Perihelion

Chapter 9. Welcome Back

Jeff lay back in the chair panting heavily, with sweat running down his face and arms. That was a lot more frightening than he had expected…but a lot better than last time. The ship computer had been flawless.

Next time, he’d shut off that stupid viewscreen. Who needed to see that, anyhow?

“LANDING COMPLETED,” said the computer cheerfully.

“Shut up,” Jeff muttered.

He didn’t want to stay in this can. Shakily, he got up and moved to the door. “Exit access,” he instructed.

The door unlatched and opened. A flexible ladder extended from it. Jeff held the sides of the ladder firmly, turned, and climbed down.

On the street, he drew in a deep breath and looked around. It was Robot City, all right; it had the slidewalks, the tunnel stops, the clean, organized buildings and streets. On the other hand, it was totally unfamiliar.

A couple of humanoid robots were just now coming into view ahead. The central computer would have removed the alert, of course. He turned and looked behind him. A few more robots appeared, riding the slidewalks along the side of the boulevard.

The nearest robot approaching him was remarkably tall and full-chested.

“Excuse me,” said Jeff. “I’m in need of assistance.”

The Hunter robot took him firmly by the upper arm.

“Hey! Wait a minute. What are you doing?” He pulled back, but the robot didn’t let go.

“I am detaining you,” said the Hunter. “You are in custody and will remain so at least until you have been positively identified.” It turned and began to walk.

“I’m Jeff Leong. That’s no mystery.” He hurried alongside, walking awkwardly, almost sideways.

“I am programmed to locate and detain two humans among the four intruders known to be in Robot City. You will not be harmed. However, you must come with me.”

“And if I don’t?” He demanded, looking up at the robot’s expressionless face.

“You will come willingly or unwillingly. You will not be harmed. I prefer that you not resist.”

The robot continued walking, dragging Jeff along with it. They stepped onto a slidewalk and went on walking.

“Who are you looking for?”

“The two humans named Derec and Ariel,” said the Hunter ”Also an alien robot named Mandelbrot and a small living creature of undetermined type.”

“Hold it. You think I’m Derec? Is that it?” Jeff tried to pull back again, to no avail.

“I am instructed to take you into custody pending identification,” said the Hunter impassively.

“It’s not necessary.” Jeff managed to turn enough so he could walk straight ahead, at least. “Look, other robots know me. Contact the medical team. What was their name? Some kind of hospital. A Human Medical Center, or something like that. They can tell you who I am. Call them through the central computer.”

The robot did not respond.

”Are you calling them?”

It still did not respond.

“Not programmed for that, I suppose,” said Jeff. He sighed. “Welcome back to Robot City, Jeff.”

They walked along the moving slidewalk for quite some time. Jeff’s belongings were still stashed in the ship, of course; he had intended to grab his personal luggage after getting directions to Derec and Ariel. Resigned to a long and probably frustrating interrogation by more robots, he marched along in step.

A certain amount of foot traffic and vehicular traffic went by, but Jeff was sure that it was less than he remembered from his previous visit. Somewhat belatedly, he was recalling just how many unexplained oddities this city had had. Then, lost in thought, he was not paying particular attention to the details around him until he heard a screech of tires coming up right behind him.

Jeff flinched and whirled around. The Hunter holding him turned its head but did not break stride.

A humanoid robot was just leaping out of the cab of a large, halted vehicle.

“Mandelbrot!” Jeff shouted. “Tell this robot who I am, will you? It thinks-”

He was interrupted as the Hunter spun completely around, at the same time yanking him to the side away from Mandelbrot. The robot’s hold on him did not loosen even for a moment.

“You are harming the human,” said Mandelbrot to the Hunter, in a remarkably unemotional voice. He stepped onto the slidewalk and approached them.

“I am not harming him.” The Hunter’s voice was equally calm. It stood still.

Jeff understood that Mandelbrot had spoken aloud so that he could hear. Apparently Mandelbrot intended to rescue him-and that implied changes here in the city that were completely beyond Jeff’s expectations.

Jeff let out as loud and intense a scream as he could and dropped to his knees on the slidewalk, which was still moving.

The Hunter still had him by the arm.

“Release him!” Mandelbrot shouted, striding forward and lifting Jeff in his own arms. “Hunter, you are inefficient! You are violating the First Law!”

“You…are…Mandelbrot…the fugitive robot,” the Hunter said slowly. It was quivering slightly, its functioning impaired by the uncertainty that it might have harmed Jeff. Yet it had not let go.

Mandelbrot gripped the wrist of the Hunter and gently held Jeff’s captive arm, as well. “Release him,” he ordered again. “I will take him into custody.”

“You…are…not…fooling me,” said the Hunter. “Step…away.”

Jeff could see that. The Hunter knew that Mandelbrot himself was a fugitive from the central computer, so his words were all suspect. However, the combination of his accusation and Jeff’s play-acting was enough to raise a reasonable doubt in its mind, and the force of the First Law was so great that it was now hesitant to act.

“Mandelbrot, carry me,” he pleaded, in as anxious a voice as he could muster. “He’s hurt me.”

The Hunter was in trouble, but not fully convinced. Mandelbrot did manage to force its grip open, however, and remove Jeff’s arm. Then he picked up Jeff around the waist, jumped off the slidewalk onto the stationary shoulder, and ran for his truck.

“Stop!” The Hunter moved to action the moment Jeff was free, though it was still not at full capacity.

Jeff was facing backward as Mandelbrot ran with him, and could see the Hunter gradually entering a slow run after them. The Hunter’s instructions were still in effect.

“It’s already sent out a call for other Hunters,” said Mandelbrot, still running. “You will get an explanation at a safer time. For now, when I hoist you into the back of this vehicle, lie down and hang on. You will be safest that way.”

“Uh-okay-” Jeff complied as Mandelbrot jumped into the cab and drove off fast.

Derec was awakened from a deep sleep by the sound of the big door opening. Light hit his closed eyelids and he reluctantly opened them with a squint. So Mandelbrot was back. He took in a deep breath, hoping to wake up completely and find food being offered.

The vehicle entered the building and then Ariel was already closing the door again.

Mandelbrot turned in the cab and helped another figure in the back to his feet.

“Say!” Ariel cried excitedly. “Is that…that’s Jeff!”

Amazed, Derec forced himself up on one elbow. His back and shoulders ached painfully.

“Hi, gang,” said Jeff. He stood looking around at them all from the back of the truck. Then Mandelbrot lifted him down.

“Jeff,” said Derec. He grimaced as he sat up all the way. “What the…what are you doing here?”

He gave an embarrassed shrug. “I came to get you. To rescue you from Robot City.”

Derec felt his jaw drop open.

Ariel clapped both hands over her mouth.

“Ooooo,” said Wolruf.

“Oh, no.” Derec rubbed his forehead, stifling an embarrassed smile of his own.

“What is it?” Jeff asked, looking at them all one after another. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to leave any more?”

“Jeff.” Ariel went over to him and gave him a hug. “You actually came back for us. That’s wonderful. Please don’t misunderstand. It really means a great deal. Thank you.”

Jeff hugged her back lightly, clearly uncomfortable. “I don’t get it. What’s going on?”

“Jeff,” said Derec. “We can get off the planet now if we want. In fact, we can travel pretty far-as far as Earth and back. We…I…have a different problem now.”

“You can travel now?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Derec.

Jeff looked at Ariel, who shrugged. Then he gave a short laugh, shaking his head. “Mind if I sit down?” He collapsed on the floor where he was, not too far from Derec.

“I thought you were going to send someone else back,” said Derec. “I had no idea you’d come yourself.”

“How did you find it?” Mandelbrot asked. “If you remember, I had no navigational data to give you.”

“I had a computer cross-reference the Aurora-Nexus route with what little I knew. It worked.” Jeff ran a hand through his black hair, staring at the floor. “I’m a little shocked. But I’m glad you haven’t been stranded.”

“How did you get here?” Derec asked.

“I was picked up by a ship headed back to Aurora. Once I got back there, I put together the location where I was picked up, the length of time it took me to get there, and the nearest stars. A computer gave me the likely directions, but I had to try several before I got the right one.” He shrugged. “The hard part was getting my father to spring for the rental of a ship. And now I have to tell him it was unnecessary.”

“Well…” Ariel started.

Jeff turned to look at her.

“We could still use some help;’ she said. “We have to find Dr. Avery before his robots get ahold of us.”

“Avery! Did you say Dr. Avery?” Jeff sat up straight.

“You’ve heard of him?” Ariel said, dropping down to sit next to him. “Where?”

“Mandelbrot, Wolruf,” said Derec. “Come closer and follow this. It may turn out to be important.”

“Well,” said Jeff. “I tried to explain to my father what I needed the ship for and he reminded me that this weird guy named Avery once had some wild plans about a planet with a planned community sort of like this one.”

“Wait a minute! This was supposed to be a secret,” said Ariel. “My mother funded it. How does your father know about it?”

“He doesn’t, really. It’s just that Dr. Avery gave away some hints when we met him.”

“Met him?”Derec and Ariel cried in unison.

“Look, I don’t remember it very well-”

“We’ve all had a few memory problems,” Ariel said with annoyance. “Come on, this is important to us.”

“When?” Derec demanded. “Recently? Back on Aurora?”

“No, no, no. A long time ago. A couple of years ago.“

Derec settled back. “What happened?”

“He was still planning then, I bet,” said Ariel. “Considering how fast these robots work, that’s plenty of time.”

“He came to consult with my father,” said Jeff. “My father is a professor of Spacer cultural studies. His specialty is tracing the development and evolution of the various Spacer communities.”

“What does that mean?” Derec asked.

“They’re comparative studies,” said Jeff. “What planets have in common and what they don’t. How they’re organized. How their values differ. Stuff like that.”

“Your father must be an expert in that, huh?” Ariel said. “That’s why Avery sought him out.”

“I guess.” Jeff shrugged. “Anyhow, a couple of years ago, this Dr. Avery asked to consult informally with him. My father was real impressed with the guy. He said Avery was an eccentric genius, and made me tag along to meet him.”

“What did he want to talk about?” Derec asked.

“He was asking about social matrices,” said Jeff. “In particular, how my father would set up a utopia, if he could.”

“Utopia.” Derec exchanged a glance with Ariel. “That’s how he viewed this experiment, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “Jeff. We can use any clues you have to Avery’s personality.”

“I can tell you what I remember. Why do you have to find him, anyway?”

“He implanted a kind of…well, sort of a disease in Derec that only he can remove. We have to figure out where he is on the planet. Can you tell us what he’s like?”

“I hate to tell you this, but I don’t remember him very well.” Jeff looked at all of them apologetically. “I wasn’t that old, and I didn’t really care about seeing him. I went because my father wanted me to meet this genius. He said it would be a good experience for me. The truth is, I didn’t get much out of it.”

“Anything,” said Ariel. “Just start talking. Maybe things will come back to you.”

“Well…my father had a very high regard for him. More than usual. I mean, he’s surrounded by very capable people all the time. They were pretty friendly for a while.”

“Then what?” Derec asked. “Dr. Avery left Aurora, I suppose?”

Jeff shook his head. “Not right away. That is, he came and went for a time. My father had some sort of falling out with him, I think, but I never bothered to ask about it.”

“Are you sure you don’t know why they stopped being friends?” Ariel asked. “It might turn out to be important.”

“I think he was pretty egotistical. I got that impression right away. And he was definitely eccentric. I guess my father just got tired of listening to him.”

“That fits my mother’s description,” Ariel said to Derec. “Can we use that somehow?”

“I don’t know. We’ve all found dealing with him unpleasant.” Derec shrugged. “Mandelbrot, you can correlate data the best of us all. What do you think?”

“We have information about Robot City,” said Mandelbrot. “And we have information about Dr. Avery. However, we don’t have the necessary correlations to narrow the scope of his whereabouts.”

“What about our staying here?” Derec asked. “Are we safer staying here longer, or should we move?”

“I only have a guess,” said the robot. “I again used an evasive route in returning here, but the fact that the truck vanished from sight in the same general area as last time will narrow the Hunters’ scope considerably. On the other hand, traveling somewhere else clearly provides more data to the central computer of our whereabouts every time we are witnessed by any robot in the city.”

Derec sighed and rubbed the stiff muscles in his legs. “Thank you for the lecture. What’s your conclusion?”

“We are better off remaining here for the remainder of the day. At nightfall, travel will be safer than staying here. These are both calculated risks, not cert-”

“I understand,” said Derec. He gritted his teeth and lay down again. Normally he wanted to know how Mandelbrot formed his judgments because the robot’s consistent logic could be informative. Now he was just too tired and in too much pain for that.

“Maybe we should all rest,” said Ariel. “If we’re going to go somewhere else after dark.”

“Good idea,” said Wolruf.

Derec closed his eyes. He heard Wolruf pad away, presumably to relax in a spot of her choosing.

“I was planning to go out again to seek a food source,” said Mandelbrot, “but I now consider it too risky. All of you can remain healthy through the day without sustenance. When we travel at night, we may find food in some way. Is this acceptable?”

“Sure,” Derec muttered, without opening his eyes.

“All right,” said Ariel.

“You know,” Jeff said slowly, “I have plenty of supplies on board the Minneapolis. I didn’t realize food was a problem for you. The only question is how to get it.”

“I doubt it’s a simple question,” said Ariel. “It must be well guarded by now.”

They could have dismantled it by now,Derec thought, but he was too exhausted to speak up.

“Perhaps we can look into this,” said Mandelbrot. “Though the risk is very high.”

“How about a review of the whole situation?” Jeff asked. “I never did know the origin of this place. Would you mind giving me the entire story? We apparently have the rest of the day.”

“You know, Jeff,” said Ariel, “you really don’t have to get mixed up in this. If we can get you back on board your ship, you can get out of here again.”

“I’m ready to help.”

“I don’t think we can ask you to do that.” She lowered her voice. “You haven’t heard what Dr. Avery has done to Derec.”

“I’m staying,” Jeff said firmly. “I came here to repay a debt. Since you don’t need help getting off the planet anymore, I’ll repay it with help you do need.”

“Maybe you should know what you’re getting involved in before you decide.”

“Go ahead,” said Jeff. “But I’m staying, period.”

Derec drifted off to sleep to the sound of Ariel’s voice recounting their story.