The machines brought Officer Maria out of the drugdream when the call came. Watch was boring, they knew, and calls came so infrequently that it was best that the watchers spend their time in contemplation and prayer. As their sensors changed their signals to say Maria was alert, the machines began forming images on the watch-room displays; when the sensors signaled full awareness, the machines synthesized a voice for the speakers.
"There has been an uninterpretable event in the pseudocold area of northern New Jersey," they said. Sensors monitored her neurological response. Satisfied that Maria was alert, the machines decreased the sampling rate to normal levels.
A full-color image appeared on one of the display screens: an ancient wooden building, burning. "The fire started in Paterson shortly after the region's pseudocold field generator was turned off." Another screen formed a map of the ancient district of New Jersey; large blotches of pale blue indicated historical regions maintained in pseudocold to prevent decay. A red light blinked on and off in one of the' blue areas.
"The generator's automatic-recycle circuits were unable to function, so a mobile repair unit was dispatched from the nearest maintenance facility in the wastelands." A green light flashed in the brown area to the left of the red light. "Meanwhile a firefighting unit was dispatched from a forest-park in the old New York State district." A yellow light flashed on the map above the dashed diagonal line that marked the old border between New York and New Jersey.
"The firefighting unit has contained the damage to the building where the fire started and two adjacent structures." The display of the burning building flickered and was replaced by one showing the same building and two others from a different angle. Smoke was still rising as water was being poured onto the three-story buildings. The three-level porch of the middle building had collapsed, and black marks showed on the outside walls above the openings where windows had been knocked out. "The pseudocold generator has been repaired, and it will be reactivated when the water has drained off the surface."
The screen showing the buildings blanked; the yellow and green lights disappeared from the map. "There is evidence of an anomaly or an undetected malfunction in this incident," the machines continued, reciting the words written into their memories by some long-dead programmer.
)
