Robot City - Perihelion Part 10

"No, no, no. A long time ago. A couple of years ago."

Derec settled back. "What happened?"

"He was still planning then, I bet," said Ariel. "Considering how fast these robots work, that's plenty of time."

"He came to consult with my father," said Jeff. "My father is a professor of s.p.a.cer cultural studies. His specialty is tracing the development and evolution of the various s.p.a.cer communities."

"What does that mean?" Derec asked.

"They're comparative studies," said Jeff. "What planets have in common and what they don't. How they're organized. How their values differ. Stuff like that."

"Your father must be an expert in that, huh?" Ariel said. "That's why Avery sought him out."

"I guess." Jeff shrugged. "Anyhow, a couple of years ago, this Dr. Avery asked to consult informally with him. My father was real impressed with the guy. He said Avery was an eccentric genius, and made me tag along to meet him."

"What did he want to talk about?" Derec asked.

"He was asking about social matrices," said Jeff. "In particular, how my father would set up a utopia, if he could."

"Utopia." Derec exchanged a glance with Ariel. "That's how he viewed this experiment, isn't it?"

She nodded. "Jeff. We can use any clues you have to Avery's personality."

"I can tell you what I remember. Why do you have to find him, anyway?"

"He implanted a kind of...well, sort of a disease in Derec that only he can remove. We have to figure out where he is on the planet. Can you tell us what he's like?"

"I hate to tell you this, but I don't remember him very well." Jeff looked at all of them apologetically. "I wasn't that old, and I didn't really care about seeing him. I went because my father wanted me to meet this genius. He said it would be a good experience for me. The truth is, I didn't get much out of it."

"Anything," said Ariel. "Just start talking. Maybe things will come back to you."

"Well...my father had a very high regard for him. More than usual. I mean, he's surrounded by very capable people all the time. They were pretty friendly for a while."

"Then what?" Derec asked. "Dr. Avery left Aurora, I suppose?"

Jeff shook his head. "Not right away. That is, he came and went for a time. My father had some sort of falling out with him, I think, but I never bothered to ask about it."

"Are you sure you don't know why they stopped being friends?" Ariel asked. "It might turn out to be important."

"I think he was pretty egotistical. I got that impression right away. And he was definitely eccentric. I guess my father just got tired of listening to him."

"That fits my mother's description," Ariel said to Derec. "Can we use that somehow?"

"I don't know. We've all found dealing with him unpleasant." Derec shrugged. "Mandelbrot, you can correlate data the best of us all. What do you think?"

"We have information about Robot City," said Mandelbrot. "And we have information about Dr. Avery. However, we don't have the necessary correlations to narrow the scope of his whereabouts."

"What about our staying here?" Derec asked. "Are we safer staying here longer, or should we move?"

"I only have a guess," said the robot. "I again used an evasive route in returning here, but the fact that the truck vanished from sight in the same general area as last time will narrow the Hunters' scope considerably. On the other hand, traveling somewhere else clearly provides more data to the central computer of our whereabouts every time we are witnessed by any robot in the city."

Derec sighed and rubbed the stiff muscles in his legs. "Thank you for the lecture. What's your conclusion?"

"We are better off remaining here for the remainder of the day. At nightfall, travel will be safer than staying here. These are both calculated risks, not cert-"

"I understand," said Derec. He gritted his teeth and lay down again. Normally he wanted to know how Mandelbrot formed his judgments because the robot's consistent logic could be informative. Now he was just too tired and in too much pain for that.

"Maybe we should all rest," said Ariel. "If we're going to go somewhere else after dark."

"Good idea," said Wolruf.

Derec closed his eyes. He heard Wolruf pad away, presumably to relax in a spot of her choosing.

"I was planning to go out again to seek a food source," said Mandelbrot, "but I now consider it too risky. All of you can remain healthy through the day without sustenance. When we travel at night, we may find food in some way. Is this acceptable?"

"Sure," Derec muttered, without opening his eyes.

"All right," said Ariel.

"You know," Jeff said slowly, "I have plenty of supplies on board the Minneapolis. I didn't realize food was a problem for you. The only question is how to get it."

"I doubt it's a simple question," said Ariel. "It must be well guarded by now."

They could have dismantled it by now, Derec thought, but he was too exhausted to speak up.

"Perhaps we can look into this," said Mandelbrot. "Though the risk is very high."

"How about a review of the whole situation?" Jeff asked. "I never did know the origin of this place. Would you mind giving me the entire story? We apparently have the rest of the day."

"You know, Jeff," said Ariel, "you really don't have to get mixed up in this. If we can get you back on board your s.h.i.+p, you can get out of here again."

"I'm ready to help."

"I don't think we can ask you to do that." She lowered her voice. "You haven't heard what Dr. Avery has done to Derec."

"I'm staying," Jeff said firmly. "I came here to repay a debt. Since you don't need help getting off the planet anymore, I'll repay it with help you do need."

"Maybe you should know what you're getting involved in before you decide."

"Go ahead," said Jeff. "But I'm staying, period."

Derec drifted off to sleep to the sound of Ariel's voice recounting their story.

CHAPTER 10.

THE MINNEAPOLIS.

He awoke again, much later, as strong arms slid under him and lifted him. "What's happening?" His throat was rough and dry. He cleared it, opening his eyes.

Mandelbrot was carrying him to the back of the truck.

"Time to go, huh?" Derec smiled weakly as he settled onto the truck bed.

"We're all here," said Ariel, next to him. "Mandelbrot's in charge so far. Ready?"

"Sure. Where are we going?"

"We're going after my supplies," said Jeff.

"What?" Derec struggled to sit up, looking at them in surprise. "That's a perfect trap. What's the plan?"

"We don't have one yet," said Ariel. "Mandelbrot couldn't get any information about the s.h.i.+p through the central computer without giving himself away, so we don't know what kind of security it has around it or anything."

"I don't like this at all," said Derec. He turned to Mandelbrot, who was pus.h.i.+ng the b.u.t.ton on the wall to open the door. "Mandelbrot, this sounds like walking into a trap to me. Have you considered that?"

"Yes." Mandelbrot hurried back to the cab of the truck as the door began to open into a Robot City twilight.

"You have? Then why are we doing this?"

"The plan is flexible. All I intend to do now is take an evasive route back to the landing site for observation. We will not take unnecessary risks."

"Well...okay." Derec sat back against the wall of the truck. If he could just feel better, he could be more persuasive. Or help make plans. It was just so hard to concentrate.

The truck rolled out onto the empty street. The robot population seemed to be getting thinner all the time. That was good for his purposes, Derec thought, but the mysteries remained. What was the purpose of the robot a.s.sembly points...and where was Dr. Avery?

Robot City had street lights, but they were not as bright or as frequent as in other cities. The robots' superior vision made more light unnecessary. The entire planet was a city of technological marvels and striking robotic capabilities.

"What did Avery get from your father?" Derec asked suddenly. "He's called Professor Leong? What have we seen in this city that Professor Leong provided?"

"I haven't seen anything like that," said Jeff. "He was talking about culture. I've seen science, technology, and architecture taken to new heights, but that's all."

"The play," said Ariel. "We had the robots do Hamlet here after you left. That is, Derec chose it but the robots were ready for it. Some of them were involved with robot creativity."

"The arts," said Derec. "Of course. And maybe a system of ethics beyond the Laws of Robotics-"

"The Laws of Humanics they used to talk about," Ariel said excitedly. "Some of this crazy stuff is starting to make sense now."

"Instead of being just oddities." Derec nodded. "Robots are too logical to leave a lot of loose ends."

"Rrobot creativity," said Wolruf. "Came at ssame time Dr. Averry returrned to Robot City."

"That's right," said Ariel. "And now, after he's apparently reprogrammed all the robots, there's no sign of it."

"The creative impulse caused too much trouble," said Derec. "But originally, he programmed some artistic abilities into his robots. Jeff, does this fit what you remember?"

"That's along the right line, yeah. And I remember now that he had one interest in particular."

"Really? What was it?"

"Cultures that could endure."

"Endure," said Derec. "You mean like republics and empires and so on? Dynasties and stuff like that?"

Jeff shook his head in the darkening light as the truck slowed for an intersection, then speeded up again. "Cultures. They generally outlast politics. They evolve in response to politics and economics and technology, but they have lives of their own. My father called them the sum of all the disciplines."

The truck came to a halt, drawing their attention. Derec looked out and saw that they had stopped on an overpa.s.s. The bright twinkling lights of Robot City stretched in all directions, implying the shapes of buildings and streets by their patterns in swooping curves and mighty blocks and spiraling towers and a fully reliable grid on the ground.

"Down there," said Jeff. "That's the boulevard I landed on, running parallel with this one. See between those buildings there?"

"I see it," said Ariel. "Just barely."

"I dare not take the truck any closer," said Mandelbrot, standing in the open cab to face them. "I can approach it on foot and survey the security measures."

"Hold it," said Derec. "If they left it just sitting there, it has to be a trap. Mandelbrot, that means they're ready for you, too, in some way. They wouldn't leave bait like that just waiting to be flown away."

"Too bad we can't move it," said Jeff.

"Wait a minute," said Ariel. "Maybe Mandelbrot can communicate with its computer."

"I doubt they left the s.h.i.+p operational," said Derec. "That doesn't make sense, either."

"Unless they're overconfident of their security measures," said Jeff. "Mandelbrot, if you want to try, it's a ten-pa.s.senger Hayas.h.i.+-Smith named Minneapolis. It's non-positronic but it's smart enough to handle the flight instructions I give it, which are pretty general. That's about all I know about it."

"I am currently trying standard frequencies," said Mandelbrot. "The customary range is small. No response."

"Good," said Derec.

"What?" Ariel demanded.

"Maybe we have a chance after all."

"What do you mean?" Jeff asked.

"If we're lucky, the only way they disabled the s.h.i.+p was to disconnect the computer. Mandelbrot, your comlink can send out the same impulses it did."

"I might be able to start the s.h.i.+p," said Mandelbrot, "but I can't fly it from here. The boulevard is too narrow and I'm not familiar with the s.h.i.+p itself. "

"I can't 'elp 'u, eitherr," said Wolruf apologetically. "Can navigate, but giving orrders to Mandelbrot takess too long for shuttle takeoff. And 'ave no line of sight from herr, eitherr."

"We don't have to fly it," said Derec. "The boulevard goes straight. All we have to do is get it away from their security long enough to get inside and grab the supplies."