Isaac Asimov Robot City 3 Cyborg

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.Either they re travelerswho arrived by chance, maybe for repairs or fuel, or they came for the Keyand maybe to take over Robot City.Can you think of anything else? Maybe Avery himself, if he isn t dead.I doubt that, though.He d be in hisoffice running things, not allowing these chance sightings.But what are wegoing to do? We ll have to go out and look around for ourselves, I guess.Unless you haveanother suggestion.She shook her head. We ll have to be careful, though, till we find out who they are and whatthey want.We ve gotten used to a certain amount of security here with therobots, since they can t hurt us, but now that s changed. Not as long as we have robots around us.Remember, they can t stand by andallow us to come to harm, either.What about asking Avemus or one of theother Supervisors to help us find them? Not right now.I don t want to alert the Supervisors to our interest ingetting the Key, and so far they ve left us alone.Let s start by going backto the Key Center.If we can get our hands on a key, we can just leave RobotCity to fend for itself.This time they took standard transportation, even though it took them fartherout of their way than the vacuum chute had.The subway tunnels were anotherdevelopment that had become feasible once the shapechanging had stopped.Theywere full of robots, going about their daily business, who could bequestioned.Derec and Ariel went to the nearest tunnel stop and rode down theramp.Traffic in the tunnels took the form of a robot, or a human, standing on ameter-square platform, enclosed by a booth of transparent walls, with a smallconsole that could be set for whatever stop the passenger wished.Theplatforms ran on tracks; some parts of the city had as many as fifteenparallel tracks.The tunnel computer, an offshoot of the central computer, didall the steering, and could shift platforms from one track to another in orderto create the most efficient flow of traffic.Tunnel stops had additionalsiding loops for loading and unloading.The technology reminded Derec of thelift system he had seen on the asteroid where he had first encountered theAvery robots.Without positronic brains, the function robots could not set the controls, soonly humans and robots with positronic brains rode the booths.Derec observed,as he watched the robots speed past, that they all stood motionless andstaring straight ahead, unlike humans, who of course would be shiftingpositions, shuffling their feet, and looking around.The robots were logical,Page 22ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlbut never curious.Ahead of them, several robots were emerging from platform booths.Derec andAriel split up to approach them.Derec stood directly in front of one to make sure the robot could see himclearly as a human in the dim light. Just a moment.I would like to ask youa few questions. Yes? The robot stopped. Have you seen any humans? I presume you mean other than yourself. Yeah, besides me. Your companion is a female human. Besides us! Derec flung up his hands. Somewhere else in the city.Anywhere. No.You are the first humans I have ever seen. Thanks. Derec sighed and flagged down another robot. Have you seen anyhumans other than my companion and myself? What companion? Uh her.Over there.See her? Yes. You have? Where? Over there.Where you pointed. What no, not her You asked if I saw her.I said yes. Okay, okay.Now, then.Other than the two of us present right here, have youever seen any humans on Robot City? No. All right, thanks. Derec waved him on.At the moment, no more robots were coming into the siding loop or down theramp.Ariel joined him. No luck here, she said. You get anything? No.Let s ride out to the Key Center.They got into the first empty booth.It was a fairly close fit, but notuncomfortable.Derec set the controls and the booth started with a slightjolt.The platform carried them along the siding loop slowly, so that it could mergesmoothly onto the first track at the earliest opening.Derec s trust in theengineering job done by the robots was so great that he never worried aboutsafety.If the robots themselves had any doubts about the system, the FirstLaw would have forced them to keep the humans from riding in it.He didn t know exactly how the platforms were powered, though it must havebeen through the tracks [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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