Zitat
Carlotta craweld over to it.
Said she in German, "What are you?"
"I am the death of all men who oppose the Sixth German Reich," said the machine in fluted singsong German. "If the Reichsangehöriger wishes to identify me, my model and number are written on my carapace."
The machine knelt at a height so low that Carlotta could seize one of its heads and look in the moonlight at the edge of the top shell. The head and neck, though made of metal, felt much more weak and brittle than she expected. There was about the machine an air of immense age.
"I can't see," wailed Carlotta, "I need a light."
There was an ache and grind of long-unused machinery. Another mechanical arm appeared, dropping flakes of near-crystallized dirt as it moved. The tip of the arm exuded light, blue, penetrating, and strange.
Brook, forest, small valley, machine, even herself, were all lit up by the soft penetrating blue light which did not hurt her eyes. The light even gave her a sense of well-being. With the light she could read. Traced on the carapace just above the three heads was this inscription:
WAFFENAMT DES SECHSTEN DEUTSCHEN REICHES
BURG EISENHOWER, A.D. 2495
And then below it in much larger Latin letters:
MENSCHENJÄGER MARK ELF
"What does 'Man-hunter, Model Eleven' mean?"
"That's me," whistled the machine. "How is it you don't know me, if you are German?"
"Of course, I'm a German, you fool!" said Carlotta. "Do I look like a Russian?"
"What is a Russian?" said the machine.
[...]
The machine was torn between two duties, the long-current and familliar duty of killing all men who were not German, and the anicent and forgotten dutie of succoring all Germans, whoever they might be. After another period of electronic chatter, the machine began to speak again. Beneath the grind of its singsong German there was a curious warning, a reminder of the whistle which it made as it moved, a sound of immense mechanical and electrical effort.
Said the machine, "You are German. It has been long since there has been any German anywhere. I have gone around the world two thousand three hundred and twenty-eight times. I have killed seventeen thousand four hundred and sixty-nine enemies of the Sixth German Reich for sure, and I have probably killed forty-two thousand and seven additional ones. I have been back to the automatic restoration center eleven times. The enemies who call themselves the True Men always elude me. One of them I have not killed for more than three thousand years. The ordinary men whom some call the Unforgiven are the ones I kill most of all, but frequently I catch Morons and kill them, too. I am fighting for Germany, but I cannot find Germany anywhere. There are no Germans in Germany. There are no Germans anywhere. I accept orders from no one but a German. Yet there have been no Germans anywhere, no Germans anywhere, no Germans anywhere..."
The machine seemed to get a catch in its electronical brain because it went on repeating no Germans anywhere three or four hundred times.
Carlotta came to as the machine was dreamily talking to itself, repeating with sad and lunatic intensity, no Germans anywhere.
Said she, "I am German."
"...no Germans anywhere, no Germans anywhere, except you, except you, except you."
The mechanical voice ended in a thin screech.
[...]
...
Es wiederholt sich ständig wieder und so gut geschrieben ist es auch nicht.
)
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