"More be'ween 'u an' 'ur purrsuerrs, the bedder," said Wolruf. "Firss less-on pup learrns."
"Derec-what's that?" Ariel asked, pointing to the illuminated regions ahead.
"What's what? Everything looks the same."
Wolruf sniffed the air. "Smell not the same."
Derec moved up the corridor. As he did so, the illumination moved upward with him. And in the distance, just before the corridor was enveloped in total darkness, wires and generators began to blend into an amorphous form. Derec waved the others on. "Let's go-I want to see what's going on."
"Derec, we're in trouble-we can't go exploring just because we feel like it."
"I don't know why not. Besides, this corridor only goes in two directions-this way and that way."
The further they went, the more amorphous the materials in the conduit became, merging into one another until only the vaguest outlines of generators, cables, fusion pods, and all the other parts were visible. It was as if every aspect of the conduit had been welded into inseparable parts. Derec had the feeling that if he could open one of the generators, for example, what he would find inside would be amorphous, fused circuits and wires.
"Deeper," he said, "we've got to go deeper."
"Derec, things are definitely getting cramped here," protested Ariel.
"She's rite," said Wolruf. "Furr'her down we go, the narrower the tunnel. If Hunterrs come-"
"We won't be able to do anything anyway," said Derec. "Look at what's happening here! Don't you realize what's going on?"
"Looks like the city's beginning to dissolve," said Ariel.
"Ah! In actuality, the effect is precisely the opposite. The further up we go, the more the city begins to coalesce. understand?"
"Are you serious? No!"
"The ultimate foundation of Robot City is still further down this conduit. The meta-cells must be manufactured below, and they're propelled upward in much the same way that water's propelled through a pipe. Only more slowly."
"Then why are all these phony machines here?"
"They're not phony, they just haven't been fully formed yet. The cells probably have to make it through a certain portion of the foundation before they can really begin to get with their program. You see, the atoms of metal form a lattice in three dimensions, which is why metals occur in polycrystalline form-that is, large numbers of small crystals. The cells in this part of the underground haven't crystallized yet. Ariel?"
She had looked away. She was nodding as if she understood his explanation, but her face was perspiring, and she had grown noticeably paler, even in the dim light. Derec reached for her as if to steady her, but she pulled away from him.
"Don't-" she said, waving him away. "I-I'm getting claustrophobic. It's too narrow in here. I-I'm feeling all this weight on top of me. "
"Don't worry about it," said Derec. "The foundation is secure. Nothing's going to happen."
"What are we going to do if the Hunters come?"
"They may not be able to find us here. Even with infrared sensors. If the program ' s not complete in this sector, then it' s possible that they won't be able to detect us. "
"Only possibly," said Wolruf. "Even if they don' come, we'll hav' to leave sooner orr la'err. Then they find us."
Now Derec waved them both away. "All right, all right. I know all this. I'm sorry."
"U could no' help ur-self."
Derec snorted, which was about as close to a self-mocking laugh as he could muster at the moment. Itwas bad enough that they had come to a literal dead end-they had arrived at the end of the road in more ways than one.
How he wished Mandelbrot was with them now! He felt like a callous coward, having left him behind that way. He had left in the hope that he would be able to come back for the robot, but now he feared Avery would dismantle the brain and scatter the parts all over the city, thus making it possible to rebuild him only if all the parts could be found.
Derec looked at his open palms. He had put Mandelbrot together with these hands and his brain, from the spare parts he'd had available. Now his hands and brain seemed hopelessly inadequate to cope with the problems besetting him. He could not help Ariel. He could not help Wolruf and Mandelbrot. He had been unable to make Canute confess and to bring the robot to whatever kind of justice might be appropriate. Hell, he may not even have solved the question of who killed Lucius in the first place. Last-but at the moment the very least-he had been unable to help himself.
Wolruf made a gurgling sound deep in her throat. "Derec, a prroblem."
"Another one?”
“Oh, yes!"
Derec looked up to see, at the edge of the darkness above them, the Hunter robots advancing.
Chapter 11. Dreams Out Of Joint
Derec awoke in a place that he knew was not real. Otherwise, he had no idea where he was. He stood on a smooth copper plane extending unbroken in all directions. Above him was a pitch-black sky. Theoretically, he should have been engulfed in darkness as well, since the copper was hardly an obvious source of illumination, but vision was no problem.
In fact, Derec realized, his range of sight extended into the ultraviolet and infrared range. When he looked down to inspect his hand, his neck joints creaked: he would not have been able to hear that sound if he had been human. For he was now a robot. His metal hand proved that beyond doubt.
Normally, such a turn of events would have sent him into a fit of deep depression, but, now that the deed was done, Derec accepted it quite readily. He did not know why or how he had changed, nor did he think the reasons mattered much. All that remained was for him to figure out what he wanted to do next.
Logically, he should walk. Since there was no logical way to determine if one direction was preferable to any other, he simply started off in the direction he happened to be facing.
And as he walked, he saw that something was growing in the distance. He walked more quickly, hoping to reach his destination that much faster, but it always remained the same distance away.
So he ran, and the something seemed to glide across the copper surface away from him, maintaining the distance between them.
He saw that at the upper regions of the something were the spires of a city, streaking against the sky as the foundation glided away. Streaking against the sky and cutting through it, tearing it, exposing the whiteness beyond. Ribbons of whiteness dangled from the nothingness, and though Derec could not reach the city, eventually he did stand directly beneath the ribbons. Reason told him that they were far away, probably at least a kilometer above him, but he gave in to the urge to reach out and touch one.
He grabbed it, and felt a flash of searing heat blaze through his soul. He tried to scream, but could not make a sound.
He tried to release the ribbon, but it clung to his fingers. It expanded. It enveloped him, smothering the copper and the blackness of the world.
Or was he falling inside the ribbon? It was hard to tell. Reason also began to tell him that this was a dream of some sort that he was living, and that it would be better if he went along with it and tried not to fight it. Perhaps his mind was trying to tell him something.
He fell through the whiteness until he came to a school of giant amoebae, but instead of being creatures of proteins they were composed of circuits laid out like a lattice. He kicked his legs and waved his arms, and discovered that he could swim the currents of whiteness just as they could. He swam with them…
…Until they swept 'round and 'round in circles, disappearing into a point in the whiteness as if it was the center of a whirlpool. Derec tried to swim against the current, but he was inexorably pulled down into the point.
He came out on the other side, surrounded not by amoebae, but by molten ore rapidly being solidified into meteors by the near-absolute-zero temperatures in this space. Now he was in a void where there was no current to swim. He thought that he should be afraid, yet he was facing the situation with incredible calm. Perhaps that was because in this dream he was a robot both in mind and in body His body was unaffected by the cold, and he required no air to breathe, so, except for the danger of being struck by a solidifying slag heap, he was in no danger. Hence he had nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.