There are four choices as I see them, Bradley:
1) Turn those survivors over to Killer and be done with them.
2) Try to do in Killer myself, then let them restore the world.
3) Try to spirit them off world and take them somewhere else, such as back to Earth, where they can survive and rebuild.
4) Sacrifice them, but save their genetic material to transplant somewhere else.
“How do you weigh those choices?”
Well, Killer may be almost asleep but he is still quite deadly. And his on-planet probes may be a bit clumsy, but his deep space weapons technology still far surpasses mine, and he is quite secretive about it.
If I try to leave, Killer will find me at last. He may not feel like killing me now, but my leaving will certainly arouse suspicion. He has the power to destroy me if he can find me, and he certainly can destroy out of hand any bulky passenger probe I may try to lift from the planet’s surface.
“How about reasoning with him—trying to change his personality and exorcise this kill-living-creatures psychosis?”
I hadn’t thought of that.
“We on Earth have been considering this possibility almost since first contact. It won’t be easy. But given our own long history of human-creation relations, we think it may be possible. Trying to do this plays to our strength, understanding relations, rather than to our weakness, deep space weapons.
“You’ve worked with Killer at a distance for many years now, but we need more information. We need you to get close to him. We need to know more about his history. Can you get closer and find out for us?”
It’ll be risky. He may find out more about us.
“We recognize that. But we think it’s more likely we will find the key to destroy or turn him.
“Our strength is you, and the Z-Ray link to us. He is single-minded and isolated. We have plural thinking—you and all the resources of Earth’s best thinkers—on our side.”
All right. I can’t think of anything better.
“It will mean another personality change. We need a mix of Mata Hari and Marilyn Monroe now.”
I’m getting used to it.