" The Mechanical Mice " por Maurice G. Hugi e Eric Frank Russell
De acordo com uma revisão, aqui está a essência:
Dan Burman is a very rich inventor. 12 years ago, he had invented the "Burman Bullfrog Battery" – the greatest known power source for small portable devices. Now he has invented something new. Only he doesn't know what it's supposed to do!
He seeks help from a friend, Bill, and during this discussion, Dan reveals that he's not the real inventor of his famous battery or the new device. He stole their designs from the future!
His only genuine invention is a kind of crystal ball he calls "psychophone" – a virtual-reality time-travel machine that can take you to the future. And since it is impossible to go back to same time and place (again), a single session is all you have to learn what you can about anything.
This is how the new machine came into existence.
That is when the device – sitting in the same room – automatically springs into action. Arms stretch out to pick Dan's wristwatch...
It's a night of sheer terror. A jeweler is robbed. There's a burglary at the precision instruments shop. Several cats are also found dead on the streets...
Dan soon discovers what he has created: a robot programmed to survive above all else, even capable of giving birth! The brood has been snatching food and killing whatever comes in their way.
~ Editado de Variedade SF
Um pequeno trecho do livro. Como Bill reage quando ele olha pela primeira vez para a máquina:
It was a stunner. The thing was a metal box with a glossy, rhodium-plated surface. In general size and shape it bore a faint resemblance to an upended coffin, and had the same brooding, ominous air of a casket waiting for its owner to give up the ghost.
Outra passagem, desta vez descrevendo os minúsculos ladrões ...
A score of houses had been entered and four shops robbed by things that had the agility and furtiveness of rats — except that they emitted tiny ticks and buzzing noises.
One was seen racing along the road by a homing railway worker. He tried to pick it up, lost his forefinger and thumb, stood nursing the stumps until an ambulance rushed him away.
Rare metals and fine parts were the prey of these ticking marauders.
A história apareceu em várias publicações, incluindo as três apresentadas no topo. Leia mais sobre isso aqui e download um arquivo .txt da história completa.
