Cyborg

Chapter 3. The Key Center

Derec knew that he would not have much time. Even as he crawled over cables on the floor and between different machine housings, he wondered if he should just stand up, run over to Keymo and start talking right away. As it was, Security 1K might become alerted to his presence and throw him out before he could start his pitch.

He stopped to get his bearings. Keymo was much closer now, studying the readings on the console. It looked like a good time to approach the robot.

Security 1K had not moved.

If Katherine had come in with him, one of them could have provided a diversion while the other spoke to Keymo. But it was too late for that now. He took another deep breath and stood up.

He felt totally exposed and vulnerable as he walked across the floor, but his presence caused no noticeable stir among the robots. When he reached Keymo’s desk, the chief robot of the facility looked up.

“I require the Key to Perihelion,” Derec said formally. He edged to the side of the console and peeked at the readouts.

“You would be the human Derec,” said Keymo. “Giving you the Key is not possible.”

“We must get off the planet in order to survive. The Key is our only means of transportation.”

“What is the danger to you and your companion on this planet?”

“Well, we just aren’t supposed to live on a planet of robots. We need the company of other humans. Uh…” He knew this line of debate was weak, but it was all he had. The exact nature of Katherine’s chronic condition was unknown to him, and therefore too vague to use.

“That is not a danger by itself.”

“That’s what I told him,” said a voice behind Derec.

He tried to turn, but felt firm hands under his arms that lifted him off his feet. It was Security 1K, of course, and Derec did not bother to protest as he was carted to the wall like a lump of waste matter. He could not see how the robot opened a new slit in the wall, but he noted that the boot was elsewhere, and apparently still unnoticed. It would provide another opportunity later.

He was deposited gently but unceremoniously outside the wall, where he stood awkwardly on one booted foot. Behind him, the wall grew together. Katherine walked slowly toward him and stopped.

“I could have used you in there,” he growled.

“I didn’t realize you’d get in. Then I didn’t know what to do.” She stared at the ground in front of her.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Derec was in no mood for another crazy ride in the vacuum chute, and he didn’t want to talk to her until they were in private. He hitched rides for them on the top of an enclosed transport vehicle, and on the exterior ladders of a vehicle the purpose of which Derec could not divine. As long as the robot drivers judged their human passengers to be riding safely, they had no objection. Katherine was withdrawn all the way home, and he left her alone.

When they had returned, he went right back to the console. She reluctantly stood behind him with her arms folded. He kept his mind on his work with an effort.

“Did you learn anything while you were inside?” she asked quietly.

“A little,” he said coldly. “It might amount to something and it might not. I read an entry number on Keymo’s console, and I’m running it through the central computer.”

“Are you sure it’s really the Key Center?”

“Don’t you remember? We demanded to see Keymo, and the security robot didn’t deny he was in there. I demanded the Key from the top robot, and he didn’t deny having it.”

“Okay, okay.”

He paused to study the information that had come up. She came closer to read over his shoulder.

“It’s a list of substances, mostly metals and synthetics. Percentages of each one…energy consumption in the dome.”

“Look on the right,” said Katherine. “That’s the designation for hyperspace. It’s an experiment of some kind, consuming air.”

“Air-the chutes! The vacuum chutes. That’s why they’re using such an old technology. What did that construction robot say? The vacuum is a side effect of something else going on. This is it.”

“But what is it?” She asked cautiously.

He started an angry retort, then decided to have it out with her after he had finished considering this information. In the long run, it was more important. “I’m taking another look at that supply requisition we saw earlier. All the same substances are listed, in the same percentages. I wonder…”

“They’re duplicating the Key.”

“You think so?”

“I’m sure of it, Derec. And, look at the addendum on the supply requisition. They added small amounts there at the dome.”

“That would be the original Key,” Derec said slowly. “They…had to break it down to analyze it. Then they tossed the pieces into the pool of materials. It’s gone.”

“But they’re making more. Derec, this will make it easier for us to get one. Instead of one Key under careful guard, they’ll have a bunch of them we can try for.”

“I just hope Keymo is duplicating them accurately. And we might have to wait for them to turn out a few. We can’t get something that hasn’t been made yet.”

“Uh, Derec? Would you turn around?”

He turned in his chair and looked up at her.

“I guess you deserve an explanation. I know I’ve been acting weird. And I’m sorry I didn’t go inside with you. I had my mind on something else at the wrong time.”

“The wrong time!” Derec leaped out of his chair, glad to have the opening. “The worst possible time! We might have gotten the Key-or a key, anyway!”

“Derec, please. I’m trying to explain. Anyway, maybe there weren’t any to get, like you said.”

“All right! All right. Go ahead and explain.” He paced away from her and turned at the wall. “Go ahead.”

“Derec, I know who designed Robot City. And why.”

“ What?”

“I-”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He raged. “No! Never mind that -who did build this place?” His astonishment and curiosity were interfering with his anger.

“Before I get to that, my real name is Ariel Welsh.”

“Well-glad to meet you. Finally.”

“I’m the only daughter of Juliana Welsh, of the planet Aurora.” She watched for his reaction.

“Should that mean something to me?”

“I thought you might have heard of her-she’s extremely wealthy. Lots of people have.”

Derec shrugged.

“My mother was the biggest patron of a man called Dr. Avery. Have you heard of him?”

“Dr. Avery. You know, I think I have…his name sounds familiar. What about him?”

“Dr. Avery was the brain behind all this.” She waved a hand, indicating the entire planet. “Robot City is his. And my mother’s money got it started.”

Derec’s heart began to pound. Dr. Avery. He had sat in the man’s office and used his terminal; now he had a name to go with the vague, limited information. Someone had been in that office shortly before he had; he had found a recently discarded food container.

“Whew. You really were keeping a secret, weren’t you?” He spoke more sympathetically. “What was he doing? Why did he build it?”

“From what Mom said, I think he was a famous architect. She called him a visionary. He was also eccentric, and used to argue with everyone. Robot City was a place where he could test his theories. “

“I get it. Here’s this…genius, I suppose, with all these outlandish ideas that no one can handle. So he wants to try out his experiments without interference, and your mother finances him.”

Katherine-now Ariel-nodded. “She gave him enough to get started, with the understanding that his project would have to be self-supporting after a certain point. Since that was part of his experiment, he didn’t object. And of course the robots are always very efficient. “

“He wanted to create an ongoing, self-sufficient city?”

“With a fully functioning society.”

“Where is he now?”

“He vanished a long time ago. Just went off somewhere. I suppose he’s dead, but Mom said he’s so strange that you just never know.”

“And he left behind an entire city of robots running on their original programming.” Derec shook his head. “Well, that clears up more than you think.”

“Like what?”

“When the microbes from the blood of…of the dead man set off the automatic shapechanging in the city, this entire community went berserk because its programming made an interpretation that no human would have made.”

“In other words,” said Ariel, “something went wrong and Dr. Avery wasn’t around to fix it. He wanted an ideal experimental environment and he didn’t quite get it.”

“When you put it that way, though, he came pretty close. If he had stayed here, he might have kept it going the way he wanted.”

“There’s something else.” She looked at her hands, and started playing with her fingernails. “I’ve been banished from Aurora. I can’t go back. “

“You’vebeen banished? How? I mean, what for? Did you break a law or something? Are you a criminal?”

She gave a wry sneer. “I wish. I’d be a lot better off. Derec, I’m-sick.”

“The chronic condition you’ve mentioned.” He spoke gently, allowing her whatever leeway she wished in such a personal matter.

“Oh, don’t worry. You’re in no danger. You can’t get it from just being around me.” She laughed bitterly. “I had an affair. I guess it was, you know, a rebellion against my mother and all her fancy friends. They all expected me to be such a good little girl and grow up to be just like them.” It was her turn to start pacing.

Derec waited patiently.

“The guy was a Spacer from, I don’t know, some other planet. He was just traveling through, you might say, and he was long gone by the time I found out he’d contaminated me.”

“Couldn’t your mother help? With all her money and everything?”

“Ha! They don’t have any cure on Aurora-or maybe anywhere. Besides, this wasn’t just a matter of getting sick and getting well. On Aurora, this is a deadly sin. My mother bought a ship and outfitted it for me, complete with a couple of robots as aides. Getting away was the best I could do.”

“Your mother made quite a contribution, at that. You left Aurora in style, at least.”

“I can’t complain about that.”

“And after you left?”

“I told myself I was looking for a cure, but I don’t know if I really believe there is such a thing. But I did decide not to waste any time!”

Derec felt a prickling along the back of his neck. “What do you mean, not waste any time?”

“Derec, I…I’m going to die of this!” And suddenly she was crying, scared and vulnerable in a way he had never seen before.

He hesitated just a moment, and then went to her, holding her-awkwardly at first, then gently as she relaxed against him and really began to sob.

He was dumbfounded. This flood of information seemed to short-circuit his attention, and left him simply staring at the floor without thoughts as she cried in his arms. He had to sort out what he could-that she was Ariel, not Katherine, and that she was not, right now, the confident and sharp-edged older girl he had known her to be.

She was Ariel Welsh, banished from her home planet, trapped on Robot City, and infected with a deadly disease.

He turned her gently by the shoulders and led her into her room. First he sat with her on the bed, still uncertain of what to do. Then, after her sobs had grown fainter, she squeezed his arm affectionately and pulled away to stretch out on the bed. He rose, patted her on the shoulder shyly, and went out, closing her door behind him.

Derec sat at his computer console for a long time without turning it on. His own amnesia suddenly seemed like a fairly manageable problem. Yet the urgency of getting her off Robot City, and perhaps to some medical help, was greater than ever.

He doubted that the robots could help with a disease, at least in the short term. Even so, he started calling up various medical subjects on the central computer, in case Dr. Avery had left anything useful.

Actually, he found quite a bit of medical information pertaining to humans, but nothing that hinted at an ability to find cures for new diseases. The computer did have a list of vaccines, cures, and treatments for diseases he recognized-common ones that would have been available on Aurora. He also found a great deal of advanced material on surgery, organ regeneration, and other treatments for injuries. Overall, however, the library was oddly lacking, as though Dr. Avery, or at least somebody, had just grabbed information and entered it without checking it. For instance, there was no introductory reference on anatomy as such, or on psychology. Derec suspected that the eccentric Dr. Avery had been so involved with the frontiers of science that he had neglected to supply fundamental knowledge. After all, the robots had no particular need for this subject. He also remembered that the library on the planetoid where he had first met these Avery robots had been oddly selected.

At dinner time, he took a break and knocked lightly on Ariel’s door. When she did not answer, he peeked inside and found her sleeping soundly. He made dinner for himself and returned to the computer.

The only information he could find pertaining to human anatomy regarded external appearance. This came from the positronic brains of the robots, rather than any specific entry into the computer. They could only obey the Three Laws of Robotics if they could identify humans when they came into contact with them, so he was not surprised to find this. When he saw the addendum beneath it, however, he sat up straight in his chair.

The computer noted five alien presences in Robot City. He supposed that meant humans, as the likelihood of sentient nonhuman aliens was very slim. There simply weren’t enough of them, and he decided that the central computer would surely have made more of the matter. Nor would it ever again interpret microscopic human parasites as alien presences. Non-Avery robots could conceivably be here, of course, but he was sure that the significance of reporting these presences was to warn the local robot population that humans were here. Their presence would bring the Laws into consideration, while the arrival of other robots would not.

Obviously, he and Ariel were two of the five presences, but that left three of whom he had no knowledge. One of the three had arrived just a few days before. The other two, apparently traveling together, had been here for a slightly longer period.

The only ways they could have gotten here were with another Key to Perihelion, if there was another one off the planet, or in spacecraft. Either way, they offered additional chances for Derec and Ariel to get away from Robot City. He stayed on the computer all evening, trying to find more information.

He also rigged the chemical processor to make a new boot. It didn’t match, being made of organic materials instead of synthetics, but it fit well enough.

He finally quit for the night when he felt his concentration slipping. After getting something else to eat from the chemical processor, he fell into bed. Ariel was still asleep.

Derec was exhausted, but as he lay in the dark, his mind was still racing. He kept reviewing his new knowledge over and over-Ariel Welsh, her disease, the duplication of the Key… and now, three more humans on Robot City-which might mean, possibly, some new ways to get off the planet. Finally, just before he drifted off to sleep, he heard Ariel leave her room and turn on the chemical processor. For tonight, at least, she was all right.

When Derec emerged for breakfast the next morning, clean and dressed, Ariel was working at the computer. He was hesitant to interrupt her there. However, she looked up when he turned on the chemical processor.

“Morning, Derec.” She smiled shyly. “Are you still mad at me?”

“No. I guess you had good reason to be upset.”

“I just felt so guilty and confused about everything. Especially keeping secrets from you, when you were wondering about the city and all. I’m really sorry.”

“I’m just glad you finally told me. In the long run, maybe my knowing that stuff will help us.”

“I saw the file you left on the console, the medical one. You were trying to help me, weren’t you?”

“Yeah. I’m afraid there wasn’t much about diseases, though. But did you see that we’re not alone?” He took his breakfast out of the processor and sat down next to her, his plate on his lap.

“Yes! I was just looking at the notation. Do you have any idea who they could be?”

“No, I don’t. As soon as I’ve finished eating, I’ll see if I can find any more information about them in the computer, but I’m not too optimistic. Until I get more streamlining done, this computer can know all kinds of things and not realize it, you might say.”

“This is such a strange place.” Ariel sighed. “When I left Aurora, I was looking for adventure as well as a cure. I got the adventure part, such as it is.”

“Like getting captured by that pirate, Aranimas?” Derec grinned. “When he got hold of me, I wasn’t looking for adventure at all.”

“We made a pretty good team, though, taking care of ourselves in that situation.”

“Don’t forget the rest of the team-Alpha, the robot I put together out of all those parts, and Wolruf.”

“That little alien. I wonder what happened to them.”

“Yeah.” He was quiet for a moment, thinking about them. When he and Ariel had used the Key, and as a result had arrived in Robot City, Alpha and Wolruf had been left behind.

“Wolruf could be so surprising. One minute, she seemed like a very shy, subservient little creature, and the next minute we were relying on her for our lives.”

“That’s true. And Alpha’s certainly unique, since I had to cobble him together out of random parts. Did I tell you he has a special arm? It’s made of a kind of cellular substance. I ordered him to move it as though it’s jointed like everyone else’s, but actually he can make it completely flexible, like a tentacle. I wonder where they are now.”

“We’ve never really talked about this, before, have we? About our being friends, I mean, and what we’ve done together.”

He looked up at her. She was more at ease than he had ever seen her. He, too, felt the difference. Somehow, he trusted her now, though for all he knew, she could be keeping other secrets. She didn’t act like she was.

“Derec, you’ve been very understanding. I appreciate it. Thank you.”

“Uh…” He gave just a hint of a shrug. “That’s okay. Now, let’s see if we can figure out how to get off the planet. “