Predator

11

Steve had breakfast ready by the time Jane and Chad were dressed and out of the tent. Soon enough, the team was ready to start the day. Steve wore a small day pack with food and water for them both. It was enough for them to stay out of camp until sundown.

“Here is the transmitter,” Hunter said, handing Jane a tiny metal bead.

“It’s turned on all the time?” Steve asked, studying the transmitter in Jane’s fingers.

“Yes. It has no clip, so I suggest you button it securely in one of your pockets,” said Hunter.

“All right.” Jane did so.

“I will have my comlink fixed on your frequency,” said Hunter. “It emits beeps at regular intervals, so I can track your position at all times. But I must trust you to call for help at the first sign of danger.”

“We will,” said Jane. “I’m ready.”

“Have fun with the mighty forest hunter,” Chad said snidely to Jane.

Ignoring Chad, Steve nodded to Hunter and led Jane to the spot where MC 1 had last been seen. He pointed to the faint footprints the robot had left. Jane nodded and followed him through the forest.

“Tracking is a lot easier out in the desert,” said Steve, crouching low to study the ground again. “The soft sand retains clearer footprints.”

“Will we be able to track him through the forest?” Jane asked. “Even after he quits running?”

“Yeah. It’s just tougher.” Steve fingered a broken twig. “An animal, say a dinosaur, could have done this. But it’s a fairly fresh break, so it was probably made by MC 1.” He reached up to a bigger branch and started to “break it.

“Stop it! What are you doing?” She grabbed his wrist and pulled it away.

“I’m blazing a trail, so we can find our way back. We aren’t going to find any road signs out here.” He smiled and started to break the branch again.

“You can’t!” She pulled his arm away. “Remember the historical theory Hunter talked about?”

“Aw, come on. You mean breaking a couple of branches is going to stunt human evolution forever?” He pointed in the direction MC 1 had taken. “What about him? He’s snapping twigs every time he runs into a tree. And he’s stomping on the grass-horrors! So are we!” He laughed, looking at the soft, cool turf under his feet.

“I know.” Jane smiled patiently, but she kept her hold on his arm. “Yes, he’s making small changes here. And we are, too. But it’s important-very important, Steve-for us not to make any changes we can avoid.”

“But breaking these twigs doesn’t even kill the tree or the bush.”

“I agree that it doesn’t seem too serious,” said Jane. “But the theory says that all changes keep expanding, like ripples in a pool of water. Maybe these twigs are going to drop specific seeds whose descendants will mutate in a certain way, or feed a certain animal. You see what I mean?”

“I guess.”

“In fact, I’m afraid it’s possible that the impact of our being here has already caused terrible harm to the time we come from.”

Steve shook his head. “None of us should have come back here, including MC Governor.”

“I don’t blame you for not believing it,” said Jane, releasing his arm. “These calculations are very complex and the theory requires a lot of abstraction. I’m sure you don’t have much experience with this kind of thing.”

“Thanks a lot.” Steve pulled fully away from her. “You highly educated geniuses can’t even find your way around in nature after you leave an artificial environment. Come on, follow the desert rat.”

He hurried away, looking up at the trees for unusual shapes and markings. As long as he was careful, he could keep track of their trail this way. Still, he wished they had landed in a desert, where his everyday habits from back home would have been more useful.

Hunter, continuously monitoring the beep from Jane’s transmitter, generally trusted Steve’s ability in the wild and knew he could track MC 1 better than the other two humans. Also, Hunter had teamed him with Jane in the belief that she was more compatible with him than Chad. Still, they might easily stumble across that velociraptor or another predator, and Hunter was worried that he was skirting the edge of the First Law by letting them go without him.

He kept all of these thoughts to himself, of course. His experience with humans was limited, but he had been programmed with certain basic data on human psychology. He knew that they needed to have confidence in his leadership.

As Hunter reviewed these thoughts, he and Chad carried the water containers to the stream that Steve had found. They filled them and lugged the water back to the camp. Hunter bore most of the weight, but Chad insisted on doing his share.

Hunter had calculated before they had left that the three humans would require four and a half liters of water a day. As a humanoid robot, he needed a smaller amount, to replenish his simulated saliva and perspiration. Once the water had been stored in camp, he picked up some materials he could adapt for fishing. He and Chad returned to the stream, carrying their lassos.

The stream was only about a meter wide here, occasionally broadening into pools about twice that size. Hunter judged the average depth at one and a half meters; the water ran fast enough to be fairly clear. The heavy canopy of trees arched over it and the roots of thick trunks were exposed at intervals along the bank.

“My hearing is turned up,” said Hunter. “It tells me that all kinds of animals are nearby in the forest. Have you seen any of them?”

“Only glimpses,” said Chad. “I haven’t had a good look at them. Can you tell from the sound if any of them are a good riding size?”

“Many of them are,” said Hunter. “My concern under the First and Third Laws is that I cannot tell which ones are predators waiting for a kill and which ones are herbivores hiding from us in case we are the predators.”

“In a sense we are,” said Chad, grinning. “We’re just not going to eat the ones we catch.”

“True.” Hunter nodded, not sure why Chad thought his comment was amusing. “I cannot see them well enough to pick out different species, either. As a paleontologist, what do you suggest as a course of action?”

Chad did not answer right away. He looked up and down the stream and around the forest. “You know, the animals here don’t have the ingrained fear of humans that wild animals in our own time have. They’re being cautious around us, but I think if we sit down quietly, maybe some of them will come into sight for a drink of water.”

“Ah. A change in our approach sounds very good. Suppose we fish in the stream and see what happens around us.”

“Fine.”

“Here. This thread is quite strong. I pulled it out of the seam of one of the packs. That little buckle is also from the pack and will act as a sinker. You know how to use these?”

“Yes,” said Chad. “I’ve read about fishing. What was this hook made from?”

“A latch on one of the storage cases. I twisted it into that shape.”

“I see.” Chad sat down on a rock near the edge of the water and carefully tied the gear together. “Say, what do I use for bait?”

“Oh, yes.” Hunter looked around in the air for a moment. He spotted a couple of insects fluttering around a small bush. Slowly, he stepped toward them, raising his hand. Then, using his highly precise eye-hand coordination, he snatched one out of the air.

“Wow.” Chad stared at him in shock.

“The local fish eat these all the time,” said Hunter, as he tied the insect to the line just above the hook. “I judge that since we are taking the risk of fishing anyway, this is the best bait to use. If we use something we brought with us, and it affects the water or is taken by a fish that gets away, we do not know what consequence may result.”

“I see,” said Chad, gently lowering his line into the water with his hands.

“I will bring you a dead branch you can use for a pole,” said Hunter.

“Thanks.”

Hunter moved to a half-fallen dead tree. As he grasped a meter-long branch and gently ripped it from the trunk, he questioned his wisdom in bringing the human team with him. If he had come to this time period alone, he could simply be chasing down MC 1 this minute.

Of course, he reminded himself, if a direct physical pursuit had failed for some reason, he would still have wanted Jane’s expert understanding of robotics and Chad’s knowledge of dinosaurs. So that line of consideration merely took him in a circle. Returning the humans to their own time and coming back here alone would be no solution either.

Hunter returned to Chad, handing him the branch without a word. Chad tied the line to end of the branch carefully, then grinned up at Hunter. “Now I just wait. Did you bring fishing materials for yourself too?”

“No need, I believe,” said Hunter. “I’ll find out.” He picked his way downstream several meters and then crouched on the bank. For a moment, he remained absolutely motionless except for his eyes as he watched dark shapes slipping lazily in the water below him.

Chad said nothing, watching him.

Once Hunter had studied the swimming motion and reflexes of the fish below him, he slowly moved his hand into the water and held it still. After a moment of warily darting away, the fish returned to their former movements. Then Hunter quickly reached down and grabbed one by the gills. In the same moment, he stood up, raising the wriggling fish out of the water and over the bank. It was big enough to eat.

“What do you think?”

“Wow,” Chad said again.

For most of the day, Steve tracked MC 1 steadily through the forest. In some areas the tracks were very clear. Sometimes he had to stop and look closely. They ate lunch at midday and plodded on.

Late in the afternoon, Steve stopped and turned to Jane. “I don’t know that we’re accomplishing anything. Have you seen anything important?”

“We’ve been zigzagging and circling all day, haven’t we?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“MC 1 isn’t just running straight away, is he? For distance, I mean.”

“Well-” Steve stopped, considering. “I guess he isn’t. If we were chasing him with hounds, I’d say he was doubling back and crossing his own path to confuse the scent. But he must know that we didn’t bring any hounds. So I’m not sure why he’s doing this.”

“I suppose he might access stored data about creating evasive patterns under certain conditions. The one truth about studying a robot’s behavior is that it will be absolutely logical according to his own interpretation of his data and the Three Laws.”

Steve nodded.

“Can you tell how old the track is?”

“No. If we were talking about a difference of a day or so, I might be able to. But we know he’s been at normal size less than a day. I can’t judge the age of these tracks in hours.” He shrugged.

“I see.”

“Well, he’s still running.” Steve pointed to the robot’s footprints at their feet. “He’s humaniform, so he runs with essentially the same motion as a human. See how the front of the footstep is deeper than the rest of it?”

“Yes. The heel mark hardly shows at all.”

“His weight is all forward, meaning he’s running, and the tracks we’ve seen show that he’s been running most of time. He seems to stop sometimes, maybe to get his bearings or to avoid a predatory dinosaur. Still, he’s moving much faster than we are. We’ll never catch him without those mounts.”

“Well, didn’t I say we shouldn’t expect to? We came out here today to see what his habits are, that’s all.”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember,” Steve said wearily. “But haven’t you seen anything yet?”

“Well, I see that he’s meandering all over the place. I just don’t know what it means yet.”

“Why not? You’re the robotics expert, aren’t you?” Steve grinned, wiping sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his worksuit. “Isn’t this why Hunter brought along a sheltered, pampered intellectual?”

Jane’s face tightened. “It’s a sure thing you can’t figure out what he’s doing.”

“No one expects me to. In fact-” Steve stopped suddenly, looking at something ahead of them in the woods. He thought he saw two very human-looking eyes peering at him through the heavy foliage.

Jane looked too.

Suddenly MC 1 straightened up and slipped away through the underbrush.

“Stop!” Jane yelled. “I order you to stop! MC 1-Mojave Center component robot! You have to stop!”

“Come on!” Steve started after him, shoving through some branches.

“Stop!” Jane yelled again, hurrying after him.

Steve had to protect his eyes from the leaves and branches he plunged into, pushing them aside with both hands, In only a few steps, however, he realized that the robot was out of sight again. The footsteps were as clear as before, but MC 1 was running again. They couldn’t possibly catch him.

Jane collided with Steve from behind.

“Take it easy,” said Steve. “He’s gone.”

She nodded, panting. “He still must have his hearing turned off, as I said yesterday. The Second Law wouldn’t have let him run away from me otherwise.”

“He was watching us,” said Steve. “He could be watching us right now.”

“He can’t hear us, though. He wouldn’t dare risk it.” Jane looked around, as if she could find him again. “I think that answers our question, though.”

“Huh? Which one?”

“About his route. He isn’t just trying to get away from us. I think his plan is to stay out of our control, but to keep an eye on us.”

“You mean he’s been watching us all day long?”

“I think so.”

“Why didn’t we see him before? Why now?”

“Chance, maybe,” said Jane. “Or maybe he got a little careless after escaping our notice all day long.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Steve grinned. “If we hadn’t followed him, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere. We could have saved ourselves a day-long hike.”

“Maybe so.” She smiled.

He looked up at the sun through the trees. “Well, that discovery is worth something. But we’re running out of daylight. Time to head back to camp while I can still remember the landmarks.”

The now-famous prototype of the highly successful “Hunter” class robot first demonstrated his remarkable abilities in the Mohave Center Governor case. The following images are drawn from the Robot City archives of Derec Avery, the eminent historian on robotics.

Hunter Sensenet Configured for Speech.Designed to hunt the missing Governor Robots, Hunter has a remarkable range of specialized abilities. He can alter his shape and size to adjust to different environments or cultures. Shown here is the sensory network underneath Hunter’s skin when he is in speech-mode.

Mojave Center Governor’s Waiting Room.Even in an underground city, robot labor allows for comfortable surroundings. This is the prototype city’s Governor Robot waiting room, intended for humans who are waiting to see the Governor. Local humans and robots contact MC Governor directly or through his link to Mojave Center’s main computer.

Main Sensenet Pathways in Governor Robot’s Face.Designed to administer a major city and to cope effectively with any crises that city might encounter, Governor Robots contain multifunctional sensor arrays underneath their skin. These arrays tap the combined abilities of all six specialized positronic brains which combine to form a Governor Robot.

Mojave Center as Viewed from the Ridge near Steve’s home.Solar panels are the only surface sign of the prototype underground city. The ultramodern underground design relieves overcrowding while minimizing environmental impact.

Hunter Sensenet Configuration in Scan Mode.Underneath R. Hunter’s skin is an advanced sensory network which augments his tracking and survival abilities. Hunter is capable of adjusting his sensitivity to outside conditions, increasing and decreasing sensory input in response to environmental conditions.

Mojave Center Governor.In its fully assembled state, the Governor Robot resembles an oversized humaniform robot. This simple exterior actually contains six separate robots, capable of combining their positronic brains to perform functions too complex for even the most sophisticated individual robots. Each of the six modules is also capable of functioning as a separate, highly-specialized robot.

Hunter on the Back of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.When the stampede backfires, Hunter desperately attempts to save his team from the most voracious of all dinosaurs.

Starting the Stampede.Steve, Jane and Hunter attempt to stampede a dinosaur herd to prevent MC1’s escape.

Governor Robot Mitosis at Peak Polyfurcation.Governor Robots are capable of splitting into six separate, fully-functional robots, each specializing in a particular area of local administration.

The Tower Containing Room F-12 at The Bohung Institute.The Bohung Institute is the leading research facility in the underground city of Mojave Center. Room F-12 contains the miniaturization equipment which MC Governor uses to create a time-travel mechanism.

The Capture of the Struthiomimus.Hunter and his team must acquire fast mounts to capture the evasive MC1. Here, they lasso a small dinosaur.

Governor Robot in the Early Stages of Neural Net Mitosis.The six separate positronic brains which give the Mojave Center Governor Robot its enormous administrative abilities are here seen in the process of separation into specialized modules/robots.