Robot City 1 & 2

by Isaac Asimov

  Ten minutes of walking brought them to the great triple pressure seal doors at the outerboundary of C Section. The doors were resting retracted in their grooves, apparently deactivated. Past the interlock, the throughway narrowed to a single-lane slidewalk in each direction with far fewer jumpoffs and side passages than before.

  Derec expected to find robots guarding the entry to W Section, and told Katherine so. But when they reached the far end of the slidewalk, they were still alone. The west docks were there, just as they had guessed. But the main public entrance to the complex was not even locked.

  "No guards, no locks," Derec said as they stood on the threshold. "This looks very bad. Maybe they had one of the tugs take the ship and stand off a hundred klicks from the base."

  "Let's find out," Katherine said, starting ahead.

  If the west docks were being held for possible military use as Dr. Galen had implied, itwas merely as a line item on some logistics officer's list of resources. There was no sign that the complex had even been or ever would be anything other than a general purpose cargo and passenger transfer node. All the familiar facilities were there: Import Registry, Customs, the travelers' Personals.

  Katherine led Derec past the unstaffed security stations and up the loading ramp to the upper concourse. Along the length of the high-ceilinged room were six check-in stations, six glassed-in waiting areas, and six two-story viewports each of which looked out onto an enormous docking slip and space beyond. All six slips were empty and dark. Nothing could be seen through the viewports except a few dim and distant stars.

  "Downstairs?" Derec asked.

  Her lips pressed into a tight line, Katherine answered by leading the way back down the ramp. The lower concourse seemed like a mirrormirror image of the upper. All six bays on the lower concourse were dark--but one was not empty.

  "Bingo," Derec said, sprinting through the check-in station and up the boarding tunnel.

  "I don't understand," she said, dogging his heels. "Where are the guards? There ought to be guards."

  "Maybe they're inside," Derec said, pulling up short. The boarding tunnel was connected to the emergency hatch they had seen being installed, and across the lock-side seam there was a security seal. It was a token seal, however, meant only to give notice that the hatch had been opened. It could not stop them from going aboard.

  Nothing inside had been disturbed, it seemed, since they had been found and removed. For that matter, except for cracks in three of the screens above the great command console, it did not even seem as though therehad been an explosion on the main deck. Yet there were a dozen blackened fist-sized pits in the walls and ceiling to mark where the charges had been.

  "You don't blow up your house because a burglar breaks in," Katherine observed. "Aranimas's security would have been tailored to his own species. Whatever you want to call what we tripped--"

  "Radiation bomb, maybe."

  "--must have been designed to kill or disable an Erani without doing serious damage to the ship."

  "It did a good enough job on us."

  Though they could not find Aranimas's stylus, whatever locked the deck plates in place had apparently been disabled when the ship was powered down. Twenty minutes later, they had torn up the whole floor, but found nothing.

  "Shall we put it back?" Katherine asked, gesturinggesturing at the mess they had created.

  "No point. The robots are going to know we were here anyway."

  "They have the key, don't they?"

  "Almost certainly. If they don't, Jacobson does."

  Katherine sighed. "How are we ever going to find it? The size of this station--even if it were just lying in open view in a corridor somewhere, it'd take us weeks to find it. And you know that they've hidden it better than that."

  "There's a lot of places they could put it that you can be sure they didn't," Derec said, looking around the main cabin one last time. "They won't leave it unattended, you can count on that. Not like they left this ship."

  "Do you have any idea why they let us in here?"

  Derec nodded slowly. "I think so. To send us a message. To tell us just how harmless they think we are. That there's nothing we can do tothem." He sighed. "And they may just be right. Let's get out of here, huh?"

  CHAPTER 17

  PARTNERS IN CRIME

  Squeak.

  Brush.

  Squeak.

  Brush.

  The sounds were soft and distant, but they were there, all right. If either he or Katherine had been talking, as they had been the first third of the way back, there would have been no way he would have heard them. But ever since they had fallen silent in individual introspection, the sounds had played at the threshold of Derec's hearing.

  At first he had thought them echoes of theirown footsteps, or merely the product of paranoia. But as they were passing into subsection 51, Derec decided that they were real and not imagined. Something was following them.

  "Don't say anything and don't turn around," Derec whispered. "You hold both lamps. Keep walking."

  "What?"

  "Ssssh. Keep walking. Keep the beams angled down so you won't be silhouetted. Try to make it look like you're two people."

  "What's this about?" she demanded. But she contained her curiosity to a whisper, and kept walking as he had asked.

  Handing the torch to her at arm's length, Derec slipped away into the darkness and squeezed back against the wall. As he waited, he wondered who he was waiting for. One of Dr. Galen's robots? One of Jacobson's? Or Aranimas? He wished he still had the gas aerosol, or had kept his torch to use as a club.Have to do it on your own, he told himself, dropping to his knees and huddling against the base of the wall.

  The shadow was past Derec before he even saw it. Only when he looked back toward Katherine and caught a glimpse of it silhouetted against the glow of her torch did he move. Gathering himself up, he took three running steps and launched himself at the figure's legs. He struck cloth and bone, not syntheskin and metal, and the stranger came down in a heap on top of Derec, squealing protest.

  They wrestled furiously in the darkness, each with different objectives. Derec was trying to get a firm grip on an arm, leg, or neck and pin the other to the floor. His adversary was trying only to break Derec's grip and escape.

  Derec was much the more skilled. He had no difficulty getting what he thought were solid holds on the other. The difficulty was in maintaining them for more than a few seconds. Hadthey been wrestling in competition, he would have been getting the takedowns, his opponent the escape points. Part of the reason was the other's compact strength, and part the slippery fabric its clothes were made of.

  But in the dark, luck counted for more than skill or strength, and neutralized both. The two combatants rolled from one side of the passageway to the other, neither able to gain a lasting advantage. Then, with a sudden twist and a lucky grab, Derec found himself on top, straddling the other's waist and with each of his hands locked in an iron grip on one of his opponent's wrists.

  Just then Katherine shone one of the lamps full on the shadow's face. His adversary squinted up at him out of eyes nearly hidden by mottled gold and brown fur, and its mouth twisted into a familiar grimace.

  "Wolruf!" Derec exclaimed.

  "'Ur stronger than 'u look, Derec," Wolrufsaid, still grinning. "But I 'ope 'u know I let 'u win."

  Derec grinned back. "As ugly as you are, I'm awfully glad to see you. I was afraid we'd lost you when we were cut loose."

  "Why are you treating it like some long-lost friend?" Katherine demanded. "It's Aranimas's fetch-boy."

  "Girl," he corrected. "Besides, you don't understand," he added, helping Wolruf to her feet. "She's my friend."

  "Partners," Wolruf said proudly.

  "Oh? Then why was it skulking along behind us like that?"

  "Following," Wolruf said.

  "What were you planning to do?"

  "I never 'urt 'u--"

  "You were waiting for us to find the key, we
ren't you? And then you were going to steal it--"

  "Katherine--she's sick," Derec said suddenly."What?"

  "Look at her," he urged. "Look at me," he added, reclaiming his torch and turning its beam on himself. His clothing was covered with long gold and brown hairs. In the light of Katherine's torch, the alien's fur was so thin in patches that Derec could see the pale leathery skin beneath. And there was something about Wolruf's eyes that telegraphed the distress she had been enduring.

  "What's wrong with you?" Katherine asked, a faint note of suspicion tainting her concern.

  " 'Ungry," she said simply.

  "Of course," Derec said. "She's starving. There isn't even any food she could steal here."

  Katherine squinted at the alien through narrow-slitted eyes. "Is that why you were following us? Not to get the key, but to find out where we were getting our food?"

  "I don' care about the jewel," Wolruf said. "Juss 'ungry. I 'ide, follow the robots, look forfood. I follow them everywherr and never smell food."

  "You don't like the robots, do you? It isn't just Alpha," Derec said.

  "Brood-captain tell me a 'undred times, never trust strange animal until 'u've seen its meal table," she said weakly.

  It sounded like an attempt at a joke. "And robots never eat," Derec completed. "Well, we'll get you something. I hope we can get you something. Can you eat what we eat?"

  "Just hold on," Katherine interrupted. "You were on the ship with us the whole time? And you've been hiding out ever since?"

  "I wass coming through interlock--Alpha, too--when heard the bomb go off," Wolruf said. "Noise bring other Erani. Controls dead an' 'u not much better. So I cut us loose. When robots come I 'ide, when ship dock I slip out. Been 'iding ever since."

  "Where's Aranimas?""Don't know. Left behind." Wolruf was noticeably unsteady on her feet.

  "We can sort the rest of this out later," Derec said sharply. "We've got to get her something, quickly."

  "Not so quickly," Katherine said, stepping closer. "Where have you been hiding? Here, in the dark sections?"

  "Mostly. No robots here. I like the dark better than I like robots."

  "How much of the dark sections have you been through, looking for food?"

  "Lots," Wolruf said. "But the jewel's not there, if thass what 'u're wondering."

  "How do you know?" Katherine demanded. "Because you put it somewhere else?"

  "I don' want the jewel. Juss trouble for everyone," Wolruf said. "But I know wherr it iss."

  Derec impulsively grabbed the alien by both cheeks and planted a kiss on her forehead. "All right!" he declared. "We're in business!""Don't know. Left behind." Wolruf was noticeably unsteady on her feet.

  "We can sort the rest of this out later," Derec said sharply. "We've got to get her something, quickly."

  "Not so quickly," Katherine said, stepping closer. "Where have you been hiding? Here, in the dark sections?"

  "Mostly. No robots here. I like the dark better than I like robots."

  "How much of the dark sections have you been through, looking for food?"

  "Lots," Wolruf said. "But the jewel's not there, if thass what 'u're wondering."

  "How do you know?" Katherine demanded. "Because you put it somewhere else?"

  "I don' want the jewel. Juss trouble for everyone," Wolruf said. "But I know wherr it iss."

  Derec impulsively grabbed the alien by both cheeks and planted a kiss on her forehead. "All right!" he declared. "We're in business!"find some food," he said. "If you don't like it, you're welcome to go solo from here on."

  "Oh, no, you don't," she said quickly. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

  "Come on, then," he said as he started brushing futilely at the fur clinging to his clothing. He looked back to Wolruf and smiled. "Let's see if we find you some food before I choke to death on your dander."

  They ended up returning to the hospital, both because it was relatively close and because it was one of the few facilities they knew anything about. Katherine entered first, demanding care and attention as she swept through toward the ICU and making sure to gather up both Dr. Galen and Florence along the way. A minute later, Derec and Wolruf slipped inside and headed in the other direction, toward the kitchens.

  "Meat, breads, vegetables--what's best foryou?" Derec said, scanning the menu of the autogalley.

  "Plants," Wolruf said, crouching. "Something to work my teeth on."

  "Everything's synthetic, I'm afraid--the farm is one of the things they closed down. Let's see--I think they make the apple wedges with a lot of fiber."

  "Do 'u know what 'ur going to do with the key when 'u find it?" Wolruf asked from behind.

  "No." Derec turned around and presented the alien with a white tray filled with pale yellow puply slices of apple. With surprising patience, Wolruf selected a wedge, sniffed it experimentally, then balanced it on her narrow tongue and delicately took it into her mouth. As far as Derec could tell, she did not chew it, but swallowed it whole.

  That created a minor paradox--though Wolruf did not appear to be eating quickly, theplate rapidly emptied. She ate as though she were trying to make up for all seven weeks of deprivation at one sitting, and yet was scrupulously neat and almost completely silent. There were none of the wet crunching noises that any human trying to keep pace would have made.

  I wouldn't be surprised if she finds our eating habits repulsive, he thought as he watched her.

  When the tray was empty, Wolruf offered it up to Derec with a hopeful look. "I guess 'u can trust me now, right?" she said.

  "Except I'm not the one you have to win over," he said, taking the tray and turning back to the autogalley for a refill. "Katherine is. Which reminds me--why didn't you tell me she was on board?"

  Wolruf shrugged. "No chance to. Always something 'appening, somebody 'terrupting."

  "That's true enough," Derec said, surrenderingsurrendering the replenished tray. "There's questions I've been wanting to ask you since that first night and I haven't gotten a chance to."

  "Ask," Wolruf said, then rolled out her tongue for another bite.

  Derec considered a moment. "This one isn't important to anyone but me. You didn't know I was on the asteroid, did you?"

  "Not until gunners spot you. Then thought you were robot."

  "Which is why you didn't fire at me--"

  "Aranimas's orders--not perfectly followed."

  "You meant the robot that was with me? That was a self-destruct."

  "Fine distinctions escape Aranimas. Ask gunner who hit him."

  Derec smiled. "Did you know the key was on the asteroid?"

  "No twice."

  "That's what I thought. But then why wereyou there? Was it just the dumbest luck that you showed up?"

  "Purpose, not luck. Aranimas build very fine starglass. Saw ast'roid being made and became very curious."

  "Say that again? I didn't catch your meaning."

  She cupped her hands and made motions like forming a snowball. "With starglass, Aranimas watched the ast'roid-making. Boss very curious. Not something Erani ever do. 'U do it often?"

  "No," Derec said, still blinking in surprise. An artificial world--it was remotely possible. Use a small fleet of haulers to bring in the raw material--maybe just smaller planetoids brought in from the nearest dirty system. Drive the pieces together at just the right speed and fuse them into a larger body--but why?

  The answer came to him almost immediately. To hide the key. To bury it away where no one would ever find it, as though it were asdangerous as a cask of plutonium waste. Buried cleverly, not at the heart of the asteroid where the first shaft sunk would uncover it, but tucked invisibly under the surface.

  Except that someone saw or found out, and sent the robots to retrieve it.

  "Are you sure about this?" Derec demanded.

  "Sure. Aranimas saw it all. Very good starglass." She offered up the empty tray hopefully.

  Then we're in over our heads, Derec thought as he turned back to th
e autogalley. Way over--

  Wolruf was finishing her third helping when Katherine joined them. She had drawn on station supply for a longsleeved blouse to wear over the jump suit, and traded the foot pillows for soft-soled shoes.

  "I sent Florence on an errand and gave Dr. Galen a task that should keep him out of the lobby for at least half an hour," she said. "And I made Dr. Galen fit me with a loaded medipumpmedipump just in case it's not convenient to come back. Though my skin really doesn't feel too bad. Are you two almost ready?"

  Wolruf made the last two wedges disappear. "I am."

  "Then it's time to pay the bill for the meal," Katherine said, reclaiming the empty plate. "Let's go look at the map." They stood elbow to elbow in the deserted lobby, Wolruf in the middle.

  "Here's where we are," Katherine said, pointing. "And here's about the spot you and Derec went to the mat. All you have to do now is tell us where the key is, and we'll go get it. You can go back to the dark and never have to see another robot."

  But Wolruf was unable to understand the map in any of its modes or projections, even though both Derec and Katherine made labored efforts to try to explain it. "I know it inmy feet and my nose," Wolruf said. "I go with 'u and show 'u."

  Katherine frowned and looked to Derec. "How are we going to smuggle her through the halls? It was risky enough bringing her here. And she said she almost got caught the first time."

  "I was thinking while we were walking that a place this large probably used to have some kind of personal transport."

  "Jitneys," she said.

  "That's the word." An image of a three-wheeled utility vehicle snapped into focus in his mind. In automatic mode, they were essentially wheeled robots. In semi-auto, they served as smart taxis for visitors to the station. But in manual mode, they should offer freedom from Central Services control and privacy from Security curiosity. "The robots don't need them, but I'll bet they're all lined up somewhere ready to roll.""Won't the robots think it's unusual, seeing one out in the streets?"

  "I don't think so," Derec said. "When a ship's in port the crew probably uses them. And seeing one of the carts won't strike them as any more strange than our presence alone would. Robots notice people. It's the way they're made. But we don't need to be invisible--we just need to be left alone. What do you say?"