“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.
12
Hunter had caught and cleaned enough fish for the humans’ next two meals during his first ten minutes of effort. Chad had taken his line out of the water, wryly observing that he was wasting his time. After that, the two of them had spent the afternoon sitting quietly, watching for dinosaurs.
When Hunter heard footsteps nearby, he quietly told Chad where to look. As they waited, they began to glimpse dinosaurs of all kinds up and down the stream, coming to the water to drink. The first one Hunter saw clearly was nearly five meters tall. It was a two-legged duck-billed creature, reaching up to munch on leaves as it worked its way toward the water.
Chad unclipped his belt computer, quickly punching in a description. “Small, bony crest on top of its head,” he muttered. “Duckbill, small hump on its nose.”
As Hunter watched, the dinosaur moved to the water and bent down low to drink. Its long tall flipped up slightly in the back to help it keep its balance. Another one, slightly shorter, appeared behind it.
“Brachylophosaurus,” said Chad quietly. “Both of them. From the body type, I would say they aren’t much good for riding. They run leaning forward, but stand up high when they reach for food. No matter how we arranged the saddles, we’d fallout when they shift up and down.”
Hunter nodded. “Look downstream, on the opposite bank.”
A low, four-legged dinosaur had just slipped from the underbrush to drink from the stream. Its pear-shaped head was fairly small, ending in a sharp beak. However, its body looked huge; most of it was still hidden by the forest cover. What Hunter could see was covered with rows of thick, bony plates. Long spikes protected its sides and shoulders.
“Panoplosaurus,” Chad whispered, consulting his belt computer again. “Up to five and a half meters long, between two and three tons in weight.”
“From the length of its legs, I would say it couldn’t move fast enough to catch MC 1,” Hunter observed.
“I wouldn’t want to sit on one, anyway,” said Chad, with a grin.
As the day wore on, the majority of dinosaurs that came to the water were varieties of hadrosaurs, such as the brachylophosaurus, according to Chad. He eagerly identified all the different species, which varied in size and color. They had duckbills and crests of different shapes on top of their heads. The legs of the hadrosaurs were strong and heavy, ending in three-toed, hooved feet. Their forelimbs were medium-sized, with webbed, four-fingered hands. Chad quickly entered all the new details that he could see.
“They are remarkably unconcerned with our presence,” said Hunter. “My information on wild animals tells me that they are usually afraid of humans.”
“The remaining wild animals in our own time are descended from very wary, suspicious ancestors who managed to avoid being hunted and fished by humans for many generations,” said Chad, looking around for more dinosaurs.