Robot City - Perihelion Part 17

Derec let out a sigh of relief. As long as they were moving ahead of the Hunters, they had a chance, and an evasive pattern taken by a robot might at least be the equal of the Hunters, ability to solve it. It would be better than their own, at any rate.

He would instruct Can Head to drop them off before he reached his a.s.sembly point and to keep his contact with them secret. At that time, he thought sleepily, he could cajole an explanation of the migration programming out of him. Right now, he was just so tired....

He was comforted by the strong, rhythmic stride of Can Head and by the sound of the footsteps of Jeff and Ariel right behind them. News of the mugging of their victim was certain to reach Dr. Avery. What Derec needed now was Mandelbrot. Mandelbrot could contact the central computer and, unlike Can Head and the other Avery robots, he could he trusted to help without these convoluted discussions of the Laws.

Mandelbrot...and Wolruf. He drifted off to sleep wondering what had happened to them.

Mandelbrot was standing motionless in a repair facility. The trip here had been a long one, covering a surprisingly long distance. He had been deposited here just a moment before by the helpful robot.

He had successfully evaded the Hunters behind him by dual moves. The first was having that other robot carry him to eliminate his heat trail, and the second was being identified as a malfunctioning robot. Apparently the Hunters, with no reason to believe he was in need of repair, were acting under the a.s.sumption that he was still in full flight. He would have to move on before they thought of checking here.

Mandelbrot also had to get out before the repair robots required his identification, and that would be any time now.

At first he had been surprised by being set down and left to wait. The efficiency of the Avery robots had led him to expect immediate handling. As he observed the workings in the repair facility, however, he concluded that Robot City was, as usual, functioning under its own distinctive style of efficiency.

The repair facility was processing a large number of damaged or malfunctioning robots. Mandelbrot guessed from the conversations he overheard through his comlink that migration programming had largely been completed. Apparently only skeleton staffs remained anywhere in Robot City now.

For that reason, most repair facilities had also been shut down. The robots being repaired here were either already a.s.signed to those skeleton staffs or they were being reprogrammed. Those that entered with migration orders had them purged and were placed in a pool to act as reserves for the skeleton staffs instead.

So Robot City intended to function without the migrating robots for an extended period. Further, any robot that did not reach its a.s.sembly point within a short time would be rea.s.signed. Mandelbrot concluded that he could not afford to wait here longer at all, or he would risk being reprogrammed and so lost to the humans as a source of help.

Mandelbrot was standing by four other robots. Two were sitting because of mechanical failures that impaired standing or walking. The other two were standing, the extent of their malfunctions not visible. All of them had managed to reach the repair facility alert and functioning just short of one hundred percent.

Mandelbrot observed the entire room for a moment. A couple of humanoid robots a.s.signed to the facility supervised a large number of function robots doing the actual repair work. One function robot was rolling down the row of waiting robots that Mandelbrot was in, observing serial numbers or something with an eye on a long, flexible tentacle.

Mandelbrot turned and walked quickly out of the building. Outside, he mounted a slidewalk and began to run on it toward the mountains, now invisible in the distance. He knew their direction but had to follow his memory of the s.h.i.+p viewscreen for the best route.

"Stop," called a robot on his comlink. "You are malfunctioning and therefore endanger yourself by risking greater malfunctions. This is a Third Law violation that requires you to shut down-"

Mandelbrot broke his reception. Since he was in fine condition, none of that applied. He had known they would see him take off, and he was gambling that they would not place as high a priority on catching him as the Hunters had. At worst, they would a.s.sign a Hunter to catch him as a malfunctioned rogue instead of as an intruder involved with Derec.

Ahead, he saw a tunnel stop. Without looking back, he leaped off the slidewalk and ran down the moving ramp to the loading dock. Then he was inside a platform booth and had programmed it to go as close to the mountains as it could take him.

The trip would take some time. He opened his comlink again to reconnoiter.

Two general alerts were coming from the central computer with high priority codes.

One was that Hunters were now seeking a malfunctioning robot who had apparently violated the Third Law by running away from a repair facility. Because the force of the Laws was involved, all humanoid robots were ordered to watch for him. His physical description was given. Since he had escaped from the repair facility before any scanning was done, they had no more to go on than that, but he was distinctive from the Avery robots even by sight.

The second alert was that a mysteriously shut-down humanoid robot had been found in the agricultural park. Nothing was known about the cause. The Supervisors entered an urgent order that any robots with information about this development report it immediately.

Total malfunctions of this kind were extremely rare in Robot City. Mandelbrot was sure that this one called up memories in the minds of the Supervisors, and probably in Avery himself, of the robot murder that Derec had solved here.

Mandelbrot, of course, was not bound by the instruction. He was sure that his human friends were somehow responsible and he was also certain that the Hunters would guess this, as well. Nevertheless, none of them had proof.

Mandelbrot also figured that the Hunters would guess that the rogue robot was the same one they were hunting. It made no difference, since he had to avoid them either way. He now felt the First Law impetus pus.h.i.+ng him on, since the Hunters were likely to be closer to the humans than he was.

The platform booth continued to shoot down the tunnel toward the mountains. It was the fastest transportation he had, and it seemed painfully slow.

CHAPTER 17.

JEFF'S FAVOR.

Derec heard Ariel calling his name. It came out of darkness, out of fog, out of chilly air...until he finally opened his eyes and found himself looking up at her with some thick, tall gra.s.s waving behind her in the dim glow suffusing the entire valley. He said nothing at first, trying to remember where they were. The surroundings were totally unfamiliar to him.

"Derec, please wake up. We have to move again." Her voice was pleading.

"Come on. I'll help you." Jeff got an arm under Derec and pulled him into a sitting position.

"Where are we?" Derec asked, looking around. His voice was dry and hoa.r.s.e. "What's happened?"

"You fell asleep while Can Head was carrying you," said Ariel. "He's gone now."

"You've been asleep for some time," said Jeff. "It must be the middle of the night by now. It's getting colder."

Derec nodded, folding his arms and rubbing them. "But Can Head must have reported the mugged robot to the central computer, probably right after he left us."

"As to where we are," said Ariel, "Can Head let us down through the valley floor, kind of zigzagging, and partway up the far slope. I think we're in a wheat field."

Derec reluctantly let Jeff pull him to his feet. His whole body seemed to ache. He leaned against Jeff's shoulder, breathing hard, trying to gain his balance.

"We woke you up because we have to keep going," said Ariel. "The Hunters aren't going to stop for the night."

"Have you got any more ideas, Derec?" Jeff asked. "Avery should have heard about the mugging by now."

Derec shook his head, still trying to wake up. "I don't know what to expect. I don't know how long that news will take to have an effect, either." He straightened up. "I meant to ask Can Head about the migration. Do you know where his a.s.sembly point is?"

"Not really," said Jeff. "He went sideways across the slope when he left, but I imagine he was heading back to that one thoroughfare they were all using."

"We don't dare try that," Derec muttered to himself.

Ariel suddenly clutched his arm. She nodded toward something over his shoulder without speaking.

Derec and Jeff turned to look. Far across the same slope, a humanoid figure was just barely distinguishable in the distance, coming toward them.

"Let's go," Derec said, feeling a faint surge of excitement. "It's not on the migration route, so it must be a Hunter, and it's sure to have seen us. I'm afraid it won't be long now."

The three of them started along the row in the opposite direction, but Derec was just barely stumbling along. As before, the others each supported one of his arms across their shoulders. Derec realized with frustration that he was now too far gone for even the adrenaline in his system to make much difference.

When they reached an intersecting row between the wheat field and a field of some low, bushy plants he could not recognize, Jeff stopped and lowered Derec's arm.

"Look, we'll have to split up." He looked back at the Hunter, which was still distant but visibly closer.

"Why bother?" Derec said wearily.

"Maybe I can divert it somehow. And if they get me first, I'm probably in the least danger from Avery. He doesn't have any business with me."

"He's crazy," Ariel said sharply. "You can't expect rational behavior from him."

"Well, maybe not. But splitting up is the best chance to keep Derec away from him a little longer. Maybe Avery will show himself in that extra time."

Derec looked up to study his face. "You sure you want to take this much risk?"

Jeff grinned at him and shrugged. "Hey, I said lowed you a favor, didn't I?"

Derec gripped his arm for a moment in thanks, then turned and started up the slope. Ariel threw her arms around Jeff in a brief hug and then hurried after Derec. Jeff moved a few meters down the slope and then got down on all fours to crawl through the low bushes of the adjacent crop field.

Derec leaned on Ariel for support as they plodded slowly up the furrow between the fields. In a moment, the tall green Auroran-bred wheat had hidden them from immediate view of the Hunter, but it would have noted the trio's movements and communicated them to the other Hunters, wherever they were.

Mandelbrot stood at the opening of one of the pa.s.ses into the valley, looking out over the agricultural park. It was dimly lit and he could just barely see, with his superior robot vision, tiny figures moving in the distance. He paused to study the entire valley.

Some of the taller and thicker crops blocked his sight, but he could see a couple of humanoid robots moving straight up a row on the far slope. They were not behaving like Hunters, and he suspected that they were migrating. Down in the valley floor, he saw two large robots moving systematically among the rows of the crops and was sure that they were Hunters.

Then, at another spot on the opposite slope, he saw a human figure crawling through one of the fields. As he watched helplessly, a lone Hunter ran up behind him and lifted the human off the ground. From the lively struggle he saw he knew the human was not Derec and he judged that Ariel was smaller.

Above the struggle a short distance, he located Derec and Ariel moving painfully and slowly as they wove their way among some short trees.

Mandelbrot's programming and his understanding of the dangers posed by Dr. Avery placed Derec at the highest of his priorities. While the Hunters were programmed with a narrow definition of duty that allowed them to detain humans without harming them, Mandelbrot had a larger perspective and saw detention by the Hunters as a first step toward virtually certain harm. At the moment, he would have to ignore Jeff's capture and help Derec and Ariel if he could. He noted the positions and current movements of the Hunters he could see, and started quickly down the slope.

Derec and Ariel stumbled out of the far side of the fruit orchard onto a well-traveled footpath headed straight up and down the slope.

"I'm totally lost," Derec wheezed. He stopped, bending forward to lean on his knees. "But this must be the migration route again. Look at all the robot footprints. This valley can't have very much foot traffic. And if it did, they would have paved this."

Ariel nodded and prodded him up the slope, where the soft mud had been churned unevenly with the heavy use. The irrigation was obviously turned on at regular intervals. "C'mon," she muttered breathlessly.

They had just started up the incline when a large figure stepped out of the crops above them. It threw a ma.s.sive shadow as it started down the slope toward them. Derec looked up at the great bulk of a Hunter as it moved toward them carefully, watching its precarious balance on the poor footing.

"Come on!" Ariel yanked him sideways back into the fruit orchard. "Hurry."

"I can't," he whispered apologetically. "I'm too weak to hurry." He followed her, though, until she halted abruptly a moment later.

Another Hunter was waiting for them in the trees ahead, a dark silhouette against the glow of light behind him.

They turned again and found two more Hunters pus.h.i.+ng through the trees, breaking branches and shaking leaves as they did so, coming right up the slope without bothering to follow any rows and furrows. Their very silence and dispa.s.sionate demeanor discouraged rebellion.

Derec leaned wearily on Ariel's shoulders, unable to struggle. She wrapped her amts around him, more for his sake, he guessed, than because she was scared. He glared helplessly at the nearest Hunter.

As he watched the Hunter reaching for them he saw a weirdly flexible robot amt curl around the Hunter's neck from behind. It made a couple of quick motions and the Hunter froze, completely shut down.

Derec blinked at it, too surprised to react.

"Run!" Mandelbrot shouted, emerging from behind the Hunter. His cellular arm, which Derec had long ago installed and ordered him to disguise as a normal robotic arm of the time, was just now stiffening back to normal.

"Come on!" Ariel shoved Derec past Mandelbrot to put their protector between them and the Hunters.

They began stumbling through the trees again, their hope renewed by Mandelbrot. Ariel led him through a crooked trail, turning and twisting through the fruit trees in a clumsy, cras.h.i.+ng route that ignored stealth entirely. At one point Derec got caught in a leafy branch and had to pause to get out. He took the moment to peer back at Mandelbrot.

Four Hunters had originally closed in on them. Mandelbrot had apparently pushed the controls on that first one to neutralize it and then had attacked the other three. By attacking them, he brought the Third Law into effect, forcing the Hunters to protect themselves. This imperative overrode even the strongest programming, so that they could not continue their pursuit until they had subdued Mandelbrot.

Mandelbrot was outnumbered, but had the advantage of instructions to use his cellular arm. Further, in the close quarters among the trees, the greater size of the Hunters impeded them. The struggle continued, buying Derec and Ariel more time as they hurried on.

Ariel led the way until finally he reached out and grabbed her, too out of breath to speak up. She waited anxiously until he could, looking around fearfully.

"Where are we going?" He panted.

"I don't know. Anywhere. Just away."

"Mandelbrot can't win that fight. He can only slow them down. Then it'll start allover again the same way."

"Have you got a better idea?" She demanded.

He nodded and got down on the ground among the trees. "I've been thinking about this park. The way that robot path is chewed up by the footprints and all. It means this park normally doesn't have an erosion problem."

"Yeah, so?"

"So these crops still need water, and it's obviously managed with their usual efficiency. If this valley is irrigated by underground pipes or something, we've had it. But I don't think the robots would do that, because leaves need external moisture, too."

"Get to the point, will you? Or let's go."

"Irrigation outlets. This valley has to have them in some form. If we turn them on, they'll eliminate our heat trail."

"Well...." She knelt down beside him. "They could be anywhere. And it's dark. Besides, Derec, this is a high-alt.i.tude valley. Maybe the natural fog and rain take care of all that."

"That would be leaving too much to chance. We have to figure this out."

"How?"

He sat back and looked at her. His legs no longer hurt; they were nearly numb. "All right. Instead of looking at random, we have to work it out logically, like the robots would. Where would you place irrigation outlets for the greatest efficiency?"

"How do I know?"

"Well, I can hardly think at all!"

"All right, all right. Concentrate. We're on a slope.... Derec, come on. This way."