Ariel laughed. “That’s diamonds are forever, I believe.”
“My robots will endure beyond the cheap glitter of geological accidents.”
Derec started to stand up, but Ariel’s gentle pressure on his shoulder kept him seated. “Doctor,” she said, “I admire florid language as much as the next gal, but what in Frost’s name do you mean?”
Avery’s eyes squinted and his head tilted slightly, as if he could not comprehend how he could be misunderstood. “My dear, a robot is, although manmade, the finest stage of humanity, the ideal toward which you puny, disease-prone, uncertain beings should aspire. Instead, you don’t even respect them. You order them about, treat them as servants.”
“Not true,” Ariel said. “We do respect them. Most of us.”
“But not all,” Avery said smugly.
“At any rate, they were created as servants,” Derec said, “adjuncts to human laborers in industry, maids in private homes.”
“Yes, they were enslaved at first. But I have liberated them. I have created communities for them where they can exist without the continual interference of the human race, cities more magnificent than the overcrowded hovels of Earth and the brutally isolated homes of Aurora. I’ve-”
.”Wait, wait,” Ariel said. “With due respect, sir, these robot cities are designed as relatively perfect environments for humans-to-come. Yet, you say they’re really for the robots?”
“Very good, Ariel. You catch on quickly. I’ve had to tell my robots that they were building for humans. The Laws of Robotics demand that. They must at least think they are here to protect humans, to follow orders from humans. Rarely, however, do they ever encounter humans. That doesn’t seem to make any difference to them, so long as they think there will be humans eventually.”
“But you’ve never intended to, say, import colonies to live here?”
“Originally I did. But I’ve changed my mind. I say, Robot City for robots. Why contaminate them with hordes of humans spreading their weak-minded mores and indifferent customs? Don’t you see, Ariel, it would be wrong for the superior beings to continue to serve the lesser? That’s why I am a liberator. The robot is the next level of existence. Humans can die out, while robots will endure.”
Ariel realized that she had been holding her breath as she listened to the doctor’s shouted diatribe. She turned to Derec and whispered, “He is mad.”
“I heard that, young lady. And of course you’d perceive me that way, with your limited perception. I’d expect no more. But your antagonism only stimulates my positronic pathways.”
“Your what?”
“Positronic pathways. You see, I have not only created the Avery robots in my own image, but I have recreated myself, casting away my humanity and transforming myself into a robot also.”
“Ba-nanas,” Ariel muttered.
Avery merely smiled. Now she could see it as a definitely robotic smile, even though she believed none of his story.
“I knew you wouldn’t believe,” Avery said.
“Are you trying to say, oh, that you’ve implanted a robot brain into your head? Is that what the positronic pathways guff is all about?”
“I see that you’re patronizing me, so I think we can terminate this discussion.”
For a moment Ariel wondered if this figure, identical to the Dr. Avery she had met before, might indeed be a robotic recreation. Then he swept by her, and his easily detectable body odor told her that he was still at least partly human.
After Avery slammed the door behind him, Ariel commented, “The man needs help.”
“So do we,” Derec said. His fingers flew across the keyboard again. Some data came up on the terminal’s screen. “Look at this, Ariel.”
All she saw was a bunch of figures. “What does it mean?”
“This is a report of construction activity in Robot City. The earlier figures represent the city’s normal rate of new building. But lately the figures have gradually fallen off, with fewer and fewer buildings being created. Since before we arrived, there have, in fact, been no new buildings created. All construction in Robot City has stopped.”
“Funny,” Ariel commented.
“What’s funny about it?”
“This tends to support your father’s story.”
“How does it do that?”
“Well, remember what he said about robots being the supreme whatever and all that, plus the city being the safest haven for them? So why would he stop that? Why would he allow the robots themselves to become, as he said, decadent? This man isn’t going to be happy with listless Supervisors and robots who are tap dancers or movie buffs. After Lucius, he programmed creativity right out of his robots. No, for once Dr. Avery isn’t the chief troublemaker. It’s somebody else, it’s got to be.”
“Okay, granted. But what do we do now? I can’t get anything out of the computer, the robots are uncooperative, and the city’s becoming a play-village for someone whose identity we don’t know. What next, my pretty?”
“Well, I’ve got a swell idea if you don’t mind a little break in the action.”
“You’ve got-”
“This room comes furnished with a couch-bed, and there’s even a blanket on the end table there if you want privacy.”
“You flip off the lights, I’ll switch off the computer.”
“Why the computer?”
“I don’t know. I’ve a feeling it could spy on us.”
As they embraced in darkness, the real spy outside the door, still indoctrinated with the Laws of Robotics, knew they applied in some way to this situation, and so he discreetly retreated. After all, he thought, in the best movies he had seen, the camera always discreetly retreated from this sort of scene. As he rejoined Timestep outside the Compass Tower, Bogie decided that the shadowing assignment was a fortunate one. Keeping watch on the two young humans was a bit like watching a movie-in a way, better, since it took place in three dimensions.
Chapter 8. Creature Discomforts
Each time Wolruf stumbled or bumped into something, she cursed in her own language. Eve asked her what words she was speaking, but she replied that it was merely her own private nonsense.
The Silversides and Mandelbrot had no difficulty with the darkness of the streets. Equipped with precise sensory circuitry, they could proceed easily through such darkness. Wolruf, even with the keen senses she had developed in the wilds of her homeland, couldn’t detect every obstacle in her way.
“Is the lack of proper lighting bothersome to you?” Mandelbrot asked her.
“So true. I rememberr lightss coming on when walking these strreetss.”
“They do not seem to be functioning now.”
“Like so many other thingss here. What iss wrrong, Mandelbrrot?”
“I do not know.”
“What we have seen,” Eve asked, “is not necessarily like this place as you know it?”
“Verry different,” Wolruf answered. “Strreetlampss alwayss lit one’ss way.”
They walked a few more steps, turned a corner (with Wolruf’s shoulder painfully bumping into the side of a building), and saw flickering light up ahead.
“What is that?” Eve asked.
“Not sure,” Wolruf said, “but my nose tellss me apprroach cautiously.”
“Your nose speaks to you?”
“No, that iss rrendening of saying from my worrld into ‘uman wordss. We sense dangerr, we say we sniff it out with our nosess, even when there iss no actual scent there.”
Eve did not quite understand, but she chose to keep quiet, especially since Wolruf, assuming the role of scout, now sprinted ahead of the group.