William Wu - Cyborg

“I’ll kill you! I’ll melt you all down!” Jeff screamed. “Just wait till I’m in charge!” He thrashed and kicked again.

“Go ahead and do what you need to,” said Derec. “We’ll hang around; don’t worry about that.”

“Into the O.R.,” said Surgeon 1. He and the others trooped inside the building, carrying their screaming cargo.

Derec let out a sigh of relief and turned to Ariel, ready to make some kind of joke. He stopped when he saw the look of disappointment on her face.

Jeff woke up in dim light again, but this time he recognized the room. He was not connected to any monitors now, though. His eyes adjusted quickly; he was used to that now, too, and didn’t really notice it. He felt firm restraints of some sort holding him in place.

So they had him again. His memory was clear enough-with the bunch of robots forcing him down, Surgeon 1 had somehow introduced a substance into his neck. Jeff supposed it had gone into one of the nutrient avenues to his brain. In any case, he had been sleeping, and still felt drowsy and languid.

He was alone in the room, which was silent, but he could hear faint noises beyond the walls. His enemies were probably holding a meeting of some sort. By concentrating, he was able to turn up his aural acuity, and just make out some familiar voices.

“The First Law problem I experienced was this,” said Surgeon 1. “We have reason to believe that the transplantation of Jeff’s brain into a robot body has adversely affected him. If so, then the First Law requires that we undo the transplant, once we have scanned Derec for the knowledge we need to repair Jeff’s body.”

“So what’s the problem?” Ariel asked.

“The problem is Jeff’s resistance,” said Surgeon 1. “We are not certain that the transplant has adversely affected him. Without the imperative of the First Law, we cannot transplant his brain-or even test him-without his permission.”

“And he certainly doesn’t seem inclined to give it,” Derec observed. “There’s not much doubt about that.”

Jeff muttered to himself, “You’re right about that, frost head. You’re absolutely right about that. You want to take my body away from me again? You want to make me into a weakling again, like you? Stop me from taking over this planet? Ha.”

“When is he due to wake up?” asked Research 1. “Any time now,” said Surgeon 1.

“Then I suggest, first, that we be more cautious in discussing him, since he may hear us,” said Research 1, “and, second, that we consult with him and make certain that he understands our position.”

“Good idea,” said Derec. “Alpha, you and Wolruf stay here. That room won’t hold all of us comfortably. “

The moment the door opened, letting in a shaft of bright white light, Jeff shouted, “Let me out of here! You have no right to hold me prisoner-none of you do! Now let me up!”

They lined up at the foot of his bed, shoulder to shoulder, watching him in silence: Research 1 and Surgeon 1 on the left, and Derec and Ariel on the right.

“Frost! Don’t you understand your own Laws?” Jeff demanded of the robots.

“Yes,” said both robots in unison. They looked anxiously at Derec and Ariel.

“It’s not that simple, Jeff,” said Derec. “Look, there’s a possibility that a medical problem-”

“Sure it is,” Jeff growled. “I want to get up and out. That’s very simple. So, let me up and out. What are you after me for, anyway? I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re not yourself, Jeff,” said Ariel sympathetically. “A little while ago, you were shouting about taking over. You remember talking to me through some sort of broadcasting link? You told me we could be very powerful here. But I don’t think that’s really you.”

“It is now,” Jeff said haughtily. “They created the new me, and now this is me. And you have no right to make me over again.”

“All they really need at this stage,” said Derec, “is to run some tests on you. They want to find out if there’s a chemical imbalance in your brain that they caused-”

“Making me crazy? Is that it? You telling me I’ve gone crazy? I’m not stupid; I’ll tell you that much. I know you want to get rid of me. You don’t like having someone as powerful as I am around, do you? Huh?” Jeff laughed triumphantly, and loudly.

“Jeff,” said Ariel. “They have to act according to the Laws, and they can’t do that fully unless they run their tests. That way, they’ll know exactly where you stand.”

“Frost!” Jeff yelled angrily. “If they have to obey the Laws, then why don’t they let me go when I tell them to? Huh?”

“Their responsibility is larger than that,” said Derec. “Since they put you in this condition, the Laws demand that they make sure you’re really okay. The tests alone won’t hurt you any, or change you.”

“Oh, yeah? How do I know that? Huh?” Jeff looked around at them all. “Supposedly this transplant couldn’t hurt me, either, only now you’re all saying they might have made a mistake. Well, what if they make another one? What about that?”

Derec glanced at the robots, who said nothing.

“Let’s leave him alone for a while,” said Derec. “Come on.” Before they left, Research 1 turned on one of the machines in the room. Jeff understood its purpose. The white noise would drown out his ability to eavesdrop any more.

When Jeff was alone again, with the door closed, he tested his restraints. He couldn’t see what they were, since he was flat on his back, but they were stronger than he was. If he was going to get out of this untouched by the robots, he would have to argue his way out.

Somehow.

Back in the testing room, Derec turned to his companions with an exaggerated shrug. “Well? Now what?”

“I regret to interrupt,” said Alpha, “but I must inform you of a fundamental change in my identity.”

“What?” Derec turned to him. “What are you talking about?”

“At the time you instructed me to use my cellular arm, I experienced a signal from it changing my designation from Alpha to Mandelbrot.”

“Mandelbrot?” Ariel said. “Why?”

“I do not know.”

“What does it mean?” Derec asked. He was annoyed at the interruption in his train of thought about Jeff, but he could not ignore the mystery.

“It means nothing other than a name change to me,” said Mandelbrot.

“And it came from your cellular arm at the time I gave you the order to use it.” Derec thought a moment. “It was encoded in your arm when I found the part, then. Using your flexibility triggered the signal…”

“Could it be a safety measure of some kind?” Ariel asked. “Maybe a warning. This whole planet seems to be programmed with fear and security in mind. His arm came from an Avery robot on that asteroid, didn’t it?”

“That’s right,” said Derec. “I don’t know exactly what the signal means. Perhaps it was triggered by the combined use of some Avery parts and some standard robot parts together.” He looked at Ariel. “Maybe it means another signal has been sent out to call Avery back.”

“If he’s alive.”

“Yeah.” Derec shook his head. “First things first. Let’s get back to Jeff.”

“That theory is consistent with another important change in me,” said Mandelbrot.

“What is it?” Derec asked impatiently.

“My store of data pertinent to the location of this planet was erased at the time of the name change.”

Derec and Ariel both turned to him.

“How important is that?” Derec demanded. “You can still program a ship away from here to a major spacelane, can’t you?”

“Given the considerable length of spacelanes, I believe so. However, this memory erasure suggests that the signal from my arm was definitely related to the security and isolation of this planet.”