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lay in wait by the caves from which the Spontaneous emerged. The same caves he and his squad had entered just a few weeks before.
    He waited by the entrance as day followed night. Waited there for seven days. And on the seventh day a robot emerged.
    A man, dark in metal and slender in build. Black rock still clung to him from his emergence from the ground.
    Nicolas came upon the man and killed him. Unwound the man’s mind from his body and placed his own there instead.
    He left the indestructible body there at the mouth of the caves, its skull cracked open for any robot to take.
    And then he walked down from the mountains.
    Karel
     
    ‘What happened to him?’ asked Banjo Macrodocious. ‘No one knows,’ said Karel. ‘He just vanished.’ ‘What happened to the body?’
    ‘It vanished too. Some say that somewhere a robot still wears it, but painted, disguised.’
    ‘ Your body is painted,’ observed Banjo Macrodocious.
    Karel tapped at his chest plate. ‘This is not so hard.’
    ‘I can hear that. So what is the point of your story?’
    ‘That Nicolas was given a great gift and yet refused to use it. Your intelligence is the same.’
    ‘I am not intelligent,’ said Banjo Macrodocious. ‘I would not want to do as Nicolas did, to kill in that fashion.’
    ‘No robot should. That is an intelligent thing to say. Listen, Banjo Macrodocious, don’t deny your gift. Would you be Nicolas the Coward?’
    ‘I have no preference.’
    Karel clenched his fist, wanting to smack the door beside him in frustration. The pain in his bent right hand caused him to pause just in time.
    Gates was waiting right outside the door to the isolation area.
    ‘So, what’s the verdict?’
    ‘He’s intelligent all right,’ said Karel.
    ‘Thought as much,’ said Gates.
    ‘. . . but I can’t formally declare him so. He refuses to pass any of the tests. I’ve warned him and warned him, but he refuses to listen. He doesn’t seem to care. It doesn’t seem to care. I can’t call it him , as it’s not a robot. It’s technically a possession. It shouldn’t be that way, it’s not right, but that’s what the rules say. The stupid Tokvah is so stubborn.’
    Gates frowned. ‘Hmm. Do you think it’s being threatened? Or playing a game, or something?’
    ‘No. I honestly believe that it thinks it’s unintelligent. Hah, that’s an oxymoron isn’t it?’
    ‘I think it’s a trick. Artemisians are cunning. It’s the sort of stunt that they would pull.’
    ‘Yes, but why? What could they hope to gain?’
    They began to make their way back along the walkway, back out of the holding area. The chatter and clanking of the immigrants fell silent as they walked by.
    ‘They all know what’s in there,’ said Gates. ‘They are all wondering what it is. They’re wondering what you’ve decided.’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Karel.
    ‘Well, make a decision fast, Karel. I need it out of here. I need the space. Just look around you.’
    Karel shook his head. ‘I’ve no choice. It refuses to accept citizenship. Mark it as unintelligent.’
    ‘Fine,’ said Gates. ‘It makes no difference to me.’
    ‘Well, it should do,’ said Karel. ‘You sound like an Artemisian.’

 

 
    Eleanor
     
    Wien had fallen long before most of the combatants were aware of it. Like old metal thrown on the family forge to be melted down and cast anew, the city stood apparently firm whilst all the time being on the point of dissolution.
    The Wiener Stonewall Troops that had organized the last solid resistance were not to know that behind them the core of the city was already breached. The Artemisian Storm Troopers repeatedly breaking themselves against the marble ramparts that ringed the city did not realize that the terms of surrender were already being discussed at gunpoint. They weren’t to know that one resourceful Artemisian unit had already breached the city’s security and made its way to its heart.
    Wien was a beautiful city, built half on