Robot City 1 & 2

by Isaac Asimov

  "Euler!" Derec called, the robot jerking to the sound of his name.

  "It is too dangerous for you here!" Eulercalled back, waving him away. "We have no safety controls over this area!"

  "I'll only stay a centad," Derec said, moving up close to him. He could look past the end of the last slab and see the dark waters churning the top of the pool. In the distance, all around the reservoir, he could see the same operation being repeated by other crews.

  "What are you doing here?" Euler asked him.

  "I had to see for myself," Derec answered. "I knew the levels were rising. Why don't you stop the building pace and let these waters recede?"

  "I can't tell you why," Euler said.

  "But what happens when this overflows?"

  "We lose the treatment plant," Euler said, holding his pincers up to signify to the arm to stop moving the slab. Then he motioned toward the ground, the arm bringing the slab down very slowly. "We lose much of our miningmining operations. We lose a great many miners. We will have failed."

  "Then stop the building!"

  "We can't!"

  Just then, a utility robot working the slab was bumped slightly by the moving metal and lost its footing on the wet floor. Soundlessly and without drama, it slipped from the edge of the pool and fell into the dark waters, disappearing immediately.

  Everything stopped.

  Euler pushed past Derec to hurry to the water's edge, where he stood, head down, watching. The rest of the crew did the same, lining up quietly beside the water. Derec moved to join Euler.

  "I'm sorry," he said.

  Euler slowly turned his head to look at the boy, not saying anything for a long time. "I should have paid more attention," he said.

  "How deep is the water?" Derec asked."Very deep," Euler replied. "I was talking with you and didn't give the job my complete attention."

  "Can it be saved?"

  "Had there been more time," Euler said, "the job would have been studied for safety and feasibility and this wouldn't have happened. Had I known better, I wouldn't have allowed you to come so close. A robot is lost, and the supervisor is to blame."

  "There was nothing you could have done," Derec said.

  "A robot is dead today," Euler told him. "I will not answer any more of your questions right now."

  CHAPTER 6

  THE TUNNELS

  "If the city keeps moving," Katherine asked, "how can you take me to the location of the murder?"

  "Triangulation," Eve, the witness, said. "Using the Compass Tower as one point and the exact position of the sun at a given time as another point, my sensors are able to triangulate the position where I first witnessed the body. The time is the only real factor at this point. We must gauge the sun in exactly 13.24 decads to get the position right."

  They were walking through the city, Katherine feeling a mixture of fear and exuberanceat her first solo trip outside. They were walking high up, above many of the buildings, bridges between structures seemingly growing for her to walk across, then melting away after her passage. Eve apparently needed the height in order to take the precise measurements.

  Katherine was angry at Derec for his lack of interest in their predicament, but she knew him well enough to know how stubborn he could be. She, in fact, knew him far better than he knew himself, and that was maddening. They were caught in a web of intrigue that existed on a massive level, and as long as she was trapped there, she had to play the situation with as much control as she could muster. And that included not telling Derec any more about his life than he could figure out for himself. Her own existence was at stake, and until she could escape the maze that had locked up their activities, she desperately feared saying anything more.She had to get away from Robot City. The pain had increased since her arrival here, and, for the first time in her life, death was a topic she found herself dwelling upon.

  And her only crime was love.

  She felt the tears begin to well up and fought them back with an iron will. They wouldn't help her here. Nothing would, except her own tenacity and intelligence.

  "Tell me about your involvement in David's death," she asked Eve, who was busy calibrating against the sun.

  "In approximately two decads," the robot said, "it will have happened exactly nine days ago. We go down from here."

  Eve moved directly to the corner of the six-story structure they were standing upon, and railed stairs formed for them to walk down. As they descended, the robot continued talking.

  "I was called upon to witness the attempts to free Friend David from an enclosed room.""An enclosed room?" Katherine said. "I've never heard about this. How could he get trapped like that in this place?"

  "The room grew around him." Eve said. They reached street level and the robot headed west, away from the Compass Tower. "It sealed him in and wouldn't let him leave."

  "Why?"

  "I do not know."

  "Does anyone know?"

  "I do not know."

  "All right," Katherine said, watching a team of robots carry what looked to be gymnasium equipment into one of the buildings. "Just report what you saw."

  "Gladly. I was called upon to witness the attempt to free Friend David from the sealed room. When I arrived, Supervisor Dante was already on the scene . . . "The robot stopped moving and for several seconds stared up into the sun. "Precisely here." Eve pointed to a sectionsection of the street. "Friend David was caught inside the structure and we could hear him shouting to be let out."

  "Who?"

  "Myself, Supervisor Dante, a utility robot with a torch, and another household utility robot who first discovered Friend David's problem."

  "What happened then?"

  "Then Supervisor Dante asked Utility Robot #237-5 if the laser torch was safe to use in such close proximity to a human being, and Utility Robot #237-5 assured him that it was. At that point, Supervisor Dante tried to reason with the room to release Friend David, and failing that, he requested that the room be cut into with the torch."

  "And that request was complied with?"

  "Yes. Supervisor Dante, in fact, asked Utility Robot #237-5 to complete the project quickly."

  "Why?""I do not know."

  Katherine thought about the nature of the witness and asked another question. "Were there any other events that coincided with this event?"

  "Yes," Eve said. "Food Services complained that Friend David could not be served lunch on time and inquired if that would be dangerous to his health; several of the supervisors were meeting in the Compass Tower to discuss ways in which Friend David might have come to the city without their knowledge; and the city itself was put on general security alert."

  "Does a general security alert alter the way in which functions are performed?" she asked.

  "Yes. We were all called to other emergency duties, and were here only because of the danger to Friend David and the need to release him."

  "Which you did."

  "Not me," Eve said. "I only witnessed. ButFriend David was freed from the enclosed room."

  "Did you notice anything odd at that point?"

  "Odd? Friend Katherine, I can only . . . "

  "I know," she interrupted, a touch frustrated. "You only witness. Then tell me exactly what happened."

  "Supervisor Dante asked Friend David to return to his apartment because a security alert had been called. Friend David said that he was not ready to return to his apartment, that he had business to do. Then he complained of a headache. Then he started laughing and walked away. Utility Robot #237-5 then asked Supervisor Dante if Friend David should be apprehended, and Supervisor Dante said he had weighed the priorities and had decided that the security alert took precedence and ordered us to proceed to our emergency duties, which, in my case, involved witnessing somethingsomething that I am not at liberty to discuss with you."

  "Then what?" Katherine asked, anxious.

  "Then I performed the security duty that I had been assigned."

  "No, no," Katherine said. "Wha
t happened then in regard to David?"

  "Approximately nine decads later, I was again called upon." Eve began moving quickly down the street, Katherine right behind, having to run to keep up. "I am taking you to the approximate place of the second incident," the robot called from a speaker set in the back of its dome. "I was called here, along with Supervisor Euler this time, by Utility Robot #716-14, who had discovered several waste control robots trying to take the body of Friend David away."

  Eve moved quickly around a corner, then stopped abruptly, Katherine nearly running into the robot."Here," Eve said, "is the approximate place where the body was alleged to have fallen."

  "Alleged?"

  "It was no longer here upon my arrival."

  "What story did the utility robot tell?"

  "Utility Robot #716-14 said that he sent the waste control robots away, then examined Friend David for signs of life without success. During the course of the examination another room began to grow around the body and enclose it, at which point Utility Robot #716-14 removed himself before becoming trapped, and put in an emergency call to us. We returned to the scene together, but the body was gone. That is the last time anyone has seen Friend David."

  "Were there signs of violence on the body?"

  "Utility Robot #716-14 reported that the body appeared perfectly normal except for a small cut on the left foot. Since I can only report hearsay in this regard, I am unable torender this as an accurate examination."

  Katherine leaned against the wall of a one-story parts depot, the wall giving slightly under her pressure. It seemed more than coincidence that David's plight in the sealed room and the alert conditions of the city happened concurrently--but how were they connected?

  "Do you feel, then, that the body moved simply because the city moved it?" she asked.

  "I cannot speculate on such a theory," the witness said, "but I heard Supervisor Euler make a pronouncement similar to yours--hearsay again."

  "Given the growth rate of the city," Katherine said, "calculate how far and in what direction the body of David could have traveled if, indeed, the movement of the city took him from this place."

  "Approximately ten and one-half blocks," Eve said without hesitation, "in any direction.The city works according to a plan that is not known to me."

  "Ten and a half blocks," Katherine said low. "Well, it'll sure give me something to do to fill in the time." She looked at Eve's bristling dome. "Let's take a walk."

  "That is your decision," the robot replied, as Katherine picked a direction at random and began walking, looking for what, she didn't know.

  ACCESS DENIED was written in bold letters across the CRT, and it was a phrase Derec had run into over a dozen times in as many minutes.

  He stood at a small counter set beside a large, open window. Through the billowing clouds of iron-red dust floating into the sky, he could see the long line of earthmovers inching their way along the rocky ground, the teeth of their heavy front diggers easily chewing up theground to a depth of 70 centimeters, then laying out the mulch in a flat, even plain behind, holes filling, rises falling, the ground absolutely uniform behind. A series of heavy rollers completed the unique vehicles, packing the ground hard for the slab base of the city to push its way into that section as it was completed.

  After leaving the reservoir and its tragedy behind, he had asked Rec to take him to the edge of the city. He had wanted to see for himself the creation of the cloud dust and also to try and find access to a terminal far out of the reach of the supervisors. The robot had been hesitant at first, but after Derec had assured him that he'd go no farther than city's edge, Rec had readily agreed.

  But now that he was here, Derec resented the time it had taken to come this far out. The terminal had been a complete bust. He'd found himself able to access any amount of information when it came to this part of thecity operation: troubleshooting info, repair info, time references, equipment specs, personnel delineation, and SOPs of all kinds; but beyond that, access was impossible.

  He had tried various methods of obtaining passwords, but it seemed he was stymied before he got started. He came away with the impression that once the city was on alert, terminals became place-oriented, only able to pick up specific data as it related to their possible function in a given location. He found this difficult to believe, for if the robots were in total charge of access and passwords it belied the nature of their "perfect human world." It struck him that access would have to be humanly possible for very basic philosophical reasons.

  But not here; not at this terminal.

  So, where did that leave him? The rains still came, with or without his presence; the central core was still denied to him, and with it anyanswers it might possess; he was still a prisoner (a fact he did take seriously, despite Katherine's feelings); and he still knew nothing about his origins or reasons for being in Robot City.

  That thought returned him to the basics. When he had visited the Compass Tower, Avernus had been pointed out as the first supervisor robot, the one that had initiated the construction of the other supervisors. Derec had been successful in determining the origin and destination of the water; now he would work on the origin of the city itself. The only place to start was with Avernus and the underground. The mining was needed to produce the raw materials to build the city. Everything else sprang from that foundation. He would go to the source--to Avernus.

  He shut down the useless terminal and walked out of the otherwise bare room to find Rec intently studying the rising dust clouds, taking readings. It was his obsession."I want to go into the mines and speak with Avernus," he told the robot. "Is that acceptable?"

  "I will take you to the mines, Friend Derec," Rec answered, "but from that point on, the decision will belong to Avernus."

  "Fair enough," Derec said, and prepared for another long walk. Then he spotted one of the trams parked near the excavation and walked toward it. "Let's ride this time."

  "We were not given this machine," Rec said. "It is not ours to take."

  "Were you told not to let me take the machine?" Derec countered.

  "No, but . . . "

  "Then let's go."

  Derec jumped in the front, but saw no controls with which to drive it. He knew that this was probably the means by which the robots working the movers got here, but the witness was unable to make that speculation and consequentlyconsequently folded up. "How does it work?"

  "You speak your destination into the microphone," Rec said.

  "The underground," Derec said, then shrugged at Rec. Within seconds, the car lurched forward and moved speedily away from the digs.

  They traveled quickly, moving through an entire section full of nothing but robot production facilities that were running full tilt, furiously trying to keep up with the record-setting building pace. As the number of buildings increased, so, too, did the number of robots to service those buildings and the people who didn't live in them. They passed vehicle after vehicle jammed full of new, functionally designed robots who stared all around, seeing their world for the first time.

  They also passed other small forests and what seemed to be large sections of hydroponic greenhouses, for when large-scale foodproduction became a reality. Then they whizzed past a large, open area that seemed to serve no function.

  "What's that?" Derec asked.

  "Nothing," Rec answered.

  "I don't mean now," Derec said. "What's it going to be?"

  "I do not often deal in potential," the robot replied, several red lights on his dome blinking madly, "but I recall Supervisor Euler once referring to this place as a future spaceport."

  Derec was a bit taken aback. Robot City was absolutely unable to deal with incoming or outgoing ships in any form. It led him down another avenue.

  "If the spaceport hasn't been constructed yet," he said, "where do you keep your hyperwave transmitters?"

  He asked the question casually, knowing full well that Rec would undoubtedly tell him the information was classified;
but he was totallyunprepared for the answer he received.

  "I do not know what a hyperwave transmitter is," the robot replied.

  "A device designed for communication over long distances in space," Derec said. "Perhaps you call it something else."

  "I have witnessed nothing designed to communicate beyond our atmosphere," Rec answered.

  "You don't send and receive information from off-planet?"

  "I know of no such instance," Rec replied. "We are self-contained here."

  The tram jerked to a stop, jerking Derec's thoughts along with it. Somehow, it had never occurred to him that they really were trapped on this planet. The Key and its proper use suddenly became of paramount importance to him.

  "We have arrived, Friend Derec," Rec said.

  "So we have," Derec replied, getting slowlyout of the car. What was going on here? Who created this place? And why? It was a pristine civilization removed from contact with anything beyond itself, yet its Spacer roots were obvious. Could David, the dead man, have been the creator?

  He walked past the lines of robots carrying their damaged equipment, past the huge extruder and its never-ending ribbon of city, and stood at the entrance to the underground. He turned to see Rec standing beside him.

  "Find Avernus," he said. "Tell him I want to speak with him. I don't want to break protocol by going somewhere off-limits to humans."

  "Yes, Friend Derec," the robot answered and moved aside to commune with its net of radio communications.

  Derec sat on the ground beside the doorway and watched the robots walking back and forth past him. He was beginning to feel like a useless appendage with nothing to do. He feltguilty even ordering the robots around; they had more important things to do.

  He glanced at his watch. It was two in the afternoon, and soon they'd be approaching another night of rain, another useless night of speculation as the water level rose higher and higher. "We will have failed," Euler had said, and in that sentence the robot had spoken volumes. Like Derec, the supervisor knew that Robot City was a test, a test designed for all of then. If Euler and the others were unable to solve the problem of the rain, they would have failed in their attempt to build a workable world. He also knew that the salvation of this world would take a creative form of thought that most people felt robots incapable of. Perhaps that's where Derec fit in. Synnoetics, they had called it, the whole greater than the sum of the parts. For that to take place, Derec would have to begin by convincing the robotsthey had to confide in him despite their security measures.