William Wu - Perihelion

Mandelbrot broke his reception. Since he was in fine condition, none of that applied. He had known they would see him take off, and he was gambling that they would not place as high a priority on catching him as the Hunters had. At worst, they would assign a Hunter to catch him as a malfunctioned rogue instead of as an intruder involved with Derec.

Ahead, he saw a tunnel stop. Without looking back, he leaped off the slidewalk and ran down the moving ramp to the loading dock. Then he was inside a platform booth and had programmed it to go as close to the mountains as it could take him.

The trip would take some time. He opened his comlink again to reconnoiter.

Two general alerts were coming from the central computer with high priority codes.

One was that Hunters were now seeking a malfunctioning robot who had apparently violated the Third Law by running away from a repair facility. Because the force of the Laws was involved, all humanoid robots were ordered to watch for him. His physical description was given. Since he had escaped from the repair facility before any scanning was done, they had no more to go on than that, but he was distinctive from the Avery robots even by sight.

The second alert was that a mysteriously shut-down humanoid robot had been found in the agricultural park. Nothing was known about the cause. The Supervisors entered an urgent order that any robots with information about this development report it immediately.

Total malfunctions of this kind were extremely rare in Robot City. Mandelbrot was sure that this one called up memories in the minds of the Supervisors, and probably in Avery himself, of the robot murder that Derec had solved here.

Mandelbrot, of course, was not bound by the instruction. He was sure that his human friends were somehow responsible and he was also certain that the Hunters would guess this, as well. Nevertheless, none of them had proof.

Mandelbrot also figured that the Hunters would guess that the rogue robot was the same one they were hunting. It made no difference, since he had to avoid them either way. He now felt the First Law impetus pushing him on, since the Hunters were likely to be closer to the humans than he was.

The platform booth continued to shoot down the tunnel toward the mountains. It was the fastest transportation he had, and it seemed painfully slow.

Derec heard Ariel calling his name. It came out of darkness, out of fog, out of chilly air…until he finally opened his eyes and found himself looking up at her with some thick, tall grass waving behind her in the dim glow suffusing the entire valley. He said nothing at first, trying to remember where they were. The surroundings were totally unfamiliar to him.

“Derec, please wake up. We have to move again.” Her voice was pleading.

“Come on. I’ll help you.” Jeff got an arm under Derec and pulled him into a sitting position.

“Where are we?” Derec asked, looking around. His voice was dry and hoarse. “What’s happened?”

“You fell asleep while Can Head was carrying you,” said Ariel. “He’s gone now.”

“You’ve been asleep for some time,” said Jeff. “It must be the middle of the night by now. It’s getting colder.”

Derec nodded, folding his arms and rubbing them. “But Can Head must have reported the mugged robot to the central computer, probably right after he left us.”

“As to where we are,” said Ariel, “Can Head let us down through the valley floor, kind of zigzagging, and partway up the far slope. I think we’re in a wheat field.”

Derec reluctantly let Jeff pull him to his feet. His whole body seemed to ache. He leaned against Jeff’s shoulder, breathing hard, trying to gain his balance.

“We woke you up because we have to keep going,” said Ariel. “The Hunters aren’t going to stop for the night.”

“Have you got any more ideas, Derec?” Jeff asked. “Avery should have heard about the mugging by now.”

Derec shook his head, still trying to wake up. “I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know how long that news will take to have an effect, either.” He straightened up. “I meant to ask Can Head about the migration. Do you know where his assembly point is?”

“Not really,” said Jeff. “He went sideways across the slope when he left, but I imagine he was heading back to that one thoroughfare they were all using.”

“We don’t dare try that,” Derec muttered to himself.

Ariel suddenly clutched his arm. She nodded toward something over his shoulder without speaking.

Derec and Jeff turned to look. Far across the same slope, a humanoid figure was just barely distinguishable in the distance, coming toward them.

“Let’s go,” Derec said, feeling a faint surge of excitement. “It’s not on the migration route, so it must be a Hunter, and it’s sure to have seen us. I’m afraid it won’t be long now.”

The three of them started along the row in the opposite direction, but Derec was just barely stumbling along. As before, the others each supported one of his arms across their shoulders. Derec realized with frustration that he was now too far gone for even the adrenaline in his system to make much difference.

When they reached an intersecting row between the wheat field and a field of some low, bushy plants he could not recognize, Jeff stopped and lowered Derec’s arm.

“Look, we’ll have to split up.” He looked back at the Hunter, which was still distant but visibly closer.

“Why bother?” Derec said wearily.

“Maybe I can divert it somehow. And if they get me first, I’m probably in the least danger from Avery. He doesn’t have any business with me.”

“He’s crazy,” Ariel said sharply. “You can’t expect rational behavior from him.”

“Well, maybe not. But splitting up is the best chance to keep Derec away from him a little longer. Maybe Avery will show himself in that extra time.”

Derec looked up to study his face. “You sure you want to take this much risk?”

Jeff grinned at him and shrugged. “Hey, I said lowed you a favor, didn’t I?”

Derec gripped his arm for a moment in thanks, then turned and started up the slope. Ariel threw her arms around Jeff in a brief hug and then hurried after Derec. Jeff moved a few meters down the slope and then got down on all fours to crawl through the low bushes of the adjacent crop field.

Derec leaned on Ariel for support as they plodded slowly up the furrow between the fields. In a moment, the tall green Auroran-bred wheat had hidden them from immediate view of the Hunter, but it would have noted the trio’s movements and communicated them to the other Hunters, wherever they were.

Mandelbrot stood at the opening of one of the passes into the valley, looking out over the agricultural park. It was dimly lit and he could just barely see, with his superior robot vision, tiny figures moving in the distance. He paused to study the entire valley.

Some of the taller and thicker crops blocked his sight, but he could see a couple of humanoid robots moving straight up a row on the far slope. They were not behaving like Hunters, and he suspected that they were migrating. Down in the valley floor, he saw two large robots moving systematically among the rows of the crops and was sure that they were Hunters.

Then, at another spot on the opposite slope, he saw a human figure crawling through one of the fields. As he watched helplessly, a lone Hunter ran up behind him and lifted the human off the ground. From the lively struggle he saw he knew the human was not Derec and he judged that Ariel was smaller.

Above the struggle a short distance, he located Derec and Ariel moving painfully and slowly as they wove their way among some short trees.