Perihelion iarc-6

by William F. Wu

  Derec and Ariel were in no shape to protest as two Hunter robots lifted them out of the capsule door. The function robot on the dock waited until the humans were out before grabbing the small package that had been scheduled for the trip. Derec hurt allover and was simply too weak to struggle.

  One Hunter held him by the arm, and he actually leaned against the robot for support. Ariel was just now blinking at the Hunter holding her. He recognized that as one of the signs that she was coming back out of her latest memory fugue.

  “Ariel,” he said quietly.

  She turned at the sound of his voice, then started at the sight of the Hunters. “Derec-”

  “They’ve got us,” he muttered wearily. He shook his head as the Hunters turned and started for the nearest slidewalk, pulling them along in their inflexible grips.

  Derec still tried to think of a way out of this. They were positronic robots and would respond to protests based on the Laws. From past experience, however, he also knew that they had been programmed to detain and arrest humans without harming them. He could argue, but he didn’t know how to win.

  Besides, he was just too tired. Derec stumbled several times, forcing himself to keep up with the Hunter. Finally the Hunter lifted him bodily and carried him, not out of concern but for efficiency of travel. The other Hunter lifted Ariel at the same time.

  The Hunters turned to ride the slidewalks and Derec found himself facing Ariel.

  “How did they get us?” She mouthed the words silently, with a quick glance at her captor’s head.

  “I don’t think they care if we talk,” he said aloud. “I’m guessing now that some other Hunters started by questioning the tunnel-system computer. That gave them the coordinates of the tunnel stop where we got off the platform booth, as I was afraid might happen. From there they must have used heat sensors to track us along the street to the vacuum tube depot.”

  “But the capsule in the vacuum tube goes so fast. How did they get in front of us?”

  “They must have found out which depot that package was going to and called ahead to have these guys waiting for us.”

  “After that long ride,” said Ariel. “You make catching us sound so simple.”

  “Apparently it was,” he said ruefully.

  “They’ve got us,” she said, in a voice that cracked. “Derec, look out! They’re right behind us in the conduit-”

  Derec stared at her in a kind of resigned worry as she entered another displaced memory episode. This one must be from the last time Hunters had tracked them down and captured them, when they had tried to run away through the maze of underground conduits in the city. The vacuum tube hadn’t worked any better.

  He ached allover. Having the Hunter carry him was almost a relief after the effort to escape. Ariel was squirming and protesting in the grasp of the other Hunter, but she had no idea of where she was or what was happening now. He closed his eyes and tried to relax.

  The Hunters only rode the slidewalks a short distance. They were soon intercepted by a large function robot in the shape of a transport truck. The Hunters mounted the open back of the truck, still carrying Derec and Ariel.

  The switch to the truck woke Derec up, and he watched the city pass by as they rode. Ariel was now silent, her eyes closed. The city streets seemed depopulated to him, at least compared to what he remembered from their previous visit to Robot City. Maybe, he thought, the city had expanded faster than the robot population, causing the robots to spread themselves thinner over the whole planet.

  He glanced at Ariel periodically with growing concern. Her episodes seemed to occur more frequently under stress. That might mean she was getting worse, not better.

  The truck stopped several times to pick up other Hunters from the slidewalks. Now that the search was over, they would probably be taken to a storage area or something. They were all unusually tall for humanoid robots, with expansive torsos. Narrow benches molded from the truck bed itself provided seats for all of them along the side walls. They sat with their knees drawn up and their waists level with the top of the walls, watching Derec and Ariel without a word spoken.

  The truck slowed down as it approached one more lone Hunter on a slidewalk. Two familiar shapes caught Derec’s eye in the distance, and he stiffened.

  “Ariel,” he said quietly.

  She didn’t answer.

  He glanced over his shoulder at Mandelbrot, who was standing on the stationary shoulder of the slidewalk just a few meters away. Wolruf had been with him a moment ago, but was now out of sight. The Hunter was climbing into the back of the truck, making a total of six. Derec reached over and shook Ariel’s limp arm.

  “Ariel.”

  She opened her eyes and looked at him, still partly disoriented. “What? Derec, where are we?”

  It was too late to get off the truck, even if the Hunters could be distracted somehow. The last Hunter was on board and the truck started up. Then the engine began a high, irregular whine and the truck coasted back to a stop.

  The Hunters remained motionless for a short time. Then Mandelbrot stepped forward. Derec was certain that they were all communicating through their comlinks.

  “What’s going on?” Ariel whispered.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Mandelbrot suddenly climbed onto the front of the truck and sat down. Derec had trouble seeing what he was doing, but a minute later the truck began to move forward, Hunters and all. Apparently Wolruf had sabotaged the function-robot brain and Mandelbrot had successfully volunteered to operate a manual override. Derec hoped Wolruf was safe, wherever she was-most likely under the truck and hanging on precariously.

  By now, Ariel had also recognized Mandelbrot. She and Derec exchanged puzzled glances, still in the firm grip of the silent Hunters who had taken custody of them. They watched the Hunters carefully as the truck picked up speed and rolled along, but the robots seemed perfectly content with the situation.

  Soon Mandelbrot had the truck up to a considerable velocity, much faster than the truck had driven itself. The Hunters gripped the sides of the truck to stabilize themselves. Derec did not feel any loosening of the hold on him, however.

  Mandelbrot was going to try something to free them. Derec tensed himself in anticipation.

  He was not too surprised when the truck suddenly took a sharp left that sent everyone in the back sprawling. With a hard, painful yank, he wrenched himself free of the Hunter holding him, knelt on the bed of the truck, and got leverage under the robot. He gave a heave and flipped the Hunter clean out of the truck.

  Next to him, Ariel had almost pulled free of the Hunter holding her before it regained its balance. All of them leaped to their feet to restore order, but Derec shouldered another Hunter into the one grappling with Ariel. The truck took another sharp turn and all the Hunters stumbled again. Derec watched for anyone to become overbalanced toward the edge of the truck bed and managed to shove another one out of the truck.

  Their massive size and great strength had become a liability on the unstable truck bed.

  The vehicle came to a sudden, screeching, careening halt that threw everyone in the back forward. Mandelbrot, who had been braced for the stop, leaped into the back of the truck and hoisted out another Hunter who was still in the act of standing up again. Mandelbrot rolled one more out on top of that one and then pulled Derec free of the one grappling with him.

  Mandelbrot’s great advantage became clear to Derec. The first priority programmed into the Hunters was to find and detain the two humans. The First Law’s demand that they not harm the humans overrode the Third Law’s requirement that they protect themselves.

  While the remaining two Hunters grappled with Derec and Ariel, Mandelbrot was able to get the right leverage under each Hunter and lift them out of the truck.

  “Hang on,” Mandelbrot called out in a remarkably calm voice. He jumped back to the manual console in the front and drove off.

  Derec fell back on the bed of the truck, gritting his teeth in pain but r
elieved that they had escaped. Ariel scooted over to him and sat down, her hair blowing in the breeze.

  She smiled faintly. “That was close. How did they-”

  “Look out!” He shouted.

  Behind her, over her head, one of the Hunters was climbing up the side of the moving truck, where it had gotten hold before the truck had started again. Derec tried to stand, but the pain in his legs was too great. His feet slipped and he fell back again.

  The Hunter was just climbing over the side when it suddenly vanished from sight and hit the street with a crash.

  Then Wolruf’s head appeared over the side with her caninoid grin. “Hunterr poorly balanced,” she said, climbing over the side.

  Ariel jumped up to help her over.

  Mandelbrot turned another corner on the city street, then another. After speeding quickly down another block and taking one more turn, he came to a stop, a smooth one this time.

  “What is it?” Derec called, but he was too uncomfortable to get up. “Ariel, find out what’s going on.”

  “Mandelbrot?” Ariel said, standing.

  Derec could hear both their voices.

  “This vehicle has a comlink that must be fully disconnected,” said Mandelbrot. “Wolruf successfully disconnected the function-robot brain from the truck controls, but it still works, and the central computer may be able to locate our position through it. However, as soon as I finish disabling it… There.”

  Derec heard a heavy object hit the pavement alongside the truck.

  “The truck is now comlink invisible,” said Mandelbrot. “We cannot be tracked through it. We are free to move about.” He sat down at the console again and drove off.

  Derec let out a long sigh.

  Chapter 8. Hideout

  Derec stared up at the bright sky overhead as the truck moved along. Now that the danger of the Hunters was over for the moment, Mandelbrot proved to be an efficient driver. He took a number of turns, Derec guessed to complicate the reports of robots who witnessed their passing.

  The Hunters would not have taken long to resume their single-minded pursuit. However, they would now have to follow the truck’s path. They had no way of learning its destination and instructing others to lie in wait for it.

  As far as Derec knew, Mandelbrot didn’t even have a destination.

  Ariel and Wolruf sat quietly with Derec, all three slumped so that they were not visible from the street, though any robot observing from the buildings above had a clear view of them if it looked.

  “That seemed awfully easy,” said Ariel. “I don’t understand how those big, strong robots with their positronic brains could let themselves be thrown overboard like that.”

  Derec laughed in spite of the pain it caused in his ribs. “Surprise, mostly. Robot drivers are always very careful. Those Avery robots have never experienced a human driver speeding along recklessly.”

  “But Mandelbrot’s a robot.”

  “Yeah, but he was in the rescue business. He must have weighed the relative danger to us from an accident against the certainty of danger if we were taken to Avery, and decided to throw them off balance-literally.”

  “That sounds like a touch of creative thinking, too,” said Ariel. “Lucius, the Cracked Cheeks, all the other robots who were showing signs of ‘contagious’ robot creativity. Poor Lucius. I wonder where the rest of them are now.”

  “Come back to prresent,” said Wolruf. “Hunterrs won’t give up. Robotss learn fasst. Won’t fool them the same way again.”

  Eventually, Derec closed his eyes against the light. They were safe for the moment and could relax. He dozed, still vaguely aware of the stiffness in his legs and back and of the rhythmic motion of the truck.

  He woke up in subdued light to the wonderful sensation of Ariel massaging his back. They were on a clean floor inside a large building. The truck was nearby, also inside. A large door, big enough to accommodate the truck, was in the front wall of the building.

  “What is this place?” He asked softly.

  “You’re awake. How are you feeling?” She paused to ruffle his hair affectionately.

  “A little better. Sort of. Where are we?”

  “I’m not sure. Mandelbrot can tell you.” She turned. “Mandelbrot, he’s awake.”

  “Greetings, Derec.” Mandelbrot walked over and looked down at him. “We are temporarily safe. The Hunters will have to locate us by questioning witnesses along our route, and they became quite sparse after a time. I used an evasive pattern that included doubling back and crisscrossing at random. I cannot calculate how long we have.”

  Wolruf joined them and sat down quietly.

  “You’re quite a truck driver, Mandelbrot.” Derec forced a smile. “Thanks.”

  “I had the vehicle under control at all times,” said the robot. “The First Law -”

  “I never doubted it, Mandelbrot. Time to reconnoiter, though, I suppose. What do we do now?” He tried to raise up on one elbow, but winced and lay down again.

  “I will bring you up-to-date,” said Mandelbrot. “This building houses fully automated, non-positronic equipment that cannot identify and report us to the central computer.”

  “You mean something actually happens here? I thought it was a warehouse or something.” Derec looked around at all the empty space. “Avery robots don’t waste facilities like this.”

  “The only functioning equipment is in the far comer from here. It sends vibrations into the ground that report the firmness of pavement and building foundations within a certain radius. “

  “That’s all?” Derec laughed. “All this space for a systems-maintenance sensor?”

  Ariel shrugged. “You can see for yourself. Nothing else is here. Four walls, a ceiling, and a floor.”

  “It follows some information Wolruf and I were able to gather before the Hunters prevented us from returning to the Compass Tower,” said Mandelbrot. “The robots here are under migration programming of some kind.”

  “Yes! Did you find out what that is?”

  “Not precisely,” said Mandelbrot. “It has caused a general instruction, however, to reduce the staffs allover Robot City to skeleton level.”

  “That’s something,” said Derec thoughtfully.

  “As an example,” said Mandelbrot, “the size of this building implies equipment no longer present. I surmise that the original functions taking place here were either discontinued or improved technologically to the point where humanoid robots became unnecessary. At that point, the staff followed its migration programming and departed. “

  Derec nodded. “Without eliminating or modifying the building for greater efficiency. This migration must have an extremely high priority.”

  “And he told me that no general alert has gone out for us, as you guessed,” said Ariel. “That’s still the case, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” said Mandelbrot.

  “Something big has been going on here for a long time,” said Derec. “Think about it. This must be the Robot City that Dr. Avery actually envisioned.”

  “What do you mean?” Ariel asked.

  “When we first arrived, that wild shapechanging dominated the city. The Supervisors befriended us because they needed help and they wanted to serve humans.”

  Ariel nodded cautiously. “And solve the mystery of that murder. We never did figure out who the victim was.” She closed her eyes and shuddered. “Who just happened to look exactly like you.”

  Derec chose not to discuss that. He was afraid of sending her into another displaced memory episode. “Then, while the Key Center was in operation, the city was in a lull while a huge number of Keys were being duplicated and stored. We were treated with a kind of benign neglect, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I guess you could call it that,” she said. “But they were very cooperative in finding Jeff Leong, the cyborg.”

  He nodded. “Temporarily a cyborg. The Laws of Robotics required that. Now, though, everything seems to be changed. And it happened after we left for E
arth and Dr. Avery remained here.”

  “So every robot here has been reprogrammed?”

  “I think so. The city has that same sense of obsessive purpose that I first saw on that asteroid. And I haven’t seen any sign of the robot creativity we saw before we left here.”

  Ariel tensed. “Oh, no. You mean you think it was programmed out of them?”

  “It looks that way to me. Right now, Mandelbrot may be the only robot on the planet who can think independently enough to do things like rescue us by driving crazily.”

  “You said the local robots are now acting like the ones on the asteroid. You mean the asteroid you were on right after you first woke up with amnesia, before we met?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I agree,” said Mandelbrot. “The narrow focus of the Hunters supports your conclusion, though now Wolruf and I must have been added to the list of quarry.”

  “We need a new plan of action,” said Derec. “And I’m getting sicker all the time.”

  “At the moment, I suggest that you three remain here,” said Mandelbrot. “I must find a new food source for you. Also, while the Hunters must now be looking for me also, I still blend the most with the native population.”

  “‘U ‘ave no wherr to go,” said Wolruf.

  “Good point,” said Derec. “Maybe you can get a lead on that from the central computer without giving yourself away. Go ahead.”

  “I can try. And I still have the use of the truck.” Mandelbrot walked to the far corner of the building and pushed a button to open the big door that led to the street.

  “Does the equipment here include a terminal?” Derec asked.

  “No. I will have no way to contact you.” Mandelbrot mounted the front of the truck and looked down at them. “We have been out of sight here for a while. If the Hunters have widened the radius of their search by this time, I may be able to avoid them. “

  “Good luck, Mandelbrot,” said Ariel. “Don’t take too many chances, all right?”

  Mandelbrot drove out into the sunlight and turned onto the street. Someone closed the big door behind him. As he drove, he kept watch for Hunters, aware that they would recognize a function truck being driven by a humanoid robot before they would recognize him in particular. He accessed the central computer.