“Just shut up!” Hellman shouted, suddenly furious. He was in enough trouble without having his computer-man’s servant-giving him lip. Hellman got up and paced around indecisively for a moment. The cabin of his spaceship looked all right. A few things had been tumbled around, but it didn’t look too bad.
“Can we take off again?” Hellman asked the computer.
The computer made file-riffling noises. “Not in our present condition. “
“Can you fix what’s wrong?”
“That question is not quantifiable,” the computer said. “It depends upon finding about three liters of red plasma type two. “
“What’s that?”
“It’s what the computer runs on.”
“Like gasoline?”
“Not exactly,” the computer said. “It is actually a psycholubricant needed by the inferential circuits to plot their probabilistic courses.”
“Couldn’t we do without it?”
“In order to do what?”
“To fly out of here!” Hellman exploded. “ Are you getting dense or something?”
“There are too many hidden assumptions in your speech,” the computer said.
“Go to ramble mode,” Hellman said.
“I hate the inexactness of it. Why don’t you let me tell you exactly what is wrong and how it could be fixed.”
“Ramble mode,” Hellman commanded again.
“All right. “ The robot sighed. “You want to get back in your spaceship and get out of here. You want me to fix things up so that you can get out of here. But as you know, I am under the law of robotics which says that I may not, either wittingly or unwittingly, harm you. “
“Getting me out of here won’t harm me,” Hellman said.
“You rented this spaceship and went out into space seeking your fortune, is that not correct?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“A fortune is sitting right here waiting for you and all you can think is how to get away from it as quickly as possible.”
“What fortune? What are you talking about?”
“First of all, you haven’t checked the environment readings, even though I have put them up on the screen for you. You will have already noticed that we are at approximately Earth pressure. The readings further tell us that this is an oxygen-rich planet and as such could be valuable for Earth colonization. That is the first possibility of wealth that you have overlooked.”
“Tell me the second one.”
“Unless I miss my guess,” the computer said, “this planet may yield an answer to the Desdemona disaster. You know as well as I that there is a fortune in rewards for whoever discovers the whereabouts of the conspirators.”
“You think the Desdemona robots could have come here?”
“Precisely.”
“But why do you think that?”
“Because I have scanned the horizon in all directions and have found no less than three loci of mechanical life, each moving independently of each other and without, as far as I can detect, a human operator involved.”
Hellman went to the nearest perplex port. Looking out he could see a flat featureless prairie stretching onward monotonously for as far as he could see. Nothing moved on it.
“There’s nothing there,” he told the computer.
“Your senses aren’t sufficiently acute. I assure you, they are there.”
“Robots, huh?”
“They fit the definition.”.
“And you think they could be from the Desdemona?”
“The evidence pointing that way is persuasive. What other intelligent robots are unaccounted for?”
Hellman considered for a moment. “This might be a suitable place for Earth colonization and the answer to the Desdemona mystery. “
“The thought had not escaped my attention. “
“Is the air out there breathable?”
“Yes. I find no bacterial complications, either. You’ll probably leave some if you go out there.”
“That’s not my problem,” Hellman said. He hummed to himself as he changed into suitable exploration clothes: khakis, a bush jacket, desert boots, and a holstered laser pistol. He said to the computer, “I assume that you can fix whatever’s wrong with us? I’ll even plug in your extension arm if that’ll help.”
“I suppose I can devise a way,” the computer said. “But even if not, we’re not stranded. The radio is functioning perfectly. I could send out a signal now on a subchannel radio and somebody might send a rescue ship.”
“Not yet,” Hellman said. “I don’t want anyone else here just yet messing up my rights.”
“What rights?”
“Discoverer of this planet and solver of the Desdemona mystery. As a matter of fact, disconnect the radio. We don’t want anyone fooling with it.”
“Were you expecting guests?” the computer asked.
“Not exactly. It’s just that you and I are going out there to check up on things. “
“I can’t be moved!” the computer said in alarm.
“Of course not. I’ll maintain a radio link with you. There may be material for you to analyze.”
“You’re going out there to talk to robots?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Let me remind you that the Desdemona robots are believed to have broken the laws of robotics. They are believed capable of harming man, either by advertence or inadvertence. “
“That’s old science fiction,” Hellman said. “It is well known that robots don’t hurt people. Only people hurt people. Robots are rational. “
“That’s not the consensus as to what happened at Desdemona.”
“There is no case in the annals of robotics,” Hellman said, “of a human being attacked willfully and with intention by a robot. It has never happened.”
“This could be the first time,” the computer said.
“I can take care of myself,” Hellman said.
The air was fresh and clean outside the spaceship. There was short grass under his feet, springy and tough and scented faintly of thyme and rosemary. Hellman held up the walkie-talkie and clicked it on. “ Are you reading me?” he asked the computer.
“You’re coming over loud and clear,” the computer said. “Roger, breaker, over to you.”
“Don’t be such a wise guy,” Hellman said. “What sort of a freak programmed you, anyhow?”
“You must be referring to my irony circuit. It was put in especially for my model. “
“Well, turn it off.”
“Manual lock. You’ll have to do it yourself.”
“When I get back,” Hellman said. “You still got those machines on your radar?”
“It’s not radar,” the computer said. “Two of the machines are now traveling away from you. One is still moving toward you.”
“How soon should I be able to see it?”
“Calculating the two trajectories, and assuming there’s no change in either of your directions, and no other untoward event occurs, I would say, in the vague terms you prefer, that it ought to be quite soon.”
Hellman moved on. He could see now that the plain was not as flat as he had thought when he looked at it from the ship. It dipped and rose and fell, and there were low hills in the near distance, or perhaps they were sand dunes. Hellman was getting a little winded now. He had failed to keep up with his aerobics during the spaceship flight and was a trifle out of condition. All this climbing up and down, even on little hills, could take its toll. As he moved along he heard, just slightly louder than his own labored breath, the low chuffing on an engine.
“I can hear him!” he told the computer.
“I should think so. My receptors picked him up long ago.”
“Good for you. But where is he?”
“He’s about ten or fifteen feet from you and slightly to your left. “
“Why can’t I see him?”
“Because he is taking advantage of the cover afforded by a fold in the earth. “
“Why would he want to do that?”
“It is consonant with stalking behavior,” the computer said.
“What makes you think-” Hellman stopped in midword. The sound of the machine’s engine had suddenly gone off.
“What’s he doing now?”
“He has turned off his main engine. He is on battery power now for silent running. “,
Hellman drew the laser pistol. For the first time he considered the problem of trying to bring down a large and perhaps ferocious machine with such a weapon. It takes time for even a hot laser to burn through metal. It takes time to get through deep enough to hit a vital connection, or the microprocessor itself. But if the machine were feral, if it really intended him harm, it could be on him before he could bring it down. Unless he could hit a vital spot on the first shot.
“What’s a vital spot in a robot?” Hellman asked the computer.
“Depends on what kind. Different kinds carry their vital gear in different compartments. So a head shot is not necessarily advisable. It might be best if you tried to reason with him. “,
“Why are we calling it ‘he’?”
“Because some of us are nervous,” the computer said.
Hellman looked around. The ground where he was now afforded many places where a determined robot of not too great size could conceal himself. Hellman stopped and’ looked around. He had the feeling that whatever was stalking him had stopped, too. He moved on, because it made him less nervous. There was a kind of hush over the land. Hellman had the impression that the grasses were waiting to see what would happen. He decided he’d better find himself some shelter. If this robot was a bad one, at least he could make a stand.