Asimov’s Future History Volume 7

by Isaac Asimov

  “What was that?” she said, her words muffled.

  “I don’t know. Whatever they are, they shouldn’t be there. There are no animals indigenous to Robot City, and I know I’ve made no allowance for any kind of animal life here. I’m not sure I even like animals, especially small ones.”

  “Maybe they weren’t on the planet when the robots arrived. Maybe they were underground. Maybe they’ve come to the surface from the bowels of the planet. They might have gotten, I don’t know, stirred up while the robots were building the city and have been slipping out under those construction slabs.” The slabs Ariel referred to were the five-meter-square pieces of iron/plastic alloy that emerged from a machine called the Extruder. “Maybe they were already —”

  “Calm down. I’ve examined all preliminary studies of this planet, the ones done before the city-forming project began. The place was barren, no animal life evident anywhere. So they’re not likely to have come up from the underground or —”

  “How about from space then? They landed in a spaceship while we were gone, and now they’re hiding out until they know what to do about us.”

  Derec frowned and broke from the embrace. “You might have something there. I’ll have to check records. Even better, we can interrogate robots. After all, they can’t lie to us.”

  As if in response to his comment, a robot came whirling around a nearby corner. Both Derec and Ariel were astonished by this figure, since whirling was indeed the correct word for its current maneuver. It moved as if on roller skates, balletically spinning with its arms outspread. Before reaching them, it executed a lovely twirl on its left leg alone, with its right leg pointing elegantly backward.

  “Stop!” Derec ordered it. It had brought its right leg down and seemed ready for another move, but Derec’s order brought it to a halt. Its body appeared to collapse a bit, and it slumped ungracefully. “Come here!”

  When the robot stood in front of him, Derec asked, “Your name?”

  There was no response, which irritated Derec. “Come on, every robot has a name.”

  “Except during a name-changing period,” the robot said. “I have not chosen my new name yet, and so am without a name for the moment. I was considering renaming myself Timestep.”

  “Timestep? What kind of name is that? Does it indicate a function or role? As a name it is against regulations.”

  “There are regulations about names?”

  Derec didn’t know the answer to that, so he said, “Never mind. Tell me, you said new name. That means you must have an old one. What is it?”

  “Line Foreman 43.”

  “Have we met before, Line Foreman 43?” The robot did not respond, but merely stood with the blank face and relaxed body that was the look of robots when they conversed with humans. “Why don’t you answer me, Line Foreman 43?”

  “Are you talking to me, sir?”

  “Didn’t I call you Line Foreman 43?”

  “You may have indeed. But that is not my name.”

  “You said it was.”

  “It was, once. It is not now. I do not respond to it.”

  “All right then. You, there, the robot standing in front of me, have we ever met before?”

  “Not formally, but I know you are Derec. This is the first time you have ever spoken to me.”

  “Why were you dancing just now?”

  “I don’t know. It just felt good.”

  “You have a feeling about dancing?”

  “I think perhaps. It is also perhaps a positronic anomaly.”

  “There are enough anomalies around here without me having to worry about positronic ones. Robot, you might be in some way programmed, or reprogrammed, to dance, but I doubt you have a feeling for it.”

  “My partner says I do. My partner says I am a very smooth dancer.”

  “I’ll bet you are.”

  Derec felt as if he wanted to yell uncontrollably at this too-clever, evasive robot. Ariel squeezed his hand and said softly, “Let me talk to him for a moment. Robot, have you no duties at this moment?”

  “Duties? Yes, I suppose so.”

  “You suppose so? A robot doesn’t suppose when it comes to duty. You either have one or you don’t.”

  “Well, yes, I have a job that I do.”

  “Why aren’t you doing it then?”

  “I had not realized I had stopped doing the job.”

  “You had not —”

  Ariel’s anger was clear, so Derec, calmer now, took over again.

  “You mentioned a partner. Where is your partner now?”

  “I don’t know. We agreed it was time for me to go solo. Want to see my soft shoe?”

  “No. I give up. Ariel, this is worse than arguing with a robot about one of those odd hypothetical cases where a Law of Robotics can’t be easily invoked.”

  “I know what you mean,” she said, nodding. “Let’s try another tack. Robot, there are some terribly strange beings in that building over there. Do you know anything about them?”

  The robot’s head jerked toward the warehouse. “I know nothing of any strange beings,” he said.

  Ariel shrugged.

  “Wait,” Derec said, “it might be the word strange not registering with him. They might not be strange to him. Let me try. Robot, are there any beings at all in there?”

  “I could not say for certain, for I have never entered that building.”

  “Let me put it this way. Have any new beings of any kind, humans, robots, aliens, entered the environs of Robot City?”

  “Yes, besides you, three new robots and an alien came today. The alien and two of the robots have been here before.”

  “He must mean Wolruf and the others,” Ariel commented.

  “Besides them, and us, has anyone new come to Robot City at any recent time?”

  “That sounds properly phrased, all right,” Ariel whispered.

  “Yes,” the robot said.

  Derec stared at the robot for a long while, expecting him to say more. Frustrated, he finally asked, “Well? Tell me about our newcomer.”

  “I may not.”

  “What?”

  “I am not allowed to. A block has been entered for that particular information.”

  “A block! How could there be a block for me? I am Derec Avery!”

  Derec realized that he was sounding overbearing, but he couldn’t help it. This robot got on his nerves.

  “While it is true that you are Derec Avery, and I owe you the kind of loyalty that would remove such a block, I cannot. There is a further block upon the first block.”

  Derec shook his head vigorously, trying to clear it. “What do you mean, blocks on blocks?”

  “If the first block is removed, the one preventing me from revealing the information you request — and Second Law tells me such blocks may be removed by you or, for that matter, Ariel Welsh or Dr. Avery — a second block wipes out the information before I can voice it. Therefore, if I obey you now and attempt to tell you what I know, then I will not know it anymore. Consequently, I will not be able to tell you. Because Third Law requires me to protect myself, and by extension any vital information I hold, I have to try my best not to allow such a situation to come to pass, and must respectfully request that you interrogate me no further on this matter.”

  As the robot awaited Derec’s response, he executed a few mild soft-shoe steps. His arms appeared to throw imaginary sand onto the ground.

  Derec wondered if what the dancing robot said was true. He had often told robots to forget specific information but had often wondered if they really did. Perhaps the data would not be erased but instead skillfully diverted from one positronic pathway to another, leaving it hidden rather than eliminated. It was possible he could find a way of getting such data out.

  “I will interrogate you as long as I wish,” Derec said coolly. “In fact, I am so angry I don’t give a hoot what happens to you or your information. Robot, I —”

  “Timestep. I have decided on that as my nam
e. It has a nice ring, don’t you think?”

  As if to prove how wonderful a name it was for him, Timestep tapped out a quick and intricate hard-tap routine with his feet. Since the feet were made of metal, their taps were louder and more resonant than the average human tap dancer could achieve. There was an inappropriate look to it all, especially since he waved his arms like a clumsy man falling.

  “Timestep, I order you now to tell me the answer to the question I asked before. Inform me of any newcomers to Robot City whose identity has been previously blocked.”

  The dancing stopped, but Timestep said nothing.

  “Well?” Derec asked.

  “Well, what, sir?”

  “Give me the answer.”

  “The answer to what?”

  “My question.”

  “I don’t know the answer to your question.”

  “The information has been destroyed then?”

  “I don’t know the answer to your question.”

  “Timestep, do you recall once having the answer in your memory banks?”

  “No, I do not. I know nothing about any newcomers to the city except for yourselves and your companions.”

  Derec made a quick gesture with his hand, the dismissive one that most humans used for robots. “You may go, Timestep.”

  “Thank you, Master Derec. And, please, look for the silver lining.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I don’t really know, sir.”

  Timestep danced off. When he was going forward, his movements and dance steps were more precise and graceful. Before he rounded a corner, he twirled around a high pole with a round old-fashioned lamp at the top. Derec did not recall the pole being there when they had arrived at the corner moments ago. He had to admit that the height at which Timestep twirled around it was quite impressive.

  “What are you smiling about?” he asked Ariel.

  “I’m not sure. I liked that robot, I guess. I hadn’t realized how much I missed some entertainment. When we first arrived here, we watched entertainment tapes, and they were pretty sad. I knew they couldn’t take me away from my worries then, but, to tell the truth, I wouldn’t mind viewing some of them again now. I mean, we’ve been so busy lately, I haven’t had much time to relax. You know, just relax and watch something, no matter how trivial. I’d really like to see Timestep’s whole act.”

  Derec wondered if he could just curl up someplace and concentrate on a book or a hyperwave program. His mind always seemed to be stuffed with responsibility, work, research — all the problems that came with the territory in Robot City, any Robot City.

  “I think Timestep could use a dance teacher,” was his only comment.

  “Really? I thought his moves were pretty good, especially for a robot. Maybe we could arrange a little recital for him.”

  “Ariel —”

  “Sorry, sorry. Only trying to cheer you up.”

  “Can’t work up much cheer when the place seems to be falling apart.”.

  “Best time for it. Anyway, it’s not all that bad here. A dancing robot, some pests in a warehouse, a few things out of order, your strange intuitive feelings...”

  “That’s just it, you know? My intuitions. They’re one of the side-effects of the chemfets. I know when something’s wrong here. And something is definitely wrong.”

  “Like something is wrong in Denmark, wherever that was.”

  “‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,’ “Derec corrected. The line came from the fairly rotten production of Hamlet that he had staged (while playing the leading role to Ariel’s Ophelia) with an all-robot supporting cast.

  “What’s really rotten is your mood,” Ariel said. “I thought you were going to lighten up.”

  Her words, spoken so softly, soothed him. Ariel could be the cleverest, most sarcastic person in the universe, especially when she got her dander up, but she often knew the moment when a quietly spoken phrase was the right tactic. He took her into his arms.

  “Oh, Ariel, it’s just — just that I’m never sure. I still remember so little of my life that I feel like I’m Hamlet.”

  “Isn’t that just a carryover from having played the role?”

  “Maybe. But I do relate to the character. I’m alone —”

  “Hey, you’ve got me.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way. I mean that I have to be in charge of this city.”

  “There’s a saying somewhere about its being lonely at the top.”

  “Something like that. I’m never sure what I do is right. My father didn’t really tell me how to take care of things. Just made me leader and took off. I don’t know who my mother is. I don’t really know what my mission is. Stuff like that. They’re not the same as Hamlet’s, but they’re similar uncertainties.”

  “Maybe what destroyed Hamlet is he thought too much about what he was doing. Like you’re doing now. Snap out of it, my love. You’re not Hamlet. If anything, you’re a hero, a man of action rather than a procrastinator. These, what you call uncertainties, are only human reactions to, well, the uncertainty of existence.”

  Derec laughed. “Now you’re getting too heavy.”

  “I have been putting on a bit of weight. Ever since falling in love with you, my love. So let’s get moving. I need the exercise, and you need some work to get the glooms out of your head.”

  “It’s a deal. You know what we have to do? Find Avernus, Dante, Rydberg, Euler, all the other Supervisor robots who link up to the computer. They must know what’s going on around here. And we can hack through the computer itself, see if we can come up with something.”

  “Okay, buddy.”

  Holding hands, they started in the direction of the Compass Tower. After they’d walked a few steps, two humanoid robots came running by. They were tossing around a large metal sphere, perhaps an oversized ball bearing from somewhere. The sphere went back and forth between them. From their speaker grilles came a continuous outpouring of satisfied sounds.

  “What was that?” Derec said after they had passed. He would have stopped to interview them, but he had been too amazed at the sight to think of any logical action.

  “They seem to be playing some sort of game.”

  “Game? Robots playing games?”

  “Odd, I agree. Kinda cute, though. I never thought much about robots having fun.”

  “I’m not sure robots are supposed to have fun.”

  “Don’t be a spoilsport.”

  “Maybe I’m jealous. I wouldn’t mind having the time to throw a ball around.”

  “Well, we could join in. But, from the size and apparent weight of that ball, I think one catch’d flatten either one of us. I know what you mean, though. I’d like to return to Aurora and hike across a few fields, or just lie about and enjoy a rigorously enforced lethargy.”

  “Still, that game there is just another anomaly for us to consider. Why aren’t they occupied with their duties? Who could have told all these robots to take time off to dance and play ball?”

  “Maybe we’re just not used to them having time off.”

  “No, it’s more than that. Robots don’t have time off. Whenever they’re not doing something, they just stand there. On Aurora, you people store them in those wall-niches. And why in blazes would any robots ever play games? And, if a robot is playing a game like that and making happy sounds, does that mean it’s having fun? Is there any way it could feel the sensation of —”

  “Stop! I’m not up to one those positronic conundrums right now. You can be terribly single-minded, darling.”

  “And you love me for it.”

  “Only when I’m what you’re single-minded about.”

  They stopped walking for a moment to kiss. A robot passing by whistled: Unused to such rude behavior from a robot, Derec angrily broke from the embrace and ran up to the whistler, ordering it to halt. It stood, awaiting Derec’s words.

  “Did you whistle just now?”

  “Yes. You know how to whistle, don�
��t you? You just pucker up your lips and blow.”

  “I know how to whistle. But how do you know? You don’t even have lips to pucker up.”

  “A technicality. I can reproduce any human sound using my mimicry integrals.”

  “You have mimicry integrals?”

  “I do now.”

  “You didn’t once?”

  “Until recently, I didn’t.”

  “And you can copy human sounds?”

  “Name one, kid. Please.”

  “You shouldn’t call me kid.”

  “I was not aware of that. I call everyone kid.”

  “Well, not me. And why aren’t you answering my questions?”

  “I don’t cotton to the third degree, copper.”

  “Kid, cotton, copper? You’re using slang, aren’t you?”

  “You ain’t just a kiddin’, kid.”

  “Where did you learn slang?”

  “Same place I learned whistling.”

  “And you never told me that. Okay, start back at the beginning. Where did you learn to whistle?”

  “I saw it in a movie.”

  “A movie? You watch movies? How is that possible?”

  “There are many stored in the Compass Tower, pal. They are for research. We must study humans to understand them, kiddo. And there ain’t been many o’ you fellas around Robot City, so how else can we study you? We obtain the movies from the computer’s entertainment system.”

  “Is that what’s going on here then? You robots’ve been watching old movies?”

  “Some of us.”

  Ariel stepped forward to address the new robot. She talked quietly, in contrast to Derec’s nervous and energetic tone. “When do you have time for that? What about your duties?”

  The robot swiveled its head toward her. “Oh, I get it. I like it. You’re doing one of those copper tricks. The good-guy-bad-guy routine, I think it’s called.”

  “It’s no routine. Answer my question. You have to obey Second Law.”

  “Sorry. All right. I am not aware that the fulfillment of my duties is in any way impaired by the time I spend with hyperwave and prehyperwave movies and shows.”

  “What is your job?”

  “I am a perimeter-observation and intruder-inspection specialist.”

  “A what? That doesn’t — wait, do you mean a border guard?”