right. Sent it straight to hell.” “Do machines go to hell?” Emilia asked. “These have, I’m sure.” On the stage a band of twelve was playing jaunty music, and people were starting to dance. “Emilia!” cried her friend Kelsey Sullivan, spying her and rushing in for an embrace, face flushed. “Isn’t it great? Come on, let’s have a toast!” She began pushing through the crowd, pulling Emilia in her wake. Emilia drank the proffered champagne and tried to smile. All Chicago was drinking, it seemed, and no doubt all America, and the world. The machines had landed, and fought, and been destroyed. Humanity had triumphed. “What’s wrong?” Kelsey yelled over the music. “Are you and Ed fighting?” “We’re fine.” “Then what? This is a night to be happy!” Half the cities of the world lay in ruins; Chicago itself had seen a quarter of REGARDING THE TITANS BY JOEL TAGERT buildings destroyed when three machines had attacked its factories, and been attacked in turn. Yet the last of them were gone; the world was safe again, at least for now. “What if they come back?” Kelsey gave her an astonished look. “Well, they’ll think twice about it now, won’t they?” “I suppose.” Or would they? No one knew from where they had come; they had simply landed that day in 1927, lines of fire screaming through the sky, striking the Earth with a sound like the world ending, as indeed it seemed to be at the time. But the Titans for all their technology, had not prevailed. When the Titans realized they were in a real fight, they responded in kind. But there were only a few thousand; and when one was destroyed, it was rarely replaced. Now it was June 1932; and the last of them lay in pieces, hung on the walls as garish trophies. After a while, Ed found them again and took her hand. “Come on, let’s dance.” His eyes were too bright, breath redolent with liquor. She shook her head. “You two go ahead.” “Not feeling good?” “A headache.” When the last Titan fell the world threw a party. The one Emilia went to was in the largest dance hall in the city, and it had been decorated with their remains. They had not been human, nor nothing like; yet still she found it in poor taste. Here was a clawed manipulator tall as she was; here a flanged bit of armor; here an energy core, which had once pulsed red with power. “That was taken from the one they called the Flamer,” said someone nearby, who was wearing a Navy uniform. “Destroyed half of Seattle before they got it with some artillery.” Ed Durrow, who had dragged her here, growled his approval. “Damn No. 148 She found a seat by the wall and rubbed her temples. Soon someone sat beside her: the lieutenant from earlier. “I’m John Russell,” he said. “Hi, John,” she said. “What’s your name?” So she told him. “Can I get you a drink?” “No thank you.” “Not feeling like dancing?” She shrugged. “Why not?” If he was going to ask ... “We don’t know anything about them,” she said. “Nothing at all. Where did they come from? What did they want? Are there more? We’re all here celebrating, but we’re like children, its
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