Even now, he looked about carefully everywhere. The medical team probably still wanted him, and any robot that suspected he was not susceptible to the Laws would be horrified by the idea. They wouldn’t get him, though-not if he was careful.
Then, as the slidewalk carried him underneath some sort of transparent chute, a breeze came wafting to him from a new direction.
Jeff instinctively turned his head and inhaled-and became aware, for the first time, that he normally did not breathe in the usual human manner. Obviously, his brain needed oxygen, but the rest of his body did not require it. As he had with other questions about his new physiology, he dropped the question of how his body was taking in oxygen and supplying it to his brain; the fact of his continued existence proved that some process was working. He guessed that he could inhale largely for the purpose he was using now: to use a sense of smell.
“Magellanic frettage,” he said quietly to himself, recognizing the aroma. He didn’t want to be overheard, but the impulse to talk out loud was getting stronger. “Frettage in a kind of tangy sauce, I’d say. It smells great-I haven’t had any of that in a long time. Let’s go see.”
He stepped off the slidewalk, caught his balance, and started walking in the direction of the scent. His body didn’t need food, apparently, but the desire to taste enjoyable dishes was still with him. A number of his favorite dishes came to him: Magellanic frettage, Kobe steak, jiauzi, fresh strawberries. He wasn’t sure if he could eat even if he wanted to, though he supposed not. Still, he could certainly enjoy smelling the stuff.
He was also hoping to find human companionship. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, Jeffrey ol’ boy. You can’t trust ‘em with the truth, anyhow.”
Traffic was moderately heavy here, but most of it was just function robots, which were no threat to him as they went about their business, unobservant and incurious. A few humanoid robots appeared from time to time, but none showed any interest in him. One robot, however, seemed to stay near Jeff, turning the same corners and walking in the same direction.
Jeff dropped back gradually, keeping a suspicious eye on this one robot. He did not appear to have noticed Jeff, but he had another odd quality. This robot was pushing a small, two wheeled cart in front of him.
The cart, which had four solid gray sides but no lid, was weirdly primitive for this city of robots who could transplant a human brain, raise dynamic, glittering edifices, and guide what looked like a fully functioning society without human help. Lacking even its own power source, the cart was a throwback to ancient times.
Yet here it was.
Derec had continued to code some of Ariel’s better dishes and place them under the fan, though the constant moving from the console to the processor and back prevented him from concentrating on streamlining the recalcitrant computer. He finally decided to take a real break from the computer and follow Ariel’s lead with the chemical processor. At the very least, he might help improve the food they had to eat. Since the better codes had all been preserved, his failures wouldn’t cost them anything, and success might make their existence here much more tolerable.
The Supervisor robots had arranged for them to be given a large supply of basic nutritional requirements in chemical form. These had been augmented by a harvest of edible plants out in the reservoir area. To produce an edible dish, various ingredients were mixed with water in the processor itself, and heated, according to the codes.
He started by trying to make the nutrition bars more tasty. First he got too much vanilla flavoring, though the result was definitely strong in flavor. When he attempted to add a hint of banana, he got something similar to a muddy-tasting Auroran root vegetable. It wasn’t exactly good, but it certainly was different. He erased the code for that one, though he stuck the dish under the fan. Maybe his quarry liked Auroran root vegetables.
Ariel’s bacon was nearly perfect, so he didn’t mess with that. His first attempt at Magellanic frettage had come out more like over-boiled tyricus leaves in blue cheese, so he had recycled that one without even exhausting the aroma. Another attempt at that had been more successful, and the aroma was being fanned outside right now. He was trying to create a banana pudding when Ariel came back in.
“Yuck!” She winced and stuck out her tongue. “And I thought my stuff stunk. Frost, Derec, what did you kill in here?”
He laughed. “You’re smelling my first batch of Magellanic frettage. The second one is better, and this new dish should also work. Banana pudding should be easy, don’t you think?”
“If we don’t die from the tyricus fumes first. Did my stuff smell this bad? If it did, I owe you an apology.”
“No, not really. Could you smell anything outside?”
“Oh, yes. Basically, we’re in pretty good shape. The configuration of the surrounding buildings has created a pretty constant horizontal wind, going from the fan, let’s see, that way.” She jerked her thumb. “The robot traffic is fairly heavy in that direction, so they can all help direct our people here. Now we just have to hope they get close enough to ask.”
“The other way, though, nobody will smell anything.”
“True, but the robots are circulating on their normal activities. They’ll be spreading out allover the place.”
“Okay. I hope this works. We’ve done just about everything.” She nodded. “If you want to take a turn stretching your legs, I’ll take over here.”
“Thanks. I think that pudding needs more water.”
Derec strode outside with a spring in his step, glad to be in the open for a change. In the distance, however, the great shining dome of the Key Center seemed to taunt him. He refused to have his mood dampened, and turned away from it to start walking.
More out of curiosity than necessity, he located the breeze that she had mentioned. The banana pudding smelled pretty good, though he supposed starving people might prefer something more solid and nutritious. He stepped onto a slidewalk, but kept walking in a large rectangle around the general area. Actually spotting their human visitors didn’t seem as unlikely as it once had, even if that was only a new optimism. As he came downwind of the breeze from the fan again, he was pleasantly surprised to recognize the scent of a decent dish of Magellanic frettage carried along by it. Perhaps her extra practice with the processor was paying off. Now that he had loosened up a little, he decided that he might as well head back. Waiting was still waiting, whether he sat inside or marched aimlessly around town.
When he arrived, Ariel was leaning in the doorway. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when she saw him.
“What are you doing back so soon? I thought the whole idea was for us to take turns in getting away for a bit.”
“I did get away. Now I’m back.”
“Frost, Derec. If I’d known that was all you were going to do, I would have stayed out longer myself. I came back early just for you.”
“I wouldn’t have cared if you’d stayed out longer. I didn’t ask you to come back early.”
“Well, do you mind if I go for another walk?”
“Of course not! Why are you making such a big deal of this?” As he waited for an answer, he stepped back from a humanoid robot walking toward them, assuming that the robot wanted to pass by.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said irritably. “I guess this do-nothing phase just doesn’t suit me very well.”
The robot did not walk past them. He looked at Derec closely as, without stopping, he moved past him through the doorway.
“Hey,” Derec said in surprise. “Can we help you? This is a private residence. Ours, that is.”
The robot turned and looked back and forth between them.
“Identify yourself, “ Ariel commanded.
“Uh…” The robot seemed uncertain, which was very rare in a robot.
“I gave you an instruction. Now identify yourself!”