“That’s all?” Derec laughed. “All this space for a systems-maintenance sensor?”
Ariel shrugged. “You can see for yourself. Nothing else is here. Four walls, a ceiling, and a floor.”
“It follows some information Wolruf and I were able to gather before the Hunters prevented us from returning to the Compass Tower,” said Mandelbrot. “The robots here are under migration programming of some kind.”
“Yes! Did you find out what that is?”
“Not precisely,” said Mandelbrot. “It has caused a general instruction, however, to reduce the staffs allover Robot City to skeleton level.”
“That’s something,” said Derec thoughtfully.
“As an example,” said Mandelbrot, “the size of this building implies equipment no longer present. I surmise that the original functions taking place here were either discontinued or improved technologically to the point where humanoid robots became unnecessary. At that point, the staff followed its migration programming and departed. “
Derec nodded. “Without eliminating or modifying the building for greater efficiency. This migration must have an extremely high priority.”
“And he told me that no general alert has gone out for us, as you guessed,” said Ariel. “That’s still the case, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Mandelbrot.
“Something big has been going on here for a long time,” said Derec. “Think about it. This must be the Robot City that Dr. Avery actually envisioned.”
“What do you mean?” Ariel asked.
“When we first arrived, that wild shapechanging dominated the city. The Supervisors befriended us because they needed help and they wanted to serve humans.”
Ariel nodded cautiously. “And solve the mystery of that murder. We never did figure out who the victim was.” She closed her eyes and shuddered. “Who just happened to look exactly like you.”
Derec chose not to discuss that. He was afraid of sending her into another displaced memory episode. “Then, while the Key Center was in operation, the city was in a lull while a huge number of Keys were being duplicated and stored. We were treated with a kind of benign neglect, wouldn’t you say?”
“I guess you could call it that,” she said. “But they were very cooperative in finding Jeff Leong, the cyborg.”
He nodded. “Temporarily a cyborg. The Laws of Robotics required that. Now, though, everything seems to be changed. And it happened after we left for Earth and Dr. Avery remained here.”
“So every robot here has been reprogrammed?”
“I think so. The city has that same sense of obsessive purpose that I first saw on that asteroid. And I haven’t seen any sign of the robot creativity we saw before we left here.”
Ariel tensed. “Oh, no. You mean you think it was programmed out of them?”
“It looks that way to me. Right now, Mandelbrot may be the only robot on the planet who can think independently enough to do things like rescue us by driving crazily.”
“You said the local robots are now acting like the ones on the asteroid. You mean the asteroid you were on right after you first woke up with amnesia, before we met?”
“Yeah.”
“I agree,” said Mandelbrot. “The narrow focus of the Hunters supports your conclusion, though now Wolruf and I must have been added to the list of quarry.”
“We need a new plan of action,” said Derec. “And I’m getting sicker all the time.”
“At the moment, I suggest that you three remain here,” said Mandelbrot. “I must find a new food source for you. Also, while the Hunters must now be looking for me also, I still blend the most with the native population.”
“‘U ‘ave no wherr to go,” said Wolruf.
“Good point,” said Derec. “Maybe you can get a lead on that from the central computer without giving yourself away. Go ahead.”
“I can try. And I still have the use of the truck.” Mandelbrot walked to the far corner of the building and pushed a button to open the big door that led to the street.
“Does the equipment here include a terminal?” Derec asked.
“No. I will have no way to contact you.” Mandelbrot mounted the front of the truck and looked down at them. “We have been out of sight here for a while. If the Hunters have widened the radius of their search by this time, I may be able to avoid them. “
“Good luck, Mandelbrot,” said Ariel. “Don’t take too many chances, all right?”
Mandelbrot drove out into the sunlight and turned onto the street. Someone closed the big door behind him. As he drove, he kept watch for Hunters, aware that they would recognize a function truck being driven by a humanoid robot before they would recognize him in particular. He accessed the central computer.
“Transmit a topographical map of this planet with land use identified,” he said.
“WHAT IS YOUR IDENTITY AND YOUR DUTY TASK?” The central computer asked.
He broke the link. The central computer had not always required that information during every communication, but now it was asking him every time. Perhaps it was part of the new security system. He accessed again, just to make sure.
“Give me the location of agricultural developments on this planet,” he said.
“WHAT IS YOUR IDENTITY AND YOUR DUTY TASK?”
He broke contact again. Identifying himself was too risky, and doing so still might not get him the information. He would have to think of something else.
In the meantime, he drove. He kept watch for any break in the grid of city streets and buildings that might indicate a change of land use, but that would only work if Avery was growing food in the open…and doing it nearby. Mandelbrot also turned his attention to smells, in the hope of detecting chemical processing of edible substances.
Far above the planet, a small spacecraft was just entering the atmosphere, still too distant to be visible from the ground. It carried only one passenger.
His name was Jeff Leong, and he had come to repay a debt of gratitude.
Jeff was entering the atmosphere of Robot City in a Hayashi-Smith, which was a small, discontinued model with facilities for ten people. It bore the exotic name of Minneapolis. The ship computer was doing the flying. Jeff had managed to rent it with his father’s credit after persuading him that no one else could be trusted with the task of making this trip.
“Status report,” Jeff said to the computer, watching the screen that showed him white clouds ahead and the glittering pattern far below of urban development.
“EXCELLENT,” said the computer. “SYSTEMS ARE OPERATING EFFICIENTLY AND WEATHER IS OPTIMAL. SELECT LANDING SITE.”
“I don’t know where to land yet,” said Jeff. “I never really knew the geography of this place. Uh, scan for a big pyramid with a flat top, okay? And I mean a. big pyramid.”
“SCANNING. THIS MAY REQUIRE A PROLONGED PERIOD IN VERY LOW ORBIT, DEPENDING ON CLOUD COVER.”
“Whatever it takes.” Jeff leaned back and relaxed.
This was much better than his last arrival on this planet. That had been an emergency crash-landing that had killed everyone else on board. He shook his head to avoid the memories of that frantic descent.
“Computer,” he said aloud. “While you’re scanning, keep watch for humans. I’m looking for a couple of them. And as far as I know, they’re the only humans here.”
“SCANNING MODIFIED.”
The ship computer was not fully positronic, but it was efficient enough to accept Jeff’s orders and translate them into ship controls.
He hoped that finding Derec, Ariel, Mandelbrot, and Wolruf would not take too long. When he had left the planet in the only functioning spacecraft it had-a modified lifepod that supported only one passenger-he had promised to send help back if he could. The craft had taken him to a space lane, and had remained there, sending out a distress signal while keeping him alive.
The ship that had rescued him had been jumping from star to star back to Aurora, and he had yet to reach Nexon, where he hoped to start college. This rescue mission was an important matter of pride to him, since Derec and Ariel and the robot medical team had saved his life. Then Derec and Ariel had sent him away when each of them would have liked to use that ship personally.