Mark Tiedemann - Chimera

Vaguely humaniform, the head was little more than a protective helmet curving over the intricate sensor array behind the mesh-covered eyes. A complex architecture of connections rose out of the torso and joined the brain that lay within the chest cavity to the communications and sensory apparatus beneath the headcap. The normally thick column had been modified by the addition of accessory modules and cables. Normally, the "neck" would be covered by a smooth carapace, but the extra components jutted out like synthetic goiters, requiring a specially-fitted casement no one had bothered to acquire.

Derec frowned at the overall dirty appearance. This robot had been worked hard for a long time. Hiding it, as would be necessary on Earth, probably prevented the owner from caring for it as thoroughly as needed, but he would have expected Palen's forensics people to clean it up in the course of their inspection.

But no thorough examination had been made.

Derec started going over it more carefully.

He felt beneath the headcap for the release and flipped the cover off, revealing the strutwork that caged the components. He took a rag and small bottle of solvent from the workbench and lightly cleaned off grime from the smooth surfaces until he found the serial number. He jotted it down and went to the comm, where he fed it to Thales to be encrypted and sent to Ariel.

Derec made note of each component he recognized within the head. Optical and aural receptors and translators, UV and Infrared telemetric assemblers, gas traps linked to interferometers, location and attitude modules-nothing unexpected. He wanted to turn it over to get inside the torso shell, but not till Thales finished the excavation.

On its right side, below the accessory limb coverplate, new metal shone brighter than the surrounding surface. A fifteen-centimeter square area had been replaced, the weld itself invisible but for the age difference in the material. Derec went over the rest of the body for signs of recent damage, but found none.

He tried to imagine its last minutes. A chamber full of humans died around it. What would its reaction have been? Derec tapped his finger arrhythmic ally on the pallet.

One human had been assaulted: Nyom Looms had suffered a broken neck. And this robot had failed to protect her from an alleged second robot.

Which had now disappeared.

Ridiculous.

Derec turned over first one robotic hand, then the other.

A dark substance filled the joints of three fingers, palm-side, of the right hand. Derec tried to flex them open but the segments were too tight. He found a small flathead screwdriver among the tools on the workbench. He slid a sheet of paper beneath the hand, then pried one of the segments open and dug at the matter embedded within the joint. Flakes fell to the paper.

He looked around their workstation. No magnifier. Derec carefully brushed the recovered material into a small dish, clapped a lid on it, and stepped from behind the blind.

Three technicians worked at two stations across the chamber. Derec spotted the equipment he needed against the wall to his left, midway between the curtain and the techs. He strode across the lab as if he did so every day and sat down at the console.

Within seconds, he had the magnifier powered up and the dish in the drawer of the observation platform. He keyed for a relatively low magnification-200X-and let the machine perform.

The screen showed him three distinct substances: two clearly artificial-one crystalline and the other fibrous. The third was blood.

He tapped a command to separate out the three materials and deposit them in separate dishes. A few seconds later, a different drawer in the platform slid out bearing three dishes. Derec pocketed the one containing the blood and reinserted the one with the crystalline material.

"May I help you; sir?"

Derec looked around at a young female technician standing anxiously behind him.

"No, I have what I need. Thank you."

"Um…"

"It's all right, I'll clear it with your director."

"Did you find something?" another tech asked, suddenly leaning past the first and gazing at the image on the screen.

Derec switched it off. The man frowned.

"I'm fine," Derec said. "If I need help, I'll ask."

The man met Derec's gaze coldly, without the scowl of offended dignity and violated territoriality Derec expected. Derec sensed that it would be a mistake to look away, to yield at all to this one. He would lose his samples and the presumed privileges he had just accorded himself, access to any and all parts of the lab.

"I am qualified to ask for help," Derec said. "I've had years of practice."

The tech smiled thinly. "Of course, sir. Sorry to bother you."

The first technician watched her coworker retreat.

"Where's the infirmary?" Derec asked. His legs trembled slightly.

"Next level," she replied, pointing downward.

"Thank you." He removed the sample tray from the magnifier and wiped the machine's log. "I want one of these in our area when I return."

"Yes, sir," she said uncertainly.

"It is authorized. " He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice. "It wouldn't do anyone any good for me to take this to Director Polifos. Would it?"

"No, sir. No." She glanced in the direction of the other tech.

"Don't worry about him," Derec said. "He's an amateur."

She gave him a surprised smile. "Yes, sir. I'll see to procuring you a magnifier."

Samples in his pocket, Derec walked out of the lab, feeling the male tech 's eyes on him all the way to the door. He wondered what internal politics he had just upset and how, if at all, it applied to him. An elderly Auroran named Greler attended the infirmary. After a brief exchange of names, Greler amiably ran a complete scan of the blood samples and handed a disk to Derec along with his sample.

"Apologies for being unable to run the match for you," Greler said. "This sort of thing must go through Kopernik Medical. You can take it to them and have it done."

"Thanks. "

Derec returned to the positronics lab.

He walked in to find two more techs sitting with the first pair. All of them fell silent when they saw him and watched as he crossed the floor to the curtained station. Derec felt a prickle up the back of his neck.

Hofton waited with Rana, along with Rotij Polifos and Yart Leri.

Polifos wore a pinched expression. Ambassador Leri looked concerned. Hofton and Rana seemed mildly puzzled.

"Mr. Avery-" Leri began.

"I would appreciate," Polifos cut in immediately, "that any and all requests for equipment or special analyses be made through me. This is my lab."

Derec did not respond. Polifos looked frustrated. When he finally broke eye contact, Derec looked at Leri.

"I was under the impression that we had your full cooperation."

"Of course," Leri said, glaring briefly at Polifos. "I apologize for any misunderstandings, but we are answerable to Ambassador Setaris and, through her, Aurora itself. We're used to a more regular set of procedures. "

Polifos blinked in amazement at Leri. "I should have been told what this was all about. I am responsible to the Calvin Institute and the Positronics Commission-directly-and any and all matters concerning robots and other positronic entities within and involving this facility are my responsibility. I'm required to report, oversee, and voucher all activities-"

"You don't have to quote the code to me," Leri snapped. "This is, I repeat, an unusual circumstance-"

"I have this authority precisely for unusual circumstances! All due respect to Mr. Avery, he is not the only roboticist on Earth, and unless I have a very good reason to relinquish my responsibilities, I cannot allow him to simply take over-"

"No one is taking over," Leri said.