Perihelion

Chapter 15. Muggings

Since the hoer was moving down the row toward the humanoid robots, its passengers had no choice but to get off and go the other way. Derec was surprised that the robots had not looked down the row already and spotted them, but apparently they had not. As before, he followed Jeff and preceded Ariel, all three of them now crawling along the damp earth so that the body of the hoer would block them from view.

Before long, they reached the perpendicular row they had seen a short time before. It ran parallel with the one the humanoid robots were taking in single file to go farther down into the valley. Derec stopped there, breathing hard, unable to go on.

“Derec?” Ariel crawled up beside him. “Jeff, wait.”

Jeff looked back over his shoulder and then came back. He watched Derec for a minute and shook his head. “I don’t know what to do. We can’t just stop.”

Derec coughed and shook his head in frustration. He wanted to speak and didn’t have the breath for it yet. Quickly, he pointed in a stabbing motion in the direction of the humanoids.

Ariel turned to look. “They aren’t coming yet. At least, I don’t see anybody.”

“No,” Derec wheezed. “That’s not what I mean.” He paused again, still breathing hard. His head was spinning dizzily.

“We could try supporting you between us again,” said Jeff. “But we can only do that by standing up and walking.”

“Wait, wait.” Derec inhaled deeply and looked up at both of them. “Those aren’t Hunters. I’m sure of it.”

“Really?” Ariel scooted closer to him. “Derec, are you sure? You’re not exactly in the best condition.”

“Hunters wouldn’t just pass by like that without even looking down the row. They can’t be Hunters. “

“Makes sense to me,” said Jeff slowly. “So who are they, then? And what are they doing in this valley?”

“I was thinking about that, too,” said Derec. “I think they’re migrating. They’re following that mysterious migration programming we told you we heard about.”

“So the only danger from them,” said Jeff, “is that if they notice us, the Hunters can ask them where we were. Otherwise they won’t bother us?”

“That’s right,” said Derec. “But we can also find out where they’re going-where their assembly point is. And what this whole operation is for.”

“Now?”Ariel said, making a face. “Derec, we don’t have much time left to find Avery. We can’t just go wandering off-”

“No! Don’t you understand? This migration thing is Avery’s doing. If we can figure it out, maybe we’ll find him. He’s behind it all, and it’s obviously very important to him.”

“That sounds awfully risky,” said Jeff.

“Look at me! Risky? I don’t have much time left!” Derec spoke forcefully, but was too weak to speak loudly now. “I think we’ve talked long enough. What are we going to do?”

“That row is full of robot footsteps, too,” said Ariel. “Ours would be camouflaged some.”

“It is something to go on,” Jeff said slowly.

“I wish Mandelbrot was here,” said Ariel. “And poor Wolruf, running around in Robot City with him. I wonder where they are. I hope they’re all right.”

“We can’t worry about them,” said Derec. “We can’t help them directly now, anyway. If we get to Avery, we can make him ease up on them, too. We have to concentrate on Avery.”

“That’s right,” said Jeff. “The truth is, they can probably take care of themselves better then we can, especially Mandelbrot. And Derec seems to be the one Dr. Avery is after.”

“I’ve been putting some ideas together,” said Derec. “While we were crawling in the mud back there, just now.”

“All right,” said Jeff, “let’s hear ‘em. If they aren’t going to come after us, we have a few minutes.”

“Unless the Hunters get here too,” added Ariel.

“Listen,” said Derec…Avery learned from Professor Leong that the two most important forces behind cultural longevity are passing on values and maintaining a distinct identity. Right?”

“Sure,” said Jeff.

“So passing values down is not a problem with robots; they’re just programmed. They can process information much faster and keep more of it accessible than humans.”

“No argument there,” said Jeff.

Ariel nodded. “And all along, we’ve seen that these Avery robots are different from any other sort. They behave in a different way. Their programming must have been special from the beginning.”

“Exactly,” said Derec. “Both of those facts fit perfectly. And the isolation of Robot City prevents it from being altered by cultures from the outside. “

Jeff nodded. “Its location is still a secret.”

“So Avery really took those two lessons to heart and used them to form Robot City,” said Ariel.

“One big question remains,” said Derec. “What values did he program into them?”

“Efficiency,” said Jeff.

“Harmony,” said Ariel. “Both of those. A kind of idealism. Remember when they gave us their provisional Laws of Humanics, for ideal human behavior? Robot City was supposed to be a kind of utopia. We already knew that.”

“But now we know what kind-on what basis.” Derec nodded with excitement. He now felt a surge of energy again that animated him once more.

“I’m starting to get the idea,” said Jeff. “What do you want to do about it?”,

“Challenge the system,” said Derec. “Force it to malfunction. or at least make it look like it is.”

“To make Avery show himself,” Ariel said. “All right. I get it. But… how?”

“We have to present the system-that is, the central computer-with irrational events,” said Derec. “Look-the Supervisors originally needed us to solve a crime against a human when we first arrived. The system here has that weak point.”

“And we never did figure out who the victim was, either,” said Ariel. She shivered. “He looked just like you. That still gives me the creeps, even now.”

Derec said nothing. When he had first entered Avery’s office he had come across some mysterious information about the dead man that he had never shared with Ariel. This was no time to launch into that topic.

Jeff looked at her in surprise. They had never told him that part of their story.

“Well, for the moment, forget it,” said Derec sharply. “One crisis at a time. The reason we arranged the Hamlet performance was also to accomplish something that the robots weren’t ready to handle.”

“I see what you’re getting at,” said Jeff. “That’s a weak point in the system. A utopia isn’t supposed to have crimes and these Avery robots can’t really handle them.”

“Exactly,” said Derec. “I think we have to commit a few crimes against humanoid robots. We aren’t bound by the Laws of Robotics and Mandelbrot isn’t around to interfere if a situation arose that involved the Laws.”

Jeff grinned wryly. “Okay…let’s become criminals. What’ll we do first, boss?”

Derec grinned himself, despite his discomfort. “We have to incapacitate a robot. “

“Murder one?” Ariel shook her head. “I don’t see how. Those heads of theirs are as hard as a ship’s hull. We could bonk them on the head and not even get their attention.”

All three of them giggled nervously. The tension was broken a little by the hope of taking aggressive action.

“We can’t unfasten their bodies, either,” said Jeff, still grinning. “No tools. Otherwise, we could just sneak up behind them, power up the tools, and leave a little junkpile behind.”

“We could go into business later with used parts,” said Ariel. “Discounted Avery robot parts, cheap.”

“All right, all right.” Derec shook his head. “We don’t actually need any physical violence. The first thing we have to do is get over to that other row, so we can look for one robot walking alone. Let’s crawl back over there.”

It was a very long crawl. Derec had to stop several times on the way to rest. Each time, he worried that the Hunters were going to catch up to them before they could accomplish anything.

Finally they reached the last few tall, leafy stalks before the break in the rows. The three of them huddled at the corner of the row, where Derec could lean forward and look up the slope. Jeff and Ariel sat on his other side, both of them looking around anxiously for Hunters coming from other directions.

“Nothing yet,” said Derec. “That gives me time to explain what I have in mind.”

“I hope more are coming this way,” said Ariel. “What if the bunch going to that assembly point is all there?”

“Good point,” said Derec. “Maybe we should follow them. Just keep a look-out behind us-”

“No good,” said Jeff. “These rows are absolutely straight. If the Hunters come along, they can look straight down the slope and spot us instantly even from the very opening of the pass.”

“We’d better stay here.” Ariel settled into a comfortable position. “Derec, tell us what you’re planning while we have a chance to talk it over.”

“You mentioned their Laws of Humanics.” Derec nodded at Ariel.

“I don’t remember the exact wording, but their provisional First Law of Humanics was to the effect that humans wouldn’t injure another human or let one come to harm through inaction.”

“They just rewrote the First Law of Robotics.” Jeff shrugged.

“The Second Law of Humanics might help us,” said Derec. “It says that humans must only give reasonable orders to a robot and not require anything that would distress it. Their Third Law of Humanics is the best one for us, though. It says that we must not harm a robot or let one come to harm through inaction, unless such harm is needed to help a human or allow a vital order to be carried out.”

“How do you want to use them?” Ariel asked.

“We need to violate the Third Law of Humanics and maybe the Second to prove that this isn’t a utopia even for robots.” Derec looked at them both. “You follow me?”

“So far,” said Jeff.

“How do we do that?” Ariel asked.

“Basically, we have to convince our victim that my physical condition is his fault. “

“All right.” Jeff nodded. “In other words, force it into shutting itself down because it thinks it has violated the First Law. That makes sense to me. We have a better chance of that than of wrestling it to the ground.”

“How?” Ariel demanded. “They aren’t exactly stupid. They’ll know if they’ve harmed you or not.”

“We’ll have to play-act a scene,” said Derec. “I haven’t really figured out the details. Maybe if it thinks it caused you two to attack me, or something like that.”

“I hear footsteps,” said Jeff.

Derec got down low and carefully looked around the nearest plant, up the slope. A lone humanoid robot was coming down the row. Derec gathered his feet under him and waited.

“What are we supposed to do?” Ariel whispered.

“We’ll all have to improvise,” he whispered back, gesturing with his hand. “Quiet.”

Just as the robot reached him, Derec threw himself forward to clutch at the robot’s legs.

“Stop!” Derec called hoarsely, looking up at the robot’s face. He didn’t have to fake his pain any, but he gave vent to it in his facial expression. “You hurt me.”

The robot stopped, looking down at him. “If I did so, it was inadvertent. I apologize.” The robot reached down to take Derec under its arms and lift him.

At the contact, Derec let out a scream and went limp. He slid out of the robot’s grasp to lie on the ground face up.

“You’ve killed him!” Ariel screamed, jumping up. “You murderer, you’ve killed him!”

Derec struggled not to smile at her vehemence. He lay with his eyes open, so he could follow what was happening.

“Looks that way,” said Jeff. “Maybe you ought to shut down, pal. You can’t go around violating the First Law like that.”

The robot was visibly quivering. “I did not harm him. Our contact was minimal and of very low impact. This is a misunderstanding. I will help him find care.”

“No! Don’t you touch him!” Ariel shouted, waving her arms wildly. “You’ll do it again.”

“Humans cannot die more than once,” said ‘;he robot. “Besides, he is not dead.”

“He’s in very bad shape,” said Jeff. “It’s your fault. Do you understand that?”

Derec started grimacing and writhing in pain, with relatively little play-acting required.

“I…could…not have harmed him,” the robot insisted. “My contact…with him…would not damage him.”

The robot’s hesitation revealed his doubt. Derec was encouraged. They just had to keep at it.

“And no reporting to the central computer,” Jeff said suddenly. “I almost forgot. You haven’t done that, have you?”

“No…I was…distracted.”

“Well, don’t. That’s an order. Second Law. Got it?” Jeff demanded, pointing a finger at him.

“Yes…”

“Don’t you think you ought to shut down?” Ariel said forcefully, her hands on her hips. “After doing this to him?”

“I am… not… convinced.”

“If you won’t shut down,” said Jeff, “then we’ll have beat him up ourselves. And that will definitely be your fault.”

“That…is illogical.”

“Are you going to shut down or not?” Ariel demanded.

“No…I will not…”

“Wait a minute,” Derec wheezed, trying to sound as injured as he could. “Do you admit that you are in doubt about this?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should at least agree to come with us where we can discuss it further.”

“That’s right,” said Jeff. “You can’t argue that, can you?”

“Good idea,” said Ariel, looking up the slope. “We, uh, don’t want to be interrupted.”

“Carry me,” Derec said to the robot. “Who are you, anyway? And what do you do?”

“I…am Pei,” said the robot, with somewhat less hesitation. “My task is Architectural Designer.” He bent down and gently picked up Derec. “Where…shall we go?”

“We want to be out of sight of this row,” said Jeff. “But not too far. Uh, let’s cross that row and go to the other side.”

“Very well,” said Pei. “However, we cannot go out of sight of this row unless we go some distance. I see a slight dip in the row ahead that may suffice if we all sit on the ground.”

“Perfect,” said Ariel. “C’mon, let’s hurry.”

With Pei carrying Derec, the group moved quickly for the first time since they had left the Minneapolis. As they walked, Derec relaxed a little and closed his eyes. It was a relief to rest again, even for a few moments before they stopped.

Pei set him down with extreme care. Then the others sat down around him on the damp, soft soil.

“Explain…my transgression…of the First Law,” said Pei. He began quivering a little more again.

Derec, lying with eyes closed, felt guilty about distressing the robot this way. He reminded himself, however, that the same robot was under Avery programming. He would turn them all in if the central computer or the Hunters knew he was with them and instructed him to do so.

Besides, he could be repaired or reprogrammed later with no lasting damage.l can’t, Derec thought. He opened his eyes.

“You harmed me,” Derec asserted as firmly as he could. “Shut yourself down.”

“At least for a while, you know, until you can be checked,” said Ariel. “That’s standard procedure, isn’t it?”

Her phrasing sounded lame to Derec. He realized that she felt guilty about this, too.

“I…must be…convinced,” said Pei.