Robot City - Perihelion Part 5

Mandelbrot rode down the ramp of the tunnel stop and saw the little alien sitting calmly to one side of the loading area. She was in a slight shadow, out of the way of robots getting on and off the platform booths. When she saw him, she stood up impatiently.

Mandelbrot did not speak right away. Instead, he lifted her onto his back and stepped into one of the booths, where they would not be overheard by accident. The booth would not start until it had a destination, so he entered the one for the Compa.s.s Tower. They could change their minds later if necessary.

"Have you learned something?" he asked once the booth was on its way.

"Yess," Wolruf hissed eagerly. "Robots moving everywherr. Change city so that fewer robots arr needed at each place. Then they leave theirr dutiess."

"The migration programming. Do you have any clues about what that means?"

"No."

"I don't want to take the risk of asking the central computer myself or asking through the station terminal, for fear of attracting too much attention. We'll have to return to the office."

"Good," said Wolruf, with her caninoid grin. "Getting hungry now, anyway."

Derec was forcing himself to sit up at the terminal despite the painful stiffness in his back. He had been asking the central computer all kinds of questions, anything either he or Ariel could think of, shooting wildly in the dark. So far, they had not discovered anything that led them anywhere.

The blank screen shone patiently in his face. "Any more ideas?" he asked her.

"What about those robots at the Key Center? If my memory serves-" She smiled at the irony. "If it serves, they seemed to be chosen for their high quality. What are they doing now?"

"Good idea. Let's see." Derec asked, "What activities are underway at the Key Center?"

"NONE.".

Derec straightened in surprise. "Where is Keymo and the team of robots a.s.signed to him?"

"KEYMO IS AT THESE COORDINATES." The central computer gave some numbers. "NO TEAM IS CURRENTLY a.s.sIGNED TO HIM."

"What is he doing?"

"HE IS FOLLOWING HIS MIGRATION PROGRAMMING.".

"What are the other robots doing?"

"THEY ARE FOLLOWING THEIR MIGRATION PROGRAMMING.".

"Where are they?"

The computer responded with a long list of coordinates. They represented a very wide range of locations. Most of them were on parts of the planet far from here at the heart of Robot City. These locations had not even existed as part of the city when Ariel and he had first arrived. Some coordinates, however, were listed more than once. Keymo's location was included.

"What pattern of significance do these coordinates represent?" Derec asked.

"THEY ARE PRECISELY 987.31 KILOMETERS APART. THE PATTERN COVERS ALL THE LAND SURFACE OF THE PLANET.".

"Why?"

"THIS DISTANCE RESULTS IN EXACTLY THE NUMBER OF a.s.sEMBLY POINTS DESIRED.".

Derec felt a surge of excitement. "Desired by whom?"

"DESIRED BY THE PROGRAM.".

"What is the purpose of the program?"

"ACCESS DENIED.".

Derec slapped his hand on the desk. He was too weak to hit it very hard. "So this terminal is blocked now, after all. We just didn't ask it the right questions before to turn up the blocks."

Behind him, Ariel said nothing.

"I wonder. If Avery put some blocks on this terminal as a precaution before we got here...why didn't he put the standard blocks in? Why did he ignore most of the blocks the other terminals have but leave some of them?"

On the screen, the words "ACCESS DENIED" taunted him silently. On the walls all around them, Robot City bustled in the s.h.i.+ning day. The room was silent.

"All right," Derec said to himself. "Maybe the block really isn't on this terminal. He's set himself up somewhere else, of course, and he's simply blocked whatever he's done at that terminal. That must be it. He hasn't thought to block this one. Makes sense, doesn't it?"

When Ariel didn't answer, he painfully looked back over his shoulder at her. "Ariel?"

She was standing motionless with her eyes open. They seemed to be aimed at the floor just past the desk, but she was not blinking. When he put his hand in front of her, she did not react. He gently reached up to close her eyes with his fingertips. They remained closed.

"We can't wait," he said quietly to himself as much as to her. "We can't just sit here and try to think our way out of this. We don't have the time."

He stood up and carefully put one arm around her shoulders. With gentle pressure, he was able to guide her to the couch. She walked stiffly and slowly, with her eyes still closed. He could not get her to sit until he sat down first and pulled her down into a sitting position next to him.

"Ariel?"

He could see her eyes moving beneath her closed lids. After the last few episodes he had seen like this, he didn't dare try to bring her out of it himself. He would probably just make her worse.

After a few minutes, he moved away from her a little bit and watched her. She was sitting straight, rather primly, with her head up. Maybe she was reliving a trip in the seat of a s.p.a.cecraft or something. She offered no clues.

Finally she inhaled sharply and blinked a couple of times.

"Ariel?"

She looked at him and then at one of the viewscreens.

"Ariel, are you...with me again?"

"I did it again, didn't I?" She reached for one of his hands.

"It was different this time. You weren't shouting or anything." He held her hand and put his other arm around her.

"I was watching the play," she said softly. "It was real, wasn't it? You know the one I mean? I don't know what I'm doing. I can't even be sure where I am, or when I am."

"Slow down," he said patiently. "One question at a time. You said the play. You mean Hamlet?"

She nodded. "When we did it here."

"Did it come out any better this time?" He forced a smile, hoping to lighten her mood.

She shook her head, not responding to his humor.

"All right. Look, I've decided something. Let's go see Avernus. Or Euler. Or any of the Supervisors. They're probably right here in the Compa.s.s Tower."

"Are you sure?"

"We've been stuck in here long enough. Come on." He got up, wincing at the shooting pains in his legs.

She stood up reluctantly. He pushed a b.u.t.ton on the control panel on the desk, and a doorway opened in one of the viewscreens. It was a black maw in the center of downtown Robot City.

"Come on." He edged carefully out the doorway, looking around. All he saw was the short spiral staircase, maybe three meters or a little more, that he had come up when he had first found the office. From here it led down to a closed door. "We won't find any robots near here. We'll at least be safe until we get out of the taboo area."

"All right." She hadn't moved from the couch. "But what if I...you know. What if I go into one of my states right in the middle of everything?"

"We'll just have to chance it." He looked back and saw the reluctance on her face. "We've tried being cautious and we haven't gotten anywhere. We have to go."

"I might foul you up, Derec. Not knowing what's going on and all. If you want me to stay...."

"I may need you to save me, too." He smiled wistfully. "We're still a team, no matter what."

She relented, then. "No matter what." She followed him to the door and gave his arm an affectionate squeeze.

Derec clung to the rail of the spiral staircase all the way down. His knees burned at every step. He took a deep breath at the bottom, thankful for the rest as she came down behind him. Then he opened the door.

A short hallway extended ahead of them. He recognized it and the gently glowing wall panels that provided light. The end of this hallway marked the nearest limit to the office that robots were allowed to come. Past that point, he and Ariel could encounter robots on their normal duties at any time.

He walked forward slowly, watching for shadows and listening for any sound that would mean unwanted company. If they could get down to the meeting room of the Supervisors, on a lower level, the robots might a.s.sume that they had entered from the street level. He did not want them to suspect any other possibility.

Ariel followed closely as he moved through the hallways. These halls were narrow, but this level of the pyramid had very little floor surface. In just a few moments, they came to an elevator.

He took a deep breath and pressed the single b.u.t.ton on the wall panel. "About six floors down, if I remember right," he said quietly. "Do you remember any of this?"

She nodded.

They waited in a tense silence. When the door began to open, he drew in a sharp breath and felt her grab a fistful of the back of his s.h.i.+rt. It was empty, however, and they entered with embarra.s.sed smiles of relief for each other.

He pressed the b.u.t.ton for six levels down. The elevator dropped precipitously, but slowed gently enough and came to a smooth stop. Again, they stood completely still while the door opened.

No robots were waiting outside the elevator, but for the first time they could hear sounds of activity. The noises were not specific; perhaps they were no more than a variety of hums created by function robots cleaning the rooms and halls. Still, this level was clearly occupied.

"We're okay now," he said quietly. "In fact, we may want to meet a robot who can act as a guide. Just remember. If a robot asks how we got in here, our story is that we came in the front door."

"And got lost." She grinned.

"Uh, yeah."

The halls were wider here, and the ceilings higher; to make the trip worse, the maze was far more intricate. Intersecting halls crossed the main hallways more and more frequently, and they could look down any of them to see further expansions of the labyrinth. Long ago, he had guessed that this level was roughly halfway up the pyramid. The floor surface of this level was very large.

"I just can't remember," said Derec, stopping at an intersection of halls. He leaned against one of the glowing panels for support. "We could wander indefinitely. I've been taking all the largest halls, but they still haven't led anywhere."

Ariel studied his face. "You're in pain, aren't you?"

"I can't let that stop me, or we won't get anywhere."

"Then quit dawdling and come on!" Ariel pushed past him and started down the wider of the two hallways.

He smiled weakly as he followed her. She was being brusque in the hope of angering him, and causing another brief remission of his condition. It didn't work because he recognized the effort, but he appreciated it as he forced his burning legs to follow her.

Suddenly a rhythmic beeping sound echoed down the hall toward them. A small function robot, only a meter high, rolled toward them with a blue light on its front. A small scoop front functioned as a vacuum, and brushes on retracted tentacles betrayed its second duty as a sweeper. Its beeping recognition of strangers in the halls was probably a third function, nearly an afterthought.

Derec and Ariel stopped, watching it hurry forward. It skidded to a halt in front of them, still beeping.

He laughed. "I guess that's our alert. I thought we'd rate a siren or two, at least."

"It's kind of cute. I suppose it's sending out another signal as well, huh?"

"I'm sure it is. Hey, there's a familiar face-if you want to call that a face." Derec grinned. "Euler!"

The humanoid robot striding down the hall toward them was one of the first they had met on the planet. Euler was one of the seven Supervisor robots whose brains together const.i.tuted one of the complex master computers of the city. His head was molded to the human model, and he had glowing photocells for eyes. To complete the pattern, he had a small round mesh screen in place of a mouth.

"Hey, Euler!" Derec repeated. "Why isn't he answering? What's wrong with him?"

Euler walked right up in front of them and stopped. The little function robot whirred and rolled away, apparently in response to a comlink order.

"Greetings, Derec. You are not allowed here. Come with me." Euler stepped aside to let them go first.

"What kind of a welcome is that?" Derec demanded, walking forward reluctantly. "Euler, it's us. We're back. And we need help and information."

"I recognize you, Derec and Ariel." The robot was walking just behind them both.

Derec had the uneasy feeling that they were being guarded rather than accompanied in a friendly fas.h.i.+on. "You used to call me Friend Derec," he pointed out.

"We are conducting urgent and important business," said Euler. "You are acquainted with Robot City and you know you will be safe here. You must leave the Compa.s.s Tower."

"I told you we need help!" Derec shouted angrily. "The First Law! Have you forgotten all about it-"

Ariel tugged hard on his sleeve, slowing him down. He shook her off, turning to stop and face Euler eye to eye.

"No," Ariel insisted. "Don't give anything away. Something's gone wrong."

Derec froze in his angry posture, glaring at the impa.s.sive face of the Supervisor. He hesitated, absorbing the unexpected behavior of Euler. She was right.

"What's happened?" Ariel asked Euler. "Why are you acting different now?"

"You are not allowed in the Compa.s.s Tower."