"Maverick" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bethke Bruce)

Chapter 6. Janet

Robotic Law potentials danced and capered in Basalom’s positronic brain like fireflies on hyperdrive. Impulses and reactions chased each other through his circuits, laughing riotously as molecular relays burst open and slammed shut like hallway doors in an old comedy routine. As much as a robot can be said to enjoy anything, Basalom was beginning to enjoy the incredibly complex nets of conflicting potentials that wove themselves inside his brain. Now, with the latest news just in from the scanning team, an entirely new dimension was added to his decision matrix, imparting a wonderful sense of energy to his cognition circuits. The potentials glittered in his mind like an Auroran filterbug’s web on a dewy morning.

Dr. Anastasi was not going to like the scanning team’s report.

First and Second Law conflicts skirmished in his brain, fighting for priority. Each time his decision gate flip-flopped, the stress register escalated. When the register hit 256, the accumulated potential was shunted to ground through his optical perceptor membrane actuator.

In simpler terms, he blinked.

Dr. Anastasi finished her business in the Personal and emerged into the companionway. Basalom blinked once more to clear his stress register and then addressed his mistress.

“Dr. Anastasi? The scanning team reports finding no trace of Learning Machine #1. ”

“What?”

Again, a surging clash of potentials! How could he obey the implied Second Law command to repeat and clarify the message without violating the First Law by insulting her intelligence?

Basalom settled for slowing his voice clock rate by ten percent and augmenting his speech with “warm” harmonics in the two-kilohertz range. “For the past eight hours, the scanning team has worked outward in an expanding radial pattern from the landing site. Within the limits of their equipment, they have not been able to find any evidence of Learning Machine #1’s existence. ”

Dr. Anastasi ran a hand through her hair. “That’ s impossible. It was powered by a cold microfusion cell. Even if the learning machine was completely destroyed, they still should be able to pick up residual neutron radiation from the power pack. ” Then a thought crossed her mind, and she frowned. “Unless Derec… ”

She shook her head. “No, a coincidence like that would strain credulity. The scanning crew must have made some mistake. ” She turned and started up the companionway toward the bow of the ship. “Well? Come along, Basalom. ”

Basalom was almost disappointed. His lovely, complex decision matrix resolved to simple Second Law obedience, and he dutifully fell in behind.

To minimize the effect of stray radiation from the ship’s engines on delicate equipment, the scanning team’s cabin was located in a blister on the underside of the uttermost bow of the ship. To get to the blister, Basalom and Dr. Anastasi had to leave the cargo bay laboratory, walk the entire length of the living quarters, and then drop down one level to the low-ceilinged companionway that ran beneath the bridge. For the last ten meters, they had to pull themselves along handholds through a narrow, zero-gravity access tube.

Along the way, to keep his mind busy, Basalom reopened his human viewpoint simulation file. He had more observations to add to the file and more data to correlate. In particular, Basalom wanted to record an effect that he had noticed twice before: That Dr. Janet, when given information she did not like, would insist on traveling to the source and verifying the information herself.

This must be a corollary effect of having a purely local viewpoint,Basalom decided. Dr. Anastasi would rather believe that a severe failure has occurred in her information gathering systems than accept unpleasant information.

Basalom logged, indexed, and stored the observation. Someday 1 will meet robots who have been observing other humans in a similar fashion. Perhaps then we will be able to integrate our data and formulate fundamental laws of human behavior.

Perhaps someday,Basalom repeated. But given the way Dr. Anastasi shunned human society, it was not likely to be any time soon.

Puffing with exertion and the indignity of it all, Dr. Anastasi pushed off the last handhold in the access tube and floated into the scanning blister. A moment later Basalom followed; he immediately noted that the four robots that made up the scanning team were still jacked into their consoles. He fired off a quick commburst suggesting that they turn around and look sharp. Slowly, awkwardly, the four robots began disconnecting their umbilical cables, detaching themselves from their consoles, and switching over to their local senses.

Looking at the squat, blocky machines, Basalom felt a surge of the positronic flux that he identified as a feeling of superiority. The scanning team robots were plain metallic automatons designed expressly for work in zero-G. They had ungainly, boxlike bodies, no heads to speak of, and in place of proper arms and legs, eight multi-jointed limbs that ended in simple metal claws. Since the bulk of their sensory data was routed through the scanning consoles, they came equipped with the bare minimum of human-interface hardware: one audio input! output membrane and a pair of monochrome optics on stalks. The effect, Basalom decided, resembled nothing so much as a quartet of giant softshell crabs.

Strike that.Basalom ran a quick cross-reference through his metaphor library. Make that, they look like giant lice.

Dr. Anastasi was still waiting patiently for the scanning team to finish disconnecting themselves, so Basalom allocated a few microseconds for comparative analysis. They are crude, functional devices. 1 have a humanoid configuration. human-like limbs, and an acceptably human face.

They are little more than human-friendly front-ends for the machines that they are connected to. 1 am intelligent. perceptive, and equipped with refined sensibilities.

Verily, 1 am molded in the image of my Maker!

Then a new, unknown potential surged through Basalom’s circuits, and he reevaluated the results of his analysis.

Still, they are my positronic brothers, and 1 must help them elevate themselves if 1 can.

Basalom didn’t realize it, but he had just become the first robot in history to be condescending.

The last of the scanning robots finished disconnecting itself from its instrument console. As one, the four robots rotated their sensory turrets to “face” Dr. Anastasi.

When she was sure she had their attention, Janet began issuing commands. “Eyes, Ears, Nose, and Throat! Report!” As soon as that last word left her lips, Basalom anticipated the cacophony that would result from a literal interpretation of that order and jumped in on the commlink. Override, he squirted out to the scanning robots. Report sequentially.

The scanning robots seemed to accept his authority. Eyes, the robot in charge of scanning in the infrared through ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, began reporting first in a flat, toneless voice.

“Using the design information available for Learning Machine #1, I projected its range of possible operational profiles and thermal dispersion patterns. I found no infrared sources in the target area which met this criteria.

“Next, I used the solar spectrographic information and atmospheric data supplied by Nose, along with our knowledge of Learning Machine #1’s physical structure, to compute the albedo-”

Basalom interrupted via hyperwave. Explain albedo.

“-That is, the optical wavelength reflectivity of its skin. Allowing a 15-percent variance for self-directed changes in surface texture, I still was unable to identify any objects which showed a high probability of being either part or all of the learning machine.

“Finally, based on the knowledge that the ‘cells’ that compose the learning machine are actually polyhedrons with microplanar surfaces, I scanned for moire patterns in the ultraviolet range. Aside from the aeroshell in which the learning machine landed, I found nothing to match my search profile. ”

Good job, Eyes.The squat little robot did not acknowledge Basalom’s compliment.

Dr. Anastasi nodded thoughtfully. “I see. Next?”

Ears, the robot in charge of monitoring the microwave through hyperwave portion of the spectrum, began reporting in an identical monotonous voice. “While I have been able to locate the transponder on the aeroshell, I have not received any signals from Learning Machine #1 ‘s built-in hyperwave transponder. Nor have I been able to detect any leakage of the kind that should be associated with the operation of the learning machine. ”

Dr. Anastasi’s brow wrinkled.

Explain leakage,Basalom hyperwaved.

“When operating, all cybernetic circuits emit a certain amount of electromagnetic radiation. If we are familiar with the design of the device, we can project the frequency and data encryption of the leakage. No leakage conforming to the learning machine’s profile was found. ”

Dr. Anastasi nodded. “I understand. ”

“Learning Machine #1 was equipped with an internal commlink,” Ears went on. “I have been monitoring the base channel that you assigned to it, but I have been unable to pick up any signals originating from Learning Machine #1. ”

Dr. Anastasi frowned. “Okay, I hear what you’re saying. Next?”

Nose, the robot in charge of spectrography and chemical analysis, spoke up. It was equipped with the same voice synthesizer as Eyes and Ears, but Basalom noted that a microscopic crack in Nose’s voice diaphragm gave it an interesting third-harmonic distortion.

“My specialties are of limited use in this situation. However, I was able to coordinate with the other units. I provided Eyes with spectrographic data regarding the Tau Puppis sunlight and a summary analysis of the planetary atmosphere. Beyond that, I am unable to contribute. ”

Dr. Anastasi frowned. “Hmm. Something smells fishy about that. I’ll have to think it over. Next?”

Throat, the robot in charge of outbound telecommunications, spoke last. “Due to our inability to locate the learning machine, laser and maser communications were not attempted. I have been broadcasting continuous messages on the learning machine’s internal commlink frequency. However, as Ears reported, there has been no response. ”

Dr. Anastasi shot Throat a cold stare. “You don’t say?”

That was a rhetorical question,Basalom added. Do not answer. The robot held its silence.

Dr. Anastasi looked the scanning crew over one more time and screwed her face up into a look of complete disgust. “I can’t believe this,” she said finally. “You robots have been scanning that ball of dirt for eight hours and you haven’t found anything?”

Throat did not wait for a cue from Basalom, but simply spoke right up. “On the contrary, Dr. Anastasi, we have found a great deal. However, none of it matches the profile of either the learning machine or its damaged remains. ”

Dr. Anastasi forgot about Newton’s laws for a moment and waved a hand to cut Throat off. Unfortunately, since she was floating in zero-G, the action sent her spinning toward the neutrino detector. Basalom gently caught her and stabilized her.

“You found something? What?”

Eyes answered the question. “I have detected a significant number of large lifeforms in the area of the landing site. The largest appears to be a warm-blooded grazing animal. The next largest appears to be a cold-blooded predator which follows the grazing animals as they migrate. Since we do not know the final shape of the learning machine, I can tell you only that the average predator outweighs the learning machine by a factor of four to one. ”

Dr. Anastasi frowned. “Oh, great. So our learning machine ran into a monster and got itself demolished. ”

The scanning robots conferred briefly by commlink. “It is possible,” Throat said. “However, in that case we would still expect to find identifiable wreckage. At the very least, we should be able to locate the microfusion cell. We have not found either. ”

“Moreover,” Eyes continued seamlessly, “I have detected a number of clustered infrared sources. The sources are almost always found in the vicinity of what appear to be limestone caves, and the next largest class of lifeforms are generally found clustered around the infrared sources. ”

Dr. Anastasi looked from one robotic “face” to the next with a very puzzled look in her eyes.

Basalom squirted out a hyperwave message to the scanning team. Clarify!

“I studied the spectrographic signatures of the infrared sources,” Nose said. “I detected cellulose, chlorophyll, carbon, and pyroligneous acid. ”

“So our intelligent lupoids are still down there. But they couldn’t have destroyed the learning machine, and they sure couldn’t have removed all traces of it.

“If the robot were inside a cave, would you be able to detect it?”

Eyes, Ears, Nose, and Throat conferred briefly. Ears spoke when they had finished. “The commlink would penetrate all but the deepest caves. Small amounts of positronic leakage from the brain should also be detectable. I detected neither. ”

“So something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” Dr. Anastasi said.

Basalom was still trying to parse out the metaphor when Janet kicked off the wall and dove into the access tube. “Let’s get out of here. I need time to think. ”

As he followed, Basalom reopened his human viewpoint file and made another entry. When Dr. Anastasi wants to avoid having to make a decision, she moves to a different part of the ship and claims a need to think. Does physical location have a significant effect on human cogitative abilities? He logged and indexed the entry; as he was storing it, a dialogue box popped open in the upper left corner of his field of view.

Basalom?It was Eyes. This reaction puzzles us. Have we harmed Mistress Janet by giving her this information?

Basalom responded via commlink. 1 am still trying to determine the First Law implications of emotional distress.

Oh.Eyes was not a particularly bright robot, but it was selfaware enough to realize that it lacked experience in the subtleties of dealing with humans. In that case, perhaps you are best qualified to judge whether or not we should report our one additional finding.

I will try. What is it?

There was a pause; nothing a human would have noticed, but Basalom could plainly see that the scanning robot was having difficulty integrating the information . While we were unable to locate the specific communications and energy signatures of Learning Machine# J,we did record a significant amount of other robotic activity.

Basalom’s curiosity bits skyrocketed. Other robotic activity? Explain.

The little robot made one more try at generating a conclusion from its data and then gave up. Icannot. Stand by for download of raw data.

Basalom cleared several of his unused memory banks, redirected his I/0 to fast storage, and opened his multiplex comm channel. Ready. A nanosecond later, a torrent of raw data flooded into Basalom’s mind. As fast as he could, he sorted, collated, and organized the data. Pushing it through his pattern-recognition algorithm, he tried to isolate and identify the most important points.

One by one, the points swam into clear focus. They quickly formed a structure, a simple pattern that teased comparative memories out of his long-term data storage.

Oh no.His stress register started clicking like a geiger counter, and the pattern took on an ever-more-familiar shape. It can ’ t be. His First Law sense began to itch like mad as the Second Law potential tried to find a route to ground. One word got out through the First Law filter: “Madam?”

Dr. Anastasi paused in the tube and looked over her shoulder at Basalom. “Yes?”

Power flowed through Basalom’ s cognitive circuits like strong wine. Thoughts spun and danced; potentials crashed and exploded like thunderclouds on a hot summer night.

“Madam, there-” The First Law choked him off again.

A concerned look crossed Dr. Anastasi’s face. “Well?”

In Basalom’s mind, the First and Second Law collided head on, drew apart, and collided again. Neither was the clear winner; he sought desperately to reroute data to his speech centers.

“Ma-”

Dr. Anastasi grew impatient. “Come on, Basalom. Spit it out. ”

His limbs froze; his major joints locked up. He blinked sixty-four times in rapid succession, and then through sheer force of will dumped his speech buffer through his voice synthesizer.

“ There is a Robot City on this planet. ”