"Asimov, Isaac - Robot City - Robots and Aliens 02 - Renegade - Cordell Scotten & Robert Thu" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

The function of the monstrosities was still not clear, other than being creations for the masters. With their benign weather?brought under control eons before?the notion of shelter and buildings, if it had ever existed, had long since disappeared from the racial memory of the blackbodies, lost in prehistory.
?You properly informed your masters of our interference and asked for assistance more than a hand of days ago, if we translated your message correctly. Each day I have asked if you have received further instructions among the numerous messages that we have monitored in both directions. Your responses thus far have not been reassuring. But now we have reason to suspect that you have received some clarification of the situation, if we understand a message you received yesterday morning. I informed you of that message yesterday afternoon. I now ask again. Have you received further instructions??
Still the robot did not answer. He had swiveled his head back to watch the procession of robots and vehicles passing out of the dome, heading north across the plain bordered by the forest.
?We will complete the compensator?the dome?tomorrow, thwarting your prime directive,? Synapo added.
That brought a response. Wohler-9 turned to face Synapo.
?Miss Ariel Welsh will deal with you when she arrives this afternoon,? Wohler-9 said, and swiveled back to watch the evacuation.
There was no point in attempting further dialogue. Synapo took off and headed for charge altitude and a Cerebron caucus.

CHAPTER 2
THE DOMED PIT

Ariel Welsh, in her typical fashion, came in too fast on a trajectory that was accordingly too flat, and she skipped off the planet's atmosphere like a flat stone hitting the surface of a millpond.
?Darn,? she said, which seemed to understate the situation somewhat. She turned the controls over to Jacob Winterson, saying, ?Here, you do it.?
?You should have asked me earlier, Miss Ariel,? the robot said. ?You must save yourself for the negotiations with the aliens. But I do have a few suggestions with regard to your approach trajectories in general, which should benefit...?
?Put a lid on it, Jake!? Ariel said impatiently. Nonetheless she watched the robot closely and with a great deal of admiration, not only for his style of piloting but for his superb appearance as well. She particularly liked to watch his biceps flex.
She had acquired the robot only months before, the whim of a spoiled rich girl, teasing a jealous boyfriend and rebelling against the mores of a bigoted Auroran society.
Robots like R. Jacob Winterson were not popular on the planet of Aurora. Neither the men nor the women of Aurora wanted to be upstaged by the perfect comeliness and superhuman strength of a humaniform robot. Humaniform was the term their creator, Dr. Han Fastolfe, had used to describe them, searching for a better term than humanoid, which hardly sufficed to describe Jacob. The Avery robots, like the one she had once known as Wohler on the planet Robot City, could also be described as humanoid, but they were a far cry from Jacob.
The simulation of a well-muscled body that was Jacob Winterson was a reflection of that era when bodybuilding was the vogue of a stagnant Auroran society.
She watched him now as he plugged himself into the ship, a small two-man jumper with a cockpit just big enough for the two of them. She should have used the ship's computer to set up the proper approach trajectory, just as he was about to do, instead of coming in cowboy fashion, hands on.
She watched the thick muscles at work in his bull-like neck, watched the flexing of biceps the size of piano legs, corded by thick veins reaching across his powerful forearms.
She had prevailed upon the ancient Vasilia Fastolfe, the estranged daughter of the famed Or. Ran, to delve deep into the catacombs below Aurora's Robotics Institute and bring out Jacob from among the thirteen humaniforms left over from the aborted campaign to sell them to a recalcitrant Auroran public.
She had never seen Jacob naked, though Derec didn't know that. Vasilia had brought him up from the depths fully clothed. And then he seemed so real?so alive in the human sense?that Ariel had never explored beneath the surface of the ample wardrobe she had provided him. It seemed too much an invasion of privacy.
The idea appealed to her, she had to admit, but not so strongly as to overcome her loyalty to Derec. In her mind, her teasing was not a form of disloyalty, no matter how miserable it made Derec. Like the myriads of young women who preceded her, she had no idea how miserable it really made him or she wouldn't have teased him.
On their third orbit, Jacob located their destination: the beleaguered robot city Wohler-9 had described by radio after they had jumped into the system. Derec was apparently not in the city at the time. Ariel had counted on hearing Derec's voice.
Their destination was the second-largest iridescent domed pit they had seen on the planet, and the only one with a pie-cut of city buildings that extended to the center of the shimmering pit.
Jacob laid in a trajectory that would bring them through the atmosphere to a landing on the open plain half a kilometer north of the dome and near the path of evacuation of the Avery robots; and then, with the help of the jumper's computer, he executed the maneuver flawlessly. They disembarked less than fifty meters from the line of evacuation and commandeered a large courier robot carrying two packages.
?Return to the city;' Ariel said as she sat down on one of the packages and motioned Jacob to sit down on the other one. She would like to have said, ?Take me to Wohler,? but the non-positronic brain of the courier would not have been capable of interpreting and executing that command.
As they neared the open sector of the dome, towering a kilometer above them, Ariel said, ?Can you raise Wohler on the radio, Jacob??
?I have, Miss Ariel,? Jacob replied. ?He is standing over to the right of the opening in the dome.? The robot pointed and said, ?There by that large open lorry.?
Up close, the paradoxical nature of the huge iridescent bubble became more dramatic as Ariel looked down through the flickering wall of the dome into a pit that seemed to underlie a city built on solid ground. Looking through the wall and the opening at the same time, the city seemed to float above the excavation. It left her feeling decidedly uneasy.
?Take us to Wohler,? she said to the courier. They disembarked at the lorry and walked up to Wohler-9, an imposing gold machine standing at the front of the lorry and facing the stream of evacuating robots.
?I am Ariel Welsh,? she said.
?I know,? said Wohler-9.
?What is going on here?? Ariel asked.
?We are moving the necessary materiel for construction of a second Compass Tower and city on the other side of the plain, five kilometers away.?
?Why??
?This dome will soon be closed by the aliens, blocking all traffic into and out of the city.?
?Why??
?That is not clear.?
?Where is Derec Avery??
?I do not know, since he is not on this planet.?
Ariel took a moment to absorb that. ?When did he leave??
?He has never been here,? the golden robot replied.
Now she felt slightly ill. She had misunderstood that weak relay from a central computer, which had led her to believe Derec would be here. She had to keep talking, or scream. She had thought she would see him so soon.
?Are all the supervisors here ninth generation?? she asked.
?No. I am the only ninth. All others are eighth generation.?
?How did that come about??
?Wohler-l sacrificed himself to rescue you from the side of Robot City's Compass tower during a life-threatening thunderstorm, Miss Welsh.?
The Burundi's Fever Dr. Avery had exposed her to?amnemonic plague, so-called?had robbed her of the links to her memory. The memory had still been there, but she had lost the connections to it. Derec had helped restore those links by providing clues from their mutual experiences. That particular experience involving Wohler-l must have been exceptionally potent, for now her mind orchestrated that clue into an unnerving symphony of emotion as the experience condensed into consciousness. The guilt of causing the termination of that magnificent golden robot, laid on top of her misunderstanding of the relayed message from this planet, left her momentarily faint.
She swallowed hard to regain her composure and then said brusquely, ?What is the nature of the dome? Why not simply destroy it??