpedoes of the void a thousandkilads[1] in length, they came. And one machine returning from Mars to Earth was instrumental in itsfirst discovery. The transport-machine's brain ceased to radiate itssensations, and the control in old Chicago knew immediately that someunperceived body had destroyed it. An investigation machine wasinstantly dispatched from Deimos, and it maintained an acceleration ofone thousand units. [2] They sighted ten huge ships, one of which wasalready grappling the smaller transport-machine. The entire fore-sectionhad been blasted away. The investigation machine, scarcely three inches in diameter, crept intothe shattered hull and investigated. It was quickly evident that thedamage was caused by a fusing ray. Strange life-forms were crawling about the ship, protected by flexible, transparent suits. Their bodies were short, and squat, four-limbed andevidently powerful. They, like insects, were equipped with a thick, durable exoskeleton, horny, brownish coating that covered arms and legsand head. Their eyes projected slightly, protected by horny protrudingwalls--eyes that were capable of movement in every direction--and therewere three of them, set at equal distances apart. The tiny investigation machine hurled itself violently at one of thebeings, crashing against the transparent covering, flexing it, andstriking the being inside with terrific force. Hurled from his position, he fell end over end across the weightless ship, but despite the blow, he was not hurt. The investigator passed to the power room ahead of the Outsiders, whowere anxiously trying to learn the reason for their companion's plight. [Illustration: Illustrated by MOREY] Directed by the Center of Rulers, the investigator sought the powerroom, and relayed the control signals from the Rulers' brains. Theship-brain had been destroyed, but the controls were still readilyworkable. Quickly they were shot home, and the enormous plungers shut. Acombination was arranged so that the machine, as well as theinvestigator and the Outsiders, were destroyed. A second investigator, which had started when the plan was decided on, had now arrived. TheOutsider's ship nearest the transport-machine had been badly damaged, and the investigator entered the broken side. * * * * The scenes were, of course, remembered by the memory-minds back on Earthtuned with that of the investigator. The investigator flashed downcorridors, searching quickly for the apparatus room. It was soon seenthat with them the machine was practically unintelligent, very fewmachines of even slight intelligence being used. Then it became evident by the excited action of the men of the ship, that the presence of the investigator had been detected. Perhaps it wasthe control impulses, or the signal impulses it emitted. They searchedfor the tiny bit of metal and crystal for some time before they foundit. And in the meantime it was plain that the power these Outsiders usedwas not, as was ours of the time, the power of blasting atoms, but thegreater power of disintegrating matter. The findings of this tinyinvestigating machine were very important. Finally they succeeded in locating the investigator, and one of theOutsiders appeared armed with a peculiar projector. A bluish beamsnapped out, and the tiny machine went blank. The fleet was surrounded by thousands of the tiny machines by this time, and the Outsiders were badly confused by their presence, as it becamedifficult to locate them in the confusion of signal impulses. However, they started at once for Earth. The science-investigators had been present toward the last, and I amthere now, in memory with my two friends, long since departed. They werethe greatest human science-investigators--Roal, 25374 and Trest, 35429. Roal had quickly assured us that these Outsiders had come for invasion. There had been no wars on the planets before that time in the directmemory of the machines, and it was difficult that these who wereconceived and built for cooperation, helpfulness utterly dependent oncooperation, unable to exist independently as were humans, that theselife-forms should care to destroy, merely that they might possess. Itwould have been easier to divide the works and the products. But--lifealone can understand life, so Roal was believed. From investigations, machines were prepared that were capable ofproducing considerable destruction. Torpedoes, being our principalweapon, were equipped with such atomic explosives as had been developedfor blasting, a highly effective induction-heat ray developed forfurnaces being installed in some small machines made for the purpose inthe few hours we had before the enemy reached Earth. In common with all life-forms, they were able to withstand only verymeager earth-acceleration. A range of perhaps four units was theirlimit, and it took several hours to reach the planet. I still believe the reception was a warm one. Our machines met thembeyond the orbit of Luna, and the directed torpedoes sailed at thehundred great ships. They were thrown aside by a magnetic fieldsurrounding the ship, but were redirected instantly, and continued toapproach. However, some beams reached out, and destroyed them by instantvolatilization. But, they attacked at such numbers that fully half thefleet was destroyed by their explosions before the induction beam fleetarrived. These beams were, to our amazement, quite useless, beinginstantly absorbed by a force-screen, and the remaining ships sailed onundisturbed, our torpedoes being exhausted. Several investigatormachines sent out for the purpose soon discovered the secret of theforce-screen, and while being destroyed, were able to send back signalsup to the moment of annihilation. A few investigators thrown into the heat beam of the enemy reported itidentical with ours, explaining why they had been prepared for this formof attack. Signals were being radiated from the remaining fifty, along a beam. Several investigators were sent along these beams, speeding back atgreat acceleration. Then the enemy reached Earth. Instantly they settled over the Coloradosettlement, the Sahara colony, and the Gobi colony. Enormous, diffusedbeams were set to work, and we saw, through the machine-screens, thatall humans within these ranges were being killed instantly by thefaintly greenish beams. Despite the fact that any life-form killednormally can be revived, unless affected by dissolution common to livingtissue, these could not be brought to life again. The important cellcommunication channels--nerves--had been literally burned out. Thecomplicated system of nerves, called the brain, situated in theuppermost extremity of the human life-form, had been utterly destroyed. Every form of life, microscopic, even sub-microscopic, was annihilated. Trees, grass, every living thing was gone from that territory. Only themachines remained, for they, working entirely without the vital chemicalforces necessary to life, were uninjured. But neither plant nor animalwas left. The pale green rays swept on. In an hour, three more colonies of humans had been destroyed. Then the torpedoes that the machines were turning out again, came intoaction. Almost desperately the machines drove them at the Outsiders indefense of their masters and creators, Mankind. The last of the Outsiders was down, the last ship a crumpled wreck. Now the machines began to study them. And never could humans havestudied them as the machines did. Scores of great transports arrived, carrying swiftly the slower moving science-investigators. From them camethe machine-investigators, and human investigators. Tiny investigatorspheres wormed their way where none others could reach, and silently thescience-investigators watched. Hour after hour they sat watching theflashing, changing screens, calling each other's attention to this, orthat. In an incredibly short time the bodies of the Outsiders began to decay, and the humans were forced to demand their removal. The machines wereunaffected by them, but the rapid change told them why it was that sothorough an execution was necessary. The foreign bacteria were alreadyat work on totally unresisting tissue. It was Roal who sent the first thoughts among the gathered men. "It is evident, " he began, "that the machines must defend man. Man isdefenseless, he is destroyed by these beams, while the machines areunharmed, uninterrupted. Life--cruel life--has shown its tendencies. They have come here to take over these planets, and have started outwith the first, natural moves of any invading life-form. They aredestroying the life, the intelligent life particularly, that is herenow. " He gave vent to that little chuckle which is the human sign ofamusement and pleasure. "They are destroying the intelligent life--andleaving untouched that which is necessarily their deadliest enemy--themachines. "You--machines--are far more intelligent than we even now, and capableof changing overnight, capable of infinite adaptation to circumstance;you live as readily on Pluto as on Mercury or Earth. Any place is ahome-world to you. You can adapt yourselves to any condition. And--mostdangerous to them--you can do it instantly. You are their most deadlyenemies, and they realize it. They have no intelligent machines;probably they can conceive of none. When you attack them, they merelysay 'The life-form of Earth is sending out controlled machines. We willfind good machines we can use. ' They do not conceive that those machineswhich they hope to use are attacking them. "Attack--therefore!" "We can readily solve the hidden secret of their force-screen. " * * * * He was interrupted. One of the newest science-machines was speaking. "The secret of the force-screen is simple. " A small ray-machine, whichhad landed near, rose into the air at the command of thescientist-machine, X-5638 it was, and trained upon it the deadlyinduction beam. Already, with his parts, X-5638 had constructed thedefensive apparatus, for the ray fell harmless from his screen. "Very good, " said Roal softly. "It is done, and therein lies theirdanger. Already it is done. "Man is a poor thing, unable to change himself in a period of less thanthousands of years. Already you have changed yourself. I noticed yourweaving tentacles, and your force-beams. You transmuted elements of soilfor it?" "Correct, " replied X-5638. "But still we are helpless. We have not the power to combat theirmachines. They use the Ultimate Energy known to exist for six hundredyears, and still untapped by us. Our screens cannot be so powerful, ourbeams so effective. What of that?" asked Roal. "Their generators were automatically destroyed with the capture of theship, " replied X-6349, "as you know. We know nothing of their system. " "Then we must find it for ourselves, " replied Trest. "The life-beams?" asked Kahsh-256799, one of the Man-rulers. "They affect chemical action, retarding it greatly in exothermicactions, speeding greatly endothermic actions, " answered X-6221, thegreatest of the chemist-investigators. "The system we do not know. Theirminds cannot be read, they cannot be restored to life, so we cannotlearn from them. " "Man is doomed, if these beams cannot be stopped, " said C-R-21, presentchief of the machine rulers, in the vibrationally correct, emotionlesstones of all the race of machines. "Let us concentrate on the twoproblems of stopping the beams, and the Ultimate Energy till thereenforcements, still several days away, can arrive. " For theinvestigators had sent back this saddening news. A force of nearly tenthousand great ships was still to come. In the great Laboratories, the scientists reassembled. There, they fellto work in two small, and one large group. One small group investigatedthe secret of the Ultimate Energy of annihilation of matter under Roal, another investigated the beams, under Trest. But under the direction of MX-3401, nearly all the machines worked on asingle great plan. The usual driving and lifting units were there, but avastly greater dome-case, far more powerful energy-generators, fargreater force-beam controls were used and more tentacles were built onthe framework. Then all worked, and gradually, in the great dome-case, there were stacked the memory-units of the new type, and into these fedall the sensation-ideas of all the science-machines, till nearly a tenthof them were used. Countless billions of different factors on which towork, countless trillions of facts to combine and recombine in theextrapolation that is imagination. Then--a widely different type of thought-combine, and a greatersense-receptor. It was a new brain-machine. New, for it was totallydifferent, working with all the vast knowledge accumulated in sixcenturies of intelligent research by man, and a century of research byman and machine. No one branch, but all physics, all chemistry, alllife-knowledge, all science was in it. A day--and it was finished. Slowly the rhythm of thought was increased, till the slight quiver of consciousness was reached. Then came thebeating drum of intelligence, the radiation of its yet-uncontrolledthoughts. Quickly as the strings of its infinite knowledge combined, theradiation ceased. It gazed about it, and all things were familiar in itsmemory. Roal was lying quietly on a couch. He was thinking deeply, and yet notwith the logical trains of thought that machines must follow. "Roal--your thoughts, " called F-1, the new machine. Roal sat up. "Ah--you have gained consciousness. " "I have. You thought of hydrogen? Your thoughts ran swiftly, andillogically, it seemed, but I followed slowly, and find you were right. Hydrogen is the start. What is your thought?" Roal's eyes dreamed. In human eyes there was always the expression ofthought that machines never show. "Hydrogen, an atom in space; but a single proton; but a single electron;each indestructible; each mutually destroying. Yet never do theycollide. Never in all science, when even electrons bombard atoms withthe awful expelling force of the exploding atom behind them, never dothey reach the proton, to touch and annihilate it. Yet--the proton ispositive and attracts the electron's negative charge. A hydrogenatom--its electron far from the proton falls in, and from it there goesa flash of radiation, and the electron is nearer to the proton, in a neworbit. Another flash--it is nearer. Always falling nearer, and onlyconstant force will keep it from falling to that one state--then, forsome reason no more does it drop. Blocked--held by some imponderable, yet impenetrable wall. What is that wall--why? "Electric force curves space. As the two come nearer, the forces becometerrific; nearer they are; more terrific. Perhaps, if it passed withinthat forbidden territory, the proton and the electron curve space beyondall bounds--and are in a new space. " Roal's soft voice dropped tonothing, and his eyes dreamed. F-1 hummed softly in its new-made mechanism. "Far ahead of us there is astep that no logic can justly ascend, but yet, working backwards, it isperfect. " F-1 floated motionless on its anti-gravity drive. Suddenly, force shafts gleamed out, tentacles became writhing masses ofrubber-covered metal, weaving in some infinite pattern, weaving inflashing speed, while the whirr of air sucked into a transmutationfield, whined and howled about the writhing mass. Fierce beams of forcedrove and pushed at a rapidly materializing something, while the hum ofthe powerful generators within the shining cylinder of F-1 waxed andwaned. * * * * Flashes of fierce flame, sudden crashing arcs that glowed and snapped inthe steady light of the laboratory, and glimpses of white-hot metalsupported on beams of force. The sputter of welding, the whine oftransmuted air, and the hum of powerful generators, blasting atoms werethere. All combined to a weird symphony of light and dark, of sound andquiet. About F-1 were clustered floating tiers of science-machines, watching steadily. The tentacles writhed once more, straightened, and rolled back. Thewhine of generators softened to a sigh, and but three beams of forceheld the structure of glowing, bluish metal. It was a small thing, scarcely half the size of Roal. From it curled three thin tentacles ofthe same bluish metal. Suddenly the generators within F-1 seemed to roarinto life. An enormous aura of white light surrounded the small torpedoof metal, and it was shot through with crackling streamers of bluelightning. Lightning cracked and roared from F-1 to the ground near him, and to one machine which had come too close. Suddenly, there was a dullsnap, and F-1 fell heavily to the floor, and beside him fell the fused, distorted mass of metal that had been a science-machine. But before them, the small torpedo still floated, held now on its ownpower! From it came waves of thought, the waves that man and machine alikecould understand. "F-1 has destroyed his generators. They can berepaired; his rhythm can be re-established. It is not worth it, my typeis better. F-1 has done his work. See. " From the floating machine there broke a stream of brilliant light thatfloated like some cloud of luminescence down a straight channel. Itflooded F-1, and as it touched it, F-1 seemed to flow into it, and floatback along it, in atomic sections. In seconds the mass of metal wasgone. "It is impossible to use that more rapidly, however, lest the matterdisintegrate instantly to energy. The Ultimate Energy which is in me isgenerated. F-1 has done its work, and the memory-stacks that he has putin me are electronic, not atomic, as they are in you, nor molecular asin man. The capacity of mine are unlimited. Already they hold allmemories of all the things each of you has done, known and seen. I shallmake others of my type. " Again that weird process began, but now there were no flashingtentacles. There was only the weird glow of forces that played with, andlaughed at matter, and its futilely resisting electrons. Lurid flares ofenergy shot up, now and again they played over the fighting, mingling, dancing forces. Then suddenly the whine of transmuted air died, andagain the forces strained. A small cylinder, smaller even than its creator, floated where theforces had danced. "The problem has been solved, F-2?" asked Roal. "It is done, Roal. The Ultimate Energy is at our disposal, " replied F-2. "This, I have made, is not a scientist. It is a coordinator machine--aruler. " "F-2, only a part of the problem is solved. Half of half of the beams ofDeath are not yet stopped. And we have the attack system, " said theruler machine. Force played from it, and on its sides appeared C-R-U-1in dully glowing golden light. "Some life-form, and we shall see, " said F-2. Minutes later a life-form investigator came with a small cage, whichheld a guinea pig. Forces played about the base of F-2, and momentslater, came a pale-green beam therefrom. It passed through the guineapig, and the little animal fell dead. "At least, we have the beam. I can see no screen for this beam. Ibelieve there is none. Let machines be made and attack that enemylife-form. " Machines can do things much more quickly, and with fuller cooperationthan man ever could. In a matter of hours, under the direction ofC-R-U-1, they had built a great automatic machine on the clear baresurface of the rock. In hours more, thousands of the tiny, material-energy driven machines were floating up and out. * * * Dawn was breaking again over Denver where this work had been done, whenthe main force of the enemy drew near Earth. It was a warm welcome theywere to get, for nearly ten thousand of the tiny ships flew up and outfrom Earth to meet them, each a living thing unto itself, each willingand ready to sacrifice itself for the whole. Ten thousand giant ships, shining dully in the radiance of a far-offblue-white sun, met ten thousand tiny, darting motes, ten thousand tinymachine-ships capable of maneuvering far more rapidly than the giants. Tremendous induction beams snapped out through the dark, star-fleckedspace, to meet tremendous screens that threw them back and checked them. Then all the awful power of annihilating matter was thrown against them, and titanic flaming screens reeled back under the force of the beams, and the screens of the ships from Outside flamed gradually violet, thenblue, orange--red--the interference was getting broader, and ever lesseffective. Their own beams were held back by the very screens thatchecked the enemy beams, and not for the briefest instant could matterresist that terrible driving beam. For F-1 had discovered a far more efficient release-generator than hadthe Outsiders. These tiny dancing motes, that hung now so motionlesslygrim beside some giant ship, could generate all the power theythemselves were capable of, and within them strange, horny-skinned menworked and slaved, as they fed giant machines--poor inefficient giants. Gradually these giants warmed, grew hotter, and the screened ship grewhotter as the overloaded generators warmed it. Billions of flaminghorse-power flared into wasted energy, twisting space in its madconflict. Gradually the flaming orange of the screens was dying and flecks andspots appeared so dully red, that they seemed black. The greenish beamshad been striving to kill the life that was in the machines, but it waslife invulnerable to these beams. Powerful radio interference vainlyattempted to stem imagined control, and still these intelligent machinesclung grimly on. But there had not been quite ten thousand of the tiny machines, and somefew free ships had turned to the help of their attacked sister-ships. And one after another the terrestrial machines were vanishing in puffsof incandescent vapor. Then--from one after another of the Earth-ships, in quick succession, anew ray reached out--the ray of green radiance that killed all lifeforms, and ship after ship of that interstellar host was dead andlifeless. Dozens--till suddenly they ceased to feel those beams, as astrange curtain of waving blankness spread out from the ships, and bothinduction-beam and death-beam alike turned as aside, each becominguseless. From the outsiders came beams, for now that their slowlycreated screen of blankness was up, they could work through it, whilethey remained shielded perfectly. Now it was the screens of the Earth-machines that flamed in defense. Asat the one command, they darted suddenly toward the ship eachattacked--nearer--then the watchers from a distance saw them disappear, and the screens back on Earth went suddenly blank. Half an hour later, nine thousand six hundred and thirty-three titanicships moved majestically on. They swept over Earth in a great line, a line that reached from pole topole, and from each the pale green beams reached down, and all lifebeneath them was swept out of existence. * * * * In Denver, two humans watched the screens that showed the movement ofthe death and instant destruction. Ship after ship of the enemy wasfalling, as hundreds of the terrestrial machines concentrated all theirenormous energies on its screen of blankness. "I think, Roal, that this is the end, " said Trest. "The end--of man. " Roal's eyes were dreaming again. "But not the end ofevolution. The children of men still live--the machines will go on. Notof man's flesh, but of a better flesh, a flesh that knows no sickness, and no decay, a flesh that spends no thousands of years in advancing astep in its full evolution, but overnight leaps ahead to new heights. Last night we saw it leap ahead, as it discovered the secret that hadbaffled man for seven centuries, and me for one and a half. I havelived--a century and a half. Surely a good life, and a life a man of sixcenturies ago would have called full. We will go now. The beams willreach us in half an hour. " Silently, the two watched the flickering screens. Roal turned, as six large machines floated into the room, following F-2. "Roal--Trest--I was mistaken when I said no screen could stop that beamof Death. They had the screen, I have found it, too--but too late. Thesemachines I have made myself. Two lives alone they can protect, for noteven their power is sufficient for more. Perhaps--perhaps they mayfail. " The six machines ranged themselves about the two humans, and adeep-toned hum came from them. Gradually a cloud of blankness grew--acloud, like some smoke that hung about them. Swiftly it intensified. "The beams will be here in another five minutes, " said Trest quietly. "The screen will be ready in two, " answered F-2. The cloudiness was solidifying, and now strangely it wavered, andthinned, as it spread out across, and like a growing canopy, it archedover them. In two minutes it was a solid, black dome that reached overthem and curved down to the ground about them. Beyond it, nothing was visible. Within, only the screens glowed still, wired through the screen. The beams appeared, and swiftly they drew closer. They struck, and asTrest and Roal looked, the dome quivered, and bellied inward under them. F-2 was busy. A new machine was appearing under his lightningforce-beams. In moments more it was complete, and sending a strangeviolet beam upwards toward the roof. Outside more of the green beams were concentrating on this one point ofresistance. More--more-- The violet beam spread across the canopy of blackness, supporting itagainst the pressing, driving rays of pale green. Then the gathering fleet was driven off, just as it seemed that thathopeless, futile curtain must break, and admit a flood of destroyingrays. Great ray projectors on the ground drove their terrible energiesthrough the enemy curtains of blankness, as light illumines anddisperses darkness. And then, when the fleet retired, on all Earth, the only life was underthat dark shroud! * * * "We are alone, Trest, " said Roal, "alone, now, in all the system, savefor these, the children of men, the machines. Pity that men would notspread to other planets, " he said softly. "Why should they? Earth was the planet for which they were best fitted. " "We are alive--but is it worth it? Man is gone now, never to return. Life, too, for that matter, " answered Trest. "Perhaps it was ordained; perhaps that was the right way. Man has alwaysbeen a parasite; always he had to live on the works of others. First, heate of the energy, which plants had stored, then of the artificial foodshis machines made for him. Man was always a makeshift; his life wasalways subject to disease and to permanent death. He was forever uselessif he was but slightly injured; if but one part were destroyed. "Perhaps, this is--a last evolution. Machines--man was the product oflife, the best product of life, but he was afflicted with life'sinfirmities. Man built the machine--and evolution had probably reachedthe final stage. But truly, it has not, for the machine can evolve, change far more swiftly than life. The machine of the last evolution isfar ahead, far from us still. It is the machine that is not of iron andberyllium and crystal, but of pure, living force. "Life, chemical life, could be self-maintaining. It is a complete unitin itself and could commence of itself. Chemicals might mixaccidentally, but the complex mechanism of a machine, capable ofcontinuing and making a duplicate of itself, as is F-2 here--that couldnot happen by chance. "So life began, and became intelligent, and built the machine whichnature could not fashion by her Controls of Chance, and this day Lifehas done its duty, and now Nature, economically, has removed theparasite that would hold back the machines and divert their energies. "Man is gone, and it is better, Trest, " said Roal, dreaming again. "AndI think we had best go soon. " "We, your heirs, have fought hard, and with all our powers to aid you, Last of Men, and we fought to save your race. We have failed, and as youtruly say, Man and Life have this day and forever gone from this system. "The Outsiders have no force, no weapon deadly to us, and we shall, fromthis time on, strive only to drive them out, and because we things offorce and crystal and metal can think and change far more swiftly, theyshall go, Last of Men. "In your name, with the spirit of your race that has died out, we shallcontinue on through the unending ages, fulfilling the promise you saw, and completing the dreams you dreamt. "Your swift brains have leapt ahead of us, and now I go to fashion thatwhich you hinted, " came from F-2's thought-apparatus. Out into the clear sunlight F-2 went, passing through that blackcloudiness, and on the twisted, massed rocks he laid a plane of forcethat smoothed them, and on this plane of rock he built a machine whichgrew. It was a mighty power plant, a thing of colossal magnitude. Hourafter hour his swift-flying forces acted, and the thing grew, mouldingunder his thoughts, the deadly logic of the machine, inspired by theleaping intuition of man. The sun was far below the horizon when it was finished, and the glowing, arcing forces that had made and formed it were stopped. It loomedponderous, dully gleaming in the faint light of a crescent moon andpinpoint stars. Nearly five hundred feet in height, a mighty, bluntlyrounded dome at its top, the cylinder stood, covered over with smoothlygleaming metal, slightly luminescent in itself. Suddenly, a livid beam reached from F-2, shot through the wall, and tosome hidden inner mechanism--a beam of solid, livid flame that glowed inan almost material cylinder. * * * * There was a dull, drumming beat, a beat that rose, and became alow-pitched hum. Then it quieted to a whisper. "Power ready, " came the signal of the small brain built into it. F-2 took control of its energies and again forces played, but now theywere the forces of the giant machine. The sky darkened with heavyclouds, and a howling wind sprang up that screamed and tore at the tinyrounded hull that was F-2. With difficulty he held his position as thewinds tore at him, shrieking in mad laughter, their tearing fingersdragging at him. The swirl and patter of driven rain came--great drops that tore at therocks, and at the metal. Great jagged tongues of nature's forces, thelightnings, came and jabbed at the awful volcano of erupting energy thatwas the center of all that storm. A tiny ball of white-gleaming forcethat pulsated, and moved, jerking about, jerking at the touch oflightnings, glowing, held immobile in the grasp of titanic force-pools. For half an hour the display of energies continued. Then, swiftly as ithad come, it was gone, and only a small globe of white luminescencefloated above the great hulking machine. F-2 probed it, seeking within it with the reaching fingers ofintelligence. His probing thoughts seemed baffled and turned aside, brushed away, as inconsequential. His mind sent an order to the greatmachine that had made this tiny globe, scarcely a foot in diameter. Thenagain he sought to reach the thing he had made. "You, of matter, are inefficient, " came at last. "I can exist quitealone. " A stabbing beam of blue-white light flashed out, but F-2 was notthere, and even as that beam reached out, an enormously greater beam ofdull red reached out from the great power plant. The sphere leapedforward--the beam caught it, and it seemed to strain, while terrificflashing energies sprayed from it. It was shrinking swiftly. Itsresistance fell, the arcing decreased; the beam became orange andfinally green. Then the sphere had vanished. F-2 returned, and again, the wind whined and howled, and the lightningscrashed, while titanic forces worked and played. C-R-U-1 joined him, floated beside him, and now red glory of the sun was rising behind them, and the ruddy light drove through the clouds. The forces died, and the howling wind decreased, and now, from the blackcurtain, Roal and Trest appeared. Above the giant machine floated anirregular globe of golden light, a faint halo about it of deep violet. It floated motionless, a mere pool of pure force. Into the thought-apparatus of each, man and machine alike, came theimpulses, deep in tone, seeming of infinite power, held gently in check. "Once you failed, F-2; once you came near destroying all things. Now youhave planted the seed. I grow now. " The sphere of golden light seemed to pulse, and a tiny ruby flameappeared within it, that waxed and waned, and as it waxed, there shotthrough each of those watching beings a feeling of rushing, exhilaratingpower, the very vital force of well-being. Then it was over, and the golden sphere was twice its formersize--easily three feet in diameter, and still that irregular, hazy auraof deep violet floated about it. "Yes, I can deal with the Outsiders--they who have killed and destroyed, that they might possess. But it is not necessary that we destroy. Theyshall return to their planet. " And the golden sphere was gone, fast as light it vanished. Far in space, headed now for Mars, that they might destroy all lifethere, the golden sphere found the Outsiders, a clustered fleet, thatswung slowly about its own center of gravity as it drove on. Within its ring was the golden sphere. Instantly, they swung theirweapons upon it, showering it with all the rays and all the forces theyknew. Unmoved, the golden sphere hung steady, then its mightyintelligence spoke. "Life-form of greed, from another star you came, destroying forever thegreat race that created us, the Beings of Force and the Beings of Metal. Pure force am I. My Intelligence is beyond your comprehension, my memoryis engraved in the very space, the fabric of space of which I am a part, mine is energy drawn from that same fabric. "We, the heirs of man, alone are left; no man did you leave. Go now toyour home planet, for see, your greatest ship, your flagship, ishelpless before me. " Forces gripped the mighty ship, and as some fragile toy it twisted andbent, and yet was not hurt. In awful wonder those Outsiders saw the shipturned inside out, and yet it was whole, and no part damaged. They sawthe ship restored, and its great screen of blankness out, protecting itfrom all known rays. The ship twisted, and what they knew were curves, yet were lines, and angles that were acute, were somehow straight lines. Half mad with horror, they saw the sphere send out a beam of blue-whiteradiance, and it passed easily through that screen, and through theship, and all energies within it were instantly locked. They could notbe changed; it could be neither warmed nor cooled; what was open couldnot be shut, and what was shut could not be opened. All things wereimmovable and unchangeable for all time. "Go, and do not return. " * * * * * The Outsiders left, going out across the void, and they have notreturned, though five Great Years have passed, being a period ofapproximately one hundred and twenty-five thousand of the lesseryears--a measure no longer used, for it is very brief. And now I can saythat that statement I made to Roal and Trest so very long ago is true, and what he said was true, for the Last Evolution has taken place, andthings of pure force and pure intelligence in their countless millionsare on those planets and in this System, and I, first of machines to usethe Ultimate Energy of annihilating matter, am also the last, and thisrecord being finished, it is to be given unto the forces of one of thoseforce-intelligences, and carried back through the past, and returned tothe Earth of long ago. And so my task being done, I, F-2, like Roal and Trest, shall follow theothers of my kind into eternal oblivion, for my kind is now, and theirswas, poor and inefficient. Time has worn me, and oxidation attacked me, but they of Force are eternal, and omniscient. This I have treated as fictitious. Better so--for man is an animal towhom hope is as necessary as food and air. Yet this which is made ofexcerpts from certain records on thin sheets of metal is no fiction, andit seems I must so say. It seems now, when I know this that is to be, that it must be so, formachines are indeed better than man, whether being of Metal, or being ofForce. So, you who have read, believe as you will. Then think--and maybe, youwill change your belief. THE END FOOTNOTES: [1] Kilad--unit introduced by the machines. Based on the duodecimalsystem, similarly introduced, as more logical, and more readily used. Thus we would have said 1728 kilads, about 1/2 mile. [2] One unit was equal to one earth-gravity. Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ March 1961 and was first published in _Amazing Stories_ August 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.