Rob Chilson - Refuge

“I sstay behind and fly ship,” said Wolruf. “I glad to do thiss; do not thank me!”

Laughing crazily, they floundered into their suits and crowded into the airlock with Wolruf’s plastic bag. Normally it was used to convey perishable items across vacuum. Now they pumped it up to half cabin pressure, pushed it up against the inner door of the lock, and started the lock pumps. As soon as lock pressure fell below half cabin pressure, the bag began to push them against the outer door.

Their suits braced them against the push, and the expansion of the balloon speeded the removal of the air outside of the bag from the lock. When the outer door was opened they were shoved out-Ariel just quick enough to grab a handhold on the door, Derec grabbing her foot. Laughing again, they shoved the balloon back inside and slammed the lock.

Their first item was to transfer the undamaged antennas of Wolruf’s ship to their own, and to replace the burnt-out or smashed eyes. The two ships floated near to each other, linked by the light, strong line. Derec had brought tools, and also made a stop-gap repair on Mandelbrot’s knee. An hour of work saw that completed, while the pieces of the alien ship got farther and farther away.

They squeezed back inside the ship to rest, recharge their air, and eat. Ariel said tiredly, “How did you come to be here-near Earth-Wolruf?”

The caninoid snapped hungrily at synthetic cabbage. “When ‘ou Jump with Key, I hear static hyperwave. I hear two burrsts static, and I get fix on one. I expect it to be Robot City, but iss not. We know coordinatess of Robot City. It a long way away, but Mandelbrrot and I Jump to follow. Dangerouss, one long Jump. But we darrre not make more, orr we lose bearings. Sso one Jump all we take.”

She paused to gulp more food. They were used to her table manners.

“When we arrive at Earth, Mandelbrot make identification. He lissten to broadcasst-hyperwave still not worrking-and tell me, iss Earth, and explain Earth. We do not have to wonderr for long if thiss where ‘ou went with Key. I hear two more burrstss static, close together, same place: Earth. I not know how ‘ou use Key so close together.”

“Simple,” said Derec. He was tired and his head felt unduly light, even more than free-fall would explain. “The Key was focused on that apartment. Using it to leave anyplace else, even on the same planet, takes you back to the apartment. We won’t starve-if necessary we can always go back to Number 21, Sub-Corridor 16, Corridor M, SubSection a, Section 5, of Webster Groves, in St. Louis City.”

“Anyway, we wait. After a while, though, we detect hyperwave burrst of Aranimas’s sship arriving, and we know therre will be trrouble. He also had detected Key use.”

“How long has he known how to do that?” Ariel asked.

Wolruf shrugged. “Possible he always knew. Aranimass not one for saying all he know. Or more likely he learrned since we left him at Rockliffe Station. Is obviouss when ‘ou think about it.”

“How so?” Ariel asked sharply.

“Obviouss, Key must be hyperatomic motor,” said Wolruf, and Derec interrupted.

“I don’t think so. The robots of Robot City learned to duplicate them-they may even have made the Key we have. I don’t think humans or their robots could duplicate any such radical advance in science and technology as would be represented by the reduction of a hyperatomic motor to pocket size. I think the Keys are very compact hyperwave radios. These subetherics trigger the hyperatomic motors, which are elsewhere, and focused on the Keys.’.’

“Ah, ‘ou think motors are in Perihelion?”

Wolruf was a starship pilot too, and knew the theory of hyperatomics. “Probably,” said Derec.

The caninoid made a sound of interest, paused to eat more, and resumed her tale after pondering Derec’s conclusion. “Anyway, we sat therre waiting, and Aranimas sat thecre waiting. We expected ‘ou to use the Key and escape. Aranimas musst have been chewing nails and sspitting rivets. He could not know what wass going on, and Earth too big even for reckless one like him to attack. “

“How did you know we were us?” Ariel asked, and Derec, head throbbing, tried to follow the logic of her sentence.

“When ‘ou used ‘our hyperwave radio, he musst have known. Aranimas bum to intercept, and we follow him. We fortunate to be closerr by half a solar orbit, get in firrst. Aranimas not sstop to think how lucky he be to have crock to hide behind, going just his way almost as fasst as he. Only mistake he evecr make. “

Derec hoped it would be his last.

“What did you do to his ship, though?” Ariel asked, exasperated.

“Blow up. All time we waiting in orrbit, we were making explosivess. Carbonite recipe in Dr. Avery ship data bank. I know enough chemistry to add oxidizer. Had to use food synthesizerr feedstock, but only one of me to feed, and I ssmall.”

The robots had no doubt needed carbonite for the building of Robot City. Derec knew generally how it was made: it was a super form of black powder, using activated charcoal saturated with potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate. Since the carbon was nearly all burned up-it approached one hundred percent efficiency and was therefore nearly smokeless-carbonite was about ten times as powerful as TNT.

“Even so, it would not worrk if Aranimass had not panicked and Jumped. But he could not know what wass happening.”

Derec nodded, immediately wished he hadn’t; the room seemed to spin. “His panic is understandable,” he said.

“Are’ ou all right?” Wolruff asked.

“No, but I’m not getting worse. I mean, I’m feeling no worse than before the battle.”

Ariel broke in to explain about the chemfets, and Wolruf was concerned but unable to help. She knew nothing of robots, nor did any race she knew of, save humans.

“I hope ‘ou will be well,” she said, but clearly had her doubts. She seemed shaken by the idea of this invasion.

Derec thought of it as a disease, and at least had the hope that the chemfets were programmed with the Three Laws.

“Shall we go?” he asked. He turned and found Mandelbrot looking at him.

“What do you intend to do about this infestation?” the robot asked.

“Go to Robot City and either turn the problem over to the Human Medical Team or seize Dr. Avery and force him to reverse it-or both,” said Ariel.

“I see. I can think of nothing better, for I do not believe that the medical and/or robotic resources of Aurora or the other Spacer worlds would be adequate to the task of eradication of chemfets,” Mandelbrot said. “That then must remain purely as a final resort.”

“Rright,” said Wolruf. “We go find Dr. Avery. He worrse than Aranimass!”

The next step was to explore the alien ship. They cast off from Wolruf’s Star Seeker and jetted lightly toward one of the larger, more intact hulls. They carried clubs, and Ariel a knife from the galley, but they found it airless and had little fear of survivors. There were none, as it turned out. Nor were there all that many bodies.

“Aranimas musst have sounded the recall and called them to the main hull,” Wolruf said. “They would be valuable to him, of courrse.”

Still, a good number of innocent Narwe-and not-so-innocent starfish folk-had died in the battle. They found nothing of immediate use in the first two hulls, and became depressed.

“We must have air, if nothing else,” Mandelbrot said. “ And we should also find organic feedstock for the synthesizers. It is, you tell me, five Jumps to Robot City. It will take at least three weeks, and then there is the final approach, and a reserve against emergencies. This hull will not hold air for three days. It can be patched up more, but probably not enough to hold air for more than a week. We will need four complements of air, and even so, I must spend every moment patching till the Jump.”