Second Variety

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"Second Variety" is an influential short story by Philip K. Dick first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. It is one of Dick's many stories in which nuclear war has rendered the Earth's surface to an uninhabitable, gray ash pile, and the only people remaining are killer robots. The short story "Jon's World" (1954) revisited the claw-infested world of "Second Variety".

[edit] Plot summary

"Second Variety" occurs in the aftermath of an extensive war between the Soviet Union (sometimes referenced as Russia) and the United Nations. Early Soviet victories forced the American government and production to flee to a Moon Base. To counter the almost complete Soviet victory, U.N. technicians develop robots, nicknamed claws—the basic models are "a churning sphere of blades and metal" that ambush their unsuspecting victims "spinning, creeping, shaking themselves up suddenly from the gray ash and darting toward . . . [any warm body]." U.N. forces are protected from the claws by a special radiation-emitting wrist tab. Within six years, the sophisticated and independent claws have destroyed the Soviet forces, repairing and redesigning themselves in automated underground factories run without any human oversight.

The U.N. forces receive a message asking for a policy-level officer to go to them for a gravely urgent conference. The U.N. victory was costlier than they had expected. Major Joseph Hendricks is sent to negotiate with the Soviets. En route to the rendezvous, he meets a small boy named "David" who asks to accompany Hendricks. When they near the Soviet bunker, soldiers immediately kill the boy, revealing him to be a robot. The claws' development program has evolved to sophisticated robots, identical to humans, but designed to mimic humans and to kill. The three Soviets met by Major Hendricks — Klaus, Rudi and Tasso — reveal that the entire Soviet army and command structure collapsed under the onslaught of the new robots.

From salvaged internal metal identification plates, two varieties are identified: I-V, a wounded soldier, and III-V, David. The II-V—the "second variety"—remains unknown. The different models are produced independently of each other in different factories. The Soviets also reveal that the U.N. protective tabs are ineffective against the new robots. Hendricks attempts to transmit a warning to his H.Q. bunker, but is unable to do so.

During the night, Klaus kills Rudi, mistakenly believing he is the II-V. The next morning, Hendricks and the other two Soviet soldiers return to the U.N. lines. When they reach the bunker, they discover it overrun: a crowd of David and Wounded Soldier model robots attack, but Tasso destroys them with a very powerful hand grenade. Hendricks and Tasso flee, leaving Klaus to the old-style claws. Klaus survives the claws and the bomb blast and rejoins the others. But Tasso blasts Klaus, sending "gears and wheels" flying. Tasso tells Hendricks that Klaus must have been the II-V robot.

Hendricks, suffering from a wounded arm and internal injuries, hopes to escape to the Moon Base. He and Tasso search for a hidden escape rocket, which is revealed as a single-seat spacecraft. Hendricks attempts to leave, but Tasso quickly subdues him. She convinces him to let her leave and send back help. In his injured state, he has no choice but to agree. Hendricks provides Tasso with the signal code needed to find the Moon Base.

Alone and armed with Tasso's pistol, Hendricks returns to Klaus's remains and discovers from the parts that the robot was not a II-V, but a IV-V. A group of robots then attack Hendricks, including Davids, Wounded Soldiers, and several Tasso models. Tasso was the true II-V. Hendricks recognizes that he has doomed the Moon Base by sending a robot to them, and that he cannot withstand the onslaught of robots attacking him. As the Tasso models approach, Hendricks notices the bombs clipped to their belts, and recalls that first Tasso used one to destroy other claws. At his end, Hendricks is vaguely comforted by the thought that the claws are designing, developing, and producing weapons meant for killing other claws.

[edit] Adaptations

A Canadian film, based on "Second Variety", titled Screamers, was made in 1995, featuring Peter Weller. Its screen story fairly closely follows the plot of Second Variety. Critically, it was criticized for its resemblance to Alien, for its softer, positive ending, and for its low budget, yet was praised by many Canadian film critics, and was nominated for three Genie Awards.

[edit] See also

• Screamers (1995 film)
• Self-replicating machines.
• The Terminator series of films is often compared with "Second Variety". These stories feature a post-nuclear war world where robots (originally designed to fight humans in behalf other humans) develop newer models that disguise themselves as humans.
• Battlestar Galactica (re-imagining) also features a post-nuclear world where robots develop newer models that disguise themselves as humans. A significant portion of the plot-line focusses on the human characters' efforts to identify all of the robot models which are embedded in the human population.
• Sentinel Sphere
• Link to review at SFsite.com [[1]]