Katherine perked up. “Really? Which one?”
The robot to Wohler’s left came forward. Its body was tubular, its dome a series of bristling sensors and photocells. Without arms, it seemed useless in almost any sense.
“What are you called?” Katherine asked the machine.
The machine’s tones were clipped and precise. “I am Event Recorder B-23, Model 13 Alpha 4.”
“I’ll call you Eve, if that’s all right,” Katherine said, standing and wrapping her blanket a little tighter around herself. She looked at Derec. “I want this one.”
“Fine,” Derec said, then to the other, “come here.”
The robot moved up close to him. “You’ll answer to Rec.”
“Rec,” the robot repeated.
“We call these robots witnesses,” Wohler said. “Their only function is to witness events precisely for later reporting.”
“That’s why they have no arms,” Derec said.
“Correct,” Wohler replied. “They are unequipped to do anything but witness. Once involvement begins on any level, the witness function falters in any creature. These robots only witness and report. They will know the how of almost everything, but never the why. They will answer all of your questions to the best of their ability, but again, they are unable to make any second-level connections by putting events together to form reasons.”
“I’m going to go get dressed,” Katherine said, the happiest Derec had seen her in days. She hurried out of the room, disappearing down the hall to the bedroom.
“Where will we be denied access?” Derec asked. “Or is the entire planet open to us?”
“Alas, no,” Wohler said. “You will be denied access to certain parts of the city and certain operations. Your witness, however, will tell you when you’ve stepped into dangerous water, as it were.”
“What are the chances of me getting around a terminal,” Derec asked, “and talking to the central core?”
“The central core has sealed itself off because of our present state of emergency,” Wohler said. “It will not accept input from any sources save the supervisors, and we are unable to help you in this regard.”
“How do the day-to-day operations survive?” he asked.
“Essential information can be gathered through any terminal,” the robot answered. “But input is limited.”
“You don’t mind if I try?”
“That is between you and the central core. We all have our jobs to do. All that we insist upon is that you honor your commitment to come back here when the rains approach. We must put your safety above all else. Having failed in this regard with your predecessor, we perhaps err on the side of caution. But all privileges will be denied should this directive be overlooked or ignored.”
“I understand,” Derec replied, “and will respect your wishes.”
“Your words, unfortunately, mean very little right now,” the robot said, turning to the door, his head swiveling back to Derec. “By your deeds we will judge you in future. As an Earth philosopher once said, ‘The quality of a life is determined by its activities.’ Now, I must go.”
With that, Wohler moved quickly through the opening and departed hurriedly down the elevator. The activity bothered Derec; it said to him that things were not going well in Robot City. He had intended to ask Wohler about the effects of last night’s rain, but then decided a first-hand look might be better and determined that Rec would take him where he wanted to go.
“There,” Katherine said, coming down the hall to bustle around the room. She wore a blue one-piece that the dinner servo-robot had brought with it the night before. “Finally, we can start moving in a positive direction. Where do you want to start?”
“I thought I’d go down to the reservoir,” he replied, “and see how much rain fell last night.”
She stopped walking and stared, unbelieving, at him. “Don’t you realize that every moment is precious right now? We need to find that body and see what happened. It could be… decomposing or something at this very minute.”
“I’ve got to see if there was any damage,” he said. “I’ll try and join you later.”
“Never mind,” she said angrily, and walked quickly to the door. “Satisfy your stupid urges. I don’t want you with me. You’ll just get in the way anyhow. Come on, Eve. We’ve got a corpus delecti to find.”
She walked out of the apartment without a backward glance and was gone, Derec frowning after her. He couldn’t help the way his feelings ran on this. He felt that so much of his own life, his own reasons for being, hinged upon the future of Robot City that its troubles seemed to be his own.
“I want to go to the reservoir,” he told Rec. “Can you take me there?”
“Yes, Friend Derec,” the robot answered, and they left together.
When they arrived at street level, Derec was disappointed to find that the supervisors hadn’t left any transportation for him to use. A great deal of time would be wasted walking from place to place. Perhaps he could talk to Euler about it later, though he feared that the reasons had much to do with keeping him from going very far from home.
“Do you want to go the most direct route?” the witness asked him.
“Yes, of course,” Derec said as they set out walking. “Let me ask you a question. Is the rain a result of the work being done on the city?”
“For the most part,” Rec answered through a speaker located on Derec’s side of his dome. “It is also the rainy season here.”
“If they slowed down the building, would it slow down the rain?”
“I do not know.”
Derec was going about this wrong, asking the wrong questions of a witness. “How does the city make rain?” he asked.
The robot began talking, recalling information in an encyclopedic fashion. “Olivine is mined below ground and crushed in vacuum, releasing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, from which water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane gas, and traces of other chemicals are liberated. Iron ore is also being mined for building materials, along with petroleum products for plastics… ”
“Plastics?” Derec asked.
“Plastics are used as alloys in making the material from which the city is constructed. Do you wish me to go on with my previous line of witnessing?”
“Let me tell you,” Derec said, “and you tell me if I’m right. Water vapor, along with the heat energy from the mining process, is pumped into the air, heat also being pumped into the reservoir. The CO2is bled into the forest to help growth. The reason that the weather is so rainy now is that the city is growing too fast, giving off too much heat, dust, and water.”
“I do not know why the weather is so rainy right now,” Rec said. “I do not even understand what so rainy means. The other statements you made are juxtapositional with statements I heard Supervisor Avernus make, which I assume to be correct.”
“Fine,” Derec said. “Is there a problem with the ozone layer?”
“Problem?” the robot asked.
Derec rephrased. “Is any work being done on the ozone layer?”
“I do not know,” Rec said, “although I did hear Supervisor Avernus say on one occasion that the ‘ozone layer needs to be increased photochemically to ten parts per million.’“
“Good,” Derec said. “Very good.”
“You are pleased with my witnessing?” Rec asked.
“Yes,” Derec replied. “Will the supervisors be asking you to witness later what we’ve discussed?”
“That is my function, Friend Derec.”
They walked for nearly an hour by Derec’s watch, the city still subtly changing around them. It sometimes took a while to get information out of the witness, but if questions were phrased properly, Derec found Rec an endless source of information, and he wondered how Katherine was faring with her witness.
Derec knew they were nearing the reservoir long before they arrived there. A long stream of robots was moving toward and away from the site, followed by large vehicles bearing slabs of city building material.
They walked into an area sonorous with activity, echoes raising the pitch enough that Derec covered his ears against the din. Within the confines of the reservoir area, his worst fears were realized. The water had reached the top of the pool and was splashing over slightly in various areas.