“Hold it! Nobody move!” Steve yelled at last.
MC 1 stopped. Hunter did not, however, until he realized that MC 1 was backing away. Then he looked around, saw Steve, and halted his movements.
Motion in the dense trees behind them caught Steve’s attention. He froze. A two-legged dinosaur with a pointed face, big eyes, and serrated teeth was leaping through the brush at them.
“Hunter!” Steve screamed.
Instantly, Hunter and MC 1 whirled to look. The dinosaur, about four meters tall, came rushing at them with its teeth gleaming. Steve jumped to one side, rolling.
The two robots, driven by the First Law, sprang forward to meet the predator. Hunter slammed into it bodily and hung on, digging for traction in the soft sod. MC 1 threw his arms around the dinosaur’s narrow neck and pulled, dragging it down. The dinosaur was heavier and stronger than the robots, but not by very much.
Hunter suddenly twisted his body and yanked the dinosaur to one side. MC 1, acting in concert, pulled its neck harder in the same direction, throwing the dinosaur off balance. Steve was sure that the two robots were communicating by radio link at robotic speed.
Steve jumped up and dodged behind a tree trunk. He didn’t see much point in running or climbing. The safest place for him was near the two robots.
The robots threw the dinosaur to the ground with a thump, but they couldn’t hold it. With a snarl, it rose to its feet again, but this time it turned and hurried away. In a moment it was out of sight.
Hunter turned to Steve. “I had just switched my hearing back on when I became aware of the First Law threat from the dinosaur. Where are Chad and Jane?”
“On the struthiomimus, behind me. Not very far, but Chad couldn’t get it to come this way.”
“I understand. We must join them so I can protect all of you.”
Behind Hunter, Wayne was out of sight. “MC 1, come with me,” he called from somewhere in the trees. “Protect me!”
Hunter spun around again. “Stop, both of you.”
“I order it, MC 1,” Steve called quickly. “Under the Second Law, stop.”
However, MC 1 ran after the other man.
“Get him!” Steve shouted urgently. He started forward himself.
“No.” Hunter grabbed his upper arm in a firm grip and stopped him without any apparent effort. “I cannot. With the predator nearby, I must follow the most immediate First Law imperative of protecting you, Chad, and Jane.”
“But what about the rest of human history and all that stuff? This is your chance!”
“I will have more chances. You three may not. First take me back to Chad and Jane.”
“All right.” Steve sighed. “Robot logic drives me crazy. Hunter, is that First Law imperative the reason MC 1 didn’t stop when I told him to? To protect that other guy? And who is he, anyhow?”
“Yes,” Hunter said, as they began to walk. “He has to take care of Dr. Wayne Nystrom, the man who invented the Governor robots and came to take MC Governor back himself.”
Hunter and Steve exchanged reports about the previous night as they walked. Then Hunter shouted for Chad. After the fourth yell, Chad and Jane called back.
Finally the small head of the struthiomimus came into view through the trees. Chad steered it cautiously forward and reined in. “Glad to see you, Hunter.”
“And I, you. Is everyone well?”
“Yeah,” said Chad.
“We’re fine,” said Jane.
“We will stay together now,” said Hunter. “Steve, mount up. I can keep up with the struthiomimus on foot.”
“MC 1 is just up ahead,” said Steve. “So is Dr. Wayne Nystrom.”
“What?” Jane started. “He is?”
“I will tell you all about it,” said Hunter, ‘‘as we follow them.”
19
As soon as Wayne realized that MC 1 was responding to his call for help, he stopped in the thick underbrush and waited for the small robot to catch up.
“You agree that the First Law requires you to protect me?” Wayne asked in a whisper.
“Yes. Hunter will fulfill that duty with his own team well enough.”
“Good,” said Wayne. “Carry me on your back. Even at your size, we can move faster that way. Take evasive patterns immediately-and vary them from the patterns you’ve been using. Hunter has identified too many consistencies in your behavior.”
“Are you going to return me with you to our own time? You can do that from right here. From your earlier information, I expected that to be your next act.”
“I have thought about that,” said Wayne. “But back in Mojave Center, I’ll have a lot of distractions. I want to get you somewhere safe so that I can have a quick look at your insides. If we can get away from Hunter for a while, I’ll have more privacy here in this time.”
“As you wish.” MC 1 bent forward.
Wayne jumped on his back. The robot gently hoisted Wayne up slightly, still crouching low under his weight. Wayne tensed at the uncomfortable position.
“Acceptable?” MC 1 asked.
“Yes! Hurry! As soon as Hunter has gathered his party, they’ll be after us.” MC 1 took off at a jog, a pace Wayne could not have maintained for very long on his own.
The team had all seen that MC 1‘s footprints had deepened at the spot where Dr. Nystrom’s had disappeared. Now they were following them, Hunter in the lead. Steve, in the third saddle again, listened with curiosity as Hunter described the predator to Chad.
“Sounds like a troodon,” Chad reported, holding the reins in one hand and his belt computer in the other. “Its fossils have been found in Montana, which isn’t too far from here-at least in zoological terms.”
“What else do you know about it?” Jane asked.
“Well, let’s see,” said Chad. “It was one of the most intelligent of all dinosaurs, maybe the very smartest. Possibly warm-blooded. Its widely-spaced eyes gave it good depth perception. Combining that with intelligence, it was one of the most dangerous predators around, even though it wasn’t very big as dinosaurs go.”
“Smart enough to investigate the disturbance my struggle with Wayne and MC 1 caused,” said Hunter. “It probably heard the noise and approached quietly to take a look before it decided we might make a good lunch.”
“A reasonable scenario,” said Chad.
“I don’t get it,” said Steve. “Hunter, if Nystrom’s idea is to take MC Governor back himself-whole or in components-why is he still here? Why doesn’t he go back to Mojave Center right now?”
“I am not certain,” said Hunter, holding a tree branch out of the way for the struthiomimus. “However, I do not dare simply return our party to the Bohung Institute and wait for them. I want to get both of them under control.”
“They can’t be very far ahead,” said Chad. “If we need a plan, we’d better make one now.”
“What about Wayne’s influence?” Jane asked. “Hunter, you can’t just jump on MC 1 now. The same problem will come up as before. Wayne will order you to stop and he’ll interfere. The First and Second Laws will stop you.”
“I will need your help this time,” said Hunter.
“What do you have in mind?” Steve asked.
“If the three of you can grab Wayne without any real threat of harm to him, I can allow that. At the same time, I can restrain MC 1.”
“You may still have a conflict between our instructions and Wayne’s under the Second Law,” said Jane.
“We’ll hold his mouth shut,” said Steve.
Chad laughed.
“Might work.” Jane smiled, too. “But we really should have something more effective than that.”
“What do you suggest?” Hunter asked
“A First Law imperative is the only guarantee of overriding the Second Law.”
“We can’t count on predatory dinosaurs showing up at the right time,” said Steve.
“If I understand you,” said Hunter, “you are pointing out that if at least one human were in danger, MC 1 would have to turn his attention to protecting the human and so make himself vulnerable to me.”
“Wouldn’t that work?” Steve asked.
“Not necessarily,” said Hunter. “Assuming that I am on the scene at the same time, the First Law would require me to protect the human from immediate harm as well. I would not be free to act purely on my own judgment.”