Science Fiction Short Story: "The Defenders" by Philip K. Dick

Tweet

Mankind has been living in underground bunkers for eight years while radioactive-proof robots fight the Cold War suddenly gone very hot on the surface. The robots, called “leadys,” provide verbal reports on the progress of the war and films showing the destruction of cities. Men keep busy building the weapons the robots need to fight their war. Don Taylor reads with satisfaction of the news of the R-H bomb attack on Moscow. “It’s about time,” he tells his wife Mary. While his kitchen is warm and his coffee smells good, he notices the quality of the newspaper in his hands growing increasingly poor, ink smearing and paper yellowing. But everything for the war effort. And shouldn’t he know? He’s one of those who plan it. He’s not a mere cog in a wheel. He gets a call from his boss, asking him to come in during the Rest Period. There’s this thing… Grudgingly, Taylor goes in. A leady is expected from the surface for a regular report. From behind a lead shield, the leady tells them of a new mine the Soviets have made that follows any sort of movement. The radioactive particulate in the air increases every year. However, when a soldier manage to surreptitiously run a Geiger counter over the robot, he finds it turns up “cold as a long winter evening.” The story gives the reader more than a few grin-worthy moments. Hard to overlook, though, are the more mundane questions of how nearly the entire population of Earth—reduced as it may be—can find food, water, light, etc., underground for eight long years, let alone the wherewithal to maintain weapons manufacturing facilities on such a huge scale. I personally did not care for the ending, but I can see the irony and the humor in it. The story was adapted for theX Minus One Radio Program in 1956. Author Philip K. Dick later expanded it into a novel, The Penultimate Truth in 1964. Philip Dick was a science fiction writer who dealt often with the idea of the nature of reality vs. perception. Among his best known works are Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Man in the High Castle. This story is available from Project Gutenberg and as an audiobook from Librivox: _____ Title: “The Defenders” Author: Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) First published: Galaxy Science Fiction January 1953 Source: ISFDB