Predator

7

While the humans ate dinner, Hunter found his way to the storage and manufacturing centers of the city. On his way, he had the city computer introduce him to the supervisory robots through their comlinks to save time. He spent several hours waiting for the clothing and equipment to be assembled.

Once he had given the supervisory robots a top priority order, they left only a small staff on necessary operations and assigned the remainder to Hunter’s unusual requests. By the time he had finished gathering everything to his satisfaction, Jane had called him from the hotel to say that the three humans were retiring for the night.

Hunter spent the rest of the night inspecting the gear and packing it into bundles. With his robotic strength, he could carry the greatest amount of it in a large backpack without a problem. Steve would carry another pack with the remainder. Chad and Jane would be burdened only with small packs in which their immediate needs were stored. He wanted them to be as free as possible to concentrate on their basic task, helping him catch MC Governor.

In the morning, Hunter sent a Security robot to pick up the humans when they had finished breakfast. Meanwhile, he went directly to the Bohung Institute. In Room F-12, with the help of Ishihara, he disabled the miniaturization system. Then he instructed Ishihara to wait outside the room and prevent any unauthorized robots or humans from entering until further notice. Hunter was ready for the humans when they arrived.

“We briefed Steve last night,” said Jane. “About MC Governor going microscopic and fleeing back in time, not realizing that the miniaturization is temporary. We discussed it after dinner while we walked around the city seeing the sights.”

“His part is simple enough,” said Chad. “He does the camping. We’ll find MC Governor.”

Steve nodded toward the packs. “You got everything, then, Hunter?”

“Everything on my list,” said Hunter. “Do any of you have any late additions?”

No one did.

“All right,” said Hunter. “I have a khaki, biodegradable worksuit, like the one I am wearing, for each of you. They have plenty of pockets for your personal items. Change in the next room if you prefer.”

The three humans took turns changing their clothes and returned. All of them looked down at themselves and at each other with self -conscious grins. Their worksuits fit perfectly, of course.

“One final briefing,” said Hunter. “Are you familiar with chaos theory as applied to history?”

“As a paleontologist, yes,” said Chad.

“I haven’t heard it actually discussed,” said Jane. “I think I can see how it would be applied.”

“What kind of theory?” Steve asked.

Chad laughed.

Hunter ignored him. “According to traditional chaos theory, chaotic systems are irreversible-events cause a sequence of ongoing effects similar to ripples in water after a splash. No one can stop them.”

“Wouldn’t that make time travel impossible?” Steve asked cautiously.

“Oh, now he’s a physicist,” Chad sneered.

Hunter ignored that, too. “Theoretically, yes. If we can go back in time by using the machinery in this room, however, we will be proving an uncertainty principle in this theory that has existed for a long time. Our own problem, however, is this: any actions MC Governor takes, particularly after he returns to normal size, may cause ripples in events, ripples that will be huge by the time they reach the present. I must find him to prevent him from harming every human who has ever lived.”

“That part sounds easy enough to understand,” said Steve. “That’s why we’re chasing him in the first place.”

“But once we are back in time, we have the same problem. Anything we do could cause ripples-we have to make as few changes of note as possible.” Hunter looked each one of them in the eye, in turn. “Do you understand how critical this point is? We must return with all of our equipment. In every way, we have to have as little influence on our environment as possible. Understood?”

Steve and Jane nodded.

“Our very presence is going to create some changes,” said Chad. “We’ll consume oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, give off body heat, step on the grass. We can’t avoid making some changes. Let’s not kid ourselves, Hunter.”

“We are not,” said Hunter. “No one knows where the line is drawn between actions that the time line will absorb and what will make permanent changes.”

An uncomfortable silence followed.

“Are we following MC Governor to the exact moment he went to?” Jane asked. “How long will we be there before he returns to normal size?”

“Within twenty-four hours,” said Hunter. “We will not follow him to the direct moment. I have calculated how long the miniaturization is likely to last. We will be landing as close to the moment it ends as I can calculate. Also, we will be moving geographically, with the movement of the planet. That was part of MC Governor’s calculation, which I’ve duplicated.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Chad.

“Time to go,” said Hunter. He pushed a button on the control panel that opened the big sphere. “Everyone climb in. When you are comfortable, I will place the gear in around you and get in myself.”

As the others entered, Hunter punched instructions into the control panel. Its timer was already running by the time he joined them and sealed the hatch behind him. The quartet was crowded, and since the bottom of the sphere was curved, everyone and everything slid together. In a moment, however, a quiet hum sounded outside the sphere. No one moved.

Suddenly sunlight replaced the darkness as the sphere vanished. In the next instant, Hunter felt himself fall seventeen centimeters, landing on soft soil with a thump. He turned to see if the humans were hurt. No one seemed to be.

All of them were looking around in amazement. They were outside, of course, sitting among their scattered packs. Most of their surroundings were forested, but beyond the canopy of trees, the sky was blue and the sun bright.

Hunter inhaled deeply, and his internal sensors analyzed the content of the air. It was not extremely different from what he had experienced before, except for somewhat less methane and, of course, no industrial pollutants of any kind, even in trace amounts. The air was far more humid than that of the desert, or even of the controlled atmosphere in Mojave Center. By these initial data, he judged that they had apparently arrived at their destination.

“A primeval forest,” Jane said in awe. She looked around slowly in all directions. “It’s the real thing. We’re actually here.”

“Better not get hurt,” said Chad. “It’s a long way to a hospital-millions of years.”

Steve got to his feet, also glancing around. “It’s afternoon already.”

“What of it?” Chad demanded, also getting up. “We have hours of daylight left.”

“It may take hours to find a natural source of water and a safe place to camp.”

“We have water,” said Hunter. “As much as we can carry, in these containers. Rationed, it will last us a couple of days.”

“You hired me to handle this kind of thing,” Steve said hotly. “What if it takes us days to find water? Back home, we could chew leaves for the moisture if necessary-but here we don’t know which plants might be poisonous to us.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, hotshot,” said Chad. ‘We have to find a robot. If we find him soon, we can just go right home. Suppose you let us handle the scheduling.”

“Then I’ll look for water alone!” Steve turned and stomped away through the trees. In the dense forest, he was out of sight quickly.

Hunter, watching him in some alarm, turned up his aural sensitivity. He did not hear the sound of any particularly large, heavy footsteps that threatened immediate danger. “Be extremely careful, please,” he called after Steve.

“The First Law requires that I protect all of you,” Hunter said to Chad and Jane. “But Steve may have a point. I hired him to take care of your human needs, and water is an obvious one.”

“Let’s make our plans,” said Jane. “If we’re lucky, we can catch MC Governor without having to camp out here.”

“All right,” said Hunter. “I have calculated the radius of the circle within which MC Governor can probably be found.”

“He may have had no reason to go anywhere,” said Jane, looking down at her feet. “We could be standing on him.”

“At his size, he would sustain no damage if we were,” said Hunter. He stepped back. Carefully measuring the distance from the center of their landing point, he paced off a line into the trees. He was out of sight for a moment, then quickly returned. “I have marked a radius of 15.4 meters. Our visibility here is about twelve meters.”

“How are you going to mark it?” Chad asked. “Blaze the trees?”

“No,” said Hunter. “Unnecessary damage to tree trunks is the kind of action we must avoid. I am going to walk around the perimeter of the area. Watch me to see if I am out of sight for very long.”

When Hunter had finished his circle, making minor adjustments to avoid natural obstacles, he turned to Jane. “How is the visibility?”

“Not too good,” said Jane. “This circle is what, about thirty meters across?”

“Approximately, yes.”

“I’d say the average visibility here is only twelve meters, maybe twenty in spots,” said Chad.

“Then we may have to rely on hearing MC Governor’s footsteps and movements through the forest when he returns to full size,” said Hunter. “We may or may not be able to see him.”

“When we do see him or hear him,” said Chad, “how do we catch him?”

“The First and Second Laws of Robotics,” said Jane. “If MC Governor believes that a human is in danger, then he will have to stop to help under the First Law. If he is within hearing of a human voice, he can be ordered to stop and cooperate. Hunter alone, of course, can’t use the Laws against him, being a robot himself.”

“I get the picture,” said Chad.

“We must set a trap for MC Governor,” said Hunter. “One that uses the Laws of Robotics on him, but not on me.”

“Can we discuss it here, just like that?” Chad looked down at the ground. “I know he’s microscopic, but can’t he still hear us?”

“No,” said Jane. “His aural sensitivity is still strong, but with the difference in the size of his sensors, the sound of our voices will be too heavily distorted for him to understand. He won’t even realize that human voices are speaking. His current existence has more immediate threats from microbes. The Third Law will force him to focus all his sensors on sights and sounds that signify danger on his level. He has no reason to expect human voices here, anyway.”

“I accept your judgment,” said Hunter. “That is why I wanted a roboticist along, after all.”

“I’m convinced,” said Chad. “So what kind of trap are you talking about?”

“One with a dinosaur or two,” said Hunter. “I want you to choose one that will look dangerous to MC Governor, but is actually herbivorous and not too large. If a meat-eater approaches any of you humans, the First Law will force me to intervene.”

“All right,” said Chad, sliding his belt computer free. “I’ll see what’s likely to be around here. Some of the herbivores might attack if they feel endangered, or stampede over someone if they’re scared. Their choice of diet is not the only threat they can present.”

“Excellent point,” said Hunter. “Go ahead with your research and then we will discuss the choices.”

Steve hurried away from the others angrily, impatient with their carelessness. He did a lot of hiking in the desert and knew that nature, unlike robots, was indifferent to human needs. Humans needed water, shelter, and latrines in their camp as soon as possible.

“Besides,” he said to himself, “if Hunter doesn’t want my advice, why is he paying me to be here?”

He found the footing difficult in the dense forest. Small animals rustled through the leaves of trees and in the underbrush. The few he was able to glimpse looked a lot like the reptiles he had seen in the Mojave Desert, though not exactly. Soon he was sweating.

“My body’s not used to this humidity,” he told himself. “Better slow down.”

Wiping sweat from his eyes with his forearm, he turned around, checking for landmarks. That was routine on his hikes through unfamiliar areas. Here, the trees and bushes offered much more variety than the scrub on the barren, rocky bluffs and open desert where he usually explored. He noted the appearance of a particularly large, crooked tree trunk with low-hanging branches and then turned around to look forward again.

“All right,” he said to himself quietly. In the desert, water was in the water table under the valley floor. Residents gathered water from snow melt and some, times from mountain springs. Natural water attracted birds. He could see them from a long way off in open country. That wouldn’t work here, where birds were in every tree. He couldn’t see the sky anyway.

The ground was rough and uneven, but it generally sloped away from the group’s landing point. Steve shrugged and picked his way in that direction. “Water flows downhill.”

Steve hiked through the forest for what seemed like a long time. He was aware, however, that moving through strange territory always seemed to take longer than it really did. Carefully keeping track of his trail, he pushed on through the forest. Still, he found no water.

He was just stepping over the large, angled, trunk of a fallen tree when a large motion ahead made him freeze. Through the leaves and branches straight ahead, he saw a large dinosaur clearly for the first time.

At first, all he could see was a long, narrow neck and a small head-but the head was nearly two meters off the ground. It had large eyes and a rough, horny beak. The shape of the head and beak together resembled that of a goose. The dinosaur was dark green, giving it camouflage in the forest. As Steve watched, it leaned forward, peering at a dead branch on a tree that was still standing.

Steve had once been very excited to find a rock with a fossil of some sort of tiny fish. That had been nothing compared to seeing a living dinosaur. He crept forward, taking care to keep his footsteps quiet.

The dinosaur dipped its head, looking closely at the dead branch. Steve eased between a couple of bushes, planting his feet softly, and slipped behind a thick tree trunk. Then he peered around it slowly.

The dinosaur was raking at the dead branch with long claws on the ends of long fingers. As it ripped away chunks of dead wood, swarms of crawling insects were exposed. It flicked its tongue at them, licking them up quickly. Now Steve could see that it stood on two long legs, with heavy hindquarters and a meter-long tail.

“Wow,” he whispered to himself.