Mark Tiedemann - Mirage

Derec approached the entrance and the man stepped forward to block his path. Derec swallowed dryly and displayed his ID.

"Oh, good," the agent said. "Phylaxis. Mr. Avery? I'm Agent Sathen, Special Service. The robot is inside. We can't get it to move, maybe you can do something."

"Um… has it caused any problems?"

"Other than scaring the staff, no." The man grinned. "Come on, I'll show you."

Slightly puzzled, Derec followed the agent through the wide main doors into the brightly-lit reception area. The air smelled of disinfectant, a piquant odor universal to hospitals, even on Spacer worlds. People rushed about intently amid a constant babble of com chatter and urgently-spoken instructions. At the nurses' station, a woman looked up, frowning at Derec, then nodded at the agent.

"It came in with Agent Daventri five hours ago," Agent Sathen explained as he led the way past open doors to examination rooms and patient chambers. "Then it took a position just inside her room and refused to leave."

"Why here and not Reed Hospital with all the other wounded?"

The agent shrugged. "Our dispatcher sent her here. It is closer than Reed, and with the robot…"

"I see. Did the robot give an explanation?"

"Says it's here to protect Agent Daventri. We can't convince it that she's safe."

"First Law obsessing."

"It's what?"

"Apparently, it has locked on defending Agent-Daventri, is it? -defending Agent Daventri as its primary imperative. Unless you can present it with another First Law condition that would override this one, it won't leave until it knows she's safe."

"Safe from what?"

Derec gave him a shrug.

"Robots," the agent said in disgust. "Well, I'm surprised this one is still functioning after what happened today. I saw a lot of braindead robots after the incident. This one was supposed to protect Senator Eliton and it failed. Aren't they supposed to shut down after something like that?"

"It depends. A positronic brain doesn't have the same capacities as a human brain, but in many ways it's just as complex."

"Uh-huh. Here it is." The man stopped before a closed door and knocked. "Bogard, this is Agent Sathen. I'm coming in. I have someone with me."

"Enter," came a firm voice from the other side of the door.

Sathen gave Derec a crooked smile. "First couple of us that walked in without identifying ourselves, Bogard tranked."

"Were you armed?"

"Yes. After that, we got it to modify its defense protocols."

Inside, Derec saw first the patient bed and the array of biological support gathered around it. Looking small in the midst of the masses of equipment lay a woman with sickly-pale skin and short, dark hair.

"She's still in rehab coma," Agent Sathen said.

"How bad?"

"Two holes in her right leg, one in her arm, a lot of bruises. A broken rib. Mainly they're worried about shock."

He turned away from the bed. "And this is Bogard." The robot stood against the wall, in a position to watch the patient and the door and within easy reach of both. It towered over the two men by nearly half a meter. Derec noticed that its hands showed six fingers. Through anyone of them it could deliver a fast-working tranquilizer to a bare patch of skin. The white line of its optical array seemed to pulse at them.

"Hello, Derec," it said.

"Bogard, hello. I'm told you refuse to leave Agent Daventri."

"That is correct, Derec."

"Explain."

"I have been given specific instructions to safeguard Agent Daventri until such time as she releases me to return to initial priorities."

"Agent Daventri gave you those instructions?"

"Yes, Derec."

"Are you aware that she is presently out of danger but incommunicado?"

"Yes, Derec. However, I am instructed to maintain watch until released."

"What were the circumstances of these instructions?"

"Agent Daventri commanded me to pursue and apprehend two subjects involved in the assassin-assassin-assass-"

"Reset and continue."

Bogard paused for a moment, then proceeded. "Agent Daventri left me to pursue a third subject. I fulfilled her instructions by locating and tranquilizing the targets. When I brought the two subjects back to find her, she had been injured during a confrontation with her subject. I experienced a dilemma. Protocol dictated that under instruction to apprehend I must secure and deliver subjects to proper authority. However, Agent Daventri's injuries indicated immediate need to bring her to proper care. She instructed me to commandeer transport drones to carry the subjects, to personally bring her to proper care, and to guarantee her safety in the event that she should lose consciousness. I procured the transports and picked up Agent Daventri. She then fell unconscious. I will not leave her until she gives further instruction."

"Touching," Sathen said cynically. "You're Service property, Bogard. Your presence is required at headquarters for debriefing."

Derec glared at the agent. "If you please." Sathen gave him a surly look and walked away. Derec turned to Bogard. "Alpha-Zed override. Command sequence-"

"Rejected."

Derec blinked. "Explain."

"Specific instructions take precedence over all secondary protocols."

"I see… very well, Bogard. Continue according to instruction."

"What?" Sathen grabbed his shoulder. "We need this tinhead for interrogation, not standing here guarding someone who doesn't need guarding."

Derec shrugged Sathen's hand off. "Come outside with me." In the hallway, the door closed, Derec rounded on the agent. "If you don't stop, you could precipitate a positronic collapse, and you won't have anything to debrief."

"Don't give me"

"I'm not giving you anything. Did you hear it stutter?"

"Yes, when it tried to say-"

"Assassination. Exactly. Now my understanding of what happened is that Senator Eliton died in that attack. Bogard was assigned to protect him."

"It did a good job of that, didn't it?" Sathen said with a sneer.

"Do you know why it failed?" Derec asked, holding his temper.

"No."

"Then I suggest you don't speculate. Robots follow a very strict set of guidelines in the commission of their duties and usually any failure that results in injury or death of a human causes positronic psychosis and collapse. The robot shuts down. You saw it happen to the staff robots at Union Station."

Agent Sathen frowned but clearly was listening. "Go on."

Derec drew a breath and tried to decide how much to tell Sathen. Bogard was not a standard positronic robot-Derec had built it differently so that it could function in the role of bodyguard without being continually conflicted. It could do a kind of rough triage with priorities, but even Bogard could not circumvent the onset of collapse under these conditions for long.

Derec gazed back at the door thoughtfully. "For some reason," he said finally, "Bogard is still functioning. Barely. I'd bet it has to do with Agent Daventri's instructions. If that's the case, it must follow them to the letter or lose its hold on sanity and function. It's traumatized by the death of Senator Eliton. It's further traumatized by Daventri's wounds. It may feel responsible. If you want Bogard in any condition to give you information about what happened, then leave it alone for now. When Agent Daventri regains consciousness, she can release it verbally and you may be able to move it. Till then, it's standing guard."

"You know all this just from that little bit of conversation?"

Derec glanced at the door. "Mainly from its rejection of my override command. That only happens when it's locked in a Three Law conflict. It has to resolve the dilemma from within."

Sathen drew a deep breath, looking thoughtful. "So there's no getting it out of here?"

"Not till your agent wakes up. How long will that be, do you know?"