The Infinite Matrix | Michael Swanwick & Francisco Goya | The Sleep Of

Reason 3

04.08.02

the sleep of reason

by Michael Swanwick

with illustrations by

Francisco JosÉ de Goya y Lucientes

Click image to enlarge

Digital image © copyright

Davison Art Center,

Wesleyan University

DAC permission required

for any other use.

3. [Plate 59]

The Sentinel

The monolith was discovered not on the Moon, as one might have expected,

but in a gravel pit not far from Paris. A steam shovel broke three teeth

upon its upper edge. A supervisor ordered the gravel cleared away from

it, so he could see what the problem was. Then the French government took

over.

It was rectangular, the monolith, and blacker than obsidian. Tougher than

obsidian as well ? diamonds would not scratch it and bullets bounced off

its smooth surface without leaving a scar. It was obviously manufactured,

and yet no human being could have created such a thing. Scientists

speculated that it was made of collapsed matter. An extrasolar origin was

postulated.

In this, the scientists were right. An ancient and benevolent race had

passed through the Solar System back when our world was half its present

age, left this token of their passage, and then gone on their enigmatic

way. It was, though no one knew it yet, a sentinel, an alarm.

Ages passed.

The sentinel was found. And excavated.

On the day the excavation was completed, all of Paris turned out to see

this prodigy. The government, bowing to the inevitable, opened the police

lines and let the people in. Politicians made speeches. And when they

were done, everyone crowded about the monolith, to gawk and wonder and

touch.

The first man to touch the monolith froze. A strange light came into his

eyes. For a long instant, awareness passed between man and monolith.

Then the monolith snapped down, crushing hundreds to death.

Long ages ago, an ancient and benevolent race had scattered monoliths

throughout the galaxy in much the same spirit as a prudent homeowner

might scatter rat traps in the basement of his house against a possible

infestation. Such as had just arisen on Earth.

They were alerted to the problem now, however, so they could take care of

it before things got out of hand.

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This is the third of 80 stories by Michael Swanwick written to accompany

Francisco Goya's Los Caprichos. For a listing of the most recently

available stories, go to The Sleep of Reason.

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