Emperor

9

“You’re very big for my donkey,” said Xiao Li shyly, “but he can carry us both for a short distance.”

“We need not burden your donkey further,” said Hunter. “I can jog alongside him down the road.”

Xiao Li faced his donkey’s flank with both hands on the animal’s back. He jumped and vaulted forward, landing on the donkey’s back with his abdomen. Then he expertly swung one leg around the donkey’s rump and sat up, straddling his mount. He kicked it a couple of times and rode off at a trot.

Hunter fell into step alongside Xiao Li and his donkey, concerned that neither the boy nor his donkey could see the road well enough in the moonlight to ride safely at this pace. Since speed was a legitimate concern, Hunter did not suggest slowing down. Instead, he magnified his vision to maximum light receptivity and watched the uneven ground for anything that could trip the donkey.

Hunter and Xiao Li moved down a gently sloping section of road, around a bend, then down a steeper slope. With Hunter’s hearing set at a sensitivity in the range of sharp but normal human ability, the only sounds were the donkey’s hoofbeats, Hunter’s own footsteps, and a light breeze rustling the leaves on the trees as the road took another bend and leveled off.

“I like my donkey,” said Xiao Li suddenly. “He’s nice. I don’t think he’s too old. Sometimes I get to ride my uncle’s donkey in the village, but not very often. He has to carry tools and crops all the time.”

Beneath the boy’s unexpected chatter, Hunter heard a sudden crackling of twigs and snapping of branches near him from the side of the road. He turned to look and saw the dark shapes of adult humans leaping out at him. Before he could judge how to avoid them without harming them, they tackled him. Rather than resist and risk hurting them under these unknown conditions, Hunter allowed himself to be knocked to the ground with a thump.

Hunter immediately understood that he had been trapped. Xiao Li’s chatter had been intended to cover the sound of the ambushers. Even as the humans who had tackled him grabbed his arms and legs, now shouting among themselves, he surmised that Xiao Li had been given very specific instructions about what to do and say, and that the boy had followed them precisely.

Hunter felt himself lifted off the ground. He discerned seven different voices around him and recognized them all. Each of these humans had been sitting at the tables in the inn near the fire just a short time ago. Hunter did not know what this meant, but he called his team on his internal transmitter.

“Hunter here. Emergency.”

Steve said, “What’s wrong?”

“I have been attacked by seven men who were in the inn near us during dinner. They are carrying me into the trees near the road. I do not know what they want, but Xiao Li drew me into a trap. Please be very careful.”

“Can’t you get away,” Jane asked, “just by wrestling free of them?”

“Yes, but not without revealing my robotic strength,” said Hunter. “I prefer not to do that, since you three remain safe and I am unharmed.”

“What should we do?” Jane asked. “Or, rather, what are you going to do?”

“I am undecided,” said Hunter. “But I can hear Xiao Li riding away. If you see him, do not trust anything he says.”

“Got it,” said Steve. “Look, shouldn’t we ride down after you? You’d have to protect us and you’d have First Law permission to break free.”

“Do not come down here,” said Hunter. “I cannot estimate the level of danger to you yet.”

“We’ve survived worse,” Jane said. “Remember the fights on the pirate ships? Or the battle between the ancient Germans and the Roman soldiers?”

“Those were different circumstances,” said Hunter. “Right now, I have no reason to believe that your endangering yourselves will help find MC 5.”

“We still have to get you free,” said Steve. “That will definitely help the search, so it should satisfy your objection.”

“Please remain where you are,” said Hunter. “Entering danger will simply force me into greater First Law dilemmas. It will not help us.”

“All right,” said Jane. “Steve, he knows more about this than we do. But listen, Hunter. We’ll stay here where we can receive your messages freely. Keep us informed.”

“Agreed. For now, I must find out what my captors want with me.” He broke the connection.

In one of their rooms at the inn, Steve leaned against the door and looked at Marcia and Jane. No one spoke. The only light flickered from a candle flame inside a glass cylinder.

“I can’t believe this,” Marcia whispered. “What are we going to do now?”

Steve glanced at her, surprised by her anxious tone. A light sheen of sweat covered her face, despite the cool mountain air. She folded her arms across her middle as though her stomach hurt.

“What is it?” Steve asked. “Is dinner bothering you?”

“No.”

“You okay?” Jane asked her.

“Of course not! None of us are,” Marcia snapped. “What’s wrong?” Steve asked.

“Well-I just-can’t you see?” Marcia wailed.

“No,” said Steve.

“I think I understand,” said Jane. “It’s Hunter being out of range to help us. isn’t it?”

Marcia nodded tightly. “Of course it is.”

“But we’re fine,” said Steve.

“We aren’t used to living without robots around like you are, Steve,” said Jane. “Remember? You made a few comments on our first mission about that. I’ve learned to improvise on these missions myself-and to get along without Hunter right next to me. That’s all it is.”

“Yeah?” Steve shook his head, looking at Marcia. “She’s panicking because Hunter is down the road and doesn’t want to reveal his strength?”

Marcia shrugged, glaring at him.

“Well, look,” said Steve, “I think we should consider riding down there after Hunter, no matter what he said. We can help him get free.”,

“I don’t think we should,” said Jane. “His reasons for waiting were clear. At least, we should call and talk about it with him again.”

“We’ve taken more risk and initiative than that on our own before.”

“It’s not just us. I’m arguing about this as a roboticist. Hunter doesn’tchoose the First Law; it governs his behavior whether he likes it or not, and he has given us his current concerns and interpretation already.”

“If we find him, the First Law will make him free himself to protect us, won’t it? Like I said to him?”

“Yes, probably. But there’s more to consider. During the last mission, Hunter finally allowed himself to take trips back to our own time in the middle of a mission in order to escape trouble. He’d never done that before. That was a real change in judgment for him.”

“What about it?”

“I’m worried that pushing him into a severe First Law dilemma might force him to take us back again. Every time we vanish and reappear, we increase our chances of being seen and we lose some continuity in our plans. In the long run, we might be better off cooperating with Hunter for now.”

“Well…you’re the expert on this stuff,” Steve said reluctantly…

“You mean we aren’t doinganything?” Marcia looked back and forth between them in disbelief. “We’re just going to sit and wait?”

“For now,” said Jane.

“Let’s get some sleep,” said Steve, straightening from leaning against the door. “We’ll need it tomorrow. You two stay here; I’ll go across the hall. Just make sure that your lapel pins are turned on. We don’t want to miss Hunter calling again.”

“You and Marcia are supposed to be married,” said Jane.

“Nobody’s going to notice how we divide the rooms,” Marcia muttered irritably. “I’ll stay with you.”

Steve watched her for a moment, tempted to tease her about refusing to play-act her role by sleeping in the other room with him. Then he decided she was already upset enough. With a brief nod to Jane, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Across the hall, he entered his own room and found enough moonlight shining around the shutter on the window for him to see. Ignoring the unlit candle, he closed the door and undressed. The chilly mountain air also leaked into the room, but he could tolerate the temperature.

In the darkness, under the covers, he found himself tense and wide awake. He could hardly stand Marcia, but the uncertainty about Hunter bothered him, too, in a different way. Marcia felt vulnerable without a robot to protect her. Steve simply felt that he was wasting time, lying here doing nothing while Hunter remained a captive.

Hunter had stopped struggling in order to conserve his energy. He did not know how much strength he would need to free himself. Also, no matter what actions he took, he could not replenish his energy supply until the sun reappeared.

Someone had thrown a cloth bag over his head. It smelled strongly of hay, overwhelming his olfactory sense. Now only his hearing and sense of touch brought him information.

The same seven humans still stood around him, talking excitedly. At this point, only two were actually holding him, one on each arm. Of course, if he pulled free, the others would immediately jump on him again.

The voices around him had been talking for some time, arguing about what to do with him. Most of their chatter had been indecisive and unimportant. However, Hunter noticed that all of them repeatedly referred to him as a “spirit.”

Hunter searched his knowledge for the significance of this. At first he thought it might be a colloquial reference to him as a foreigner. He knew that many years later, in the nineteenth century, a Chinese nickname for Europeans and white Americans was “foreign devils.”

“We must decide what to do,” one man said clearly. He spoke with some authority. “Otherwise, we may argue here in the woods all night.”

“Our choices are three,” said another man. “One, tie him up in the forest and leave him. Two, remain here and keep watch over him all night. Three, offer him sacrifices of food and wine and give him our respect.”

No one laughed. Hunter realized that these were serious choices, not jokes. They really believed he was a spirit of some kind.

“We must chain him while we speak,” said someone else. “Away from the road.”

The two men holding Hunter’s arms pulled him forward. He followed, stepping carefully on the uneven ground to find his footing. His escorts were slower than he was, but they made some effort to guide him, he supposed to avoid tree branches and large rocks.

After a walk of no more than about ten meters, he was stopped and backed up against a tree trunk. He heard the clink of metal and then felt chains pulling him fast against the tree. While his captors muttered to themselves about the exact placement of the chains, he called his team again.

All three of them responded with drowsy voices, at first talking at the same time. No matter which rooms they were in, they all had their lapel pins turned on.

“I have a question for Marcia specifically,” said Hunter. “My captors refer to me among themselves as a spirit. However, I cannot reconcile some apparent contradictions. They cannot decide whether to leave me chained to a tree or to make sacrifices to me. The former seems hostile, the latter respectful. Is this choice normal?”

“I can’t tell yet,” said Marcia. She cleared her throat, yawned, and then spoke with more certainty. “Um, this is related to their local folk religion. It evolves constantly and varies from one geographical location to another, sometimes even between neighboring provinces or villages.”

“Oh, wonderful,” muttered Steve. “So it’s impossible to know what they’re thinking at all.”

“Let her go on,” said Jane.

“It’s not totally impossible,” said Marcia. “Hunter, what robotic abilities did you exhibit to them? They must have some reason to believe you’re not human.”

“None.” Hunter quickly reviewed all his actions from the time he and the team had first arrived at the inn. “I am certain that I have revealed no abilities to this particular group that are not human.”

“Well…that won’t help us, then. Maybe you resemble a spirit in some folk tale.”

“Hold it,” said Steve. “You mean, like if someone fit the role of Cinderella?”

“Or King Arthur or Paul Bunyan,” said Marcia. “Hunter, from what you’ve said, they may consider you a good spirit who is misguided or out of control.”

“In what respect?”

“Maybe they believe you have been sent here to do something specific that they don’t like.”

“Yes? What does this mean?”

“Well, this would explain that they want to stop you from fulfilling your instructions from the spirit world-whatever they think those are-but they still want to remain on your good side.”

“I understand,” said Hunter. “This is consistent with their behavior.”

“I have to ask you something, Hunter,” said Jane. “Is the Third Law likely to become an imperative soon? That is, are you in danger-or do you expect to be?”

“No,” said Hunter. “If the situation changes and the / Third Law forces me to escape, I must do it alone without endangering the team.”

“Can you reach the belt unit?” Jane asked. “If so, you could return to our time, then come back to this time in another location.”

Hunter shifted slightly, testing the chain that held him. “I cannot reach the belt unit without freeing myself. The chain holding me has small links, but I do not know if I can break it or not.”

“Your captors haven’t taken the belt unit?” Jane asked. “Didn’t they wonder what it was?”

“They did not search me,” said Hunter.

“That’s further evidence that they hold you in some awe,” said Marcia.

“What’s our current plan?” Steve asked. “What do you want to do?”

“I repeat, do not come to rescue me. I ask that you three get a good night’s sleep so that we can be ready to face any unexpected situations tomorrow.”

“All right,” said Steve. “I haven’t slept too well so far, but you’re right.”

“Okay,” said Jane.

“Do you have a plan?” Marcia asked anxiously. “Do you know what we’ll do?”

Hunter surmised that she was scared because of his absence. “I am convinced that you are not in danger. Otherwise, I would have to make every effort to free myself. Please get a sound sleep.”

“All right,” Marcia said reluctantly. “It won’t be hard. I’m exhausted after all that riding.”

Jane lay back down on her bed in the darkness. She felt her advice in support of Hunter had been justified, but she also worried about him more than she had let on to the others. Marcia was scared because Hunter was not here to protect them, which Jane understood. Steve just wanted to get on with the mission. However, Jane could not stop worrying that Hunter would enter a contradiction between multiple First Law imperatives and be unable to function.

Within a few minutes, Marcia’s nervous, uneven breathing became smooth and rhythmic with sleep. Apparently the day on horseback really had worn her out. Jane tried to relax, but she was simply too tense. She lay on her bed, wondering if she had made a mistake in arguing that the team take Hunter’s advice.

She had no way to measure the passing of time as she lay awake. However, she remained fitfully awake when a sharp knocking on the main door downstairs startled her. Wondering if Hunter had returned on his own, she listened as the knocking was repeated. Finally, she heard a single pair of footsteps walk across the floor to open the inn door.

More than a few people entered, judging by the number of footsteps. She could not distinguish exactly how many, however. As she heard some quiet voices, too muffled to understand, she realized that these were probably the people who had ambushed Hunter.

All of them remained downstairs. She could hear chairs scraping on the floor, probably as they sat down by the fire again. They probably wanted to warm up after their hike outside.

Since Jane was wide awake anyway, she decided to take a look. She rose and, as quietly as she could, dressed again. If possible, she wanted to overhear anything they might have to say.