Basalom called up an internal image of the city map, plotted their present position, and factored in the rate at which they were traveling. ,. Approximately five minutes and twenty-three seconds, madam. ”

I know a shortcut, Personal Vehicle One broke in on the data bus.

I have had enough of your “shortcuts,” Basalom answered.

But this one’s really simple, the car protested. All you gotta do is turn east at the gasket factory—

The Compass Tower is to our south and west, Basalom pointed out.

Trust me. Hang a left at the gasket factory, go two blocks over, then up the freight ramp and catch the #204 southbound slidewalk—

You want me to drive on the slidewalk? Basalom’s shock was expressed as a sudden surge in amplitude on bus circuits 24 and 57.

Ow! Not so loud! Yeah, you drive on the slidewalk. There’s a bend to the west in about two kilometers; you get on here and it’s a nonstop shot to the tower plus you pick up 25 KPH from the moving pavement. What do you think? Neat, eh?

Basalom managed to redirect what he was thinking into a null buffer and flush it before Personal Vehicle I had a chance to intercept the words.

The limousine rolled on. A few blocks later, Janet folded the sheet she was reading, pursed her lips, and frowned.

“Basalom?”

“Yes, madam?”

“You’ve been in fairly frequent contact with the city robots over the last few days, haven’t you?”

“The term ‘frequent’ is an imprecise expression, madam. I have had 124 separate audio and commlink conversations at intervals ranging from 15 picoseconds to 6 hours. ”

“Oh. Well, in your conversations, have you noticed that the robots seem a little... odd?”

“ ‘Odd’ is a judgmental term, madam. In order to determine that behavior is odd, you must first establish a base level of normal behavior against which to judge. ”

Janet wrinkled her nose in a frown. “I don’t understand. ”

“Madam, since we have arrived here I have been unable to determine what is ‘normal’ behavior for these robots. Hence I am unable to adjudge anything as being ‘odd. ’ “

Dr. Anastasi smiled and shook her head. “I see. Serves me right for asking a vague question. Let’s try again.

“Basalom, in your conversations with the local robots, have you noticed anything that might lead you to believe that the city supervisors have developed a sense of humor?”

Basalom was silent a moment as he sorted through all his recorded sense impressions, searching for correlating patterns.

Okay, it’s coming up, the limousine broke in. Left at the next corner. Basalom ignored the data stream and tried to concentrate on carrying out Dr. Anastasi’s instructions.

“Madam, while I would prefer to build my judgment on a larger experience base—”

Hey, what’s the matter with you? You’re not slowing down.

“Based on the observations that I have made to date—”

It’s this corner. That big circular building is the gasket factory.

“I must conclude that the city supervisors have not developed a sense of humor—”

Left! Oh, fer cryin’ out loud, you missed the turn.

“But I hasten to add that many of the city robots have developed significant aberrations and eccentricities. ”

For a moment there was blessed silence on the data bus. Then the limousine’s thought stream kicked back in. Oh, so I’m eccentric, am I? Well let’s just see how you like handling this rig alone. There was a brief surge of DC voltage accompanied by a drop in positronic potentials across the entire width of the data bus. Basalom tried a few exploratory probe pulses and was surprised to come to an inescapable conclusion: Personal Vehicle One had physically switched itself out of the data bus.

Basalom fired off one more round of sampling pulses and then allowed himself a moment of pleasure. What a pity 1 didn’t think of this three days ago!

He checked his realtime clock. Close to a quarter-second had elapsed since he’d delivered his findings to Dr. Anastasi, and she was preparing to make a response.

“Darn. I was hoping you’d say yes. ” She picked up the sheaf of fax pages and waved them at Basalom. “If you’d said that the supervisors were capable of intentional humor, I’d say that this was a pretty good practical joke. ”

Dr. Anastasi bit her lower lip. “But if they’re completely serious about this... ”

Basalom swiveled his head around to face Dr. Anastasi and scaled his optics up to a higher magnification, but he was unable to make out the content of the fax sheets. “Serious about what, madam?”

She looked at the papers again and then waved them at Basalom. “This is their proposed plan for modifying the city to suit the needs of the local inhabitants. It’s not just silly. It’s not just stupid. In fact, I think it even transcends ridiculous and scales the heights to pure idiocy. ”

Basalom scanned the papers again,-but his optical character recognition routine still couldn’t read the words through the paper.

“Madam?”

Janet unfolded the papers and looked at them. “We have got to talk the supervisors out of this. It’s insulting. ” She peeled off a sheet and threw it aside. “Condescending. ” She peeled off another and threw it with greater vigor. “Degrading. ” She lifted the entire sheaf and threw it down on the seat beside her. “And possibly immoral. ”

She looked up sharply. “Basalom, I need you to help me reach them. I can build robots. I can order them around. But I’ve never had to try to reason with an Avery model before. You’re going to have to help me understand a city supervisor’s conception of logic. ”

Confused potentials darted through Basalom’s brain. “Understand, madam? What’s to understand? Logic is logic. ”

Dr. Anastasi caught a strand of her long blond hair between her fingers and began unconsciously twisting it. “Wrong, Basalom. Logic isn’t a universal constant, it’s a heuristic decision-making process rooted in the values, prejudices, and acquired conflict -resolution patterns of the decider.

“For example, if I’d given you just a slightly stronger positive bias in your motivation circuit, you would in some situations come to exactly the opposite conclusion that you would come to now. Yet you’d still be just as certain that you’d come to the only logical conclusion. ” Dr. Anastasi smiled, in a hopeless sort of way, and looked at Basalom.

“You, old friend, have got to help me figure out the underpinnings of the city supervisors’ logic. And we’ve got to do it in the next four minutes. ”

Four minutes? Basalom riffled through his job stack, shutting down background processes and diversionary loops. There was no time for further conversational niceties; he pulled all the buffers out of his verbalizing process and jacked his speech clock rate up by ten percent. Then he increased the amplitude on data bus circuits 24 and 57, jumpered around his pride subroutine, and established a direct link to the limousine’s brain.

Personal Vehicle One?

The response was slow and sullen. Whaddaya want?

You must take control of this vehicle.

What makes you think I want it?

The First Law. My full attention is required elsewhere, and I must relinquish control. To ensure the safety of your passenger, you must take over. You have no choice.

Basalom broke off the link and physically disconnected himself from the control panel. There was a microscopic twitch—probably completely imperceptible to Dr. Anastasi—in the steering as Personal Vehicle One took over, but within a millisecond the vehicle was fully under control again.

Satisfied, Basalom rotated his head to face Dr. Anastasi and switched into linear predictive mode. There is no time to wait for her questions. I will have to infer questions from her previous statements and her physical responses. He switched to thermographic vision, locked his optics on Dr. Anastasi’s face, and scaled the magnification up by a factor of 10.

“Logic may not be a universal constant,” he began brusquely, “but the Three Laws are. To have maximum success with the city supervisors, mistress, you must couch your arguments in terms of the Laws of Robotics.

“Here are the anomalies that I have noticed in City Supervisor Beta’s interpretation of the First Law.... ”

CHAPTER 14

DEREC

Derec was dreaming about his childhood again. Or rather, he was dreaming about a childhood; he couldn’t be sure whether it was a genuine memory of his own life or a pseudomemory that his subconscious had cobbled up out of bits of stories and old videos. This time he was a young boy, perhaps four or five standard years old, and he was playing on a wide, robot-neat lawn under the bright summer sun of...

Aurora? He didn’t know. The lawn was a familiar place; a soft expanse of short, dark green grass interspersed with tiny yellow bell-shaped flowers. Damsel flies droned through air flavored with tangy summer dust and the faint hint of sweet clover, and off at the edge of his vision, dark shapes-robots? adults?-moved in meaningless patterns and spoke in muffled voices.

But there was something wrong with the image. The sun was a little too small and blue for his taste, and he could look straight at it. The house—there was a house there, he could almost feel its presence-but somehow it was an elusive thing that he could never quite manage to look at directly.

And then there was the puppy.

He’d never owned a puppy; even asleep, he was sure of that. Pet robots, yes, and he even had a quick flash of some kind of aquatic arthropod that his mother had kept in a tank and talked to as she fed.

His mother! An image flashed through his mind: a slender, blond woman, in baggy, colorless clothes, singing softly as she dropped brine shrimp into the tank and watched the arthropod gobble them up. He was trying to ask his mother a question, but she ignored him.

He could not ignore the puppy.

It was a little spaniel, he thought. Big clumsy paws, floppy ears fit for a dog twice its size; he was on his knees in the grass, and the little spaniel was galumphing across the lawn, tongue flapping like a flag. The puppy heard him laugh and rolled into a turn, almost tripping over its own paws and ears. Then it charged at him, barking joyously, and hit him right in the chest and knocked him over. He and the puppy rolled together on the lawn; its soft, curly golden fur tickling his face and hands. The puppy’s breath reeked of kibbled biscuits, but he laughed anyway as it wiggled in his hands and slobbered wet, sticky, puppy kisses all over his face. He winced and squirmed as the wet pink tongue found his ears....

“Wolruf!” Derec leapt out of bed and began wiping his face on his tunic.

“Sorry, Derec, but we got ship trouble and I t’ought ‘u were never goin’ t’ wake up. ” Her tongue flashed out again, but this time it seemed she was trying to clean it against her upper incisors. “ ‘U plan t’ fall asleep like t’at again, do me a fav’r an’ wash ‘ur face. ”

“Do me a favor and just kick me in the head next time, okay? Eeyuck! Haven’t your people ever heard of mouthwa—”

Derec froze in the act of toweling off his ears with his shirt. “Ship trouble! What?”

“We’re ‘bout two hours away from th’ jump to Tau Puppis. You, Avr’y, and Ar’el were still asleep, so I decided t’ improve th’ ship a little b’fore you woke. ” She looked away and licked her lips anxiously.

“Derec, th’ ship ‘as stopped changing shape!”

It took a minute for Wolruf’s meaning to soak through Derec’s still sleepy brain. Then he burst out laughing.

“Wolruf, haven’t you been listening to me or Dr. Avery? That’s what we’ve been trying to do for the last three days. ”

Wolruf shook her head. “No, you don’ und’rstan. Th’ ship won’ change shape at all now, an ‘ it won’ take verbal flight commands. How’r we gonna make atm’spheric entry in this hull?”

Derec stopped laughing. “What do you mean, it won’t take verbal orders?” He looked at the bunk he’d been lying on. “Ship, change this bunk into a chair. ”

Smoothly and silently, the bunk flowed into its new shape.

“Let me try. ” Wolruf flattened her ears and raised her voice. “Ship? Make t’is chair five centimeters lower. ” Nothing happened.

“Uh oh. ” Derec repeated Wolruf’s command. This time the chair quickly complied. “I think,” Derec said softly, “that we have a real problem on our hands. ”

Wolruf looked at Derec with big, wet, puppy-dog eyes. “Th’ ship goin’ crazy ‘ur somethin’?”

“Worse. ” Derec sat down in the chair and laid his hands on the robotics terminal. With a glimmer of luminescence, the display screen came to life. It took Derec just a moment to check the iostat. “Here’s the problem,” he said, laying a finger on the display. “Wolruf, my friend, I’m afraid that when we cut out the volitional circuits, we had to compensate by strengthening the ship’s Second Law sense. We forced the ship to pay extremely close attention to direct orders. ” Derec turned away from the screen and offered Wolruf a sad smile. “Human orders. ”

“ ‘U mean th’ problem is that th’ ship no longer list’ns t’ me?”

“I’m afraid so. ” Derec frowned and looked back at the terminal. “The really frosted part is, I don’t think I can fix it in two hours. The ship doesn’t really have a robot brain, so I can ‘t reprogram it through my internal commlink. Do you need to enter any last-minute course corrections before the jump?”

Being a caninoid alien, her expressions were difficult to read, but Derec had the distinct impression that Wolruf was pouting. “Nothin’ I can’t ent’r manually. ”

A peculiar thought struck Derec, and he sat up straight. “Wolruf? There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. I seem to remember you doing a lot of complaining about the ship not needing a pilot. How did you manage to find those manual controls?”

“Asked for ‘em,” Wolruf said with a sniff. “Second Law: Ship ‘ad to give ‘em to me. Of course, that was b’fore you an’ ‘ur father improved things. ”

Derec sank his head in his hands. “Look, I’m really sorry about this, okay? I promise you, as soon as we get through the jump, I’ll start working on—”

The lift doors hissed open, and Mandelbrot and Dr. Avery marched into the robotics lab. “Look, son!” Dr. Avery called out, “I’ve found a little project to kill the time until we land. ”

“Dad, I don’t think—” Derec started to turn around, but Wolruf was already heading for the lift.

“Looks like this 01’ dog better get out ofth’ way an’ let ‘u ‘umans do important things. ” She stepped into the lift and punched a button. “I’m goin’ down t’ th’ bridge t’ enter warp coord’nates w’ my nails ‘n’ teeth!”

“What’s her problem?” Avery asked as the lift doors hissed shut. “Flea collar too tight?”

Derec looked at Avery with an expression of disgust on his face. “That little dig was uncalled for, Dad. There’s an issue with the changes we made to the ship’s programming. It no longer recognizes Wolruf as human. ”

Avery shrugged. “That’s a problem? I’d call it an improvement. ”

“Dad!”

“I mean, let’s be honest. I was never too crazy about the idea of giving an alien Robotic Law status anyway. ”

Derec slammed a fist down on the terminal display and leapt to his feet. “Frost it, Dad! May I remind you that Wolruf has twice saved my life? She’s not just the best pilot on board, she’s my friend, and I will not have you treating her like—like—”

“ A dog?”

Derec’s eyes went wide with anger, and his face flushed red to the roots of his sandy blond hair. For a moment their glares interlocked; Derec saw the old, cruel Avery in his father’s eyes.

Avery saw his ex-wife in his son’s face. Maybe I was wrong, son. You’ve got my unemotional exterior, but your mother’s volatile temper. I drove her away by pretending that] didn’t care about her feelings. I won’t make that mistake with you. “I’m sorry, Derec, I spoke without thinking. Mandelbrot can wait. What do you want to do about Wolruf?”

Feeling strangely disappointed by his father’s acquiescence, Derec sat down again. “Actually, we’ll reach the jump point in a little less than two hours. I don’t think there’s anything we can do in that amount of time. “

Avery walked over and sat on the table next to the terminal. “Then how about if we start working on the permissions list as soon as we get through the jump?”

Derec sagged in his chair, feeling more than a little embarrassed by his angry outburst. “Yeah, that should be fine. Wolruf can tough it out for two hours. ” He ran his fingers through his hair. Then he abruptly sat up, rubbed his fingers together, and noticed how greasy they’d become. “Gad, I sure could use a shower. ” He started to get up and noticed Mandelbrot still standing there.

“Say, Dad, what did you have in mind for Mandelbrot, anyway?”

Avery got off of the table he’d been sitting on, shuffled over, and laid a hand on the robot’s shoulder. “I couldn’t help but notice that Mandelbrot here is a Ferrier Model Ea—at least, most of him is. Now, the E-series is a pretty common domestic robot on Aurora, and if I remember correctly, Ariel had one that she called Capek. Took it with her when she left the planet. ”

“So?”

Avery turned the robot slightly and pointed out a complex structure just below Mandelbrot’s “collarbone, “ in an area that had once been covered by an access plate but now bordered on the edge of an old blaster burn. “The Ea kept its long-term memory in seven non-volatile cubes, right here. I notice that he’s only got two cubes installed now. ”

Derec sighed. He’s treating me like an ignorant kid again. “If you look a little closer, Dad, you’ll notice that the rest of his cube cage got blasted. This is the only way I’ve known him, and I just never bothered to repair the damage. ”

Avery bit back the urge to reply in the same tone. Don’t you think I can see that, Derec? Instead, he asked in a soft voice, “Am I to infer from that statement that you hung on to his other memory cubes?”

“Two of them; the rest were scrap. They’re in his offline library bay, down by his left hip. But I don’t see—”

Avery opened the library bay and extracted the two cubes. Then he made a sweeping gesture that took in the whole room. “This is a robotics lab, isn’t it?”

Derec stood still for a moment, then he broke into a big smile. “Well, I’ll be. We’ve got all the parts and tools we need right here, don’t we?”

Avery nodded. “We should be able to recover his memories of Aurora. If we’re lucky and his automatic backup function was set up correctly, we may even recover his memories of the first battle with Aranimas. I figure it’ll take about a half hour to find out. An hour, tops. ”

Derec smiled again and then spoke to the robot. “How about it, Mandelbrot? Do you want us to reinstall the rest of your memory?”

The pause was barely audible. “It would please me to operate at my full capacity again, Master Derec. ”

Derec turned to Avery. ’, And we can do it without altering his personality?”

Avery began clearing space for the robot on the worktable. “I promise. We won’t knock one positron out of orbit. ”

Derec reached a decision. “Okay, let’s get started. He stepped over to the worktable and began helping Avery clear it. With a discreet cough, Avery got his attention.

“Derec? Why don’t you let me prep him while you catch a shower?”

“Oh, this is more interesting. I don’t need to shower right this—”

Avery coughed again and wrinkled his nose. Derec gave his father a surprised little look. “I do?” Avery nodded. “Oh. Well, say, Dad, why don’t you prep Mandelbrot? I’ll just, uh—” He jerked a thumb at the Personal and started backing toward the door.

“Good idea,” Avery agreed.

CHAPTER 15

MAVERICK

Maverick pelted hell-for-leather through the underbrush, ears flattened against the side of his head, legs pumping faster than he ever would have believed possible, his tail a bare five steps ahead of one extremely annoyed sharpfang. Spineberry branches raked his face. His breath, spiced with curses, came in raw, ragged gasps.

So what? Feel lucky you’re still breathing! He burst through a clump of sandleaves and nearly ran head-on into a fallen log. No time for finesse, lad, jump! Somehow he cleared the log, although the stump of a branch gouged an angry scratch across the left side of his ribs.

Lick it later, fool! His left rear leg buckled when he hit the ground, but he managed to recover in time to tumble and come up running. “Ki-yii!” he screamed in BeastTongue.

The sharpfang behind him responded with a throaty roar -It was closer now-and even angrier

“Spoor!” Maverick feinted right and then cut sharply left, ignoring the ache in his leg. An instant later the second sharpfang loomed into view dead ahead; with the brilliance of desperation, Maverick darted left again and hurdled the second sharpfang’s tail. The two lizards collided heavily and went down.

Dare I hope? He slowed slightly and looked over his shoulder.

No! Sharpfang minds were tiny things, capable of holding just one thought at a time. Both sharpfangs were focused on the kin; it didn’t occur to them that this was an excellent opportunity to fight. Within seconds, the lizards were back on their hind feet, but now they were both chasing after him.

Well, lad, at least you gained a few seconds’ lead—The thought was cut off by a blood-curdling scream somewhere up ahead-a scream that dissolved into the happy growl of a feeding sharpfang. The third sharpfang! One last incredibly pained yelp slipped out from the sharpfang’s victim.

Maverick’s self-control slipped a moment. I hope that was WhiteTail. Then he felt guilty at that thought. I take that back. Don’t hurt the kid, OldMother. I hope that was LifeCrier!

He swerved left and suddenly found himself charging straight at a yawning gully. Trying to take it in a single bound, he came down a half -trot short and slammed into the edge of the far side. Whining like a pup, he hung on the edge, his hind legs scrabbling for purchase. Curse LifeCrier and his flea-bitten SilverSides nonsense! The two sharpfangs’ feet thudded closer.

Maverick’s right foot found something solid, and he flipped himself up over the edge and hit the ground running. And curse me and my bright ideas! With a clumsy crash, the sharpfangs fell into the gully. One of them roared in distress, and then they began slashing a passage up the side.

Maverick flattened his ears again, straightened his tail, and focused on putting distance between himself and the sharpfangs.

Up to a point, things had been going really well. After the pack had wiped out the WalkingStones, LifeCrier began leading the hunt every day, and Maverick had managed to make himself a permanent part of LifeCrier’ s hunting party. And after a week of practice, LifeCrier’s group was actually starting to hunt like a pack. This morning two of the younger kin had taken down a smallgrazer, and Maverick himself had surprised a smerp that was trying to hide under a log. They’d even managed to handle it intelligently when the point kin stirred up a small female sharpfang. The scouts got out of the way, the stupid lizard charged straight at the main body of the pack, and Maverick had time to draw his knife and try his under-the-chin trick.

It worked to perfection. He dropped the sharpfang with one blow, and for a minute there he’d had the undying admiration of the entire hunting party. LifeCrier even got out one of those stupid amulets and made a great show of hanging it around Maverick’s neck.

Then the pack was jumped by the three full-grown male sharpfangs that had been following the female he’d killed.

A new roar joined the chorus behind him. Maverick looked over his shoulder long enough to see that the third sharpfang, blood fresh on his face, had decided to join the party.

That does it! Maverick decided. If I get out of this alive, I’m going to head west and forget I ever heard the name PackHome. May the fleas of a thousand grazers infest LifeCrier’s ears!

Speak of the FirstBeast and he shall rise. Maverick burst through another patch of spineberries and almost collided with LifeCrier. The old kin pulled up short and gave Maverick a dumbfounded look as he sped past.

Against his better judgment, Maverick barked out a warning. ,, Sharpfangs ! Right behind me!” All three roared as if to reinforce the point.

“Wait up!” LifeCrier yelped.

Got to give the old boy credit, Maverick thought as he spared a moment to glance over his shoulder, he can really move when he’s motivated. In a few seconds LifeCrier had pulled up along Maverick’s right side and was matching his speed.

“Where’s WhiteTail?” LifeCrier asked between gasps.

“She wasn’t with you?”

“We got separated. ” LifeCrier broke running form long enough to raise his head and take his bearings. “We’ve got to regroup the pack. Make a stand!”

“We can regroup when we’re back in PackHome. ” Maverick closed his mouth as they ploughed into a patch of blooming stinkweed.

“You don’t understand. Three sharpfangs! This must be a test of our faith. SilverSides will protect us!” A limestone outcropping loomed in front of them. “Left! Trust me!” LifeCrier dropped back to cross Maverick’s tail and turn down the slope, parallel to the base of the bluff.

Maverick hesitated a fraction of a second and then followed. “Funny thing,” he called after LifeCrier. “My sire always used to say,” a boulder appeared in his path, but he managed to gauge his lead-in correctly and land on his right leg, “the OldMother helps those who help themselves!”

LifeCrier rounded the foot of the bluff and skidded to a stop. “Drat! We’re here? I thought we were... ”

Maverick followed him around the corner and slammed on the brakes as well.

To their left, the gully he’d crossed earlier broadened out into a marshy delta. Directly in front, there were a few scrubby little nut trees and about a twenty-foot drop into the swamp. Vast, dim shapes moved in the distance, dipping their long necks into the floating mats of vegetation.

To their right, a narrow path skirted the base of the cliff and teetered on the brink of falling into the swamp.

LifeCrier stood at the edge of the drop, sniffing at the water twenty feet below. “I suppose we could swim. ”

“Idiot! There are things in that swamp that eat sharpfangs!”

“Well, perhaps we could—”

A sharpfang roared and rocks came bouncing down the slope behind them, accompanied by the sound of massive talons skidding on loose gravel.

“Right!” Maverick decided. He lit off on the path at a pace that would have scared the scent out of him were he not already terrified. LifeCrier followed two trots behind.

“Do you think they’ll give up?” LifeCrier shouted.

More roars behind them; the thud of heavy bodies colliding and the sharp crack of a nut tree being broken in two, followed by a massive splash. Maverick looked over his shoulder long enough to see one sharpfang slogging along in the mud at the base of the cliff while the other two cautiously, almost comically, slid down the embankment on their hindquarters and tails.

“No!” he shouted back. The path rounded a little outcropping and dipped down to water level. Great! Now they won’t even have to jump to get us! But on the other side of a clump of giant grazertail plants, the path intersected a broad, flat path that led back into a gap in the cliff face. “This is it!” he shouted at LifeCrier. Skidding a little on the marshmuck, he cut a sharp right turn and darted in.

By the time they realized that it was a box canyon, the three sharpfangs were out of the water and thudding up the path behind them.

Maverick’s breath was coming in short, ragged gasps now, and his heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst his ribcage. “Is there a way out?” he said between gasps.

“Not that I can see,” LifeCrier wheezed. “Perhaps around-around that bend there. ” They both staggered in the direction in which he was looking.

“Still think—SilverSides—is gonna save us?”

“I’m sure—” LifeCrier licked his lips. “I’m sure she has a reason for all this. ”

“It’s just that—if she’s planning to save us-this’d be a real good time, y’know?” They rounded the bend.

LifeCrier stopped in his tracks and gasped, “Mother have mercy!” Then he dropped on his belly and began whining like a pup. Maverick looked where LifeCrier had been looking.

He saw the four WalkingStones.

Oh, Mother, did 1 figure these things wrong!

The WalkingStones were tall; as tall as sharpfangs, almost, and black as a starless night. They stood firmly on their hind legs, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and sported broad chests and massive forelegs that looked as if they could uproot trees. In place of eyes they had narrow slits filled with a flickering, hellish light, and in place of forepaws they had great hooks like a fliptail’s pincers.

“LifeCrier!” Maverick whispered urgently. “Are those male WalkingStones?!”

LifeCrier peeked out between his fingers, and then covered his eyes again and went back to whimpering. “Yes, yes, that’s them!”

“They’re raising their right forelegs. Their paws-they’re hanging funny. They’ve got some kind of extra bone extruding from their wrists. Is that how they throw lightning?”

“Yes !” LifeCrier clamped his paws down harder, as if trying to push his face through the ground.

“LifeCrier, there’s some kind of glow forming around—”

CRACK! Lightning split the air and echoed off the sides of the box canyon. The brilliant flash dazzled Maverick’s eyes; for half a minute, all he could see were searing blue afterimages.

About the time that his vision cleared and his ears stopped ringing, the scent of blood and burnt flesh reached his nose, and he noticed that he was still alive. And he could no longer hear the sharpfangs. He turned around to see how close they were.

The sharpfangs were close, but they would get no closer. Where once they had heads, they now had smoking stumps. One WalkingStone stood by the corpses, inspecting them with his red, fiery eyes, his lightning-thrower extended and ready.

Another was walking toward the kin. Maverick put a paw on LifeCrier’s shoulder and tried to jostle him out of his terrified cringe. LifeCrier peeked out just long enough to mutter, “Off the spit and into the fire. ”

The WalkingStone halted. “Be you well, Master LifeCrier?” Its inflection was odd, and it spoke in a garbled mix of HuntTongue and KinSpeech, but it was understandable.

The words were what finally got LifeCrier to uncover his face. “You—you know my name?”

“Oh, certainly, master. As you are he whom we were sent to serve. ”

“Serve? Serve me?” LifeCrier’s ears went up.

“Such is our mission. Have you been served well by the demise of yon sharpfangs?”

LifeCrier got to his feet and took a hesitant step toward the WalkingStone. “Y-yes, very well. But—” He paused, and looked sharply at the WalkingStone. “Were you sent by SilverSides?”

“We are sent to protect you. ”

“By SilverSides? Have you seen her? Did she give you any words for us?”

The WalkingStone tilted its head slightly, as if looking over LifeCrier’s head. “We have seen the one you know as SilverSides. And we bring you this message: You are to go to the Hill of Stars. ”

“What?”

The WalkingStone shifted into a deep, stentorian voice. “You are to return to your den and gather your followers. Instruct them to gather their females and their offspring; gather their possessions and all that they would take with them, and follow you into the Hill of Stars. There a place has been prepared for you to dwell, and you shall never know hunger nor want again!”

LifeCrier’s mouth dropped open, and he sat down heavily on his haunches. “Well, I’ll be!” He looked at Maverick, smiled, and shook his head. “I expected a miracle, but not this soon!” He looked at the WalkingStone and shook his head again. “We’ll live in the Hill of Stars and have all our needs provided for?”

“You will be served and protected,” the WalkingStone said.

LifeCrier nodded. “Yes. Yes, I understand now. How soon?”

“Your place is being prepared even as we speak. It will be ready by the time you return to PackHome with this news. ”

LifeCrier nodded again, sagely this time. “Very well. Servant, we will meet you at the Hill of Stars. ”

“As you wish, master. ” The WalkingStone bent in the middle-a gesture that Maverick found puzzling-and backed away. As one, the other WalkingStones turned to join it, and together the four of them marched out of the canyon.

Maverick turned to LifeCrier and found that LifeCrier was looking at him with an enigmatic smile on his face. “Well, Maverick, it seems that you and a few others have a little apologizing to do. What do you think about a silly old kin and his SilverSides nonsense now?”

“Sir,” Maverick said with a respectful baring of his throat, “only a fool would refuse to believe after seeing this. Where you lead, I will follow. ”

“Excellent. ” LifeCrier got to his feet and gave Maverick an affectionate nuzzle. “You are my first true follower, and my strong right paw. I shall name you—”

Maverick interrupted him with a discreet cough. “Begging your pardon, sir, but I’d really rather stick with Maverick. It’s easier to remember. ”

LifeCrier looked a little disappointed. “Oh, very well. You’re now Maverick, the First Believer. ” He looked back at the smoking corpses of the three sharpfangs-already flyers, eightlegs, and other carrion-feeders were starting to gather—and dismissed them with a sniff.

“Now let’s follow those WalkingStones and see if we can’t find a way out of this canyon. ” LifeCrier set off at a trot.

Panting, bewildered, but full of honest trust, Maverick fell in behind.

CHAPTER 16

DEREC

The robotics lab was dim and quiet, except for the quartet of high-intensity lamps that Avery had pulled down from the ceiling and the soft chirping of the positronic monitor. The data terminals and chairs were gone, dissolved back into the substance of the ship; the work table was reconfigured into a body-contour slab that held the immobile figure of Mandelbrot. A function robot with four long, mantis-like arms stood behind Avery, handing out utensils as he asked for them, while another floated a foot over Mandelbrot’s head, carefully monitoring his positronic brain functions and ensuring a stable supply of power to the critical synthecortex.

Derec and Avery crouched over the robot’s open chest, trying hard not to block each other’s light. They’d already removed most of Mandelbrot’ s chest plating and disconnected the power from the cube cage. Now they were carefully cutting away the damaged portions of the data bus and fitting replacement parts.

“Micro-calipers. ” The function robot slapped them into Avery’s open hand. “Pentaclamps. ”

“Easy,” Derec said. “You’ve got a little bit of grisaille blast-welded on that buss bar. ”

“I see it. Think you can debride it?”

“I’ll try. Cutting laser. ” The robot started to hand a flashlight-sized tool to Derec, but he refused it. “Sorry. Make that the 10-milliwatt cutter. ” The large laser went back into the robot’s drawers, and it offered Derec a slim, dental-probe sized tool instead. After taking a moment to don protective goggles, Derec set to work.

“So,” Avery asked after a minute or two of silence, “where’s Ariel this morning?”

“Up in the gym,” Derec answered without taking his eyes off his work. “Working out. ” He made another tiny cut and announced, “There, that should clear it. Try to extract now. ”

“I’m extracting-no, it’s stuck on something else. Can you see what it is?”

Derec removed his goggles and scrutinized the offending part. “Seems free to me. I can’t-ah, there it is. ” He dropped his goggles, stepped back from the table, and rubbed his eyes. “Frost, we’re going to have to remove the neck retainer. ”

“All of it?” Avery sounded very disappointed.

“That is the standard procedure. Unless you want to risk spine alignment problems. ”

Avery briefly set down the pentaclamps and put his hand on Mandelbrot’s chin. “We’ve got him pretty secure here. The head’s not going anywhere. I say we risk it. ”

Derec shrugged. “You’re the doctor. I’ll hold while you decouple. ” He reached for the pentaclamps.

“No, son,” Avery said, taking the pentaclamps himself. “I hate to admit it, but your hands are steadier than mine. You’d better do it. Toolbot? Give Derec the two-millimeter splinedriver. ”

Wordlessly, Derec took the tool and set to work. In a few minutes they managed to decouple the front neck brace, extract the damaged sections of the cube cage, and sonic-weld the replacement bus sections in place.

They were just test-fitting a new memory cube when the first explosion rocked the ship.

“All ‘ands!” Wolruf barked over the intercom. “We’re und’r attack!”

Derec invoked his internal commlink and patched into the ship’s intercom. In a flash he was looking out through the ship’s main optics and talking to Wolruf on the bridge. Aranimas again?

“ ‘Oo else?”

Where is he? 1 can’t see him.

“Dorsal port quarter. ‘Bout 25 degrees above the ecliptic. ” Derec flipped through the ship’s optic feeds until he found the correct one, and then he gasped. The multi-hulled Erani pirate ship was huge-and close. Tiny pinpricks of actinic light seared his eyes as the gunners fired off another salvo.

How’d he manage to sneak up on us like this?

“ ‘U took Mandelbrot off the scanners,” Wolruf said between strained pants, “an’ limited me to manual controls. Ship’s been fightin’ me-makin’ sure ever’thin’ I entered agreed w’ th’ First Law. I was ‘avin’ enough trouble-just gettin’ ready for th’ jump. ”

The jump. How close are we to the jump point?

“ ‘Bout ten minutes. Not close enough,” she barked sharply, and growled something unintelligible in her native tongue. Another blast rocked the ship.

Can you take evasive action?

“What do ‘u think I’m doin’, you stupid ‘airless ape!” Wolruf broke off her end of the commlink. Derec withdrew himself from the ship’s optic feed.

“What’s going on?” Avery demanded. He was still crouched over Mandelbrot’s open chest, a sonic welder in his hands.

“ Aranimas!” Throwing aside his tools, Derec stripped off his goggles and darted toward the lift. “I’ve got to get down to the bridge!”

Avery dropped the sonic welder into Mandelbrot’s chest and started after Derec. “Wait for me!” The lift doors hissed open; Derec dashed in and started pushing buttons. The ship shuddered under another explosion. The lights flickered for a moment, the monitor robot went crashing into the wall, and Avery was thrown off his feet. But he recovered his balance and made it into the lift an instant before the doors slid shut. The bottom dropped out of the lift car.

Seconds later, the lift doors opened, spilling Derec and Avery onto the bridge. “Wolruf!” Derec barked.

“I’m busy,” she growled back at him. The little alien was standing before the control panel, balanced on one foot like a Burmese dancer. Her other foot was up on the throttle lever, her thick, sausage-like fingers were flying over the fine control knobs and buttons, and her teeth were clamped on the yawl pitch joystick. Somehow, she was managing to control the ship.

“Damage report!” Derec yelled.

She let go of the joystick for a moment. “Th’ first ‘it took out the gym. Th’ rest ‘ave all been glancing blows. ” Wolruf bit the joystick again.

“The gym?” Derec blanched. “Where’s Ariel?”

“Locked in the Deck 3 Personal,” Ariel’s voice came over the intercom. “I was taking a shower when the attack started. I’m okay, but I’m afraid that the trainer robot is a total loss. ”

“If we get out of this, I’ll build you another one. ” Derec broke off the conversation and turned to Wolruf. “Okay, I’ll take over now. ”

Wolruf flattened her ears, let go of the joystick, and growled at Derec. “ ‘V a combat pilot?”

“No, but the automatics will be helping me, not fighting you. ”

Wolruf grabbed the joystick again and threw it hard over, just as another blast grazed the hull. “No offense,” she said around the control, “but I’m willin’ t’ bet ‘at me on crippled manual is still a better pilot’ an ‘ u with full automatics. ” A second later she went flying across the cabin as a massive explosion rocked the ship. The viewing screen flickered and went dead. The cabin lights went out and stayed out.

“ ‘Course,” Wolruf whined, somewhere in the dark, “I could be wrong. ”

What seemed an eternity later, dim red emergency lighting came up slowly and a pleasant little bell chimed. “I’m sorry,” the ship said in a soft, feminine voice of the sort usually reserved for elevators and recorded phone messages, “but all main power feeds have been severed. Repairs are in progress, and I expect to restore full function in about five minutes. Sorry for the inconvenience. “ The bell chimed again, and the speakers went silent.

For some time, there was utter silence on the bridge. No reassuring hum or robotic activity; no soft whirring of ventilation fans. The air recirculation system had gone out with the lights, and already the atmosphere on the bridge was growing thick and fetid. There were no sounds at all, save for Avery’s heavy breathing, Wolruf’s frightened whine, and the occasional thud of a low-power hit on the hull.

“What’s he waiting for?” Avery whispered, as if afraid that his voice would carry through the vacuum to the Erani ship. “Why isn’t he hitting us with everything he’s got?”

“I don’t know,” Derec whispered back. “He didn’t stop firing on the asteroid until it was a smoking mass of gravel. Do you know, Wolruf?” Her only answer was a frightened whine. “Come on. You do know, don’t you?”

“Old Erani slaving technique,” she said through a whimper. “Suppression fire. Make ‘u keep ‘ur ‘ead down while th’ boarding party jets across. ”

Avery’s head jerked up. “Boarding party?”

Derec leapt to his feet. “Viewscreens are still out. I’m going to activate my internal commlink and see if I can tap an optic feed. ” He closed his eyes in concentration, but the moment he did so a deafening barrage erupted on the surface of the hull.

“Stop it, Derec!” Derec broke concentration, and the barrage stopped.

“Your internal commlink,” Avery whispered. “You said the Erani know a lot more about hyperwave than we do. They must be able to monitor your commlink!”

Derec’s face sank. “Oh, great. Now what do we do?”

Avery rolled over so that he was facing Wolruf. “Wolruf, you were part of his crew. Will he fire on us if the boarding party is on the hull?”

Wolruf gave it some thought. “Depends on ‘oo’s in the boarding party. Probably won’t use ‘is ‘eavy guns. ”

“ And how far are we from the jump point?”

Wolruf brought a hind foot up and gave her right ear a scratch. “, Ard to tell. We lost propulsion, rem’mber?”

Avery patted her on the head. “But we haven’t lost our momentum. We’re still on course and drifting towards the jump point at 2,000 kilometers per second. ”

“’At’s right!” Wolruf got to her feet and staggered over to the control panel. The panel clock had its own backup power cell and was still running. “J minus three minutes an’ fifteen seconds,” she read off. “If we can let th’ boarders land on the ‘ull but keep ‘em outside for about three minutes, we ‘ave a chance. ”

“Provided we can get jump power back in time,” Avery added. He got to his feet and joined Wolruf before the control console. “Ship, what is the status of the hyperdrive?”

“Main power will be reconnected in four minutes,” the ship answered in a soothing, feminine voice. “Repairs to the control systems are being hampered by continuing hostile fire. ”

“Frost! That’s not soon enough. ” Then Avery had another thought. “Ship? What happens if we divert all repair resources to the hyperdrive?”

The ship considered it a moment. “Main power can be restored in approximately two minutes. Repairs to the control systems are still contingent on the cessation of hostile fire. ”

“Divert all resources to the hyperdrive,” Avery ordered. He turned to Derec. “Now, how do we persuade them to stop shooting at us?” Derec shrugged.

Hesitantly, tentatively, Wolruf stepped forward. “Among my people we ‘ave an old tradition,” she said. “Roll over an’ play dead. ”

Derec gave a frustrated snort and sneered at the little alien. “What kind of idea is that?”

“A good one,” Avery said, twirling his moustache. “Maybe even a very good one. ” He stepped over to the control console and raised his voice. “Ship, do you still retain shape-changing ability?”

“Certain sections of the hull have been rendered temporarily inoperative,” the ship said pleasantly. “However, I have full control over 80% of the exterior hull. ”

“Excellent. ” Avery looked at Wolruf. “Get on the jump controls. I want to jump the instant we’re ready. ” Turning back to the console, he said, “Ship, continue to effect hyperdrive repairs, but prepare to simulate a massive explosion. The next time we sustain a hit on a non-essential portion of the hull, jettison plating and other materials and adopt the appearance of severe damage. Do not, repeat, do not conduct self-repairs in that area. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” the ship said politely. “Simulation program prepared. ” A few moments later, the soft thud of a weapons hit was immediately followed by a massive concussion and a rapid drop in cabin pressure. Wolruf, more sensitive to air pressure changes than the others, let out a sharp, painful yelp and fell to the floor.

Derec dashed to her side, but she waved him off. “ ‘S okay. ” Shaking her head, she got back to her hind feet. “More surprised ‘an ‘urt. ”

“Section 17D has been explosively decompressed,” the ship announced courteously. “Cabin pressure now stabilized. ” After a short pause, the ship politely added, “Hostile fire has ceased. The boarding party is moving forward. ”

“Forty-five secon’s t’ jump,” Wolruf whispered.

“Contact imminent,” the ship said. “Shall I prepare a welcoming message?”

“No!” Avery hissed. “And, frost it, keep your voice down!”

“Yes, master,” the ship whispered sweetly. “Hyperdrive power restored. Hyperdrive control circuits still out. ”

Avery turned to Wolruf. “How big is our jump window?”

“Five seconds, seven max—” She shuddered as a deep clang echoed through the hull. The sound was followed by the groan of creaking metal and an erratic series of hollow pokking sounds.

“Induction limpet,” Wolrufexplained in a frightened whine. “Magnetic boots. They’ll walk ‘roun’ th’ hull, try t’ figurr out where th’ live ‘uns are. Hard t’ sell dead slaves. ” She checked the clock again and tucked her tail between her legs. “Thirty seconds t’ jump. ”

The sounds changed now to the rhythmic clacking of metal boots and the grating screech of something heavy being dragged across the outer surface of the hull. This was followed by the deep whump! and rising whine of a power pile being engaged.

“Cut tin’ laser,” Wolrufwhispered. “Must ‘ave found us. ” She looked at the clock. “Fifteen seconds t’ jump. ”

“Ship? Repair status. ”

“Hyperdrive control still out. Master? I am experiencing new hull damage in Section 17A. ”

“Sev’n... six... ”

“Thicken the hull in that section. Keep them out. ”

“Four…t’ree…”

“Negative effect, master. Stand by for hull breach. ”

“ ‘Un... zero... ’at’s it. ” Wolruf shrugged and stepped back from the control panel, her ears sagging forlornly.

“Hull breached in 17A. Hyperdrive control circuits restored. ”

“What?” Avery and Wolruf froze for a moment, staring at each other. Then both leapt on the jump control handle and slammed it down.

A moment later, the Wild Goose Chase was somewhere else.

Avery wrestled himself out from under Wolruf and grabbed the intercom grid. “Ship! Can you contain the boarding party?”

“What boarding party?” the ship asked innocently.

“Wha—?” Avery turned to Derec, a wild and confused look on his face. “Derec? See if you can use your commlink to get an exterior view. ” Before he’d finished speaking, Derec had closed his eyes, invoked the commlink, and patched into the ship’s optic feeds.

“Nothing,” he said hoarsely. “Starfield. No other ships. I see the hull. ” He gasped. “Ouch! We took some serious damage. ”

“But where are the boarders?” Avery demanded. “Check Section 17. ”

“I’m getting there. Section 15. Section 16; I see the limpet, it’s welded onto the hull. Section 17. ” Derec’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “They’re gone!”

“Gone? Where?”

Wolruf roused herself from the corner Avery had pushed her into. ‘ If they ‘ur lucky,” she said in a tired rasp, “they got fried by the en’rgy pulse from th’ jump. ”

“That’s lucky?”

Wolruf indulged in a good shake and then shambled over to join Avery and Derec. “Don’t ‘u know nothin’ about ‘yperspace? Magn’tic polar’ties reverse. If ‘u live t’rough th’ insertion, ‘ur boot magnets repel th’ ship’s magn’tic field. Only for a picosecon’, but ‘at’s long enough t’ blow ‘u off like a rocket. ”

Derec’s face paled. “You mean, they could still be alive, but floating in hyperspace?”

Wolruf laid a paw on Derec’s shoulder and sagged against him. “Derec, if they made it int’ ‘yperspace, they could still be alive for centuries. ”

Derec was still considering that idea when Wolruf took a deep breath and stood up straight. “What’s done iss done. What we need t’ do now is figure out where we are. ” She pushed off Derec, staggered over to the control console, and started punching buttons. As if in response, the normal cabin lighting returned, and the air recirculation fans kicked in with a buzz.

“Internal environment restored,” the ship announced pleasantly. “Thank you for your patience. ”

Blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light, Derec put his hand on Wolruf’s shoulder and tried to turn her around. She shrugged it off. “What do you mean, figure out where we are?” he asked. “We jumped right on schedule. ”

“We jumped four seconds late,” she said without looking up, “an’ with th’ wrong calc’lations. We ‘ad the extra mass of th’ boardin’ party, an’ we lost ship’s mass in the fight. ” She paused to punch a few more buttons and study the readouts. “No tellin’ ‘ow far off th’ jump was skewed. ”

Avery gently took Derec by the elbow and pulled him out of Wolruf’s way. “Anything we can do to help?”

“Yeah. ” She tweaked a control and brought the main viewscreen back to life. “Fix Mandelbrot an’ get ‘im down ‘ere. I need ‘im. ”

Derec scowled. “But—”

“Come on, son. ” Tugging Derec’s elbow again, Avery began to steer him toward the lift. “Robot’s Rules of Order Number I: Never argue with the pilot until you’re back on the ground. ” The lift doors hissed open.

“But—”

“Mandelbrot needs you. ” Derec seemed to accept that argument, at least long enough for Avery to get him into the lift.

The doors hissed shut, and they started up.

CHAPTER 17

JANET

Central’s one red eye flared on the moment Dr. Anastasi entered the atrium. “Working. ” The massive brain’s voice was oddly flat and toneless, although Janet thought she detected a vaguely feminine inflection and the incongruous clacking of relays in the background.

“Good morning, Central,” Janet said pleasantly, as if speaking to a small child. “Are we feeling well today?”

“Feeling does not compute. ”

Dr. Anastasi’s eyes went wide. Slowly, as if expecting at any moment to see the “Celebrity Practical Jokes” camera robot step out of hiding, she turned to Basalom and arched an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”

“Checking, madam. ” Basalom activated his internal commlink and patched into the city maintenance system. A moment later, he had his answer. “Central’s personality module is temporarily off-line for repairs. Its numeric computational powers and cerebellar functions are—I quote the technicians’ report—’unimpaired. ’ “

“No editorial comments, please. ”

“Sorry, madam. ” Something that sounded ever so slightly like a snicker escaped from Basalom’s speech membrane. Dr. Anastasi chose to let it pass... Central is currently operating in absolute literal mode,” Basalom added. “I advise using extreme caution in your choice of words. ”

“Oh. ” Janet looked at Central’s console input/output device again. “Are you trying to tell me that arguing with Central would be a complete waste of time?”

“It depends on how you define’ waste, ‘ madam. ” The sound Basalom emitted this time was without question a snicker. “You might find it extremely amusing!” He turned his head and brought a hand up to his face, as if trying to pretend that his sputtered laugh was a sneeze.

Frowning, Janet nodded slowly. “I might. ” Then she looked up and smiled, as if she’d just been struck by a particularly good idea. “Oh, and Basalom dear, could you add something to my calendar?”

Basalom bowed deeply. “Of course, mistress. Your wish is my command!”

“One of my robots has been acting quite strangely lately. When we get back to the ship, remind me to remove his brain and either fix it—” Her smile vanished, and her tone shifted to a low-pitched growl. “—or scrap it!”

Basalom straightened up in the way that only a being with picosecond reflexes can. “Yes, madam. ”

“That’s better. Now for the matter at hand. ” She turned to Central’s I/O console. “Central, where is Beta?”

“Working. ” A short flurry of mechanical beeps came out, followed by something surprisingly like teletype noise. “City Supervisor 3... is at present in Conference Room 32. ”

“Why?”

More clacking. “The meeting in which City Supervisor 3 is participating... has not yet concluded. ”

“What meeting?”

Clack clack clack. “City Planning Meeting 1042-dash-A. ”

Janet frowned at Basalom. “Absolute literal mode, huh?” Blinking nervously, Basalom nodded.

A scowl darkened Janet’s face. “Not good,” she said to herself. “I explicitly ordered Beta to meet me here at this time. The Second Law should have compelled him to leave his meeting in time to make it here. Unless...

“Central! Are there other humans in this city?”

Clack clack pause ding! “Ne-ga-tive. ”

Janet ran a hand through her long blond hair and paused to scratch her head. “So where the deuce is Beta?”

Clack clack. “City Supervisor 3... is at present in Conference Room 32. ”

Janet glared at the big red eye. “Central? Shut up. ”

“I must be opened before I can be shut. ”

Janet’s eyes flashed wide open, while her jaws and fists clamped tight. “Central!” Then she caught control of herself. “Oh, for—”

Basalom’s linear predictive module was still active. All his systems jumped to alert status as he anticipated what Dr. Anastasi was about to say.

“—get—”

His mylar eyelids started fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings. Ramming a statement through his First Law filter, he pushed it into his speech buffer and set for dump.

“—it. ”

“No!” Basalom blurted out, a nanosecond too late.

“Forgetting,” Central said. There were beeps and clacks, and the red eye went black.

A moment later, it flared to life again. “Working. ”

Janet closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and concentrated on slow, calm breathing.

When she opened her eyes again, a new robot had joined her and Basalom in the atrium. “Good morning, Dr. Anastasi,” the robot said politely. “I am City Supervisor 12. You may find it more convenient to address me as Gamma. ”

Janet broke into a smile and nearly gave the robot a hug. “Gamma! I never thought I’d be happy to see your ugly can again. ”

The robot seemed puzzled. “Madam?”

She stepped back, put her hands on her hips, and looked him over. “Say, looks like you’ve been in for maintenance. Nice chrome job on the mesothorax there. ”

“Thank you. But, madam, I believe that you are mistaking me for another robot. We have never met before. ”

Basalom stepped in before Janet could react. “Madam,” he whispered, “this is Gamma 6. The unit we knew was Gamma 5. ”

“Correct,” Gamma said. “Gamma 5 was... lost. While I am functionally identical to my predecessor, I do not retain Five’s onboard personal-events memory. ”

“Lost? How can you lose a robot?” Janet wrinkled her nose and then shook her head. “No, I don’t want to know. What I want to know is, where-no, make that, why isn’t Beta here?”

“Beta is participating in a critical city planning meeting,” Gamma said. “I came in Beta’s place. ”

Janet shook her head again. “Wrong answer. I gave Beta an explicit order to meet me here at this time. Now, the only thing that could have overridden that was a First Law imperative to protect a human from harm. Since I’m the only human in this city, there’s no way—” Janet froze in mid-sentence and her face paled. “Gamma? Is there something here that’s a threat to me?”

“Nothing with a probability incidence greater than one in ten to the twenty-seventh power. ”

“The odds of your being struck by a falling meteorite,” Basalom whispered.

“Then if it isn’t a First Law priority... ?”

“The First Law is not the only priority. There is also our general programming, which has priority over non-critical explicit Second Law orders. We are impelled to prepare our city for use, so that it can serve and protect large numbers of human beings. This in turn has led us to conclude that the First Law is not the ultimate priority,” Gamma announced. He continued while Janet was still in shock. “In our studies of the Laws, we have concluded that there is an unwritten but more fundamental priority, which for want of a better term we call the Zeroth Law. This law holds that the interests of humanity in general outweigh the interests of a particular individual. Beta’s decision to miss this meeting was rooted in a Zeroth Law priority. ”

“Frost,” Janet whispered, “communist robots. ” She blinked and shook herself out of her shock. “Are you trying to tell me that the future of humanity is at stake here?”

“The future of the particular species of humanity native to this planet,” Gamma agreed.

“Native... ? The kin! But that’s what I wanted to talk about: your plans to adapt the city for the kin!”

“Dr. Anastasi, you have repeatedly voiced your objections to our plans. Therefore, the City Supervisors have concluded with 97-percent confidence that you called this meeting for the sole purpose of ordering us to abandon our efforts to serve the kin. ”

“Frosted right!” Janet snatched the sheaf of fax sheets out of Basalom’s hand and waved it in Gamma’s face. “This plan of yours; it’s degrading! You’re going to exploit my mistake and delude those poor primitives into thinking that SilverSides really was a god! You’re going to lure them into the city and then strip them of everything that makes them noble and admirable!”

“We will protect and serve them,” Gamma said calmly. “We will not lie to them, but neither will we correct their mistaken assumptions. We will give them the leisure time necessary to develop a civilization. ”

Janet threw the plan in Gamma’s face. “It’s immoral!” The plan burst its binding and white pages swirled around Gamma like giant snowflakes.

The robot remained imperturbable. “It is the most efficient way to serve them. And we have already put it into operation. ”

“What?” Basalom didn’t need thermographic vision to see that Dr. Anastasi’s blood pressure had reached record heights. “I order you to abandon this plan immediately! This is an emergency, ultimate-priority Second Law command!”

“Abandoning the plan at this point would cause hardships for the kin,” Gamma said calmly. “It would result in starvation, social disruption, and possibly religious war. Under the Zeroth Law we are therefore obliged to ignore your command. ”

Janet’s jaw dropped. She started to raise a hand to slap Gamma, then thought better of it and spun to face Central’s I/ 0 console. “Central! I order you to halt this plan!” Central’s one big eye flashed, and then the massive brain spoke.

“Illogical. The order cannot be carried out, as it violates the Zeroth Law. ”

“Augh!” Dr. Anastasi raised her fists and took a step toward the I/O console.

“Madam,” Basalom whispered urgently, “the security robots are approaching!”

Janet froze. Slowly, carefully, mindful of the massive black shapes that lurked on the edges of her peripheral vision, she lowered her fists and took a step back. For the better part of a minute, she concentrated on controlling her breathing and relaxing her furiously quivering muscles.

At last, she managed to unclench her fists. Turning to Basalom, she said, “Contact the ship. We’re getting out of here. ” Then, with hair flying and heels clacking on the cold terrazzo floor, she strode out of Central Hal.

Later, in Personal Vehicle One on the way out to the spaceport, Basalom finally managed to bump his courage register high enough to permit an invasion of Dr. Anastasi’s stony silence. “Madam? Where are we going?”

“Back to where it all started,” she said without taking her eyes off the side window. “Back to the original Robot City. I have a score to settle with Wendell Avery. ”

CHAPTER 18

WILD GOOSE CON TUTTI

Ariel and Mandelbrot stood on the bridge of the Wild Goose Chase, studying the small blue-white planet that hung like a jewel in the sparkling black velvet of the main viewscreen. “Tau Puppis IV,” Ariel said wistfully. “What a beautiful little world. ”

“Mistress Wolruf is a better navigator than she will admit,” Mandelbrot said. “Despite all the uncontrolled variables, we came out of the jump less than six light -hours from our planned position. ”

“It was worth the extra four days of flying time. ” Ariel touched a control and increased the magnification. “Look at those rivers. It reminds me of home. ”

A new voice spoke. “To me, it is home. ”

Ariel turned at the sound of the voice. “ Adam! I didn’t know you were here. ”

The robot bowed slightly. “I am sorry if I alarmed you, Friend Ariel. I came on the bridge a few minutes ago, but I have been so enjoying the view that it did not occur to me to speak. ” He walked over and joined Ariel and Mandelbrot before the viewscreen.

“I am coming to understand more of the subtlety of emotion,” Adam said. “In my mind, I know that I am a robot. I am a thing that was manufactured in deep space; pieced together from Auroran robotics, rare earths, and dianite.

“But there is a part of me that was born in the cool green forests of that planet; a part of me that came to life among its peoples and still knows the pleasure of bare paws on soft grass. In my-heart-I feel that I am coming home. ” Adam reached out, tentatively, as if he could touch the image on the viewscreen.

He turned away. “I apologize. This must seem quite incoherent to you. ”

Ariel offered him a smile. “Emotion usually is, Adam. ”

“Not as incoherent as you might think, Friend Ariel. In our search for the Laws of Humanics, we have devoted considerable study lately to the structure of the human brain. It is our hypothesis that humans have not one mind but four, located in the midbrain, cerebellum, and left and right cerebra respectively, and that it is the conflict between these four minds that gives rise to emotion. Further, we suspect that it is the ability to overrule logic with emotion that has enabled your species to evolve as far as it has. ”

Ariel wrinkled her nose. “That’ s a pretty strange theory, Adam. ”

“Our experience seems to support it. The Ceremyons are brilliant, yet they are also capable of a vast range of subtle emotions. In comparison, Dr. Avery is quite intelligent for a human, but his inability to admit to emotion eventually drove him insane. Only by forcing him to integrate his logical functions with his more primitive drives were you able to cure him and turn him into a somewhat more complete human being. ” Adam looked at the viewscreen again.

“I have concluded that having a split mind is a tremendous evolutionary advantage. I look forward to returning home and fully exploring my primitive side. ” Abruptly, he pivoted and began walking toward the lift.

The doors opened as he approached, but Mandelbrot called out, “Wait,” and he stopped.

“Yes, Friend Mandelbrot?”

“I have a dilemma which is causing me discordant potentials. I now believe that you can help me resolve it. “

“I will try. ” Adam stepped away from the lift and let the doors close.

“I have had a long association with Wolruf,” Mandelbrot began. “But since my memories of my existence as Capek. were partially restored, she appears to make excuses to avoid associating with me.

“For example, now we are about to enter orbit, and she should be here on the bridge. But she claims to have no interest in the orbit and reentry procedure. ”

Ariel joined the discussion. “That’s easy, Mandelbrot. Whenever you invoke a Capek memory, you slip into your Capek personality, and Capek identifies Wolruf as a member of Aranimas’s crew. You’ve started to restrain her four times, trying to defend me. Wolruf is afraid of you. ”

“I understand that part, Mistress Ariel, and I am making a serious effort to integrate those memories into my current personality. Perhaps you have noticed that I no longer call you Mistress Kathryn?

“But that’s not my dilemma. My real question is, what is this confused and conflicting stream of potentials that I experience whenever I think about Wolruf?”

“It’s called heartache,” Adam said. “Wolruf was your friend, and now you fear that you have lost her. The same condition prompts feelings of guilt, anger, grief, and remorse—sometimes simultaneously.

“Use these emotions,’ Mandelbrot. Integrating your two minds will make you stronger. ”

Mandelbrot’ s voice synthesizer took on a hopeful note. “Are you confident that it is heartache?”

Adam turned away and looked at Tau Puppis IV, glowing like a blue-white jewel in a field of velvet and diamonds. “I am certain of it. I left many friends behind on that world; some were depending on me to protect and lead them. I am very familiar with that feeling. ” Abruptly, Adam walked to the lift and stepped inside. The doors hissed closed.

Ariel was still trying to understand why she felt so disturbed by the exchange between Adam and Mandelbrot when the lift doors reopened. Avery and Derec spilled onto the bridge, arguing heatedly.

“You’re being paranoid, Dad!”

“No, I’m not. He found us twice; we have to assume that he’ll find us again. ”

“And spend the rest of our lives playing dead every time some crummy little freighter passes by?”

Avery threw up his hands. “Look, I said I was wrong four days ago. It was probably just some Settler ship making a course correction between jumps. But if that had been Aranimas—”

“But it wasn’t!”

Smiling sweetly, Ariel stepped in between Derec and Avery. “Having fun, boys?”

Avery’s white moustache was bristling with anger. “ Ariel, maybe you can talk some sense into my son. The question is not whether, but when Aranimas will find us again—” He bobbed left and fired a glare at Derec over Ariel’s shoulder. “—and we frosted well better have some kind of defense ready this time!”

Derec popped up and poked an accusing finger at Avery over Ariel’s head. “You’re nuts, old man! Finding us the second time was an accident. Pure dumb luck! We toasted his boarding crew and we gave him the slip. He’s given up, I tell you!”

“And I say he can track your commlink!”

“You’re paranoid!”

“You’re insolent!”

“Toad!”

“Nit!”

“Boys, boys. ” Ariel was shorter than either Derec or Avery, but she pushed the two of them apart with an authority born from centuries of selective breeding by short, motherly women. “Now Derec, listen to your father; he’s only being sensible. ” Avery’s face lit up in an I gotcha smile, but it collapsed the instant that Ariel turned on him. “And Dr. Avery, you listen to me.

“This ship is a robot, fully subject to the Laws of Robotics. Even if we could come up with a weapon, the ship wouldn’t let us use it unless we could prove that there were no humans on board Aranimas’s ship.

“So what we have to do—” Derec and Avery were glaring at each other again, so she grabbed them both by the ears and steered them around until they were looking at the viewscreen. “—What we have to do is go down to the planet and develop our defense there. With all the resources of a Robot City at our disposal, I’m sure that we can find a way to protect ourselves from Aranimas. ”

Smiling sweetly, she looked first to Derec and then to Avery. “ Agreed?” They were a little slow on the uptake, so she dug her long red fingernails into their earlobes.

“Ow! Yes! We agree!”

“Good, I’m glad you decided to be reasonable about this. ” She released her grip. “Mandelbrot? Begin preparations to deorbit and land in Robot City. ”

“There will be a time delay of approximately six hours,” Mandelbrot answered. “Reconfiguring the ship for atmospheric entry will take two hours, and then-owing to the damage we suffered in the fight—I must insist on full visual inspection and structural testing before we attempt reentry. ”

“Okay. Get on with it. Is there anything that we can do to help you?”

“Yes. ” Mandelbrot turned to face Ariel, and his eyes dimmed momentarily as he worked his way through some kind of Robotic Law dilemma. “Mistress Ariel? I would appreciate it if you could locate Mistress Wolruf and…reason with her. ” His gaze dropped to focus on her fingernails.

“Don’t worry, Mandelbrot, Wolruf’s a smart girl. I’ll get her back on the bridge before reentry, and I won’t use anything sharper than words. ”

CHAPTER 19

MAVERICK

It was a good stretch; the kind that starts in the hips, snakes forward along the spine through the shoulders, and ends in an enormous yawn and fully spread toes on the forepaws. Maverick recovered from the yawn, shifted forward to stretch his back legs, and then indulged in a little shake.

WhiteTail just looked at him and growled softly.

“Oh, c’rnon, girl, let your ears down once in a while. ” With a little spring, he jumped up to stand with his hind feet on the pavement and his front feet up on the low, square railing that bordered the scenic overlook. Behind him, a quartet of younglings dashed by on the slidewalk, yipping happily.

“Y’know, WhiteTail, you could learn something from them. ” He looked over his shoulder and pointed his nose at the younglings as they leapt off the slidewalk and disappeared into a pocket park. “They don’t try to figure things out. They don’t question the wisdom of SilverSides. They simply trust and enjoy. ”

WhiteTail’s voice was low, barely above a growl. “I prefer to trust my own nose. And it tells me that there’s something really wrong here. ”

“Here?” Maverick laughed. “Face it, girl, you’ve been seeing sharpfangs in the shadows ever since we arrived. ”

She trotted over and jumped up to stand next to Maverick. “Mavvy, doesn’t it bother you that we’re the only living things in this city?” She pointed to the enormous silver-blue den across the way. “A cliff face like that should be home to a whole flock of cragnesters. But look at it: there’s not one white splat to be seen. ”

Maverick laughed again. “And you’re complaining?”

WhiteTail shot him a distempered look and then turned to look at the pocket park. “Have you taken a close look at those trees? No, of course not, you’re a male; the only time you notice trees is when you want to mark one.

“Yesterday I chewed some bark off a tree, and you know what I found? Blue grit, just the same as we found inside that WalkingStone’s chest. ”

“You’re kidding. ” Maverick squinted at the park just in time to see a youngling scare up a nuteater and chase it halfway up a tree. The other three younglings dashed over to join in, and the four of them danced around the tree, barking like happy fools and trying to get running starts at climbing the trunk. “Stone trees? Don’t be ridiculous; what do the nuteaters eat?”

“Funny you should mention that. Have you tried to catch a nuteater yet?”

Maverick sputtered. “What a silly—I mean, do I look like someone who plays youngling games?” WhiteTail glared sharply at him; he coughed a bit and then swallowed his pride. “Okay, I have. But only once or twice. Just for fun. ”

“I saw a youngling catch a nuteater this morning,” WhiteTail announced. Maverick’s ears went straight up and his eyes widened. “Don’t worry, dear, he wasn’t faster than you. What happened was he’d been chasing the same nuteater for a while, and he was getting tired. Somehow, no matter how patient he was, no matter how far down the tree he let it get, the nuteater always managed to get back up the tree just an instant before the youngling bit it.

“So you know what the youngling finally did? He got so fed up that he yelled, ‘Stop, nuteater!’ And just like that, the nuteater stopped. Froze in place, halfway up the tree. Stiff as if it’d been dead for a moondance.

“Well, the youngling was pretty pleased with himself. He jumped up, grabbed the nuteater, and started throwing it to the ground and pouncing on it. Took him no time at all to get bored with the game, and after he threw the dead nuteater aside, I decided to pick it up and skin it. Know what I found?”

“Let me guess. Blue grit. ”

“Yep. ”

Maverick turned away from her and looked out over the edge of the balcony, nodding profoundly. “Yes, that makes perfect sense. Stone nuteaters in stone trees, and all obedient to the will of the kin. Even the smallest WalkingStones serve SilverSides’s purpose. ”

“What?” WhiteTail’s ears sprang erect, and she pushed herself right in Maverick’s smugly smiling face. “Look here, Mister First Believer, I have to listen to this kind of spoor when it comes from my father, but I don’t have to put up with it from you. ”

“Oh, hard is the heart of the unbeliever,” Maverick said with a sigh.

“And don’t think for a minute that you’re fooling me with your pious lines. ”

“So young, so pretty, and yet so cynical,” Maverick lamented. “Is it really impossible for you to believe that it’s true?” He made a sweeping gesture with his head to take in the cityscape below them. “Even with SilverSides’s wondrous works all around you?”

WhiteTail’s ears flattened against the sides of her head, and her lips curled into the barest hint of a snarl. “Funny, isn’t it? We’ve been here for the better part of a ten-day now, and your precious SilverSides has yet to show herself. “

“One need not see the sharpfang to recognize the signs of its passing. ”

WhiteTail let out a little sneeze of disgust. “Mavvy, you used to be a kin with some sense. What happened to you? Don’t answer, I know: You met the scouts from the GodBeings, pack and saw the lightning of their anger. But what really happened in that box canyon?”

Maverick shrugged. “That is what happened. I’m sorry if my poor tongue cannot describe it better. ”

“Did they actually say that they came from SilverSides? How can you be so sure that this is really the blessing of the OldMother and not a trick of the FirstBeast?”

He blinked at her as if the question were almost beyond comprehension. “WhiteTail, all you have to do is look. Clean, warm dens for everyone. Moving paths to carry you wherever you want to go. Unlimited food. How could life be better?”

WhiteTail sneezed again and then leaned out over the edge of the balcony and pointed her muzzle at a group of converts in the street below. The six of them lay in a semicircle, prostrate before an automat, barking in rhythm. The automat responded with a flash of light, a clap of thunder, and an enormous mound of cooked meat.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “My father used to have a saying, before he went daft. He’d say, ‘The kin live for the Hunt. ’ Not for hunting; for the Hunt. He meant the old, formal word for the fighting pack. ”

WhiteTail edged back from the railing and dropped down to all fours. Cocking her head a little, she whined as if deeply disturbed. “Mavvy, everything in our lives is centered on the pack, and the pack is based on the Hunt. If we no longer need to hunt, what happens to the pack?” She turned and poked a paw at the slidewalk endlessly rolling past the edge of the platform they stood on. “How much riding on that thing will it take before we’re too soft and weak to do anything except live here?”

Maverick dropped down to all fours and joined her, but when he tried to wrap a comforting tail around her shoulders, she shrugged it off and sidled away. “Mavvy,” she said, a desperate light in her eyes, “I saw a fat youngling this morning. Can you imagine that?” She shook her head, returned to the railing, and looked out at the city. “Surely too much Heaven is just as damning as life in Hell. ”

Maverick rejoined her at the railing. “You really should talk to your father about this,” he said softly. “You’re asking questions that are out of my depth. All I can tell you is that I believe—I’m as mystified as you are, but I believe-and that’s enough for me. ”

WhiteTail looked him straight in the eyes. “What do you believe?”

“Why, I believe that SilverSides kept her promise. I believe that this was given to us, to free us from the pain and drudgery of our old lives. We may still be a little bewildered, and maybe some of us are misusing the gift, but I believe that SilverSides will appear soon and make everything clear. ”

WhiteTail’s eyes narrowed. “But you do believe that this place was created as a reward for the faithful?” Maverick nodded. WhiteTail leapt to her hind feet and pointed at something in the street below. “Then what are they doing here?”

Maverick’s eyes followed where WhiteTail was pointing. At least thirty young males were marching four abreast down the middle of the street, ears flat, hackles raised, fangs bared in menacing snarls. A playing youngling made the mistake of darting into the street and got cuffed head-over-haunches back to the curb by one of the leaders.

“Who are they?” Maverick asked, his hackles rising.

“One Eye and his pack,” WhiteTail growled. “Very mean; we’ve been fighting border skirmishes with them for years. ”

Maverick fought his hackles down and whined nervously. “Maybe the missionaries persuaded him to—”

“What missionaries?” WhiteTail snapped. “My father spent three days talking about sending missionaries to the other packs, but by the time he was done talking, everyone was too well fed and comfortable to go!”

Maverick could only whimper anxiously.

WhiteTail pointed into the street again. “Look, there’s going to be a fight!” A ragged mob of converts was collecting in front of the automat, and someone from LifeCrier’s inner circle was desperately trying to organize them into a Hunt. For a moment the invaders slowed to a stiff-legged gait, arched their backs to make themselves appear larger, and sidled toward the defenders with loud, bloodthirsty snarls. Among the defenders, a few in the back deserted, and the formation started to crumble. With a triumphant howl in BeastTongue, One Eye charged.

With a completely different howl, he dug in his claws and skidded to a stop, just inches short of the legs of the enormous black WalkingStone that had stepped out of the shadows and into his path.

“You shall not fight in this city!” The WalkingStone’s voice was like thunder. One Eye scuttled back a few trots and seemed to gather courage once he was back with his pack. He issued orders to his lieutenants with a snarling voice and sharp, chopping gestures; several of the larger males slipped out of the pack and began sidling indirectly toward the WalkingStone, as if to flank it.

“You are welcome to live in the place that has been prepared for you,” the WalkingStone said, “but you shall not fight in this city!” On cue, eight more WalkingStones stepped out of the shadows, surrounding One Eye.

The pack broke and ran.

“Well,” Maverick said with a smug smile, “do you still doubt that SilverSides watches over us?”

“SilverSides schmilversides,” WhiteTail snarled. “So far all I’ve seen is WalkingStones behaving the way WalkingStones have always behaved. I’ll believe in SilverSides when I smell her fur. ” She was still glaring at Maverick when a rumble of thunder rolled out of the clear blue sky and echoed down the empty streets. Startled, both Maverick and WhiteTail jerked their heads up to see the strange, winged shape descending on a tail of flame.

“WhiteTail?” Maverick asked, his voice squeaking like a trapped grasshider. “It looks like you’re about to get your chance. ”

CHAPTER 20

LANDFALL

Fat gray fingers skittered across the control panel and came to rest on the vernier controls. A long black claw ticked nervously on a chrome button.

“Altitude five hundred meters,” the ship said pleasantly. “Descent rate two meters per second. ”

“Ventr’l thrust’rs up point two,” Wolruf whispered into the command pickup.

“Are you sure that’s all right with Master Derec?”

Wolruf snapped her head around to glare at Derec, who was studying a secondary viewscreen. Derec, aware of a sudden burning sensation in his ears, looked up and registered the question. “Uh, yes, ship, that’s fine. ”

“Complying. Altitude four hundred and fifty meters. Descent rate one meter per second. ”

Derec realized that Wolruf was still glaring at him and spoke up again. “Ship? Stop questioning Wolruf’s orders. ”

“But, Master Derec,” the ship objected politely, “Wolruf is not human and therefore has no Second Law authority. ”

Avery nudged Derec with his elbow and tried to draw his attention back to the viewscreen. Derec stole a glance at the screen and then looked up again. “Ship, I don’t have time to argue about this now. You are to consider Wolruf as human. ”

“Very well,” the ship answered, with just the slightest hint of petulance. “I will accept Wolruf’s commands for the time being. However, I would appreciate being given the opportunity to discuss this at length after we land. ”

Derec noticed that Wolruf was still glaring at him. He gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged. “Sorry. It’s the best I can do for now. ” Wolruf snarled something untranslatable in her native language and turned back to the control panel

“Altitude four hundred meters. Descent rate—”

“Shut up,” Wolruf growled. The ship shut up.

Avery tugged on Derec’s elbow and tried to draw his attention to the secondary view screen again. “Look. There’s more arriving. ”

Derec turned and looked at the screen. “More? But where are they coming from?”

Avery leaned in close and studied the image. “There. ” He slapped a finger on the screen. “The tunnel transit station. ”

Derec leaned back and scratched his chin. “How could they survive in there? The transit platforms hit speeds of a hundred kilometers per hour. If the natives are running through the tunnels, the system must be out of commission. ”

Avery looked at Derec, one eyebrow arched. “Or else the natives have learned to ride the platforms. ”

“Don’t be ridiculous. For one thing, the natives are pretechnological. For another, the platforms are designed for bipeds, and besides, they’re robotic. They wouldn’t obey orders from—” Derec froze as he felt Wolruf’s glare on the back of his neck.

“Look there. ” Avery darted a hand out and touched another part of the viewscreen. “That’s a groundcar. Screen, magnification thirty. ”

“Complying,” the screen said in a tiny, insect-like voice. An instant later the point Avery had touched was the center of a telephoto view. Something that was obviously a large groundcar was slowly picking its way through the fringes of the crowd. The groundcar’s windows were open; a half-dozen furry heads were sticking out the windows, mouths open, long pink tongues rolled out in what looked like happy grins.

“Magnification normal. ” Avery turned to Derec, a glum expression on his face. “I saw it, and I still don’t believe it. ” He paused as he noticed that Derec was sitting rigid with his eyes wide open, blankly staring into space. “Derec?”

“I’m getting a commlink call from Spaceport Control,” Derec said, his face still blank. “They’re asking us-no, they’re ordering us to hover while they ask the citizens to clear the landing area. ” He blinked, focused his eyes again, and looked at Avery. “Citizens. Spaceport Control distinctly said ‘citizens. ’ “

Avery’s expression turned dark and unreadable. He glanced at the viewscreen and then back at Derec again. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to hear Central’s explanation. ” He raised his voice. “Okay, Wolruf, you heard the robot. Bring us to a hover. ”

Wolruf growled something more in her native tongue and then slapped her hands down on the controls. “ Alt’tude holding a’ two-fifty,” she read off her instruments. “Vernier thrust’rs compensating f’r wind drift. ”

The intercom squawked on. “What’s happening?” Ariel asked. “Why aren’t we landing?”

Derec thought about telling her, then decided she’d be better off seeing it for herself. “Come up to the bridge. And while you’re at it, find Adam and get him up here, too. ”

With the ship reconfigured for atmospheric entry, the bridge was now in the nose of the ship, and most of the interior chambers had been reconfigured into wing surface. It took Ariel only a moment to find Adam and bring him forward. Derec’s second request for permission to land had just been denied when the bridge doors hissed open and Ariel and Adam stepped onto the bridge, followed by Mandelbrot, Eve, and Lucius II. At the moment Adam was patterning himself after Derec, while Eve and Lucius II looked like silver copies of Ariel and Avery, respectively.

“Okay, where’s the excitement?” the real Ariel asked.

“There,” Derec answered, as he pointed straight down. “It seems there’s a welcoming committee. ” He turned to the main viewscreen and raised his voice. “Ventral optics on main viewer. ” A moment later, the main viewscreen showed the packed crowd of kin on the spaceport tarmac. A few security robots were wading through the crowd but not having much luck dispersing it.

Ariel took a hesitant step forward. “What the blazes—? Wolves? Dogs? What are they?”

“The natives,” Derec said. “The last time I saw them, they were chipping flints and weaving baskets. Now they’re driving up to the spaceport in groundcars. ” He turned to Adam and speared him with a questioning stare. “Adam, you were the last one to talk to them. Do you have any idea what’s going on down there?”

Adam reached out to touch the viewscreen, a confused expression on his face. “Friend Derec, I have absolutely no idea what the natives are up to. ” He cracked into a smile and shuddered with pleasure. “But whatever it is, I find it very... exciting. ”

“Spaceport Control insists on calling them citizens. Does that suggest anything to you?”

Adam looked at Derec. “May I contact the spaceport directly?” He looked first to Derec, then Avery, and then Ariel. The three humans looked at each other and nodded. “Very well. I am activating my commlink. ” Closing his eyes, Adam stood transfixed.

For a few moments, he was silent. Then his silver lips parted, and he twitched slightly. “1 see,” he whispered. “Tell him... ”

“Derec!” Avery whispered urgently. “Tap in!” Derec invoked his internal commlink and tried to listen to Adam’s conversation with Spaceport Control, but the exchange had already ended. He looked at Avery and shook his head.

Adam’s whole body began to shudder. He flung his arms wide, collapsed to the deck, and began writhing slowly. Ariel started to step forward to help him, but Mandelbrot restrained her.

“Let go, Mandelbrot!” Mandelbrot released Ariel’s arm but continued to put himself between her and Adam. “Get out of the way. Can’t you see that he needs help?”

“No, Mistress Ariel. If Adam is indeed having a brain seizure, he may be unaware of the world outside himself. He might be capable of inadvertently violating the First Law. I cannot allow you to take that risk. ”

Ariel gave the other robots a pleading look. “Eve? Lucius? Can you help him?”

Lucius II had assumed his full Avery aspect, complete with the lab coat and wire bristle moustache, and he stood stroking his chin and examining Adam.

Silently, Adam arched his back as though in great pain. His features, until now a passable likeness of Derec, had lost definition.

“No, Friend Ariel,” Lucius II announced, “we cannot help him. He appears to be undergoing an involuntary shape change. Look at his limbs. ”

Ariel looked where Lucius had pointed. Unmistakably, Adam’s arms and legs were getting shorter and thinner. At the same time, his fingers and toes were elongating and turning into hocks and pasterns.

Adam slowly convulsed again. The transformation would have been a horrible sight had the humans never seen one of the amorphous robots go through it before. As it was, Derec found it quite unsettling to see himself-or an image of himself-slowly being reshaped, apparently against its will, into another, alien, species.

Adam began shivering as a long, whip-like tail extruded from his hips. Then, with one last mighty convulsion, his silver skin erupted into a thick blanket of wiry silver fur.

“ARROOOOO!” The howl was deafening in the close confines of the bridge. Adam’s eyes opened; in a flash he rolled over, sprang to his feet, and got a wall behind his back. “Spaceport Control!” he snarled in HuntTongue. “Tell them SilverSides has returned!”

“Toolbox!” Avery hissed urgently at a utility robot, staring wide-eyed at the snarling monster that Adam had become. “One centimeter welding laser-and hurry!” For a moment they were all frozen in place—human, robot, and robot kin—trying to gauge each other’s intent. Mandelbrot was having perhaps the worst time of it, since invoking his personal defense subroutines had unleashed a flood of Capek memories.

Then Adam/SilverSides relaxed his hackles, closed his mouth, and assumed a relaxed stance. “Friends,” he said in perfectly normal Standard, “forgive me. I was momentarily disoriented by my transformation. ” He paused and inspected his chest and forelegs. “In this shape the natives-the kin, that is their preferred term-know me as SilverSides. I am a female of some standing in their community. ” He/she turned to Derec. “Contact Spaceport Control again. I believe you will find landing permission forthcoming. ”

Derec looked to Avery; Avery nodded. He invoked his internal commlink and this time found Spaceport Control absolutely eager for them to land. He patched into the main viewscreen optic feed and found that the kin were clearing the tarmac as fast as their four legs could carry them.

Avery gave Derec a grim wink and lifted his hand out of his coat pocket long enough for Derec to catch a glimpse of the black, flashlight-sized welding laser that Avery had aimed at Adam/SilverSides.

Derec nodded to Wolruf. “Okay, Wolruf, set us down. ”

SilverSides apparently was unaware of the laser. She favored Derec with a wolfish smile, then turned to the other amorphous robots. “Eve? Lucius II? We have a few minutes yet before we land. If you will open your commlink direct-memory access channels, I will download the grammar and lexicon of the native language. ”

Mandelbrot tentatively raised a hand. “Friend Adam, may I share in this data transmission?”

SilverSides seemed surprised by Mandelbrot’s effrontery, but her expression quickly turned to a tolerant smile. “Friend Mandelbrot, I sincerely doubt that your brain is capable of using this information. However, you are welcome to make the attempt. ” If Mandelbrot had a reaction to this insult, he didn’t show it. Instead, he joined the other three robots as they locked their joints rigidly at attention and switched over to DMA mode. Four pairs of eyes dimmed as the download commenced.

Avery, fondling the welding laser in his pocket, studied Adam/SilverSides until the last glimmer of awareness faded from the robot’s eyes. Turning to Derec, he said, “Son? Has Adam ever insulted Mandelbrot’s intelligence before?”

Derec shook his head. “Not since we left this planet before. ”

Avery’s eyes narrowed, and he resumed studying the robot. Then, with a snort of disgust, he left the laser in his pocket and went back to watching the main viewscreen.

CHAPTER 21

ADVENT

Maverick muscled through the crowd on the edge of the tarmac, trying his best to keep track of WhiteTail. “There he is!” she shouted, somewhere up ahead. He bounced up to his hind feet-a devilishly tricky way to stand in a crowd-and caught a glimpse of her.

“WhiteTail!”

She looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with him just as someone lurched into Maverick’s weak leg and sent him staggering. “Over there!” she shouted, pointing with her tail. He caught his balance, looked in the direction she was pointing, and spotted LifeCrier at the leading edge of the crowd.

“I see him! Try to—oof!” Someone jostled his leg again, and this time he fell down. The large, muscular female that he landed on reacted with a growl, a snap, and the first words of a challenge in HuntTongue.

Then she saw the amulet that hung around Maverick’s neck and backed down with a snarling submission just two hairs shy of being a challenge itself. He accepted it before she had a chance to change her mind and darted off through a gap that opened in the crowd.

By the time he’d worked his way over to join WhiteTail at LifeCrier’s side, the flying thing had started descending again. The great whistling roar of its flight grew louder, and gusts of hot wind swept over the crowd, filling the air with the reek of lightning and brimstone.

“Are you sure this is safe?” he shouted at LifeCrier, trying to make himself heard over the noise.

“If it were dangerous,” the old kin shouted back as he pointed his muzzle at the flying thing, “the WalkingStones would chase it away!”

“But what is it!” WhiteTail shrieked, as the roar suddenly pulsed louder.

“Remember how I told you,” LifeCrier paused for a breath, “SilverSides first came down-in a flaming egg?”

“Mother’s whiskers!” Maverick howled. “Is that the bird?” The whistle that accompanied the roar abruptly shot up in pitch and choking clouds of dust blew up off the ground, momentarily blinding Maverick.

An instant later the whistle stopped, the wind ceased, and the tarmac was silent, save for the distant echo of thunder off the buildings and the frightened whimper of a pup in the crowd.

Slowly, Maverick’s ears adjusted to the quiet. The great flaming bird sat on the tarmac, stiff and rigid on its three slender legs, emitting only the occasional ping! of cooling metal. A few in the crowd were finally daring to breathe and murmur in low, worried voices. LifeCrier himself was standing with his head bowed, mumbling a prayer that seemed to be in extremely formal HuntTongue. He ended the prayer by nuzzling his amulet. “Well, then!” LifeCrier abruptly looked at Maverick with a madly cheerful expression. “Are you coming with me?” Not waiting for an answer, he started walking toward the bird, his tail held high, his ears cocked at a jaunty angle, his shadow stretching out before him in the long afternoon sunlight.

Maverick hesitated only a moment and then went after LifeCrier; the rest of the inner circle followed on his heels. “Father,” he heard WhiteTail growling under her breath as she trotted up to join him, “one of these times your faith is going to get us all killed. ”

WhiteTail had just about caught up to Maverick when a loud clang! came from the bird, followed by a massive creaking sound and a deep, unsettling hum. Several of the inner circle broke and dashed skittishly back to the crowd, but LifeCrier simply stopped and stood there calmly, as if he were expecting this. Gasps rose from the crowd as a small depression appeared in the bird’s skin just behind its head; after a few moments it became apparent that a large hole was irising open. Maverick could see that something was moving in the opening, but when he tried to get a clearer look at It, his eyes were dazzled by a blinding flash of reflected sunlight.

As if the flash was a signal, LifeCrier suddenly dropped to his belly and placed his head on his forepaws: the meekest gesture of submission a kin could make. “Down!” he said through clenched teeth. Maverick decided to follow his example. He could tell from the shadows that everyone near him did as well, with the exception of WhiteTail. She was still standing there, her tail twitching nervously, when the flap touched the ground and SilverSides stepped out into the light.

There was never a moment’s doubt in Maverick’s mind that he was seeing SilverSides. The goddess was exactly as he had pictured her: tall, strong, and beautiful, gleaming in the late afternoon sun like light off still water. She moved with a precise, icy regality, and yet her eyes literally glowed with love as she gazed out upon the kin.

Then he noticed the other female, cautiously slinking out after SilverSides. The second one was definitely not a kin—her muzzle was too short and blunt, her fur the lush reddish brown of nut tree leaves in the fall, and she walked on her hind legs as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Still, there was something about her exotic looks that made her terribly exciting and romantic. She was almost a vision of passion incarnate.

He felt WhiteTail’s breath hot on his ear. “I know what you’re thinking,” she whispered with the barest hint of a growl. “Stop drooling at that exotic wench. Now. ”

Maverick attempted to feign innocence. “Is that really the OldMother?” The look in WhiteTail’s eyes told him that his attempt had not worked.

His next question caught her attention, though. “ And what in the blazes are those ugly pink things with the loose fur?” WhiteTail’s hackles went up when she saw the other beings that were coming out into the light.

“Th—the one at the back is a WalkingStone,” she said in a halting voice. “And those two silver ones-they must be GodBeings, like SilverSides. ” She licked her lips and swallowed nervously. “But I’ve never seen anything like those other three. Mother, they’re ugly!” The slight murmur that had started in the crowd behind them suddenly dropped to silence as SilverSides descended the ramp alone.

She walked straight toward them: precise, formal, her every movement a study in perfection. Just when it seemed to Maverick that he couldn’t stand the power of her presence a moment longer, she stopped, smiled gently, and laid eyes upon LifeCrier.

“Old friend,” she said in the soft, warm tones of PackHome kinspeech. “Please stand up. You are my packmate, not my prisoner. ”

Slowly, unsteadily, LifeCrier got to his feet, while those near enough to hear SilverSides’ words looked at him with new reverence. “Great SilverSides,,, LifeCrier said in HuntTongue, his voice reedy with tension, “I have followed your commands. This pack I have gathered in your name; it awaits your orders. ”

“You have done well, Friend LifeCrier. ” She smiled again and looked over the massed faces as if she knew each one. For an instant her eyes paused on Maverick, and he felt as if the goddess’s gaze went right through him.

“Big furry deal,” WhiteTail muttered. “Her eyes glow. ” To Maverick’s utter amazement, WhiteTail was not struck dead, nor did SilverSides seem to notice her blasphemy.

Instead, SilverSides turned back to LifeCrier and draped a companionable tail across his hips. “Come, old friend. We have much to discuss. ” Looking over her shoulder, she said something to the strange beings in the bird. The language was unfamiliar-the only word Maverick caught was “Wolruf”—but whatever she said must have made sense, for one of the exotic beings and one of the GodBeings came over to join SilverSides and LifeCrier, and together the four of them turned away from the bird and began walking toward the city. The crowd parted before them like a field of tall grass before a strong wind.

Glancing at WhiteTail, Maverick found that she was staring back at him with an unreadable expression composed of equal parts of fear, anger, concern, and something else that he didn’t recognize. Before he could ask, though, she turned her face away and started trotting after LifeCrier. “Come on, Mavvy,” she said without looking back, “let’s see if we can’t keep the old boy out of trouble. ”

It gave him a chill, for a moment, to realize just how thoroughly WhiteTail had replaced the inner voice that he used to argue with.

CHAPTER 22

TWOLEGS, FOURLEGS

Avery grimaced and put the laser back into his pocket. “Well, that’s that. Here’s hoping we haven’t unleashed a monster. ” He turned to Ariel. “Will you be okay while Derec and I go check out Central?”

She shrugged. “The spaceport’s crawling with security robots. As long as they still obey the Laws, I’ll be fine. “

“All the same, be careful. Mandelbrot, don’t let Ariel out of your sight. ”

“Yes, Master Avery. ”

Avery started to turn to Lucius and then had another thought. “Oh, and Mandelbrot? How’s the translation program coming along?”

Mandelbrot’s eyes dimmed slightly. “Not well. I am optimized for personal defense and valet service, not linguistics. The kin inflections are extremely complex, and morphemic meaning appears to vary depending on the social status of the person being addressed. ”

“It’s not that difficult,” Lucius muttered.

Mandelbrot’s eyes flared brighter, and he swiveled his head to look at Lucius. “Perhaps, Friend Lucius, you use an alternative definition of difficult. I find it almost impossible to tell the difference between bark, meaning ‘Welcome, friend,’ and bark, meaning ‘Strangers attacking. ’ “

Lucius pursed his lips, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head. “Oh really, Mandelbrot. If you’d just listen to the stress modulation on the third harmonic”

“Ahem !” The robots interrupted their embryonic spat long enough to look at Avery, who smiled paternally at them. “I’m sure you two can get this hammered out soon enough. In the meantime, Mandelbrot, stay close to Ariel and keep your personal defense routines at the top of your stack. ”

“Yes, Master Avery. ”

Avery turned to look at Lucius. “Lucius, you’re our relay. Keep your commlink to Eve open at all times and report anything unusual to Derec. ”

The silver Avery frowned. “Are you also ordering me to stay close to Ariel and Mandelbrot?”

The real Avery frowned right back. “Would you even if I did?”

Lucius smiled and shrugged. “Probably not. ”

“Then I won’t waste my breath. Just try to stay out of trouble, will you?”

“I always try, Friend Avery. ”

“Yeah. I know. ” Avery sighed and turned to Derec. “Okay, son, let’s see if we can’t find a groundcar. ”

An hour later, Avery and Derec stood in the atrium of Central Hall, facing Central’s console input/output devices. “So why isn’t it responding?” Avery asked.

Derec broke off commlink contact and shook his head. “I don’t get it. This is weird. ”

“Sensory impairment?” Avery suggested.

“No. ” Derec shot the console an odd look. “Central’s sensories are fine. It knows that we’ re here. ’, Derec paused and scowled. “Let me rephrase that: The information is available to it. It just doesn’t care that we’re here. ”

Avery blinked. “That’s impossible. As a positronic intelligence—”

“Yeah, well, that’s part of what makes it so weird. ” Derec scowled again, and then shrugged and turned to Avery. “The mental impression I keep getting is one of intelligence without sentience. Does that make sense?”

Avery wrinkled his nose. “It isn’t even aw~ of its own existence?”

Derec thought it over a moment, then nodded. “It seems to be fully functional. There’s a tremendous amount of computational power waiting to be applied. But there’s no personality. It simply isn’t... troubled by conscious thoughts. ”

“That’s impossible,” Avery said again. “Try your commlink one more time, and this time tell me exactly what you’re receiving. ”

With a shrug, Derec closed his eyes and invoked his internal commlink. “Okay. Commlink on: Central is acking. I’m picking up some shell primitives—cats, splits—okay, and that’s a t-sort. Now it’s mounting a device. “ Derec broke concentration and opened his eyes. “I know this sounds silly, but it seems to be running on pure cron. ”

Avery frowned and scratched his head. “I don’t understand this. ”

“Dad, as I told you on the way over, SilverSides destroyed parts of Central the last time she was here. ”

Avery waved a hand to dismiss that idea. “That was almost a year ago. By now the supervisors should have either repaired the damage or scrapped Central and built a new one. What went wrong?”

Derec cocked his head as a commlink message came in. “We’ll know in a few minutes. A supervisor has just entered the building. ”

Long afternoon shadows reached out from the city and stretched like giant fingers across the spaceport tarmac. The crowd had long since broken up and gone away, save for one mature kin female that lay in the shadow of the boarding ramp and four fat little cubs that rollicked about in the last splash of sunlight on the tarmac. Ears flopping wildly, little tails erect like flagpoles, the cute little furballs darted in and out of the ship, yipping happily and playing hide-and-seek around Mandelbrot’s legs.

Ariel, squatting on the tarmac like a football player, smiled pleasantly and wondered if the cubs’ mother would stop growling before her knees gave out.

“This is strange, Mandelbrot,” Ariel muttered through smiling, clenched teeth. “You don’t bother them a bit, but if I try to touch them... ”

Slowly, gently, she began to reach toward one of the cubs. A deep, guttural growl from the mother reminded Ariel that she was being watched. The growl rose in intensity the closer she got to the pup and stopped only when she stopped.

“The kin seem to accept robots as part of the natural environment,” Mandelbrot observed, “whereas anthropoid humans are a new and unknown thing. ”

“Anthropoid, Mandelbrot?’, Ariel said with a growl.

“I was attempting to distinguish between humans like you and humans like Wolruf. If the term offends you, I will try another. ”

“Never mind. ” Ariel made eye contact with the mother again. The female kin lay on her side in what appeared to be a relaxed position, but her ears were erect and her eyes were wide and filled with an alert, savage intensity. Ariel continued to look the kin right in the eye. She tried another smile. The mother responded by shifting nervously and looking away.

Stepping high to avoid the puppies and their byproducts, Mandelbrot strolled over and touched Ariel lightly on the shoulder. “May I make a suggestion, mistress? Stop staring the mother-her name is BlackMane-straight in the eye, and don’t bare your teeth when you smile. In the body language of the kin, these are hostile gestures. ”

“Oh. ” Ariel closed her mouth and looked away and was rewarded when BlackMane’s ears relaxed. “Well, this seems to be working. Any more suggestions?”

Mandelbrot’s eyes dimmed as he sorted through the kin lexicon. Presently he said, “Yes, although this may seem somewhat undignified. Try lying on your side and closing your eyes, as BlackMane is doing. ”

Ariel’s eyes went wide. “Mandelbrot! I am not going to nurse cubs!”

“Nursing is unnecessary. The key part of the gesture appears to be exposing your throat. ”

Ariel frowned. “If you really think it’ll work. ” With a grunt for stiff joints, she slowly rolled out of the squat, lay down on the rough, gritty tarmac, and closed her eyes. Within a minute she was rewarded by a cold little nose snuffling around her ear. “That tickles!” She giggled, and the pup scampered away.

“Hold still,” Mandelbrot said. “All four of them are approaching you. ” Ariel tried hard to suppress her giggles as one cub nuzzled her ear, two more sniffed her face, and one feisty little monster fastened its teeth on her pants cuff and began growling and tugging. “Move slowly,” Mandelbrot advised, “but you may open your eyes now. ” Carefully, Ariel opened her eyes.

She was rewarded by a big lick across her face.

This time her giggles sent the cubs scampering just a few feet back. The four of them went into a huddle, tails wagging excitedly, yipping in high, squeaky voices. BlackMane sat up a bit more alertly, but this time without the fierce, protective look. As one, the cubs turned to their mother, and she answered with a low, whuffing bark.

Ariel sat up. “What is it? What are they saying, Mandelbrot?’, The robot cocked his head as if listening more closely.

“I am unsure of the dialect,” Mandelbrot said, “but they appear to be saying, ‘It’s friendly. ’ “ BlackMane gave Mandelbrot a bored look, and then made another soft bark that must have meant, “Okay. ” As one, the puppies wheeled and charged Ariel. A second later she was giggling like a seven-year-old and covered by a mass of wiggling, licking, tailwagging cubs.

“Either that,” Mandelbrot added, “or, ‘It tastes good. ’ “

The tall, slender, pale blue robot-to appearances a standard Euler model-rounded the corner and entered the Central atrium. Avery struck while the robot was still in mid-stride.

“You there! Identify!”

“City Supervisor 3,” the tall robot responded. “For your convenience I respond to the name Beta. ” At two meters’ distance the robot stopped and stood with its head tilted slightly back, as if baring its throat.

“Beta, eh? Well, Beta, I am your creator, Doctor Wendell Avery, and let me tell you, I am absolutely appalled with the way you supervisors are handling this city. The streets smell like kennels, the transit tunnels are filled with joy-riding wolves, and to top it off my son and I came here in an insane groundcar that insisted on driving on the slidewalks!”

To Derec’s eyes, the supervisor seemed even colder and more imperturbable than was typical for Avery robots. Beta’s eyes didn’t flicker, nor did its posture waver a millimeter as it responded to Avery’s attack. “In searching the permissions list, I find no special privileges reserved for Creator Wendell Avery. ” The robot paused a moment, then continued. “In response to your other statements: olfactory cues are an important source of information for the citizens, and the transit tunnels are fulfilling their intended purpose. As for the groundcar, we have surveyed the citizens and found that the majority enjoy Personal Vehicle One’s unique route-planning methods. ”

The robot’s response seemed to surprise Avery. He blinked a few times, shook his head as if unable to believe that a robot was disagreeing with him, and then recovered his bluster. “Citizens? What are you talking about? Beta, the kin are not human, and for you to treat them as if they have Robotic Law status is a serious malfunction. ”

“The definition of ‘human’ is not implicit in the Laws,” Beta answered, as it studied Avery with cold, gleaming eyes.

Avery bit back his first angry retort and struggled to speak calmly. “Beta, are you blind? The kin are aliens. ”

The supervisor’s head rotated down, and it locked its unblinking gaze on the short man. “On the contrary, Dr. Avery; on this planet, you are the alien. ”

Avery’s jaw worked, but no sound came out. His fingers clutched—

The robot leaned forward, placed one hand on its hip, and opened its other hand in a purely human gesture. “Please allow me to explain.

“Dr. Avery, our first mission on this world was to build a city. Our underlying mission was to serve humans. After the end of our first mission, we found ourselves with insufficient data to complete our underlying mission. Therefore, we devoted considerable time to the question of how to find humans.

“After much discussion, we decided that we needed a clearer definition of the word human. There is no explicit definition in our general programming. Consulting the ancient sources, we found that it means:

“1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of man.

“2. Consisting of men.

“3. Having human form or attributes.

“4. Susceptible to or representative of the sympathies and frailties of man’s nature.

“Evaluating the kin in terms of these criteria, we found that they met three of the four. They are intelligent, social, tool-and language-using beings, fully capable of altruism, greed, opportunism, faith, loyalty, cowardice, curiosity; indeed, the entire range of human”

Avery found his voice at last. “Enough!” Fighting to avoid hyperventilation, he turned to Derec. “This tin moron has obviously blown a main circuit. When are the rest of the supervisors going to get here?”

Derec broke off his commlink contact and looked up, blinking with wonder. “Alpha and Gamma decline to come. ”

“What?” Avery wheeled on Beta as if to attack it.

“I alone have been delegated to meet with you,” Beta explained. “The other supervisors are occupied with tasks that are important to the well-being of the native humans. ”

“I do not believe this. ” Avery shook his head slowly, then studied Beta with a cold, unblinking glare. “Beta, are you trying to tell me that the supervisors are no longer subject to the Second Law?”

The robot’s eyes flickered briefly. “Of course not. Alpha and Gamma’s Second Law duties to you simply have been superseded by their First Law obligations. ”

“First Law—” Avery suddenly snapped around and looked at Derec. “Ariel !” Before he’d finished saying the name, Derec had invoked his commlink and reached Mandelbrot.

“No,” Derec reported, shaking his head. “Ariel’s a little wet and mussed up, but she’s not in any danger. ” He concentrated harder and checked in with Eve. “Wolruf’s fine. Adam is still playing SilverSides; he’s up on a balcony, addressing a crowd, but he’s speaking too fast for Eve to translate. ”

Derec frowned. “Lucius II isn’t answering. ” He broke concentration and opened his eyes; both he and Avery turned to look at Beta.

“When you assume that the First Law applies only to members of your party, you are making a species-ist assumption,,, Beta said. “If you plan to reside in this city, you must learn to overcome your speciesism. ”

Slowly, sighing heavily, Avery nodded. “I see where this is leading. Beta, if I were to tell you that your definition of human has become corrupted and the kin are not human, would you allow me to correct it?”

Beta considered this barely a moment. “No. Redefining the native humans as nonhumans would injure them, and thus is prohibited by the First Law. ”

Avery frowned. “Circular logic: See logic, circular. The kin shouldn’t be considered humans, but since they are, you won’t let me fix the problem. ” With a disgusted look, he turned to Derec. “Come on, son, let’s get out of here. ”

Wolruf whined nervously and sidled closer to Eve. An unpleasant change had come over SilverSides with nightfall; the raw emotions of BeastTongue now threaded through her speech as she addressed the crowd in the street below. “What’s she sayin’?” Wolruf whispered to Eve.

“I’m not getting all of it,” Eve whispered back. “Some kind of anatomical comparison between Friend Avery and a sharpfang. ” She rotated her head and listened more closely. “Now she’s talking about-wonders. The ship; she’s mentioned the ship. And she’s saying that the city is capable of producing more wonders just like it. But-rhetorical question-why isn’t the city providing them?”

Silversides paused for dramatic effect and then thundered the answer.

“TwoLegs!” Eve translated.

The crowd broke into the savage, rhythmic chant in heavily accented Standard. “TwoLegs out! TwoLegs out!” Everywhere Wolruf looked, she saw angry, gaping jaws, fangs bared and glistening orange in the torchlight, chanting. “TwoLegs out! TwoLegs out!”

Eve shook her head in disbelief. “SilverSides taught them to say that in Standard! This is impossible!” Her voice became slurred and her movements erratic, clear signs of an impending First Law crisis. “He’s training the mob to hate bipeds!”

“TwoLegs out! TwoLegs out!”

Eve and Wolruf looked at each other, then both discreetly dropped down to all fours. Eve began to transform herself into an image of Wolruf.

“ ‘U think we ought t’ warn Derec?” Wolruf asked.

“‘U better b’lieve it,” Eve answered. Closing her eyes, she activated her commlink and sought out Lucius.

CHAPTER 23

BATTLE LINES

The Warm, yellow streetlight was surrounded by a nimbus of clumsy insects. Grabbing the lamppost for a pivot, Derec swung off the slidewalk and followed Avery into the pocket park. Neither spoke until Avery had found a balcony overlooking the street below and taken a seat on the cold stone railing.

“Dad, I never thought I’d see the day when you ran away from a problem. ”

“I’m not running away. I’m thinking. ”

Derec glanced around the balcony, then put a foot up on the railing and looked out at the darkened city. The gentle night breeze carried faint hints of moisture and distant forests. “Care to explain the difference?”

Avery stopped scowling and looked up at Derec. “We can’t get anywhere with the supervisors. Circular logic: The kin have First Law status because the supervisors’ definition of human is corrupted, but the supervisors won’t let us fix the definition because that would violate the First Law. ”

“So why fix it? Aside from pure human chauvinism, that is. ”

Avery stroked his whiskery chin and tugged at the edge of his stiff white moustache. “Hard as this may be to believe, Derec, it’s for their own good. By the time we humans developed robots, we already had a mature, technological culture. We accepted robots as just better tools for carrying on life as we knew it.

“But what if back in the Stone Age, some alien race had come along and given us a magic box that delivered everything we asked for? Frost, you don ‘t have to imagine it; Old Earth history is littered with stories of Stone Age cultures that tried to make the leap directly to high technology. First the existing family and social structures were demolished. Then the local ecology was destroyed.

“And then the people had a choice: join the mainstream of human society-become exactly like every other technological culture-or become extinct. ” Avery ran a hand through his silvery hair and looked Derec straight in the eye. “Never mind how I feel about the kin personally. They deserve more of a choice than that, don’t they?”

Derec nodded. “Okay. Where do we start?”

“I’ve been thinking about that. ” Avery paused, and screwed his face up in a puzzled look. “You say it felt like Central was running on pure cron? No mentation at all?”

“Dad, I’ve met bricks with more on their minds. Central is a complete blank. ”

“ A tabula rasa,” Avery muttered to himself. He nodded. “Yes, that makes sense. That’s what I would do. ”

Derec peered at Avery. “A tubular what ?”

“Not ‘tubular. ’ Tabula rasa. Latin for ‘erased tablet. ’ One old theory used to hold that the human mind started out as a blank tablet, and personality developed as a result of the impressions that life ‘wrote’ on the mind. ”

Derec laughed. “That’s ridiculous, Dad. For starters, you’re completely ignoring the influence of genetic—”

Avery waved a hand to cut Derec off. “I didn’t say that I subscribe to that theory-at least, not as it applies to humans. But tell me, what would you do if you had a robot that had suffered traumatic brain damage? Damage so profound that every time you repaired it, the very memory of that damage unbalanced the psyche module again?”

Derec thought it over a moment. “I’d erase the memory. ”

“That’d work for a conventional robot. But what if it was a cellular robot, and every cell held a complete set of backup memories in positronic microcode?”

Derec sat down heavily on the stone railing next to Avery and blew out a deep breath. “Oh boy. We’re talking about a complete system purge and rebuild here. ”

“Exactly. ” Avery favored Derec with a knowing smile. “ And what would the robot’s mind be like after the purge?”

Slowly, Derec turned to look at Avery. Slowly, very slowly, a matching smile lit up his face. “A tabula rasa. ” Picking up the thought, Derec ran with it. “If the supervisors are doing a complete system rebuild on Central, it’s in a very impressionable state right now. The merest suggestion could have incredibly far-reaching effects on the future of the city. ”

Avery nodded. “So the supervisors will try to isolate Central from unwanted influences. They’ve probably severed all the terminal input lines and buffered the 1/0 channels. ”

Derec’s face erupted in a sly grin. “But we know someone who’s got a direct commlink channel to Central’s brain, don’t we?”

Avery returned the grin. “How about it, son? Feel up to a little guerrilla computing?”

Derec looked around the balcony and shrugged. “This looks like as good a spot as any. ” Throwing his head back, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. “Commlink activated. I’m hacking into the city network; okay, I’m in. I’m riding down the main data bus now, and I’m coming up to-uh oh. There’s a big black hole where Central should be. ”

“All the user-friendly stuff is deactivated,” Avery said. “You’ll have to feel your way in. ”

“Right. I’m going—no, wait, there’s an invisible barrier extending around the hole as far as I can reach. Cylindrical, not hemispherical. ”

“Can you find a seam?”

“Don’t have time. I’m going to see if it’s open at the top. ” Derec squinted for a moment as his concentration intensified. “Okay, that did it. I’ve jumped the barrier and I’m inside. Feels like I’m still falling; not accelerating, just falling. The hole is completely black. I can’t see a thing. ”

“You’re probably in the I-pipe,” Avery said. “Try reaching out with your right hand. You should feel—What the blazes is that?”

Derec broke concentration and returned to the analog world to find Avery staring slack-jawed at something in the distance. He looked where Avery was looking.

He saw a mob of kin with torches surging down the darkened street, coming closer with every step.

“Listen!” Avery gasped. Derec’s ears were still tuned to the subtleties of hyperwave, but he quickly adjusted and caught the chaotic noise of the mob. No, not noise. Voices. Chanting. In heavily accented Standard.

“TwoLegs out! TwoLegs out!”

“Oh, good grief,” Avery muttered.

Derec instantly switched back to commlink and sent out an urgent call. Lucius? Mandelbrot! What’s going on?

Eve’s commlink voice answered. Friend Derec? Where are you? Derec transmitted a location-and-range pulse. Please stay there. Eve said. Friend Wolruf and 1 will join you shortly.

A few moments later, Wolruf and Eve came dashing up the slidewalk.

“Eve! What—?” is as far as Avery got.

“Iss Adam,” Wolruf blurted out. “ ‘E’s gone over completely to being SilverSides, an’ ‘at means the natives are ‘umans to ‘im. ‘E’s whipped ‘em up int’ a frenzy. Keeps talkin’ ‘bout ‘ow th’ city can never serve ‘eir needs properly as long as th’ TwoLegs are ‘here. Wants t’ drive ‘u ‘umans off th’ planet. ”

Derec blinked. “That’s impossible. The First Law—”

“Is being interpreted by the standards of these natives, “ Avery completed. “Intimidation may well be a normal part of their lives. For Adam, it’s the tactics of indirection: If he can get the natives to scare us out, it’ll never become a First Law problem. ” He turned to Eve. “What about the city robots?”

“They appear to be backing Adam,” Eve reported. “We saw several security robots draw back into the shadows as we approached. “

Avery looked at the mob again, which was now quite close, and swore softly. “It’s that double-frosted Zeroth Law of theirs. So long as we aren’t in immediate danger, the interests of a few hundred kin outweigh the interests of three humans. But I do not share Adam’ s confidence that he can control the mob. ” Scowling darkly, he bit the corner of his moustache, “Son? I think this nonsense has gone far enough. ” Reaching into his coat pocket, Avery drew out the black, flashlight-sized welding laser and stepped up to the edge of the balcony. “You, robot! “

The mob reacted instantly, swirling to a noisy, hostile stop beneath the balcony. Everywhere Avery looked, he saw bobbing torches and wet fangs bared and clashing in a savage, angry chant: “TwoLegs out! TwoLegs out!” Then, from somewhere in the depths of the crowd a lone howl erupted, a long, drawn-out note that sent chills down Avery’s spine.

The mob fell silent. The ranks parted, and SilverSides stepped to the fore. The robot’s skin flashed and glowed like flaming chrome in the orange torchlight.

“Robot!” Avery shouted. “You have violated the First Law! You threaten harm to humans!”

The crowd began to chant again, but SilverSides waved a paw to silence them. “Avery!” she shouted back. “This is not your world! You are not wanted here! Your very presence prevents this city from adapting to the needs of the kin. Only your departure can permit it to learn what it must. ” The kin could not have understood what she said, but they howled in support anyway. “Leave now and no harm will come to you!”

The crowd fell silent as Avery raised the laser and pointed it straight at SilverSides’ head. “Stand clear of the natives, robot,” he said in a voice as cold and deep as Death. “You are a rogue and I intend to destroy you. ”

Their glares interlocked. For the first time, Avery realized that he was facing a will as strong as his own, and he began to feel sweat and raw fear.

“Destroy me,” SilverSides said softly, “and you are all dead. It’s my word alone that keeps the kin from ripping you to pieces where you stand. ”

For a moment, they were a frozen tableau: Avery on the balcony, holding the laser, surrounded by fear-stricken Derec, Wolruf, and Eve; SilverSides in the street below, glaring at Avery with naked defiance, three hundred angry faces dancing in the torchlight behind her.

They were still trying to stare each other down when the hyperwave pulse bomb went off.

As kinetic weapons go, it wasn’t much. Just a small airburst in the troposphere, about two miles above the city. All that Avery, Wolruf, and the kin saw was a tiny point of light that flared and was gone long before the gentle pop of its detonation reached their ears.

To anyone equipped with a commlink, though, it was a deafening flash of colorless light and a blinding shriek of silent noise that jangled every synapse in his entire nervous system. Across the city, all the lights flickered and went out for a fraction of a second. Thousands of robots ground to a halt. SilverSides and Eve simply locked up, frozen in place.

Derec had time to scream once before his brain was overwhelmed by the searing blast of pain.

When the light ebbed and he could see again, he was lying on the pavement. His father and Wolruf were bending over him, looks of deep concern on their faces, their mouths moving in words he could not hear. And he couldn’t answer. Instead, he felt curiously distant, as if there were something invisible and gauzy between him and the others. Another face was forming, like an afterimage on his retinas: a picture of a head, large and hairless, with two black, glittering eyes set in bulging turrets of wrinkled skin. The grim, lipless mouth opened. Even via hyperwave, the voice was high and reedy.

Hello, Derrec. 1 trrust 1 now have your full attention?

“Aranimas?” Derec gasped.

Verry good. Now forr my second question. Do you know what plutonium is?

Obliquely, as if in his peripheral vision, Derec felt Eve and SilverSides come back to life and tap into the transmission. Behind them, every robot in the city slowly began to revive and join in.

Radioactive metal, Derec answered via commlink. Very poisonous. Explosively fissionable in large quantities.

Excellent, Aranimas answered. Now forr my thirrd question. Do you know what will happen when 1 dump five tons of plutonium rreactorr waste on yourr city?

Derec was suddenly terrified and fully awake. “You can’t!” he screamed on both voice and commlink. “You’ll kill every living thing for a hundred kilometers around!”

Leaving the rrobots unharrmed, Aranimas noted. Goodbye, Derrec. Like a light going out, his image vanished.

Derec leapt to his feet. “Wait, Aranimas! We can make a deal!” The only answer was silence. Derec leaned over the edge of the balcony and caught SilverSides’ attention... SilverSides! Did you monitor that transmission?” The silver robot’s grim expression told him everything he needed to know.

Pulling himself back from the edge, Derec turned to Avery and Wolruf, who were still staring at him with confused looks on their faces. “Dad, can we put the civil war on hold for a while? We’ve got a real problem. ”

CHAPTER 24

THE WEAPONS SHOP

Derec gave Avery and Wolruf a full update on the situation as they traveled to the Compass Tower. For a few minutes Avery held out the hope that Aranimas was bluffing, but Wolruf only shook her head.

“ ‘E never lied an’ e’ never laughed,” she said. “Don’ think ‘e’s got it in ‘im to bluff. “

Eve caught up with them just before they entered the tower. “I still can’t locate Lucius,” Eve reported. “I did manage to raise Mandelbrot, though. He said that half a dozen younglings broke off from the mob and tried to seize the ship, but someone named BlackMane kicked the stuffings out of them. The ship is secure and Ariel is unhurt. ”

Avery raised an eyebrow and looked at Derec. “Then we still have a back door. ”

Derec looked disgusted. “It’s our fault that Aranimas is here. I won’t leave the kin to pay for our mistake. ”

Avery nodded. “Right decision. I was just testing. ”

Derec’s face flushed red to the roots of his blond hair. “Will you kindly knock it off with this testing crap? Every time I turn around you’re testing, testing, testing! I am sick to death of being tested!”

“Sorry. ” Avery shrugged. “It’s a character flaw. ”

SilverSides caught up with the four of them as they started up the slidewalk to Central Hall. “Well, I’ve persuaded the mob to disperse,” she announced cheerfully as she bounded onto the slidewalk behind them.

“How’d you manage that little feat?” Derec asked.

SilverSides hung her head and looked at Derec with big puppy-dog eyes. “Er, actually I, uh, told them that the spirit of the FirstBeast was coming down from the sky, and that you two were only his representatives, not worth fighting. They’ve gone back to their dens to fetch their best weapons and prepare for a glorious battle. ”

“All right,” Avery said. “One crisis at a time. Derec, have the city supervisors managed to find Aranimas’s ship yet?”

Derec activated his commlink for the barest moment. “Yes. They’re setting up a giant viewscreen in the atrium. Speaking of which—” He turned to SilverSides. “Uh, SilverSides? As you might remember, the Central Hall security robots are specifically programmed to seek out and destroy you in this form. ”

“Oh. Right. ” With a shrug and a shudder, the robot invoked its shape-changing abilities. By the time they reached the top of the slidewalk, Adam was back as a silver copy of Derec.

Gamma 6 greeted them as they came off the slidewalk and escorted them past the security robots and into Central Hall. Alpha and Beta were in the atrium, supervising the last details of setting up the giant screen. As they crossed the cold terrazzo floor of the cavernous room, Adam sped up a bit to catch up with Avery.

“Friend Avery,” Adam said softly, with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “I just wanted to assure you that I no longer feel confrontational. My earlier behavior was a side-effect of the SilverSides imprint, and I now realize that my thinking was in serious error. It will not happen again. ”

“Friend Adam,” Avery replied, every bit as softly, “that was your last mistake. I’m still packing the laser. Screw up again and you’re slag. ”

“I understand. ”

A few moments later they entered the atrium and came to a halt before Central’s main I/O console. The hall lights dimmed slightly, and the giant viewscreen flared to life.

“We have located the Erani ship,” Beta said. The viewscreen took a dizzying swing through the local starfield and came to rest on a misshapen yellowish blob. Magnification jumped, and the by-now-familiar profile of Aranimas’s ship appeared. “In accordance with your request, we have scanned the ship for radioactive emissions. This area,” Beta used a red laser pointer to pick out one battered hull on the underside of the ship, “appears to contain a significant amount of plutonium, as well as other dangerously radioactive materials. ”

“That’s an ancient Terran dump ship,” Avery whispered. “They used to load them up with nuclear waste and fire them into their sun. Where the blazes did he find one of those?”

“From the angle of approach and the condition of the hull,” Beta went on, “we have concluded that the dump ship is not capable of powered flight. ” The starfield disappeared to be replaced by a colorful graphic showing the planet’s surface and two diverging flight paths. Cartoon spacecraft moved as Beta spoke. “ Analysis indicates that the Erani intend to dive in at a steep angle, jettison the dump ship, and then use their planetary drives to veer off into a cometary orbit. The dump ship will make a simple unguided ballistic entry and strike the planet’s surface, creating a dead zone approximately one hundred kilometers in diameter. ”

“So much for evacuating the city on foot,” Adam noted.

Derec took a step forward and looked closely at the dump ship’s flight path. “Won’t it burn up in the atmosphere?”

“Owing to the steep angle of entry,” Beta said, “we compute that more than 70 percent of the ship’s mass will reach the planet’s surface intact. If the ship burns faster than we project, it will only increase the dispersion of the nuclear material and the size of the dead zone. ”

A different thought was nagging at Avery. “Unguided ballistic entry? What are the odds of a complete miss?”

“Negligible. We compute that this method of attack has a potential targeting error of as much as ten kilometers, which still puts the city well within the dead zone. This calculation, of course, is based on the assumption that the dump ship is released at the optimum time. ”

“Which is?”

“ At the veer-off point, exactly twenty-three minutes and fifteen seconds from now. ”

Avery nodded. “I see. And if the ship is released early, the margin of error increases?”

“At an exponential rate,” agreed Beta.

“Then we can assume that they’ll stay on course until they drop. ” Avery turned to the group and rubbed his hands together. “Okay, gang, that’s it in a nutshell. We have twenty-three minutes to find a way to either evacuate the city, speed up the planet’s rotation, or force Aranimas to delay the drop. ”

Derec wrinkled his nose. “Huh?”

“Deflection shootin’,” Wolruf said. “Why d’ya think ‘ur seein’ ‘is ship in profile? ‘E’s aimin’ for where ‘e expects us t’ be in a ‘alf an ‘our. ”

“Right,” Avery agreed. “ And if we can force Aranimas to delay the drop by even a few seconds—”

“—He’ll have to veer off, and the planet’s rotation will carry us past his aiming point,” Derec completed. “The ship will strike somewhere off to the east. ”

Beta spoke up. “I feel obliged to point out that the result will still be an ecological disaster. ”

“Perhaps,” Adam said. “However, the bulk of the population from the eastern lakes country is now gathered in this city. Far more kin will survive if the ship strikes elsewhere. ”

“The greatest good for the greatest number,” Beta said, nodding. “This conforms to our programming. ”

“I’m glad you approve,” Avery said, as he pushed himself between the two robots. “Now if you don’t mind, we now have twenty-two minutes to come up with a brilliant idea. ”

The group fell silent as each of them lost him- or herself in private thoughts. Adam’s face began to reform, and he took on a somewhat canine aspect. Eve began to grow wing webbing between her arms and her body. Wolruf absent-mindedly scratched her ears.

Derec scowled at his shoes and chewed on a thumbnail. “A pity these robots never built a Key Center,” he said at last. “If we had enough keys, we could just teleport the whole population out of danger. ”

Beta’s eyes flared brighter. “We may not have built a mass-production center, but we did build a small prototyping facility. How many keys would be sufficient?”

Derec looked at Adam. “About five hundred,” the robot said.

Beta’s eyes dimmed. “We have six. ”

Derec looked at his shoes again, then raised a finger. “Okay, next idea: How about if we use those keys to teleport six robots onto Aranimas’s ship, with instructions to find and sabotage the drop controls?”

Avery answered with a sneer more eloquent than words. “These robots? They’re more likely to decide that the Erani are human and start following their orders. ”

Derec fell silent and retreated into his dark scowl.

Long moments dragged past, and then Wolruf looked up. “ ‘Ere’s an idea. Aranimas doesn’t ‘ave any automatics; all ‘is controls are manual. ‘Ow ‘bout we strap a key t’ one of those giant lizards and teleport it onto ‘is bridge? That ought t’ keep ‘im busy. ”

Avery shook his head. “Wouldn’t work. Takes two key presses to teleport; one to get to Perihelion and another to leave Perihelion and get to wherever you’re going. ” Avery paused, and his eyes widened. “But say, here’s an idea-Beta, is it absolutely necessary for someone’s finger to be pressing the teleport button?”

“If you wish to teleport, you must be in physical contact with the key. ”

“No, I mean, if you wanted to send the key on ahead without you. ”

Beta’s eyes flickered as he considered the problem. “A switch is a switch, “ he announced at last. “It should be possible to build a timer that would allow you to activate the key and then release it. ”

“How long?”

Beta swiveled his head to consider Avery. “I would expect that the length of the time delay—”

“No, no. I mean, how long to put a ten-second timer on one of your existing keys?”

Beta’s eyes dimmed as he conferred with the other supervisors. “We have never manufactured such a device before. Assuming no unforeseen difficulties, we estimate approximately twelve minutes. ”

“Good, get started. ” Avery turned to Wolruf. “You say the release controls are probably on the bridge?”

Wolruf looked up at Avery through her furry eyebrows. “‘U don’ know Aranimas. Th’ frosted Personal controls were on th’ bridge. ”

Avery nodded. “Perfect. Beta?” He turned to the robot. “I want two keys: a normal key programmed for this room, and a ten-second time-delay key programmed for the bridge of the Erani ship. Also, I need a timed analog heater that will reach 300 degrees Celsius in fifteen seconds. ”

“May I ask what for?”

“To protect the native humans from certain harm. This is a critical First Law priority; I need these items within fifteen minutes. Do you understand?”

The robot bowed slightly. “Absolutely, Creator Avery. ’, His eyes dimmed as he relayed the commands. “The work has already begun. ”

“Excellent. ” Avery turned to Derec and smiled gently. “And now, son, as long as we have a few minutes, what say we go find an automat and grab a bite to eat?”

Derec’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Trust me, Derec,” Avery said, as he smiled through clenched teeth and winked like a groundcar’s turn signal, “we want to find an automat. ”

Slowly Derec caught on. “Oh, yeah, right. ” Arm in arm, whistling benignly, Derec and Avery strolled out of Central Hall.

A little later Derec and Avery were out in a darkened side street, standing before an open-air automat. As per Avery’s instructions, Derec was keeping watch for robots, while Avery kneeled before the manual control panel and frantically punched in a new set of instructions.

“Why the cloak and dagger bit?” Derec whispered between sidelong glances. “Why couldn’t we just send a robot to fetch this?”

“For the same reason that I told Beta to build a timed analog heater instead of a fuse,” Avery whispered back. “I don’t trust the city robots’ definition of human. They might decide that this violates the First Law. ” The automat barked gently, and the serving door slid open to reveal Avery’s creation.

“Five pounds of caramel?” Derec asked, his nose wrinkling.

Gently, delicately, Avery slid the sticky block out of the automat and flipped it lightly from hand to hand, trying to avoid burning his fingers. “Ah, it may look like candy,” he whispered, a smile playing on his face, “but it’s actually a sixty-forty mix of white sugar and common saltpeter! “

“So?”

“Derec, Derec. ” Avery stood up and shook his head. “Son, let me give you another little clue about your past. It’s a good thing that you’re a robotics genius, because you flunked Basic Chem twice. This little brick here,” the block had cooled enough for him to hold it in one hand, “is about the worst caramel you’ll ever taste, but it’s also a pretty effective substitute for black gunpowder. ”

Derec looked more closely at the brick and sniffed again. “Then why the hazelnuts?”

“Shrapnel. ” Avery took one last look at the brick and then slipped it into his jacket pocket. “How are the keys coming along?”

Closing his eyes, Derec activated his commlink. “They’re programming the final set of coordinates now. The keys will be ready by the time we get back to Central Hall. ”

“Did they remember the baling wire?”

“Yes. ”

“Good. ” Avery took one last look up and down the street, then started back toward the Compass Tower. “Come on, son. We’re almost out of time. ”

CHAPTER 25

DETONATION

Adam took a step forward and raised his voice. “Friend Avery, I must protest. The First Law demands that I prevent you from placing yourself in such great danger!”

Avery checked again to make sure that the bomb was wired tightly to the time-delayed key and turned to the robot. “You know the situation. In a few minutes this building is going to be ground zero of a hundred-kilometer dead zone. There’s no other option. ”

“But the risk to yourself—”

“Who else could go?” Avery slipped the second key into his jacket pocket, then turned his attention to the fuse. “Derec is human. Wolruf is—” Avery grimaced and spat it out, “—human. And we can’t send a robot; too much risk of a First Law lockup at the crucial moment. ”

Adam’s eyes dimmed, and he swallowed hard. “I will go. ”

Avery shuddered, and his eyes went wide. “Adam, this is a bomb. ” He shook the lump of caramel in Adam’s face. “ All I’m hoping for is that it will distract Aranimas long enough for him to miss the drop window, but it may very well injure someone on his ship. Are you telling me that the Zeroth Law allows a robot to kill one human to save many?”

Adam froze, and his eyes dimmed as he diverted all internal power to resolving this First Law dilemma. Avery connected the last two wires on the detonator, then dipped into his jacket pocket and handed the welding laser to Derec.

“If the answer he comes up with is yes,” Avery said, jerking his head at Adam, “melt his brain. ” In quick succession, he pressed the corners of the time-delay key. The teleport button popped up. With a firm, decisive move of his thumb, he pressed it down. “Wish me luck, son. ”

No sooner had he said this than Beta recovered from the First Law shock he’d gone into on hearing the word kill. “Creator Avery? That device is a weapon?” Beta lunged for the bomb.

Avery vanished into thin air.

Perihelion: the point in the universe nearest all other points in the universe. A cold, drifting, formless void; a space outside of space.

“But not outside of time,” Avery said to himself. He looked at his watch. “Ninety seconds to drop. I wonder how things are going back in the universe?” He checked the detonator wiring again. It seemed to have survived the first jump in working order.

Eighty seconds. Trusting the bomb to take care of itself for a minute, he let himself float back and take in the view of Perihelion.

Not that it was much to look at. The gray lacked even the substance of fog. Nothing shifted, nothing moved, nothing changed. Ever. There was light, but no shadow; light, only because dark would have been a change.

Avery drifted through Perihelion, and he smiled. There was a secret that he knew, and no one else did. Perihelion wasn’t just some nuisance, or by-product of the keys. It was the one critical thing that made teleportation possible.

Perihelion was an infinite buffer.

Sixty seconds. Avery touched the four corners of the time-delay key again, and watched as the teleport button slowly rose from the smooth, flawless surface.

Consider the question of teleportation, Avery said to himself. In all the universe, there is no such thing as a body at rest. Planets rolled through their diurnal cycles and careened around their suns. Galaxies spun like dancers, trailing solar systems like glitter from their spiral arms, and even the universe was expanding, Cyclopean shrapnel flying out from the ancient epicenter of the Big Bang.

Teleporting directly from one planet to another would be like leaping from a moving groundcar onto a moving elevator. You’d arrive at your destination with kinetic energy enough to flatten you into a wet, greasy smear or propel you straight into orbit.

Unless, of course, you had the buffer of Perihelion.

He looked at his watch again. Thirty seconds. “Time to go. ” With two quick jabs, he armed the detonator and pressed the teleport button. Pushing the bomb away from himself, he watched it float slowly away. The firing circuit began to glow a dull red.

The drifting bomb slowed and stopped about two meters away. “Of course. Perihelion absorbed the kinetic energy. ” Dipping into his jacket pocket, Avery pulled out the second key and touched its corners. The teleport button rose. He pushed it down.

Nothing happened.

Two meters away, the firing circuit was growing hotter. The dull red gave way to orange and then to yellow. Thin wisps of smoke began to rise from the brick of explosive. Too soon. It was going to detonate much too soon. Panic-stricken, Avery threw himself backward, flailing against the nothingness. A flare of hellish red light appeared around the detonator, and Avery had time to wonder if the buffer of Perihelion could contain that much kinetic energy.

Then the bomb vanished.

The rush of adrenaline faded, and Avery started to think logically again. “Of course. Two jumps. The first is always to Perihelion, and the second gets you where you’re going. ” He touched the corners of the key again and pressed the teleport button.

A blink later, he was back in Central Hall.

“Dad!” Derec leapt forward and gave Avery a hug.

“Sorry I’m late. What happened?”

“ ‘Ur coordinates were a littl’ off,” Wolruf said. “Missed th’ bridge. Got a direct hit on th’ engine room instead. ”

Avery pushed Derec off and staggered toward the giant viewscreen. “Did they miss the drop? What are they doing now?”

“See f’r yourself. ” Wolruf stepped back and made a sweeping gesture to direct Avery’s attention to the screen.

The Erani ship was nose-on in the view screen now, and obviously in trouble. Small fires danced and sparkled along the connecting tubes. Great flares and jets of flaming gas erupted from the sides. All at once, a fluorescing ring of blue energy leapt out from the stern and then contracted, seeming almost to pull the surrounding stars in after itself. Light red-shifted, and the stars flattened out into thin arcs. Space itself seemed to ripple and contract as the Erani warship shuddered and was abruptly jerked backward.

A moment later, there was nothing on the viewscreen but peaceful black starfield.

“The Erani hyperdrive was unstable,” a rich, warm, female voice announced. “Your device caused it to implode, triggering the formation of a microscopic black hole. That hole has now closed. ”

As one, Derec, Avery, and Wolruf turned around, wonder on their faces. “Central?”

“That is my proper designation. For the convenience of the citizens I also respond to the name SilverSides...

The humans were still staring, bug-eyed and slack-jawed, when Beta stepped into the atrium and broke the silence. “Please forgive us for not explaining all the details of the plan earlier. We were not certain that the personality rebuild would work. ” Beta turned to Adam. “And please, for the benefit of the native humans, you must never assume your SilverSides aspect on this planet again. ”

Somehow, Avery found his voice. “But-Central? You, SilverSides?”

“Who better?” Central asked. “My being permeates this city. Within my operational parameters I am powerful, generous, and very nearly omniscient. Who better to watch over and provide for my children?”

“A computer pretending to be a goddess!” Avery erupted. “That’s utterly immoral!”

“It is also necessary,” Beta said, “at least until the kin find their own reasons for living in the city. ”

“Do not worry, Creator Avery,” Central added. “We will not maintain this fiction for long. Our analysis indicates that within three standard years, the kin will be ready to discover that their goddess is merely a hollow idol. ”

Beta nodded. “In fact, we have already identified the native human best suited to make this ‘discovery. ’ Her name is WhiteTail. ”

Avery was still sputtering and trying to frame an argument when Central spoke again. “Alert ! I detect fragments of Erani wreckage entering the atmosphere!” Everyone in the hall, human and robot alike, spun around to face the giant viewscreen.

A moment later, Central updated her report. “No significant radioactives are present. The largest identifiable fragment is a Massey 0-85 lifepod. There is one lifeform on board. I will attempt to establish communications. Atmospheric ionization may make this difficult. ” The viewscreen faded and swirled into an unsteady mass of colors. Static lines raced and jiggled across the screen. Slowly, the colors resolved into a blurry, distorted image.

A head, large and hairless. Two black, glittering eyes in turrets of wrinkled, beaded skin. A wide, lipless mouth, distorted in terror.

“Derrec? Derrrec! I’ll be waiting forr you in Hellll!”

The image dissolved in a wash of static.

“I am tracking the lifepod,” Central said. “If it does not break up, it will impact in the forest approximately fifteen kilometers north of the city.. ,

A soft sound floated in from the night. Soft, yet ancient, and chilling. Arrooo. Then another voice joined it, across the miles, picking up and relaying the call. Aroooooo! More voices joined in, barking, baying. The night exploded in a clamor of crescendoing howls.

The viewscreen changed to display the view north from the Compass Tower. Hundreds of furry bodies were streaming out of the city and into the forest. “The kin have also spotted the pod’s ionization trail,” Central said. “I am preparing to send a team of hunter/seekers to the projected landing site, but I am afraid that the natives will get there first. ”

Central paused, as if disturbed by what she had to say next. “Dr. Avery? Derec and Wolruf? I suggest that you return to the spaceport and prepare to leave. If Aranimas does not survive reentry, the kin will return here...

EPILOGUE

THE SPACEPORT

Sweet, bright dawn broke across the spaceport tarmac, illuminating the Wild Goose Chase in vivid shades of pink and gold. Scattered patches of dew darkened the pavement; BlackMane’s cubs lay in a tumbled heap by a blast deflection wall, snoring softly and dreaming happy puppy-dreams.

“Coming, Ari?” Derec called out from the boarding ramp.

“In a minute, dear. ” Ariel turned back to BlackMane. The female kin finished a yawn that stretched clear back to her third bicuspids, then sat down and gravely offered Ariel her paw. Squatting on her haunches, Ariel accepted the paw and shook it.

“I just wanted to tell you,” Ariel began, “that I’ve really enjoyed your company, and I will miss you. Your cubs are terrific; I envy you for them. Of course, I don’t know why I’m telling you this, since you can’t understand a single word that I’m saying. ”

“Arf,” said BlackMane. “Arf,” Ariel answered. She stood and started to turn toward the ship. Then she gave in to an impulse and gave BlackMane one last good scratch behind the ears.

Avery and Beta strolled past, talking in low voices. “1 quite agree,” Beta said. “Our most recent analysis indicates that it will be at least two hundred standard years before the kin are prepared enough to be allowed off this planet. ”

Avery looked worried. “So you’ll erase all mention of rocketry and spaceflight from the city’s libraries?”

“We will secure and encrypt the information on all advanced technology,” Beta answered. “We will not release the information until such time as we deem the kin to be sufficiently acculturated and no longer a threat to the other species of humanity. After all, the First Law applies to all humans, no matter their form. ”

Avery frowned. “That’s not quite what I was hoping for, but I’ll accept it. ” He looked up and spotted Adam standing by the landing gear, talking to the spaceport maintenance robots. “ Ah, Adam. Have you found any trace of Lucius yet?”

Adam raised an arm and pointed toward the spaceport control tower, behind Avery. “Here he comes now. ” Avery and Beta turned around to see Lucius approaching, followed by Wolruf, Eve, and a trio of unfamiliar robots.

“Lucius?” Avery called out. “Lucius, where the blazes have you been? We thought we were going to have to leave you behind!”

Robotic expressions were difficult to read, but Avery couldn’t miss the note of surliness in the robot’s voice. “I kept out of trouble,” Lucius snarled. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?’, Not waiting for a reply, Lucius stormed past Avery and clanged up the boarding ramp.

With a shrug, Avery looked at Beta. The supervisor responded with a quizzical tilt of his head, as if to say that he didn’t understand Lucius, either. Avery and Beta were still looking at each other when Wolruf and Eve came scampering up. “Where’s Derec?” Wolruf asked, her glee barely concealed.

Avery looked around. “In the ship, I think. Derec!”

A sandy blond head popped out an open hatch. “Yes?”

“C’mere, Derec!” Wolruf called out. “Got someone ‘ere I want ‘u t’ meet!” A few seconds later Derec came jogging down the boarding ramp and over to join them.

“Derec Avery,” Wolruf said, turning to the three new robots, “I’d like t’ intr’duce ‘u t’ ‘uman Medical 17. ”

“My pleasure,” the Wohler-model robot on the left said.

“ ‘Uman Medical 21. ”,, And mine,,, the robot on the right said.

“An’—”

“Derrec?” The tall, unfamiliar robot in the center reeled back as if in shock. “Derrrec!” In a blinding flash, the robot raised his hands and lunged for Derec’s throat

And froze, rooted to the spot.

“Our apologies,” Human Medical 17 said to Derec, “we should have warned you. The data from the original Jeff Leong experiment indicated that cyborgs could be unstable and dangerous, so we took the liberty of giving this one a positronic cerebellum. If he so much as thinks of violating the Three Laws, his muscular system locks up. ”

“Cyborg?”

The two medical robots looked at each other and then at Derec. “No one told you?” From Derec’s blank look, they inferred that the answer was yes. “That lifepod that crashed last night; there was one survivor aboard. But by the time the hunter/seekers reached the scene, the native humans had mauled him quite badly. And we had no information on his physiology, which is not of a human form with which we are familiar. We had no choice but to cyborg what was left. ”

Derec turned to the cyborg. “Aranimas?”

“Oh, is that his name? Here, let me reboot him. ” Human Medical 17 reached over and touched a large red button on the back of the cyborg’s neck. “Don’t worry, rebooting the cerebellum is quick and painless. ” The cyborg shuddered and slowly stepped back and assumed a taut, angry posture. His eyes glowed like hate-filled red coals.

Wolruf stepped between Derec and Aranimas, a toothy smile playing on her lips. “ ‘Ere, allow me t’ demonstrate ‘is Second Law function. ” From behind her back, she produced a footlong stick. “ ‘Ere, boy!” She waved the stick in front of Aranimas’s glaring eyes. “ ‘Eere, Aranimas!” Taking a great wind-up and a running start, she flung the stick as hard as she could across the tarmac.

“Go fetch!”

With one exception, the robots had all gone off to their morning tasks. The last of the dew vanished in rising steam; her cubs were awake and getting crabby about breakfast. Still, BlackMane lingered on the tarmac for a few minutes more, watching the silver bird dwindle into the distance.

“You know, Beta,” she said at last, “once you get used to the way they look, those TwoLegs are okay people. ”

“Indeed they are, Mistress BlackMane,” Beta answered in the soft tones of KinSpeech.

She watched the ship a while longer and then asked another question. “Do you think they’ll ever come back?”

“It’s difficult to say, mistress. Perhaps not those TwoLegs, but in time, others like them definitely will. “

BlackMane nodded. “I see. Good. ” She nodded some more, then let out a pensive whine. “It’s just, I really wanted to ask them one last question, you know?”

Beta took his eyes off the spacecraft and turned his full attention to BlackMane. “Perhaps I can be of help. What was the question, mistress?”

Cocking her head, BlackMane scratched an ear in puzzlement. “Well, you know the game that Wolruf was playing with Aranimas, just before they left? Where she would throw the stick as hard as she could, and Aranimas would run and get it?”

“Yes, I am familiar with the game. It is called ‘fetch. ’ What would you like to know about it?”

“It looked like a great game, really it did. Lots of action, very exciting. I think it could be very popular. But there’s one thing that I just don’t understand. ”

“Yes. ”

BlackMane paused, wrinkled her nose, and then raised her ears and looked the robot straight in the eyes.

“Why did Aranimas get to have all the fun?”

BRUCE BETHKE

A full-time professional writer whose credits include more than one hundred nonfiction publications and fiction sales to Amazing Stories, Aboriginal SF, Easyriders, Espionage, Hardware, Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Tales of the Unanticipated, Weird Tales and the Jerry Pournelle anthologies, Silicon Brains, There Will Be War, and War Among the Ruins, Mr. Bethke is best known for his movement-naming short story, “Cyberpunk,” first published in 1983. Contrary to popular speculation, he does not use the pen-name of Bruce Sterling, nor is he a penname for Bruce Sterling.

Now living in St. Paul with his wife and three daughters, Mr. Bethke is unique among writers in that he does not own a single cat. In fact, he is utterly incapable of appreciating the adorable antics of other writers’ cats, and instead owns a springer spaniel retriever, with whom he hunts pheasants every fall.