Asimov's Future History Volume 5

by Isaac Asimov

  “What’s happened to your nerve?” she said. “Look, these are the same people that stole our spacecraft, spirited away my robot, and then tried to tell us we should be grateful that they’re sending us away as paupers instead of criminals. I’m not about to let them get away with it.”

  “Don’t you understand?” Derec shouted angrily. “You think we’re going to be able to just walk in there, put it under our arm, and say ‘Thanks for looking after it’? This thing came off a heavily armed alien ship —”

  “They don’t know that,” Katherine pointed out. “They never saw Aranimas, or even Wolruf.”

  “All right,” Derec said tiredly. “Maybe you’re right. If they did think it was an alien ship, they probably wouldn’t let us go. But these people aren’t playing. They wanted the ship, and they took it. They wanted the robot, and they took it. They want the jewel, and they have it. We’re not going to be able to take it back. We won’t even get in the door.”

  “Maybe their orders weren’t that specific.”

  “I’d have made them so.”

  “You didn’t give them. Go on — try.”

  “What’s the point? Wolruf’s right — the key is just trouble for everybody.”

  Katherine sighed. “If you want something done —” And before Derec could stop her, she climbed out of the jitney and headed back to the plaza on foot.

  In less than ten minutes Katherine was clambering back into her seat. “They let me in, even gave me a little tour,” she said breezily. “Very accommodating.”

  “I figured that out when you weren’t back in two minutes. What about the key?”

  “It’s there all right, sitting out in plain sight. What idiots!”

  Derec eased the jitney into motion down the corridor, mulling over Katherine’s news. “Not really. Describe what you saw.”

  “It’s a big semicircular room, with glass all around except for the offices at the back. There’re five robots at work stations, including Anazon. Then there’re two more near the center of the room doing nothing but sitting facing each other with the artifact on a table between them. There was some sort of funny emblem on the shoulder of those robots, a blue F in a double gold circle —”

  Derec groaned. “Falke X-50s.”

  “Does that mean something?”

  “It means trouble. They have superfast reflexes. If a bomb went off five meters in the opposite direction, they might be distracted long enough for you to get your hands on the key, but you’d never get out of the room with it. If we’re going to get it back, we’re going to have to have some way to neutralize seven robots at once — and I don’t know any.”

  “Can you explain to me why it’s out in plain sight? Could it be a copy, a fake? Maybe you’re right about the trap.”

  “No,” Derec said with a shake of his head. “I’d guess the robots were probably ordered to watch it constantly, in principle if not in so many words.”

  “If you put it in a vault and nobody opens the vault, it isn’t going to vanish into the ozone.”

  “No,” Derec agreed, “but that understanding requires a fairly advanced and rather subtle mental function called object permanence. Robots are strongly biased toward the concrete and away from the inferred. If they lock something away out of sight, they don’t really know it’s there except when they check on it.”

  “That’s illogical. No human would think that way.”

  “Some would,” Derec dissented. “But you’re right, it’s not logical.”

  “So why do the roboticists let that happen?”

  “No engineered system is perfect,” Derec said with a shrug. “This is just one of those little things that doesn’t always behave the way you wish it would. A robot’s uncertainty about whether it’s satisfactorily fulfilling its orders can drive it into an anxiety state — specifically, they develop an elevated K-integral in the W14 level. So they begin checking on the thing they’re guarding more and more often at shorter and shorter intervals.”

  “And eventually it ends up sitting on the table next to them,” Katherine said.

  “Right.” Derec fell into a thoughtful silence, then suddenly caught himself. “Damn it all, you’ve got me trying to figure out how to get to it.”

  “See, I knew you didn’t want to let them have it,” Katherine said with a bemused smile. “Any ideas?”

  “Not yet.” A moment later he added, “Except that no matter how carefully worded and strongly impressed their orders to protect the key are, they’re only covered by the Second Law.”

  Katherine was mute for a time, as Derec drove aimlessly through the streets bounding the Operations bloc.

  “Following orders is Second Law,” she said finally.

  “That’s what I just said.”

  “What if Wolruf and I gave them a First Law reason to disregard them?”

  Wolruf peeked out from under the robe at the mention of her name and looked hopefully at Derec.

  “That’s the way to go, obviously,” Derec said. “But how?”

  “I’ve got some ideas. A little — robot theater, shall we say.”

  “Do you think you can be convincing?” Derec asked skeptically.

  “I’d rather try than not,” she said. “Let’s not stop ourselves. Let’s make them stop us.”

  “Wolruf?” he asked. “Do you want to try?”

  “Whatever ‘u want, Derec.”

  The burden was back on him, whether he wanted it or not. “All right, then,” Derec said slowly. “Let’s go somewhere more private and talk it through.”

  Peering down the corridor into the plaza, Derec shook his head. “This will never work,” he whispered.

  “It’s worked so far, hasn’t it?”

  Derec had to admit that it had. The first problem had been to eliminate most of the robot traffic in the plaza. They had considered half a dozen ideas for accomplishing that, from setting up hallblocks with robot monitors to trying to draw them away with invented errands elsewhere in the station.

  In the end, they settled for a whisper campaign, a simple variation on the unkind children’s game —” Billy is a cootie; pass it on.” Derec had stopped a robot at random just outside the Operations bloc and spoken briefly to it:

  “Robot. Management has ordered that there be a test of station emergency communications in this subsection. Your instructions are as follows. First, you are not to discuss the test or your part in it over the command link. Second, you are not to enter or remain in subsector 100 at any time between 1200 hours and 1400 hours today. Third, you are to relay these orders to the next robot that you see.”

  The instructions were innocuous enough that the robot did not challenge them. Like a runaway infection, the whisper had raced through the body of the station staff. Within half an hour, the traffic in the plaza had thinned dramatically. Within the hour, the plaza was deserted, and several robots had even left the Operations Center.

  Three robots remained. From where he was crouching beside the jitney, Derec could see them inside the Operations Center — the two X-50s guarding the artifact, and Anazon, darting from one work station to the next trying to oversee critical operations. Their particular responsibilities were too strongly impressed on them for Derec’s little trick to pull them away.

  “It’ll work,” Katherine prodded. “Go on. We’ll do our part. You just make sure you do yours.”

  Swallowing hard, Derec nodded and started off down the corridor. He crossed the empty plaza and climbed the single step up into the Operations Center. None of the robots took any notice of him.

  “Anazon.”

  “Yes, Derec.”

  “I’ve decided not to wait for the Nexon shuttle. I want to charter a ship to come and get me and take me to Aurora. Tell me the procedure I should follow.”

  Without ever turning away from the console, the robot began to answer. “There are seven ships of Nexonian registry licensed for Auroran space and available for hire. You may contact any of their owners by hyp
erwave —”

  Suddenly the peace of the plaza was broken by the roaring sound of a jitney in high gear. A moment later the vehicle burst out of one of the connecting corridors, Katherine at the controls. Pursuing close behind was Wolruf, running with an easy loping gait that used all four of her limbs.

  Halfway across the plaza, Wolruf got close enough to reach out and catch Katherine by the arm from behind. The jitney veered suddenly, breaking the alien’s grip. But the veer turned into a skid that ended with the jitney sliding sideways with a jolt into the rockform base of a tree planter. In a moment, Wolruf caught up and pounced on Katherine. The air was filled with her convincingly terrified cries of “It’s killing me!” and the alien’s ominous growls.

  When the jitney veered, Anazon had started toward the exit and one of the X-50s began to rise. But when the guard robot saw Anazon responding, it sat back down again. Derec knew immediately that meant the guards’ instructions were so strongly worded that the expectation that Anazon would handle the First Law situation relieved them of responsibility. Only if Anazon failed would they act.

  The moment was slipping away quickly. “Robots — help that woman,” Derec said sharply, stepping forward. “She is being harmed. She may be killed.”

  One of the X-50s stirred slightly. “Anazon will protect her —”

  “The creature attacking her is strong and fast. Anazon will not be able to protect her from injury. Go! Help her! Now!”

  First one, then the other guard rose and took a halting step or two toward the exit. Then they hesitated, the conflicting positronic potentials having reached a new equilibrium. Anazon would reach Katherine and Wolruf in a few more strides and the stunt would be over, a failure.

  Just then, Katherine loosed a blood-chilling cry that even Derec thought real, and the guard robots started forward again. Derec waited no longer. Snatching the artifact up from the table, he turned and ran the other way, vaulting over a console and out through the window.

  His heart pounding, Derec fled the plaza and down an empty corridor. He heard the jitney’s motors whine, but he did not look back. He could not afford to worry about Katherine and Wolruf. He thought he heard the metronomelike running strides of a robot, but he did not look back. Even if he was being chased, knowing it could not make his legs pump faster.

  All he wanted was to reach the dark sections unmolested. All he could think of were the escape route and the rendezvous he had chosen. He ran until his chest ached and his legs were iron, until each breath was pain, until darkness swallowed him and hid him from those who wanted to find him.

  Chapter 19

  THE KEY TO PERIHELION

  DEREC HUDDLED IN pitch blackness in the corner of the room and waited. He could not say how long he had been alone there, except that it seemed an eternity. He held the artifact tightly in both hands and sat, rigid and silent.

  Then without warning, he was not alone. Since the corridor outside was as dark as the room inside, Derec could not see when the door opened. But he heard it slide back, and rustling steps as someone entered. His heart began to beat faster and his nerves jangled.

  “Derec?”

  He sighed, and the tension flowed out of him. It was Katherine’s voice. “Here,” he said. “In the corner.”

  She thumbed her torch on and swung it in his direction, and the polished surface of the object he held in his hands sent an answering beam of light back at her and Wolruf. “You did it!” she exulted. “Let me see.”

  Derec crossed his arms protectively over the artifact. “No. Don’t come near me.”

  “What’s going on? What’s happening to you?” Katherine demanded. “We did it. We’ve got it.”

  “So we do. It’s confessions time, that’s all,” Derec said, sliding up the wall to a standing position. “I’ve had some time to sit here and think about things. It’s amazing how being scared will focus your thoughts.”

  “What are you talking about?” Katherine demanded.

  He waggled the key above his head. “It’s real simple. Which one of you is going to stop playing dumb and tell me just what it is we’ve got?”

  Katherine stared at him. “If you’re trying to say that I’ve been holding out on you —”

  “Haven’t you been?” Derec interrupted. “You and Wolruf both. I’m tired of being the one in the dark, the one who’s always one step behind. I want to know everything you know. I’d rather give it back to the robots than have it and not know what it is.”

  “Derec, I don’t know anything more than I already told you,” Katherine said pleadingly, taking a step forward.

  Derec stiffened and gripped the artifact even more tightly. “Don’t try it. Talk to me.”

  Katherine retreated a step. “Derec, I don’t want to fight you. But this is crazy. We’re all part of a team. I’m not keeping any secrets from you. I never saw or heard of that thing before Aranimas asked me about it. I couldn’t tell him anything and he didn’t tell me anything.”

  She turned and looked into the half-shadow where Wolruf stood. “But Wolruf was Aranimas’s top aide. And when the robots took the key from the spacecraft, she thought it was worth the risk to follow and find out where it was taken. How about it, Wolruf?”

  “I was ‘ungry. I thought there would be food.”

  “Really? How hungry? Not six weeks’ worth. Three days, that’s all. Is that hungry enough to send you out where the robots were and take the chance of being caught by them? Especially considering how you feel about robots.”

  “If anyone’s keeping secrets, p’rhaps iss ‘u, Derec,” Wolruf said challengingly. “The key was found on the asteroid ‘u claim ‘u were shipwrecked on. Why did ‘u go to that spot when ‘u were escaping? Because ‘u knew that it was therr? Maybe because ‘u’d put it therr and wanted to get it back?”

  Without warning, the lights in the room suddenly flared to life. The only one who did not jump was Derec; he had been expecting it. “The robots are looking for us,” he said. “They’ve reactivated this section, maybe the whole station. They can use the environmental systems to find out where lights are being used, where the oxygen demand is up.”

  “We can’t stay here,” Katherine said simply. “We’ve got to move. We’ve got to get the key hidden again before they find us.”

  Derec shook his head. “Wrong. Unless one of you starts talking, I’m going to wait right here until the robots show up and then hand it to them,” he said with quiet calm. “It’s up to you.”

  “If you let them have it back, we’ll never be able to get it again,” Katherine said angrily.

  “I think you can count on that,” Derec said, undisturbed.

  She turned on Wolruf. “If you do know something, you’d better tell him straight and tell him fast, or the key’s lost,” she ordered. “If you wait any longer we’ll never get away.”

  A wild look in her eyes, Wolruf backed away a step. “’U’ll take it and leave me and I’ll never get ‘ome,” she said desperately.

  “That won’t happen,” Katherine said. “We won’t abandon you.”

  “I already promised you that,” Derec said. “I meant it.”

  “Tell him,” Katherine prodded. “Tell us.”

  Wolruf’s darting eyes fixed first on Katherine’s face, then on Derec’s. “Iss one of the Keys to Perihelion,” she said finally.

  “Perihelion? What’s that?” Katherine said.

  “Iss said to be the place nearest to every other place in the universe,” Wolruf said. “’U ‘old the key to the room which is the center of all. With the key, through Perihelion, ‘u should be able to travel anywhere.”

  Derec shook his head in disbelief. “Some kind of matter transporter?”

  “No,” Wolruf said. “It is a key that opens the door to Perihelion.”

  Her anger forgotten for the moment, Katherine looked to Derec. “Could it be something that uses the same principle as the Jump?”

  “In a package this size?” he asked skeptically. To Wol
ruf he added, “You said one of the keys. How many are there?”

  “By the stories Aranimas ‘eard, seven.”

  “What stories? Where did he hear them?”

  “Therr werr three ships before this one came aboard,” Wolruf said, gesturing toward Katherine. “Aranimas learned much from the ‘umans aboard before he ‘urt them so much they died. Learn ‘ur language. ‘ear many stories.”

  Katherine looked at Derec. “I’ve never heard any stories about a Key to Perihelion. They must have been Settler ships.”

  “That fits — otherwise Aranimas would have run into robots sooner.” Derec turned to Wolruf. “Where did the keys come from?”

  Wolruf twitched her cheeks, a gesture equivalent to a shrug. “Aranimas could not even learn wherr the tales came from.”

  Derec looked back to the key and turned it over in his hands. “How does it work? Where are the controls?”

  “There iss only one control that Aranimas could find,” Wolruf said. “Push each corner in turn. A button will appear.”

  “Press the corners clockwise or counterclockwise? Starting where? And which side?”

  “It does not matter,” Wolruf said. “Turn it any way ‘u choose. The button always appears in the last corner ‘u touch and always on the side facing ‘u. If ‘u do nothing, the button disappears again.”

  “And if you push the button you go to Perihelion?” asked Katherine.

  “No,” Wolruf said sadly. “That is what should happen, I think. But it does not. The key does not function.”

  “You tried it? With Aranimas?”

  “Many times.”

  Derec looked down at the glittering metal bar resting in his hands. Its finish was mirror-smooth and seamless. There was no sign of a concealed switch. When he squeezed the upper right corner between thumb and forefinger, there was no give, no sign he had done anything at all.

  But when Derec pressed the fourth corner, it pressed back against his thumb. A three-centimeter square section on the corner sprang smoothly upward, looking just like a button waiting to be pushed. At the same time, it seemed to be an immovable part of the rest of the artifact, as though the silver covering was some sort of metallic membrane.