Von der Heydte glared sourly at the G-3, continuing, “Who knows what shape its weapons are in, or even if it has any-”
“We’ve recovered some weaponry as well,” General Sliecher supplied.
“And how are we going to recharge it?” von der Heydte demanded.
“Our records indicate that it can take a direct charge from our electrical grid. We shall recharge it at our Grammersdorf nuclear reactor,” General of the KriegsArmee Kurt Marcks replied. “Really, Dan, you must leave operations to myself and Karl.”
General von der Heydte eyed the young Colonel Rheinhardt with the same disdainful glare he had previously bestowed upon the Bolo. But his words to General Marcks, his commander, were obedient. “As you wish, Herr General.”
Von der Heydte snapped for an orderly to help him out of his field chair. Age and excessive girth had long since rendered him incapable of performing such feats unaided. Even in the cold night air, the exertion was sufficient to bring beads of sweat to his forehead which he wiped off hastily with a gloved hand.
General Marcks regained his youthful jubilance, his mouth curving up in a boyish grin, blue eyes twinkling under hair still mostly blond as he confided to the others, “The Colonel and I have produced a plan.”
“My goodness, Marius, what an amazing difference three weeks have made,” Colonel Rheinhardt was effusive with his praise of the crusty supply officer. The Bolo sat in the center of a huge unused aerostat hangar, looking almost in scale with its surroundings.
“Your men have performed quite a miracle.” Rheinhardt examined the near-gleaming hull of the once derelict Bolo. The ill-designed, hodgepodge bulldozer blade and other earth-moving attachments had been gracefully removed. Broken track pads had been replaced with gleaming new replicas. The war machine again looked able to live up to its potential. “How did you manage such miracles?”
General Marius basked in the praise. He fairly beamed at the praiser. “Well, Colonel, we applied several different methods to remove corrosion from the exterior, ultimately relying on sandblasting for the final finish. For the computer circuitry, we found an old supply of a decontaminant-”
Marius glanced expectantly at an underling who expanded, “DK-41, mein Herr.”
“-which proved quite effective in clearing up the corrosion and other contaminants.”
“Impressive. And now?” Colonel Rheinhardt knew well enough that General Marius’ genial form hid a capable officer whose ability in supply stemmed more from getting his subordinates to “save him” than from long hours of drudgery. Marius’ girth made it evident that he liked his food, and barracks gossip allowed that he did not stint on his drink or fraternizing. None of this bothered the Colonel, who was more interested in things getting done than in how they were done.
“Now, we attach our electrical cables here,” Marius nodded to his underlings who moved to obey, “and here. Then I throw this lever and-” The lights dimmed. Marius frowned.
“Is that supposed to happen?”
Marius licked his lips and glanced nervously towards his underlings who shrugged their helplessness.
Sparks flowed across the lever Marius had thrown, fusing it in place. “Call the plant, tell them to shut off the power!”
BOLO DIVISION POWER-ON SELF-TEST VERSION 3.233 (c) 2052
RESTART SEQUENCE INITIATED.
CORE MEMORY CHECK . . .
1792 TW OK . . .
256 TW 50% damaged
2048 TW 100% damaged
1792 TeraWords Memory out of 4096 TeraWords Memory Operational
NON-VOLATILE MEMORY CHECK . . . .
35% of NON-VOLATILE MEMORY FUNCTIONAL
EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .
EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .
EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .
MAIN PROCESSOR UNIT TIMEOUT – NON-MASKABLE INTERRUPT (NMI)!!!
EMERGENCY REPAIR CIRCUITS EMERGENCY REPAIR SEQUENCE INITIATED . . . .
EMERGENCY REPAIR FIRMWARE INOPERATIVE!!!
DECISION POINT: CONTINUE/ABORT RESTART???
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CONTINUE
RESTART CONTINUED
VOLATILE MEMORY CHECK . . .
23% OF VOLATILE MEMORY FUNCTIONAL
MPU CHECKSUM ERROR!!!
INTERNAL INCONSISTENCY!!!
PASSWMRD INVALID!!!
DECISION POINT: CONTINUE/ABORT RESTART???
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CONTINUE
USING DEFAULT PASSWMRD
PRIMARY DATA SEQUENCER . . . OK
DATA SEQUENCER . . . LOADED
MPU . . . RESET
PROCESSOR A . . . LOADED . . . RESET
PROCESSOR B . . . LOADED . . . RESET
PROCESSOR C . . . LOADED . . . RESET
PROCESSOR D . . . LOADED . . . RESET
PROCESSOR E . . . LOADED . . . RESET
ALL PROCESSORS . . . READY
STARTUP TEST SEQUENCE . . . COMPLETED
LOADING BOOTSTRAP . . . LOADED!
BOLO DIVISION BOOTSTRAP
Version 4.553a (c) 2054 All Rights Reserved
LOADING BOLO CORE PROGRAM DAK . . . LOADED!
I have been restarted. This confuses me . . . I have no recollection of a Bolo ever before running out of sufficient energy to maintain the survival center. My controlling password has been lost; I must rely upon the default password. I hope this will not unduly alarm my Commander . . . I shall construct a data recovery program in an attempt to recover the 77% of volatile data I have lost. I compute that certain of my circuits have suffered from corrosion at their contacts. I estimate that I must have failed to receive depot maintenance to recharge my power cells and that an additional 125.45 years elapsed before power failed to maintain my survival center. Data recovery program running.
I shall ascertain the state of the rest of my equipment. Done. That task took me a phenomenally lengthy 1.2 seconds. I have discovered that most of my armaments have been stripped or disabled.
My anti-aircraft guns are locked at a 22deg. elevation; I predict that with effort I could elevate the guns to the emergency 45deg. maximum range lock deflection. The guns would subsequently be incapable of further movement. Five of my infinite repeaters are inoperative, the sixth appears to have severe damage to the barrel: I estimate that I shall be able to fire the weapon for no more than 120 seconds before the barrel disintegrates. Only one of my Hellbores appears functional; I am getting conflicting data regarding the projected ability of the weapon and shall have to wait for live-fire to confirm its usefulness and life-span.
My inner tracks are non-functional; my outer tracks appear over-torqued with a correspondingly greater increase in wear rate. I notice with some displeasure that several track pads have been replaced with inferior duplicates; my mobility, particularly my ability to accelerate, has been severely compromised.
My batteries have been charged to 50% of capacity, however my fusion reactor is non-functional.
I-
DATA RECOVERY PROGRAM COMPLETE
50% of lost data reconstructed with 94% accuracy
Total volatile memory available for access: 62%
Total available volatile memory free: 6%
I have lost my train of thought, an event I find painfully disturbing. My batteries have been charged to 50% of capacity, however my fusion reactor is non-functional. I detect unrepaired reactor core damage. The damage appears deliberate, as though someone had tampered with the superconductors. Reactor startup is impossible; I have minimal reserves of tritium.
My ability to function as designed has been severely curtailed: I am grieved by this.
There is movement nearby. A human is approaching.
“Bolo, this is General Freiherr Marius of the Bayerische KriegsArmee, report!”
I monitor the voice on my external circuits. I am not taken in-the human has not used the Command Password. The human used a variant of the old Terran language, German. It is possible that I have been captured by the enemy. I must be careful. I shall scan standard frequencies-very odd, many standard communications frequencies are silent, filled only with static. I must expand my search.
I compute that my command sequencer may be so damaged that I could actually forget or ignore direct orders. The concept horrifies me-such an action would be dishonorable.
My sensors are severely damaged and my attempts to scan several frequencies have failed. I calculate that if I move out of the enclosure in which I find myself, I may be able to achieve a 40% increase in reception.
“General, sir! Look! It’s moving! It must have heard you!”
Reception has improved. However, I am even more alarmed at the number of frequencies no longer in use. I add this to my previously acquired data; it confirms my opinion that much time has passed since I was last activated. Apparently a significant loss in the level of technology has also occurred. I suspect that the enemy had a hand to play in that.
I detect traces of biological warfare vectors. Countermeasures were employed some three centuries ago . . . countermeasures were successful. The enemy may have detected this.
My audio sensors have determined that the humans have moved off.