then we’ve had it, lads. Those robots are trained soldiers.

Dr. Gall That means that we...

Domin Yes. Irrevocably.

(Pause)

Dr. Gall This is just the same old evil as Europe has always committed. They just couldn’t leave their damned politics alone and so they taught the robots to go to war, they took the robots and turned them into soldiers and that was a crime against humanity.

Alquist The crime was making the robots in the first place.

Domin What’s that?

Alquist The crime was making the robots!

Domin No Alquist, I don’t feel sorry for what I did, even now.

Alquist Not even now?

Domin Not even now, on the last day of civilisation. It was a magnificent undertaking.

Busman (sotto voce) Three hundred and sixteen million.

Domin (earnestly) Alquist, this is our last hour; it’s almost as if we were speaking from the other world already. Alquist, putting an end to the slavery of labour was not a bad dream. Work humiliates, anyone who’s forced to do it is made small. The drudgery of labour is something dirty and murderous. Oh, Alquist, the burden of work was too much for us, life was too heavy for us, and to remove this burden....

Alquist That was never the dream of either of the Rossums; old Rossum was thinking of Godless rubbish and young Rossum thought of nothing but making millions. And it’s not the dream of RUR shareholders either; their only dream was their dividend. And it’s because of their concern for their profits that mankind is about to perish.

Domin (agitated) The Devil take their dividends! Do you think I’d have spent an hour of my time for their sakes? (thumping table) I did it for myself, d’you hear? For my own satisfaction! I wanted mankind to become his own master! I wanted him not to have to live just for the next crust of bread! I wanted not a single soul to have to go stupid standing at somebody else’s machines! I wanted to leave nothing-nothing!-left of this damned mess that society’s in! I hate seeing humiliation and pain all around us, I hate poverty! I wanted to start a new generation! I wanted to... I thought that...

Alquist What?

Domin (quieter) I wanted mankind to become an aristocracy of the world. Free, unconstrained, sovereign. Maybe even something higher than human.

Alquist Superhumans, you mean.

Domin Yes. If only we’d had another hundred years. Another hundred years for the new mankind.

Busman (sotto voce) Three hundred and seventy million, carry over. Like that.

(pause)

Hallemeier (at door, left) Music is a wonderful thing, you know. You should have been listening. There’s something ennobling about it, soothing...

Fabry What exactly?

Hallemeier To Hell with this end of mankind! I think I’m turning into a hedonist, lads. We should have got into it much earlier. (goes to window and looks out)

Fabry Into what?

Hallemeier Enjoying ourselves. Beauty. Hell, there are so many beautiful things around us! The world was beautiful, and we... we here... Tell me, lads, what did we ever enjoy?

Busman (sotto voce) Four hundred and fifty two million-excellent.

Hallemeier (at window) Life was great. My friends, life was... Ah, Fabry, put a little bit of current into that fence of yours.

Fabry Why!

Hallemeier They’re touching it.

Dr. Gall (at window) Switch it on!

Hallemeier Christ, that showed them! Two, three, four of them killed!

Dr. Gall They’re moving back.

Hallemeier Five killed.

Dr. Gall (coming back from window) First strike.

Fabry Have you got the smell of death?

Hallemeier (contented) We’ve got them cornered, right in a corner. Haha, you should never give in! (sitting)

Domin (rubs his brow) Perhaps we’re just ghosts, dead for a hundred years. Perhaps we were killed a long long time ago, and we’ve come back just to recant something we once said... before we died. It’s as if I’d been through this before! As if it had all been done to me already. A shot here, in the neck. What about you, Fabry?

Fabry What about me?

Domin Shot.

Hallemeier Hell, what about me?

Domin Stabbed.

Dr. Gall Nothing for me, then?

Domin Torn to pieces.

(pause)

Hallemeier What a lot of nonsense! Haha, they could never stab me! I wouldn’t let them!

(pause)

Hallemeier So what are you all so quiet for, all gone mad? Say something, damn it!

Alquist And whose fault is it? Who’s to blame for all this?

Hallemeier You’re talking nonsense. Nobody’s to blame. It’s just that the robots, well, the robots changed somehow. How can you blame anyone for the robots?

Alquist Everything wiped out! The whole of mankind! The whole world! (standing) Think of it, just think of it, streams of blood on every doorstep! Streams of blood flowing from every house! Oh God, oh God, who’s to blame for it all?

Busman (sotto voce) Five hundred and twenty million! Dear dear me, that’s half a billion!

Fabry I think... I think you could be exaggerating. After all, it’s not that easy to wipe out the whole of mankind.

Alquist It’s science I blame! Technology I blame! Domin! Myself! All of us! It’s us, we’re the ones to blame! We thought we were doing something great, giving some benefit, making progress. I don’t know what magnificent ideas it was for that we’ve destroyed mankind! And now all our greatness is bursting like a bubble! Not even Genghis Khan built up a heap of human bones like we’ve done.

Hallemeier You’re talking a lot of nonsense! People won’t give up that easily, haha, course they won’t!

Alquist It’s our fault, our fault!

Dr. Gall (wiping sweat from brow) If I can say something, I think I’m the one to blame. For everything that’s happened.

Fabry You, Gall?

Dr. Gall Yes, let me speak. It was me who made the changes to the robots. Busman, you can blame me as well.

Busman (standing) Dear me, what? What happened to you?

Dr. Gall I changed the robots’ character. I altered the way they were made. Nothing much to their bodies, you know, but mainly... mainly... it was their level of irritability.

Hallemeier (jumping up) Hell and damnation why did you do that?

Busman Why did you do it?

Fabry Why didn’t you tell anyone!?

Dr. Gall I did it in secret... on my own initiative. I was making them into people. I sent them off course. Now they’re better than we are in some ways. They’re stronger than we are.

Fabry And what’s that got to do with the robots’ revolt?

Dr. Gall Oh, it’s got a lot to do with it. Everything, I should think. They stopped being machines-do you hear me?-they became aware of their strength and now they hate us. They hate the whole of mankind. I’m the one to blame.

Domin Let the dead bury the dead.

Fabry Doctor Gall, you changed the way the robots were made?

Dr. Gall Yes.

Fabry Were you aware of what might be the results of your... of your experiment?

Dr. Gall I was. I did reckon on some possibility of that sort.

Fabry Why did you do it?

Dr. Gall I did it for myself. It was my personal experiment.

(Helena at doorway, left. All stand)

Helena He’s lying! That’s horrible! Oh Gall, how can you lie like that?

Fabry Sorry, Helena...

Domin (goes to her) Helena, you? Let me see you! You’re alive? (embraces her) If you only knew what I’ve been thinking! Oh, it’s terrible, being dead.

Helena Harry let go of me! It isn’t Gall’s fault, it isn’t, it isn’t, he’s not to blame!

Domin But I’m afraid Gall did have his responsibilities.

Helena No, Harry, he did it because I wanted it. Tell them Gall, tell them how I begged you for years to....

Dr. Gall It was all my own responsibility.

Helena Don’t believe him! Harry, I wanted him to give the robots a soul!

Domin Helena, it’s not a matter of having a soul.

Helena No, just let me speak. That’s what he said as well, he said he could only make physiological changes... alter the physiological...

Hallemeier The physiological correlates, you mean?

Helena Yes, something like that. Harry, I felt so sorry for them!

Domin That was very... that was very stupid of you, Helena.

Helena (sitting) Yes... it was very.. stupid of me. But even Nana says that...

Domin Just leave Nana out of it!

Helena No Harry, don’t under-estimate her. Nana is the voice of the people. People like Nana have been speaking for a thousand years, and you’re just speaking for today. You don’t understand that...

Domin Let’s keep to the point.

Helena I was afraid of the robots.

Domin Why?

Helena I thought they might start to hate us, or something.

Alquist That’s what’s happened.

Helena And so I thought... if they were like us, if they could understand us, that then they couldn’t possibly hate us so much...