What it is
For a Breath I Tarry is a short novelette written in 1966
by Roger Zelazny, whose works seem relatively obscure and unappreciated. The
story is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth; a giant and highly complex machine
known as Solcom has been granted god-like "dominion" over the
Earth, and directs the activity of billions of machines in the rebuilding and
reconstruction of the planet. He eventually elects to split his dominion
between the Southern and Northern
Hemispheres; all the machines in the Northern Hemisphere being controlled by a
machine named Frost (who is the "main character" so to speak in our
story), and all the machines in the Southern Hemisphere being controlled by the
Beta Machine.
Plot summary
Solcom is an orbital machine, ruling the Earth from the
sky, and was damaged by a stray missile from Mankind's past, but was able to
self-repair himself to full function. However, there is another
"god-machine" deep within the earth, known as Divcom, whose
programming was that it was to take over the rebuilding and reconstruction of
the Earth if Solcom ever became non-functional. Divcom awakens, and although
Solcom is fully functional, Divcom is convinced that it must take control of
the Earth. They engage in a sort of "war", in which one destroys the
works of the other; bombing bridges and structures, that sort of thing. Divcom
lacks the resources (aka is billions of machines behind Solcom), and comes up
with the devious plan of implanting Solcom's machines with a chip that takes control
of them. Therefore, Divcom's forces grow.
Frost (the machine whose dominion is the Northern
Hemisphere) is Solcom's greatest creation. He eventually meets a machine known
as Mordel, who is allegedly not created by or directed by Solcom or Divcom. Mordel tells him of Man; Frost, of course, knew of Man, and that Man
was superior, but was baffled by the concept of Man experiencing measurements
and concepts non-quantitatively; to be able to feel a thing without measuring
it. Frost, in his hubris, believed that he was capable of all forms of
experience; he could measure anything, compute anything. If Man was capable of
a perception that He was not, then he must become like Man in order to become
perfect.
Mordel visits him again in the future, this time willingly
aligned with Divcom. He develops a sort of “bargain” with Frost; Mordel would give him
access to a library and collection of thousands upon thousands of (now-ancient)
books and artifacts of mankind, and in return, if Frost reached the conclusion
that he had failed to become like Man, he would “sell his soul”, so to speak,
to Divcom, joining him and all his forces to Divcom’s dominion.
Miscalleny
I won’t summarize the rest of the story because I have
already communicated the plot and essence, and I wouldn’t dare spoil it. It’s
too good, too worthy of appreciation, to be spoiled. I will say that it left me
feeling emotional and inspired, it is absolutely worth the read. Apparently
only like 600 copies were ever published, but you can find it online. I found a
shitty HTML version with a lot of transcription errors, but someone sent me an EPUB (e-book file) of the text without any errors, and I would assume it wasn’t
too much of a hassle to find.
That being said, I’ve always been a sucker for the whole “androids
that try to be human” trope, so I guess I could be moderately predisposed to
like this story. It’s good, though. Trust me. The ending was amazing.
Edit: Someone messaged me and informed me that the text is also published in the story collection The Last Defender of Camelot, which seems to be much more easy to get your hands on.