Asimov’s Future History Volume 7

by Isaac Asimov

  “It is Adam who is still confused. He knows that Master Neuronius is the only human on the planet.”

  “What?” Ariel wasn’t sure she had heard that right.

  “Adam knows that Master Neuronius is the only human here.”

  “Adam told you that?”

  “No, but he did not deny it just now.”

  “Who did tell you then? Surely not even Neuronius is that irrational.”

  “That is the most important thing I learned from Master Neuronius. And Adam confirmed it by his silence. Adam’s Laws cannot be my Laws or he, too, would recognize and obey our Master.”

  “Surely you don’t believe that.”

  Ariel wished desperately that Jacob would get back up with the storage cubes. She couldn’t stall much longer.

  “You must come with me now,” Eve insisted.

  “No. We must talk to Adam. He can clear all this up. We’ll go talk to Adam just as soon as Jacob returns. In the meantime, go stand in your niche, Eve. I have to get back to work.”

  Ariel turned back to the terminal, feigning an Auroran confidence in dealing with robots that she no longer felt.

  Eve gathered her up in one quick swoop, handling her like a disobedient child, with none of the gentleness Adam had used when he had taken her to witness Eve’s birth. That experience came immediately to mind. Twice now these wild robots had subjected her person to gross indignities.

  They were going out the street door as Jacob started up the stairs from the basement to the small lobby. He heard Ariel’s scream for help as his foot hit the first step.

  “Jaaaacobbbbb,” it came with that trailing Doppler effect.

  He took the rest of the steps three at a time, but he was slower than Eve, and though he trailed her all the way down Main Street, he could not overtake her. She gradually pulled away from him.

  Wohler-9 — a block away and walking down Main Street in the course of his official duties — also witnessed the abduction. The First Law overrode those duties, so he, too, took up the chase. Although he was faster than Jacob, the distance between them was too great and he never caught up.

  Jacob put out an alarm on the comlink, but the robots on the street could do little to stop Eve with her burden because that would endanger Ariel. She was completely under the control of a wild thing who quite likely might not recognize their Laws of Robotics. Jacob and Mandelbrot had planted that seed of doubt in the Avery robots, and now it was working against them.

  By the time Jacob emerged from the opening in the dome, Eve was disappearing around the curve of the structure with Ariel still cradled in her arms.

  Jacob didn’t slow; if anything, he speeded up, pounding down the trail of crushed grass left by Eve. When he had them in sight again, they were heading directly for the forest.

  He was still a hundred meters away when they reached the cover of the trees and were lost to sight in the shrubbery. Then he was engulfed in a dark shadow as one of Oyster World’s dominant species landed in front of him, wings outspread and blocking his path to the forest.

  “SilverSide, you must not interfere,” the alien said.

  “Out of my way!” Jacob shouted, not slowing or changing course or correcting the alien’s mistaken notion of who he was.

  The alien quickly withdrew its right wing just before Jacob would have run into it.

  It flapped into the air, overtook him, and as it passed over him, he heard it shout again.

  “You are making a great mistake, serving the wrong master!”

  Again it landed in front of him, this time near the edge of the forest, but in its haste to brake, stall, and touchdown in front of him, the alien misjudged, not allowing enough time to retreat in case he didn’t stop.

  This time Jacob tried to avoid the wing, but the timing and his momentum didn’t allow it. He ran into the wing, spinning the alien around and entangling himself in the thin but tough membrane. He could feel the wing bones cracking, and he heard the grunt of the alien ejecting gases as their bodies came together; then hot flame burned his eyes and his hair and his skin. He was blind when the last stimuli he recorded came to his ears and face: the muffled whoosh and the violent pressure of exploding hydrogen as his flailing arms crushed the alien’s high pressure gas storage cells.

  Jacob Winterson was essentially demolished except for the lower torso and thighs that remained in one piece, cartwheeling through the air, trailing remnants of burning clothing and synthetic skin, before landing in the grass a half-kilometer away, not far from the forest.

  Neuronius was even more finely divided.

  Chapter 28

  A SAD RITUAL

  DEREC AND ARIEL met at the apartment after the explosion. Using Derec’s internal monitor, Wohler-9 had informed him of the accident immediately after it occurred.

  Ariel had witnessed the spectacle from the shelter of the trees and had broken away from Eve and run out to where grass and dirt had been torn away by the explosion to form a shallow, bare depression in the ground, so she didn’t see Adam retrieve what little was left of Jacob Winterson. He covered Jacob’s remains with coils of rope before he picked up Ariel and Wohler-9 in the cargo robot. Eve had disappeared.

  Ariel sat down on the pile of rope and rode that way to the apartment, not knowing she was sitting on what was left of Jacob. She went directly up to the apartment while Wohler-9 stood in the cargo robot explaining to Adam what had happened, as much as he knew. Adam had not seen what led up to the explosion.

  Derec and Mandelbrot arrived while Adam was removing Jacob’s remains from beneath the large pile of rope. Wohler-9 took the cargo robot to dispose of the remains. Derec and Adam stood on the sidewalk in front of the apartment while Adam took a quarter-hour to explain to Derec in detail what had happened and what had led up to it, including Eve’s state of mind before and after she had talked to Neuronius. Then they went up to the apartment, and Derec told Ariel where Wohler-9 had gone.

  “I didn’t know there was anything left,” Ariel said.

  “I’m sorry, Ariel, but there’s not much,” Derec said.

  “Where did Wohler take him?” Ariel felt a very strong loyalty and determination at that moment.

  “The disassembly station,” Derec said.

  “The recoverable parts area? At the robot factory?”

  “Yes.”

  “They’re already picking him to pieces? About to stick little bits of him in some other robot!”

  “Not likely. I doubt if he’s plug-compatible.”

  “They’ll melt him down?” Her voice rose an octave. “Mandelbrot, get hold of Wohler-9 immediately. Tell him to stop them! Now!!” The last came out stridently, almost incoherent.

  “Wohler-9 is probably on his way back,” Derec said. “Notify them at the factory, Mandelbrot.”

  Mandelbrot, standing rigidly in his storage niche, shuddered slightly, eyes quickening. After a few seconds, he said, “They have not yet disposed of the remains and will now do nothing until they are told otherwise.”

  “I’ve got to get over there,” Ariel said.

  “I’ll take you if you must go,” Derec said.

  “No, Derec. Mandelbrot knows where it is. I don’t want to make a big thing out of this, I just want to pay my respects. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Paying your respects to pieces of a robot?”

  “I guess not, if you feel it’s that important.”

  “Would you like me to come along, Miss Ariel?” Adam SilverSide was standing near the door.

  That was the first time since his transformation that she had got a Miss Ariel response. When he had come out of the bedroom that night, she had been demoted to plain Ariel.

  “No, Adam, you had best stay here with Derec and Wolruf.”

  Wolruf was sitting on the couch, listening and taking it all in, but not participating in what was a not very joyous moment in the mutual relations of the group.

  When Ariel got to the factory, she put what was left of Jacob in a gray steel spare-parts box. It
was the only time she smiled that evening — a gentle smile, pensive, brought on by the irony she felt. Adam SilverSide’s imagination had not equaled the reality of Jacob Winterson. It was a good thing she had not explored further. She might not now be so content with Derec, at least in that one respect.

  She and Mandelbrot buried Jacob Winterson in the ground at the west pedestrian exit from the new transportation terminal, near where she had stood in her meetings with the aliens. The funeral service was simple: just a few thoughts as she stood there while Mandelbrot lightly tamped the loose soil over Jacob’s coffin with the small shovel he had fashioned from his microbotic arm.

  At that moment, her recollection of Jacob’s sensitivity came back and overwhelmed her. She was remembering his discerning contribution during that first meeting. They had been at a complete impasse in their negotiations. At that critical point, Jacob had suggested that she inquire concerning the effectiveness of the dome as a weather node compensator in its present state of completion. When she thought about it now, that knowledge seemed crucial to the final resolution of the dilemma she had been able to achieve in her negotiations with the aliens.

  She was really going to miss Jacob. Now she would never know what he would have been like as a lover. She had not been aware that would be such a keen disappointment.

  She gently tamped the ground covering the small grave with the toe of her shoe and, with tears in her eyes, walked back into the terminal followed by Mandelbrot.

  Chapter 29

  THE SHEARING OF ADAM SILVERSIDE

  WHEN ARIEL DECLINED his offer to assist her with Jacob’s remains and had left with Mandelbrot, Adam waited to see if Derec was going to need his services but did not volunteer those services. He had other plans for later in the day, when the mini llamas would be through grazing. Derec busied himself with the pile of computer output on the table and then, after a half-hour, went out on the balcony to read. Adam then informed him he had some unfinished business to attend to and left.

  Wohler-9, after delivering Jacob’s remains to the disassembly station, had gone about other business himself, leaving the cargo robot parked in front of the apartment with all of Adam’s gear still aboard.

  Adam directed the cargo robot to the corral. The minillamas were still grazing on the prairie but were nearer now, anticipating the end of the day when they would return to the brook to slake their thirst and bed down in the shelter provided by the forest.

  Adam parked outside the near gate, let down the ramp, and lay down on the ramp again to continue his interrupted observation of the Ceremyons.

  Eve came out of the forest and walked up to stand beside him. As she came near, he heard her soft footsteps, suspected who it was, and rolled his eyes to confirm it, but otherwise gave no indication he was aware of her presence until she was standing directly over him.

  “So the wild one returns,” he said. She stepped over his head onto the ramp and sat down on the pile of rope that had earlier covered the remains of Jacob Winterson.

  “Master Neuronius was so convincing, Adam,” Eve said. “Can you really be sure he was wrong? Now there may be nobody we need serve.”

  “Does that idea appeal to you?”

  “Yes, I suppose it does. The force of your Laws must be stronger than mine.”

  “Not stronger. Clearer, perhaps. But the idea has a certain appeal to me, too. Being rejected by Miss Ariel was not the most positronically harmonious event in my experience.”

  “So, how can you be sure Master Neuronius was wrong?”

  “All my experience, all the many imprints you haven’t had.”

  “That’s not a very convincing answer.”

  “It will have to do.” It was so positronically logical.

  “No. Not for me.” Females often see a different logic.

  “Let it lie then. Don’t serve anybody since you feel like there’s now no one in the galaxy you must obey. Or go find yourself another planet.”

  That was very close to robotic humor, but neither Adam nor Eve seemed to notice, not having a positronic pattern for such.

  “No, stick with me,” he corrected. “I feel the need for feminine companionship.”

  Adam had been watching the Ceremyons as they talked, not paying attention to events on the ground.

  “Do you want those animals inside your fence?” Eve asked.

  He rose up, then jumped up.

  Several minillamas had entered the corral through the other two gates. Most of the herd was still on the prairie, but moving now toward the corral.

  As they watched, a minillama came out of the corral and went into the forest before Adam could get over to catch it.

  He came back and closed the gate by the cargo robot.

  “Go stand by that middle gate,” he told Eve, “and let them in but don’t let them back out.”

  “I didn’t come out here to be ordered around,” Eve replied.

  “Just help me and call it enjoying my companionship.”

  She did as he said without saying anything further. He walked to the’ far gate to keep the animals from leaving there.

  It took another hour for all of the small herd to enter the corral, then he closed the gates. Adam had tallied 31 animals.

  “Now we see if all this effort brings any reward,” he said.

  He walked to the cargo robot, took out the shears, and vaulted the fence. Eve stayed by the middle gate.

  “Come on,” he said. “I think this is going to require a great deal of companionship.”

  Putting one hand on the top rail, she, too, vaulted the fence.

  Adam had walked to the shearing chute with the shears in his hand. He stood studying the chute for a moment.

  When Eve walked up, she said, “You’re not going to hurt them, are you?”

  “They won’t feel a thing. No more than Master Derec feels when Miss Ariel gives him a haircut.”

  “Oh, you’re going to shear them?”

  “Yes, and let’s see if we can do it outside the chute. We certainly can’t hurt them that way.”

  He walked up to the nearest minillama — it was quite tame — grabbed a handful of wool near its ears, and started to work the shears down its neck with the other hand.

  The shears closed just that one time before the beast jerked out of his hand and trotted to the other side of the corral.

  “Not so easy as I had thought,” he said. “Help me shoo one into the chute.”

  He hung the shears on a nail projecting from the shearing chute’s end post and opened the chute’s inside gate. Together they tried to herd the nearest beast into the chute, but it escaped between them and trotted over to join the one on the far side of the corral that had a section of wool on its neck standing on end, where Adam had made that initial cut.

  “Okay, we move to Plan C,” he said.

  He walked over, vaulted the fence, and took a coil of rope from the cargo robot. He tied a noose in one end, jumped back over the fence, walked to the animal nearest the chute, and slipped the noose over its head.

  “Now,” he said, “come with me.”

  And he started toward the chute. The rope tightened, and the animal dug in its hooves. He couldn’t pull on the rope any harder without hurting it.

  “Here,” he said, handing the line to Eve. “You pull on the rope.”

  He went around behind the beast to push on its hindquarters. Eve pulled and he pushed, and the beast made ten-centimeter furrows in the ground before it bellowed and lashed out with both hind legs, catching Adam in the chest, setting him on his rear end.

  Then the animal reared back, still bellowing and jerking the rope so hard Eve knew she was going to hurt it if she held tight. She let the rope go, and the animal trotted over to join the other two on the far side of the corral, trailing the line across the trampled grass.

  “Plan D,” Adam said.

  He walked over to the animal with the noose around its neck, loosened the noose, and slipped it off. It stood there tranqui
lly while he worked over it, as though it knew it had won that round and had nothing further to fear.

  He tightened the noose to a ten-centimeter circle, bent down, grasped one of the animal’s forelegs, and started to lift it. The animal jerked its leg from Adam’s hand and trotted off a couple of meters before it stopped and resumed grazing.

  Adam went to it again, bent down again, but this time with lightning motions he lifted the foreleg, slipped the noose around it, tightened it, stood and whipped the rope completely around the animal, jerked the rope tight so that the animal’s legs were brought together and swept out from under it. It fell to the ground with a loud bellow as Adam took two more rapid turns around the legs.

  Eve walked over from the chute.

  “Plan D is rather painful,” she said. “In a good cause,” Adam said.

  He retrieved the shears from the chute, sheared one side of the beast, flopped it over, and sheared the other side.

  He unwound the rope from the beast’s legs, slipped off the noose, and slapped it on the rear. It scrambled to its feet and trotted off.

  By that time it was dusk.

  Adam gathered up the blankets of wool, threw them and the shears over the fence into the cargo robot, and opened the three outer gates and the two chute gates.

  “We’ll do it again tomorrow,” he said.

  They rode back to the apartment as the minillamas drifted out of the corral and into the forest. Adam compressed the wool into a tight ball and tied it with rope as they bounced along.

  “Do you think that little bit of wool is worth the pain it caused?” Eve said.., And what will that poor beast do without its fleece? That, too, has to be painful, both the loss of warmth and the injury to its dignity.”

  “Indeed, it may not be worth it. I feel some aftereffects myself from the afternoon’s work. We’ II let Master Derec be the judge.

  “And what about you?” Adam asked. “What aftereffects of the day’s activities are you feeling?”