EARTH PLAN Read Online Free PDF Page B

man noticed something moving across the field.
    It was far away and moved fast, but it was no animal like he had ever seen. This one was silvery. He didn’t know it, but it was one of the robotic carts, sent out to retrieve any animals that had gotten injured.
    The robot scooped up a deer that was on the field in its large metal arms, the animal having already been sedated by tranquilizers in the air. It carried the animal towards a door, rolling smoothly on its metal tracks, bringing it inside so it could have its broken leg tended to.
    The man took an instant dislike to the robot glittering in the lights from above. He felt like it was invading his territory. He grabbed his stick and ran after it, yelling. The woman watched, wishing the man would just sit down and finish his fruit.
    The man crossed the field quickly, making for the robot carrying its load. The robot was moving more slowly than usual due to the added weight of the heavy animal. The robot sensed that the man was getting close and that he was not in a good mood. The robot opened a compartment and out shot a directed cloud of calming mist.
    The man was coming at the robot so fast there was no way to avoid it, and he breathed in a big gulp of the calming air. Then, the man fell down, laughing at the robot and the deer. He was laughing so hard that he was crying, and his stomach hurt.
    The robot scuttled into an open door and took the deer into some unknown place in the ship, a medical room the man and woman had not seen before. The door closed, and the robot was gone.
    The woman had been watching, fearful. She had seen many men die in the past like this on Earth, running after someone or other. She could see the man was on the ground after running to the robot, and she feared the worst.
    She walked to him, thinking she might find him dead or badly hurt. But to find him just laughing was something she had never encountered before. The man’s laughs were infectious, and she found herself starting to laugh, too.
    Soon, she was rolling around with him on the ground, laughing and hugging. This led to another mating session, and it was even better than the last time they did it.
    When they stopped mating, the man got up and went to the wall where the door had been. They could both see the outline where the door had closed over. He ran his fingers over it and pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t move. He started to get angry and pushed harder into the door, banging it with his body.
    There was a nearby hissing sound, and they both noticed a puff of mist coming from one of the nearby vents. They ran away, knowing it would make them sleepy—or maybe die of laughter.
    The computer saw this evasion and knew they had caught onto it. It deduced that it had to use another way of subduing the humans when they got too agitated. There were several means at its disposal, like drugging their food, or shooting them with tiny darts filled with tranquilizers.
    But an easier way was to control their moods through the use of radio waves. The ship could broadcast most any type of signal it wanted to inside its cargo area. It simply had to send out the radio waves in the direction of the human or animal in question. The radio waves would alter their thoughts and brain chemistry to a more docile state.
    The man and the woman went down the wall a distance to get clear of the mist drifting in the air. The man found another closed doorway and started pounding on it with his stick and then with his fists. The woman tried to pull him away, but he growled at her and went back to attacking the door.
    The ship aimed an antenna on the ceiling at the man and fired some radio waves at him.
    Instantly, the man stopped pounding on the door and got a confused look on his face. He forgot what was he was doing and had trouble controlling his body.
    The woman was glad he had stopped, and she grabbed his arm and led him away, because he was just standing there drooling, staring at the door. She was