After several days and several glorious matings, they were on hand to see the first egg hatch. It cracked open and two chicks emerged, a male and a female. Weft coughed up nutritious vomit for the female, and Havoc did the same for the male. Their family was on its way.
They taught the young ones the way of the wagons. This was effective; attrition was inevitable, but this devices reduced it to about 75%. In due course the offspring grew up to become breeders themselves, and now they had more sophisticated wagons that could actually pause and dodge to further deceive predators. Their line prospered. So did the primitive machines.
The history ended. Havoc was back at his console, and Weft was standing before him. "So with a 99% attrition, compensated by rapid breeding, evolution was rapid," she said. "But with the machines becoming ever more sophisticated, there came to be a problem."
"Overpopulation," Havoc agreed. "We still bred compulsively, but with twenty or twenty five times as many offspring surviving, there were soon too many of us."
"But the machines helped there too," she said. "They became able to forage themselves, so that Makers did not have to risk themselves at all. This increased the survival rate to more than 50%."
"And population pressure intensified. It got so that the main threat to a Maker was not any predator, but competition from other Makers. War came to our planet, and hunger, as resources were jealously hoarded."
"But still the machines helped," she said. "They began generating food from inanimate substances, feeding the hordes. They built larger structures to house the multitudes. The last of the predators were liquidated, and the Makers took over the whole planet. Then other planets, the machines exploiting their resources for our benefit."
"Which is where we are today," he concluded. "Confirming that we still need the machines, not to protect us, but to feed us, house us, and provide us intellectual diversion. So why do you want to abolish them?"
"Because they are doing too much for us," she said. "There is no longer any challenge to being a Maker. All Makers are guaranteed completely catered lives. None ever need to work to survive."
"What is wrong with that? We made the machines; we deserve the benefits."
"How many centuries since the last Maker invention?" she asked. "The last original Maker art?"
"Millennia," he said. "What is your point?"
"The machines are stifling us. They are making us become slothful parasites. They have removed all challenge to our lives. Existence without challenge becomes retrograde. We are doomed—unless we escape the services of our machines."
Havoc nodded, appreciating her point. "But just turning them off would be instant disaster. It would not be allowed."
"True. They can't be stopped that way. Instead we mean to escape them, by traveling to some far planet where we can live without machines. It will be difficult, and there will be a high rate of attrition, but our species will survive and advance. We are evolved to thrive during high attrition, and to progress despite it. That is our dream and our objective."
Havoc shrugged. "I wish you well. Why tell me this?"
"Because we need you."
He nodded. "I suspected there would be some reason for your presence here. You need me to authorize your ship's departure from a spaceport. Unlisted, so there will be no pursuit."
"More."
"Question."
"We need you to help us steal the ship."
He shook his head. "You want too much. For a willing tryst with you I might arrange to overlook a departure; such things are considered part of the privilege of office. But the theft of a ship is another matter, well beyond privilege."
"Yes, we want you to break the law," she said. "We don't expect you to do it cheaply. We know you are an honest and capable governor, perhaps the last in an age when corruption is endemic and mediocrity prevails. Surely you feel like a rose in a cesspool." The actual analogy was not quite that, as the Makers had no roses or cesspools, but the essence was similar. "We are gambling that your allegiance is to the welfare of the species, rather than to a law that others freely violate."
"My loyalty is to both."
"Now they conflict. The law will guarantee the destruction of our culture. You will have to choose between them."
"Let me verify my understanding," he said carefully. "You wish to steal a ship to convey your personnel to colonize another planet, leaving the machines behind. Because you believe that only in this manner can the innovative viability of our species be maintained. You want me to enable you to take that ship, though this would surely cost me my career."
"Yes, in essence."
"And you believe that I would so like to tryst with you that I will make this sacrifice?"
"No. We offer you more. We have reserved a place for you on that ship. I will marry you and bear your offspring."
Havoc whistled. "You are of course aware that I married long ago and sired my offspring. You want me to set that aside?"
"Your wife died last year. You are available. I am reserved for you. There will be no penalty for you because you will no longer be a part of this society. You will be a member of Escape, facing a significant new challenge."
"What, getting you to mate?"
She smiled. "That will be no challenge at all. I am eager to be with you. I am referring to the location and colonization of a planet unknown to today's authorities. Further, to the advancement of knowledge and technique that will make us more than we have been. To the forward progress of our species. With your participation we can become what we should be, instead of stagnating. This challenge surely appeals to you."
She was correct: Havoc would love to be a part of such an effort. But he did not want to throw away his present career on a bad gamble. "And if it does not?"
"We believe it does. But if reason does not suffice, perhaps romance will. You need a woman in your life. I am that woman. You have merely to do what is required to take me."
"I am to throw away other considerations for the love of you?"
"For the renewed challenge and the love of me." She stripped away her clothing and stood gloriously naked before him. "Now I will sit in your lap."
"This may be ill considered. If you give me sex without commitment, what reason will I have to commit?"
"The reason that you will crave more of it, and know that you will have it only by joining me on the ship."
"I could touch a button and summon immediate help," he said. "I could have you bound and reserved for me as a plaything. I do not need to be on a ship."
"I carry poison I can access before you could capture me. You would have to play with a dead woman."
"And where would that leave your mission?"
"It will survive without me. I am expendable. I will either recruit you or die, so as not to give away my associates. If I fail, Escape will try again in some other venue I know nothing about. Individuals may be sacrificed, but the mission must succeed. I would much prefer to win you to the cause, for myself and because I believe you have the most to contribute."
"I am a politician. I do not know advanced science or magic. Once I enable you to steal your ship and escape, my usefulness will be over. This would not be a great contribution."
"By no means. Your political skills are relevant. You would become our leader."
"And I could then direct you to turn yourselves and the ship in to the authorities."
"Not if you loved the challenge, and me."
"I find you delightful to look upon," he said, studying her nude perfection. "I would love to breed with you. But I do not love you, and am unlikely to do so in the future if I know your favors are purchased."
"Breed with me," she said. "Then you will love me."