Robot City 1 & 2

by Isaac Asimov

  The two humans shared a look. Nudity was common and casual on many Spacer worlds, but the climate here would hardly recommend it. "When can we see the body?" Derec asked.

  "That's not possible," Euler told her.

  "Why?"

  "I cannot tell you why.""Cannot or will not?" Derec asked, exasperated.

  "Cannot and will not," Euler replied.

  "Then how do you expect us to investigate the cause of death?" Kate asked.

  "If either or both of you are the murderers," Euler said, "you already know the cause of death."

  "You've already decided our guilt," Derec said, pointing. "That's not fair or just."

  "There are no other possibilities," Rydberg said.

  "When the possible has been exhausted," Derec replied, "it is time to examine the impossible. We are innocent, and you can't prove that we aren't. It only follows that the death was caused by something else."

  "Humans can murder," Euler said, as thunder crashed loudly outside. "Humans can lie. You are the only humans here, and murder has been done.""We came out of nowhere," Derec returned. "So did David. Others could also have come out of nowhere, others you haven't discovered yet. Why, had we committed a murder, would we stay around for you to catch?"

  The robots looked at one another again. "You raised logical questions that must be answered," Euler said. "We certainly sanction your investigation."

  "How can we investigate without full access?"

  "With all the other resources at your command," Rydberg said, then stood. "Are you finished eating?"

  "For now," Derec said. "We'll want real food tomorrow, though."

  "We will do our best," Euler said, and he, also, stood. "Until then, you will stay here."

  "I thought I might go out," Derec said.

  "The rains will come. It's too dangerous. For your own safety, you will stay here tonight. We have found that we cannot be certain if whatyou tell us is correct, so we're leaving a robot at the door to make certain you stay in."

  "You don't know that we've done anything wrong. You can't treat us like prisoners," Katherine said.

  "And we shall not," Rydberg said, moving toward the door; the servo whirred up to the table, its metal talons pulling the bowls and plates into its innards.

  "There are many things we need to talk with you about," Derec said.

  "Tomorrow will be the time," Euler said. "We will have a long interview at a prescribed time, where many issues will be discussed. Until then, we cannot fit it into our schedule. We are currently quite busy." The robots turned to go.

  "A couple of questions first," Derec said, hurrying to put himself between the door and the robots. "You say we aren't prisoners, yet you have locked us up. How long do we have to stay in this place?""Until it is safe," Rydberg said.

  "Then if you do let us out," Derec persisted, "how can you be sure we won't try to escape?"

  "We will have to keep a very close watch on you," Euler replied.

  With that, the robot firmly, but gently, pushed Derec aside and moved out the door, the servo following quickly behind. Derec tried to follow them out, but a squared-off utility robot blocked his path, its body streaked with random bands of different colored paints like the colors on an artist's pallet.

  "Stand aside," Derec told the machine.

  "It is dangerous for you outside. I am to keep you inside where it is safe, and have no more conversation with you lest you try and deceive me."

  "Me?" Derec said. "Deceive?"

  The robot pushed the door stud and the unit slid closed. Derec turned to Katherine. "What do you make of it?"She moved to sit on the sofa, then stretched out, looking tired. "We're being held prisoner by a bunch of robots with no one in charge," she said, sighing deeply. "The dead man was an exhibitionist who could, apparently, eat anything. They want us to prove our innocence, but refuse to let us see the body or investigate." She sat up abruptly, eyes narrowing. "Derec, we've got to get out of here."

  "They won't do anything to us without proof of our guilt," Derec replied. "It's not in their nature. We'll stay around and get this straightened out. Then they'll be happy to send us on our way. Besides, this place has got me really curious. How does it work . . . why does it work?"

  She lay down again, staring at the ceiling. "I'm not so sure they'd really let us leave," she said, voice distant. "I think we've stumbled into something completely crazy. A robot worldwithout humans could take any sort of bizarre turn."

  "But not a . . . what did you say . . . completely crazy turn," he replied. "They can't be crazy; there's no logic to crazy. Besides, what makes you think we've stumbled into anything? We were brought here, plain and simple, for a reason that hasn't been made clear yet. Maybe a little time here will help us ferret it out."

  "You ferret it out," she said. "I'm tired."

  "Well, I'm not." He moved to the balcony, feeling the stiff wind on his face as the light show continued to rage outside. "I'm going out tonight and do a little poking around."

  She was up from the couch, moving toward him. "They said it was dangerous," she said quietly, a hand going to his forearm. "Go out tomorrow."

  "Under their watchful eye?" he said, then shook his head. "We need to get around on ourown, and this is the time. Besides, a little rain can't hurt me."

  "Stay," she said. "I'm afraid,"

  "You?" He laughed. "Afraid?"

  She pulled her hand away. "All right," she said. "Go out and get yourself killed. I'm tired of looking out for you anyway."

  "You're angry."

  "And you're an idiot." She turned from him and stared out across the magnificent city, realizing that its beauty was for them alone to appreciate. There was something unutterably sad about that. "How will you get past the door guard?"

  "We'll take his advice and deceive him," Derec said.

  "We?"

  "Will you help me?"

  She turned and walked back into the apartment. "Anything to get you out of my hair," she said over her shoulder.Derec's plan was simple enough, but it was one he could use only once. The robots learned quickly enough of human duplicity, arming themselves with the knowledge as a protection. But just this once, it might work.

  He crouched beside the sofa, knotting into a tight ball.

  Just as soon as he was well out of sight of the door, Kate took a deep breath and tried to open it--locked.

  She shrugged once in Derec's direction, then began screaming in terror. A second later the door slid open, the utility robot blocking the entry.

  "What's wrong?"

  "It's Derec!" she cried, pointing. "He fell from the balcony!"

  Without hesitation, the robot rolled into the room, ready to check her story for lies and deceit. He quickly moved toward the balcony,leaning way over the edge to get a look into the night.

  Derec jumped up from behind the couch and hurried quietly out the door and into the elevator that took him all the way to the ground and his first positive step in uncovering the mystery of Robot City. He was free, but what that meant here he could only guess.

  CHAPTER 2

  THE SLUICE

  Derec exited onto the wide street, hurrying across it to the shadows of buildings a half a block away. From there he took a few minutes to turn back and study the surroundings he had just left behind, trying to memorize the positions and shapes of the buildings near his tower. If his feelings were correct and the city was evolving outward, finding his way back could be a difficult, if not impossible, task. He didn't worry too much about it, though. He felt completely safe in this world of robots and figured that if he got lost, he'd simply turn himself in to the nearest robot of decent sophisticationsophistication and be sent back.

  That dwelt upon, he turned his attention completely to exploring the new world that an unseen fate had guided him to. In his current pristine state of innocence and awareness, it was difficult for Derec not to see the hand of destiny in his wanderings. It was as if his amnesia was an emotional and intellectual purging of
sorts, set in motion to prepare him for a journey of which Robot City could be only a part. Since that was the only feeling or need he had to work with, he plunged himself into it with relish, enthusiasm, and as much good humor as he could muster. Katherine would never understand his feelings in this matter, but then Katherine had a life to go back to and memories to sustain her. For Derec, this was it, his whole world, and he wanted to know as much about it as he possibly could.

  The city stretched all around him like somemagnificent clockwork. The shapes of the buildings, from towering spires to squat storage warehouses, were all precise and multifaceted, like growing crystals. And the shapes seemed to be designed as much for aesthetic pleasure as pragmatic necessity. This concept formed the core of a theory within Derec's mind, and one that he would want to explore in greater detail when he had time for reflection. For nothing exists in a vacuum. Robots were not motivated independently by unreasoning emotion. They had to have reasons for their actions, and by what Derec had seen, their actions were all directed absolutely, despite Rydberg's claims of autonomy.

  The cold winds sliced through him like a knife through water, and the sky rumbled and quaked, yet all around him he watched a furious activity that kept the mechanism of Robot City moving to its own internal rhythm and purpose. Hundreds of robots filled the streetsaround him, all moving and directed. All ignored his presence.

  Streets were cleaned, even as spray painting was conducted on dull-sheened buildings, the sprayers held close to the target in the stiff wind--which probably explained the bands of paint on the utility robot that guarded the humans. Converted mining cars sped by, filled with broken equipment and scrap metal, their beamed headlights illuminating the streets before them like roving mechanical fireflies. Once he took to the shadows as a whole squad of drones, accompanied by a supervisor robot he hadn't seen before, drove past in an open-bed equipment mover and passed his position without a look before disappearing around a distant corner. He thought about following them, but decided that he would continue exploring slowly at first, getting a feel for his world and its parameters.

  The questions in his mind seemed endless,and their answers only led to more questions. Who began Robot City, and why did the robots not know of their own origin? Why this place, this particular planet? Why a city of human proportions for a world of the nonhuman? Euler had called Robot City the perfect place for humans--why? The murder, to Derec, was nothing but a small nuisance with large complications. What really interested him was the motivation behind the city itself.

  The lousy food raised a great many further questions in his mind. Spacer robots were designed solely as mechanical helpmates to human masters. Spacer robots knew how human beings reacted to food. The robots here had basic human knowledge and the Laws of Robotics as their core, yet remained ignorant of specific, conditioned reactions to humans. It was almost as if their design had geared them toward an equal human partnership, rather than a master/servant relationship, and theywere feeling out their relationship with the animal called human. It was a dizzying concept to Derec, one that he'd also have to think out in greater detail.

  And, finally, the dead man. Where did he fit into the picture . . . and why? Derec's mind, being a blank slate, soaked up everything around him like a sponge, unhampered by the intrusion of past thoughts and feelings that muddied observation. His eye for detail missed nothing, especially the reaction of Katherine to hearing Euler say the man's name--David.

  What could it mean? He had literally stumbled upon Katherine, yet she seemed an indispensable part of the puzzle. What role did she play? Again, destiny seemed to rule the day--a place for everything, everything in its place. He was a blind man with a jigsaw puzzle, feeling his way through, groping sightlessly for the connections. He liked the girl, couldn't help it, and felt a strong physical attraction for her thathe wouldn't even try to wish away; yet he couldn't shake the feeling that she was deeply involved in covering up his real identity and purpose. And again, his eternal question--why?

  He continued moving down the street. Though the buildings were beautiful, they were nondescript, without markings of any kind. He recognized warehouses because parts were being moved in and out of them, but everything else seemed devoid of purpose. If he could find an official building, he could try to hook up to a terminal and make his own inquiries. The pyramid where he and Katherine had materialized, the place the robots called the Compass Tower, had seemed solid to him. Even though it appeared to be the point upon which all else hinged, he wasn't ready to go back to it yet.

  The robots on the street ignored him as he moved through their midst. There seemed to be a sense of urgency to them that he couldn'tunderstand. He stopped a utility robot like the one he had snuck past at the apartment, except this one had huge scoops for hands.

  "Can you talk?" he asked.

  "Yes, most assuredly," the robot answered.

  "I need to find the administration building."

  "I don't believe we have one here."

  "Where would I find the closest computer terminal?"

  "I regret that I cannot say."

  Derec sighed. The runaround. Again. "Why can't you say?"

  "If I told you that, you'd know everything."

  "Know everything about what?"

  "About the thing that I cannot talk about. If you'd like, you can stay here and I'll report to a supervisor and have him come out and find you."

  "No, thanks," Derec replied, and the robot turned to walk away. "Hey, what's your hurry?"

  "The rain," the utility said, pointing towardthe sky. "The rain is coming. You had better get to shelter." The robot turned and hurried off, his box-like body weaving from side to side as he rolled along.

  "What about the rain!?" Derec yelled, but his words were lost in a sudden gust of wind.

  He watched the figure of the robot for a moment, realizing that the street he had come down looked different than it had a moment before. The whole block, street and all, had seemed to shift positions, bowing out to curve what had once been straight. A tall, tetrahedral structure, which he had used as a reference point, had disappeared completely. Ten minutes on the street and he was totally lost.

  He pressed on, the wind colder now, more intense. If this was such a perfect world for humans, then why did the weather seem so bad?

  He reached an unmarked corner and found himself on the street he had ridden down earlierearlier, during the parade. It was extra wide, a large aqueduct bisecting it.

  He moved to the edge of the aqueduct and stared down at the dark, rushing waters that filled it no more than a quarter full. Where had the waters come from? Where were they going? Had Robot City been built here for the water, or was the water somehow a consequence of the building?

  The water rushed past, dark and inscrutable, much like the problem of Derec's past and, perhaps, his future. Yet he could know about the water. He could trace it to its source; he could follow it to its destination. He could know. The thought heartened him, for he could do the same with his life. Accepting that destiny and not chance had brought him to this impossible place, it then followed that the sources of that destiny could be traced through the city itself.

  If he pursued it properly, he could trace theorigins of the city and, hence, find his own origins. It seemed eminently logical, for he couldn't escape the concept that he and Robot City were inextricably linked, physically, emotionally, and, perhaps, metaphysically.

  If his searching came to naught, at least he'd be keeping himself, keeping his blank mind, occupied. He'd begin with the water--trace it through source and destination, find out the why of it. He'd work on the robots, finding out what they knew, what they didn't know, what they'd be willing to tell him, and what he could find out from them unwillingly. And there was Katherine. He'd have to treat her like a friendly adversary and use whatever limited wiles he had at his disposal to find out her place in all this.

  The water plopped below him, as if a large stone had been tossed in. He looked
around but saw nothing save the gently glowing buildingsbuildings and the distant robots hurrying about their secret business.

  The water plopped again, farther down the aqueduct, then again, near the last place. He turned to stare in that direction when his shoulder was splashed by a drop of icy water.

  A drop hardly described it. What hit him was more like a glassful. His jumpsuit sleeve was soaked, his shoulder cold. Water splashed on the street beside him, a drop bigger than a clenched fist, leaving a wet ring.

  Derec had about a second to appreciate what was happening, for his mind to begin to realize what a major storm could mean, when the deluge struck.

  With a force that nearly doubled him over, the rain fell upon Derec in opaque sheets that immediately cut off his field of vision. He was cold, freezing; the rain lashing him unmercifully, its sound a hollow roar in his ears.

  He used his arms to cover and protect hishead as the freezing downpour numbed his shoulders and back. He had to get to shelter quickly, but he had already lost his bearings in the curtain of water that surrounded him three-sixty.

  He tentatively put out a foot, hoping he was moving in the direction of the buildings across from the aqueduct. Were he to move in the wrong direction, he'd fall into the aqueduct and be lost in its flowing waters.

  Movement was slow as he felt his way, still doubled over, toward the buildings and safety. It seemed as if he should have reached them three times over--they couldn't have been more than ten meters distant--yet he hadn't gotten there yet. Could he have gotten turned the wrong way and simply be moving down the center of the street?

  Keeping his balance was getting more difficult. Water on the street was up to his ankles, moving rapidly against his direction. He losthis footing and went to his knee, but managed to rise again. His clothes were now soaked through, and hung like icicles from his body. Every step was a labor.

  "The perfect world," he muttered, a thin smile stretching his lips despite his predicament.

  Just as he was about to give up on his present direction and pick another one at random, the hulk of a building began to define itself in his vision. A few more treacherous steps and he was suddenly out of the rain, standing beneath a short awning that overhung the building front.