William Wu - Cyborg

“That’s all? That doesn’t sound like an efficient robot message. Move over. I bet the message was aborted somehow-maybe Jeff punched him or something.” He leaned in front of her and quickly keyed for the location of the report and read the coordinates. “Hey-that’s right outside! Come on!”

He turned and ran out, aware of Ariel following right behind him.

Derec skidded to a stop on the street, looking all around. Various humanoid robots were in sight, but none were doing anything unusual. He had no way of picking out one over another.

“Derec, how about those two?” She pointed at a pair of humanoid robots just going around a corner. “I think that one looks sort of like Jeff, don’t you?”

“Could be, I guess…There’s a tunnel stop over there. I think I’ve got it-he’s ordered another robot to run the tunnel booths for him. If he does, he can go anywhere. The whole search will be a waste of time. Come on!” He ran back inside and got on the console.

“What are you doing? Shouldn’t we try to catch them?”

“We are. Here it is-the destination he’s chosen. I see he’s only going a couple of stops from here. He must be pretty sharp. Instead of just heading out as far as he can go, and risking interception, he’s going to leave a broken, unpredictable trail. Maybe I can alert some robots in that area, somehow-”

“That’s a waste of time!” Ariel shouted. “Look where he’s going-it’s right next to the Key Center. He still has a distance to go. We can beat him there ourselves!”

“What? How?” Derec turned to look at her, but she was already running out the door. He hesitated, then got up and ran after her.

Jeff and Air Quality 6 had had to squeeze into the same tunnel booth, of course, and it was very crowded. Jeff decided to make this stint a short one, to test Air Quality 6’s reliability. He still wondered if some kind of programming might have allowed the robots to act in unusual ways for the sake of trapping him. Air Quality 6 activated the booth, and they took off through the tunnel.

The awkward fit in the booth made the trip seem longer than it was. Finally, they slowed into the siding loop and got out. Jeff led the way up the ramp.

The great bronze dome he had often seen rose up in front of them, gleaming in the sunlight. He didn’t know what it was, but it was a visual reference point he had often used. Air Quality 6 had brought him here faithfully, so he supposed he could trust the robot after all.

“Good job, pal,” Jeff said to the robot. “Well, I guess we can take a longer trip now, maybe out to the edge of town. You probably know this place better than I do. You got any suggestions?”

“I detect the approach of two humans from one direction and a robot from another.”

“What? Where?”

“There.” Air Quality 6 pointed to a transparent, horizontal chute lined up with a loading dock not far away. Derec and Ariel were climbing out of the vacuum tube. “And there. The robot is not in sight yet, but is about to come around a corner. He had been using his comlink to contact me.”

“You didn’t respond, did you?” Jeff growled in a low voice.

“No.”

“Good. You freeze-don’t speak, move, or communicate in any way till I give you the counter order.”

Jeff froze himself into position at the same moment, just as Derec and Ariel came running up.

“Is that you, Jeff?” Ariel asked breathlessly.

Jeff held himself still, and was relieved to see that his last order to Air Quality 6 was being obeyed, as well.

“One of you has a positronic brain,” said Derec. “I order that one to answer us. Which one is Jeff?”

Jeff spent a very long moment waiting, but was glad to realize that his order to Air Quality 6 for silence had taken precedence. He might just figure a way out of this problem yet.

“You are Derec and Ariel?” asked another robot, joining them. “I am Assistant Planner 3. I have been participating in the random search for Jeff Leong and received your emergency message from the central computer. “

“Thanks for coming,” said Derec. “We seem to have a problem here. They aren’t responding.”

“So I understand. I have been attempting to communicate with them through my comlink ever since I received your message, but I have not had a response, either.”

Ariel stood right in front of Jeff and peered into his eyeslit. “I think this one’s Jeff. I’m not real good telling these robots apart, but they all have slight differences. This looks like him. You in there, Jeff?”

“All right,” said Derec. “This is going to take some effort. We’ll have to get them together with the other robots whose comlinks don’t work; I understand that two or three more have been found. Assistant Planner 3, please arrange for this. Make sure the medical team joins us. “

Five suspect robots were taken to the Human Experimental Facility. Two were frozen into position and completely uncommunicative. The other three were mobile, apparently cooperative, and could speak aloud.

As Derec and Ariel entered the building, she shook her head and said, “I’m sure that one is Jeff. We really don’t have to waste time on the others.”

“I’m not doubting you,” said Derec. “I’m certain that one of those two is Jeff. The problem is that their bodies are the same model, so the medical team can’t tell them apart, and I’m not sure you can, either. In any case, it appears that we’ll have to smoke him out to make him admit which one he is.”

“Welcome to our facility,” said Research 1. “Please follow me down the hall. We have the suspect robots here waiting for you. It is large enough to accommodate everyone.”

He led them into a room from which all furniture and equipment had been removed. From the marks on the floor, Derec saw that it had been cleared for this project. The five suspects were standing in a line against one wall.

“Derec,” said one of them.

He looked up in surprise. “ Alpha? Alpha, is that you?” He laughed and walked over to the one robot whose physical details were unique, suppressing an impulse to embrace him. “Hi. How did you get here?”

“Hi,” said Alpha. “I was able to obtain a very small spacecraft and trace the source of the asteroid-disassembling operation to this planet. Wolruf accompanied me. More recently, I was detained by a robot search team and brought here.”

“Spacecraft?” Derec suppressed a giggle of delight and caught Ariel’s eye. “And Wolruf, too. How is she?”

“She is recovering from a difficult trip.”

“Recovering?” Ariel said. “But she’ll be all right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m glad,” said Derec. “We’ve worried about her. We’ll want to see her when we can. What about the spacecraft? Does it still work? And is it here and available and all that?”

“Yes.”

“Step out of line, Alpha.” Derec turned, grinning to the medical team. “This is not Jeff. I put Alpha together myself.”

“Hi, Alpha,” said Ariel, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. “I’m real glad to see you. But why did they stop you? You have a comlink, don’t you.”

“Greetings, Katherine. My comlink was originally set at a slightly different frequency. I altered it but was detained anyway, I believe for having an anomalous comlink.”

“I’m Ariel Welsh now.”

“I do not understand,” said Alpha.

“Not now, not now. We’ll catch up with each other later,” said Derec. “For the business at hand, we’re down to four,” said Derec, looking over the others. “Research 1, were you able to begin testing, like you said?”

“Yes. According to our standard maintenance scanning procedure on their bodies, all four are in good condition, other than their common lack of functioning comlinks. Their heads have not been scanned. The two speaking robots have given identification that has been verified by the central computer. Their comlinks simply malfunctioned.”