William Wu - Cyborg

Jeff cautiously swung his legs over the edge of the bed and got up. “No problem so far.”

“Place your heels together, angle your feet away from each other, and tilt your head back. Now extend your arms out straight. One at a time, touch your hands to your nose.”

Jeff complied.

“Very well,” said Surgeon 1. “Research 1?”

“According to the monitors, the robot body is functioning properly. We will need more space for my tests of gross motor skills. I suggest we introduce him to the exterior of this building.”

Jeff walked out of the room with them and down a hallway, feeling not clumsy, exactly, but just a little too tall and too heavy. Outside, he was nearly blinded at first, but adjusted immediately. Surgeon 1 saw him flinch.

“Your eyes see a wider range of the spectrum than your human eyes did. The same will be true of your other sensors. What you just experienced was an automatic dimming of your robot eyes to allow you to see comfortably. You did just the opposite when you woke up in near darkness a little while ago.”

“Excellent,” said Research 1. “You are responding automatically, then. I have only a few more tests.”

“Before we do that,” said Jeff, “I just thought of something. What am I going to do?”

“Whatever you wish,” said Research 1. “We have no requirements, other than those imposed on us by the Laws and by our programming. That involves our society here, not you.”

“But…what about college? I can’t go like this…They won’t even know who I am! I don’t look like Jeff Leong any more-I don’t have retinal prints, fingerprints, any kind of identifying mark.”

“If your brain waves are on record anywhere, they will serve,” said Surgeon 1. “However, we do not have any spacecraft available for you, anyway.”

Jeff whirled on him. “You mean I’m stuck here?”

“We do not have spacecraft available,” Research 1 affirmed.

“But…wait a minute! I can’t stay here!”

“We have no hold on you,” said Research 1. “If we ever develop the means to repair your human body and reverse the transplant, we will do so. Should spacecraft become available, travel will also be open to you.”

“But I can’t stay here. There’s nothing to do here!”

“Please remain calm. After testing your gross motor skills, I will introduce you to the robot in charge of assigning tasks in Robot City. Perhaps you will find an activity that you will enjoy.”

“Hey, now wait a minute.” Jeff backed away from Research 1, and found the other two robots grasping his arms. “Hey!” He twisted, stepped sideways, and yanked his arms free. “Lemme alone.”

“We must conduct more tests to measure your welfare,” said Research 1.

“Look, I just-let go!” Jeff pulled his arm away from Surgeon 1 again. “Listen to me! I’m human-I’m telling you to leave me alone. Second Law, remember?” he started walking backward, awkwardly on his new legs, keeping an eye on them.

“We cannot allow you to harm yourself,” Surgeon 1 reminded him. “The First Law outweighs the Second. Come back.” He started for Jeff.

Jeff spun around and started running.

He found himself running down a broad thoroughfare nearly empty of vehicular traffic. Some robot pedestrians moved out of his way. He had no idea where he was going, but he wanted to think, and to do it alone.

He could hear two sets of footsteps pounding after him-and was surprised to realize that his robotic hearing was so acute that he could actually distinguish the two separate pairs of robot feet. They were calling after him, not shouting angrily the way people would, but yelling that he was still experimental, that he might harm himself, that he had to stop. He didn’t stop, though; their voices simply spurred him on.

Other robots were listening, however, and trying to block his path. He dodged a couple of them and burst through the outstretched arms of several more. They all gave chase, presumably responding to the calls of the medical team that he might violate the First Law. The other robots apparently would help catch him first if they could, and worry about explanations later.

He rounded a corner without slowing down and started up a small side street. Even now, he could feel that he was running more comfortably than he had just moments before. His robot body responded quickly, and well. It had not been designed for footraces, but it was powerful and efficient. As he got more used to it, he began to turn up the speed and to hurdle minor obstacles.

Unfortunately, of course, his pursuit was all robots, as well.

He kept running.

Derec and Ariel stopped to rest on a small ridge of soil on the side of yet another construction site. As near as they could tell, the urban area of Robot City was expanding in all directions from its center, and they had been walking the perimeter of construction so they could question the robots they encountered. So far, they had traveled only a very small arc of the entire circle.

‘This isn’t doing us any good,” Derec complained. He lay down on the dirt and leaned back against the slope.

“What isn’t?” She looked carefully to make sure the slope behind here was smooth, then also leaned back. “Resting here or asking around?”

“Both, now that you mention it. But I meant asking robots at random like this. There are thousands of them, and they aren’t very observant of their surroundings unless it’s part of their job. They concentrate on their own tasks too much.”

“I haven’t thought of anything better.” She closed her eyes. “My feet hurt. I’m not used to walking so much.”

“I haven’t thought of anything else, either. There must be something, though.” He looked across the way, where a foreman robot was overseeing a large function robot of some kind. “Everything is so carefully organized. Nothing is wasted.”

As they watched, the function robot raised an arm with a nozzle on the end and began to spray a heavy, viscous liquid onto the bare, level ground in front of it. Even after the liquid had landed, it swirled and shifted and moved in active currents beyond those in motion by the pressure at the nozzle. As the spray continued, the liquid formed a flat floor and then began to grow walls up from the floor, leaving space for a doorway.

Ariel opened her eyes. “Did you ask that one robot earlier how the spray works? I went to talk to another one and didn’t hear your conversation.”

“Yeah. I didn’t understand the details, but apparently the molecules are all coded. They know where to go, and slide around in liquid form until they reach the right spot. Then they bond with their right neighboring molecules.”

“Just the way this whole city works,” said Ariel. “Except for us and our visitors. We don’t fit. That’s one thing we have in common with them, no matter who they are.”

“You think it over,” Derec said wearily. “Here comes another transport vehicle of some kind. I can see a humanoid riding in it. I guess I’ll go interrupt its day and ask it the usual questions.”

He got to his feet, and realized as he walked through a scrap area that his own legs did not have much more energy left, either. Most of the scrap was in huge, carefully stacked piles, but here and there individual pieces had fallen or been laid out to start a new stack. He noted with a mixture of interest and annoyance that none of the parts were recognizable. These Avery robots had an extremely ingrown technology.

Derec had learned how to shortcut this process somewhat. He first called out that he was human to get the robot’s attention, and then ordered it to stop. In turn, the humanoid robot ordered the function robot-the transport-to stop. This time, Derec’s questions paid off.