Norby tnc-2

by Isaac Asimov

  "But if you bud," said Jeff, a little argumentatively, "there's very little alteration of inherited characteristics, and you can't evolve. In our species, the genes always get mixed up so that children aren't exactly like their parents and we evolve quickly."

  "See," whispered Norby to Jeff, "it's good to be mixed up." Jeff glared at him, and Norby closed his eyes and pretended he hadn't said anything.

  "According to our traditions, the Others helped us to stay the same. I suppose, since the universe itself is changing, that there should be creatures that change. I wish you and your species well, for while we Jamyn contribute stability, perhaps you Terrans contribute exciting change."

  "Exciting, indeed," said Norby, bouncing up and down slightly. "You have no idea how mixed-up all the Terran life forms are"-he glanced quickly at Jeff as he emphasized the word-"especially human beings. Their history has all the excitement of nasty wars and wicked persecutions and foolish plots and..,."

  "Norby! How can you say such things about your own world?" Jeff asked. "You're just ashamed of being mixed up yourself."

  "I told you I couldn't help the lion. I explained it all to you while we were in hyperspace and you're not helping me in the least with my new secret. It scares me."

  What new secret? thought Jeff. He tried to remember and failed.

  Just then the dragons' computer made a chiming noise.

  "Oh," said Zi. "What an honor! It's a direct signal from the Mentors' castle. I've never been worthy of a direct signal before. How my friends will envy me." She spread out both her wings as far as they would go and bowed deeply in the direction of the chime.

  The computer said, "The aliens are summoned for an audience. Only the aliens. They must come at once, and alone."

  Norby ran over to Jeff, his hat so low that you could barely see his eyes. "I don't want to go. I'm afraid."

  "Why? You think part of you may be from here, don't you? Jamya may be where your alien portions were formed."

  "I don't care. Let's go back to Earth and find Fargo…Or maybe we could disguise ourselves and join a circus traveling through the solar system."

  "The Inventors Union will find us if we do," said Jeff. "Do you want to be taken apart?"

  Suddenly the dragons' computer screen swirled with an eerie color. When it cleared, a cold light shone on a monstrous shape standing in a cavernous space on two thick lower limbs. The figure had four arms, a head that bulged on top, with a slit below the bulge that could have been a mouth, and three iridescent patches on the bulge that could have been eyes.

  "Mama! I'm scared!" wailed Zargl, leaping into her mother's arms and folding her wings.

  Jeff realized, a bit uneasily, that he felt the same way. And yet he was larger than Zi and, for all he knew, he might be larger than the creature on the computer screen. He flexed his arm muscles to reassure himself that he still had them, and wished he knew as much about karate as Albany Jones did. He grabbed Norby and stood up straight.

  "Ouch!" Jeff had forgotten that the dragons' ceiling was low, and, in the process of rubbing his sore head and trying to stoop, he dropped Norby, who fell with a clunk.

  "Ouch!" Norby said. "You keep dropping me, Jeff! What kind of an owner are you?"

  "Why don't you turn on your antigrav when you feel yourself falling? You would if you weren't so busy retracting." Looking around for allies, Jeff saw with discouragement that Norby was not completely withdrawn into his barrel and muttering ominously. Zargl was cowering in Zi's arms, and Zi had backed as far from her own computer screen as possible.

  Zi said with clear embarrassment, "Of course, there's nothing to be afraid of, but I never saw a Mentor before. We only receive verbal messages and there are no pictures of them in our books. This is most unusual…and a gr-reat honor, I think."

  "But Zi," said Jeff, "how can you be afraid? We humans have always imagined dragons to be completely brave. It was dragons who terrified others. Dragons could even breathe fire."

  "Oh, we can do that." said Zi, not taking her eyes off the apparition on the screen. She breathed out a small blue flame. "That's one of our old, primitive defenses, but it takes a lot of energy to separate the hydrogen from the…"

  Jeff had backed away from her. "There! You see! Even though you're small, you shouldn't be afraid."

  Zi said, indignantly, "I am not small! Only the Grand Dragonship is larger than I am, and she's my aunt. And I'm not afraid of the Mentor-if that's a Mentor. I'm just overcome by respect and awe."

  But she acted afraid.

  Jeff shrugged and turned back to the screen. The strange figure was staring at them, if those patches of shimmering color were indeed eyes.

  "What do you want?" Jeff demanded, determined that he wasn't going to show fear, whatever the others did.

  "Courtesy and respect," said the figure in a kind of creaky voice, as though it were something that was not often used. "I've summoned you to the presence, and you have not hurried. See to it that you come immediately to the Mentor castle on the hill. Alone!" The screen went blank.

  Norby's head popped up. "Not without me."

  "I thought you were too scared," Jeff said.

  "I am, but I'm less scared when I'm with you. Besides, if we're together we can both escape through hyperspace. If we were separated," he added virtuously, "I wouldn't dream of escaping on my own and leaving you in danger here."

  "We'll think about escape later," Jeff said, "after we find out what the Mentors want. Come on, partner!"

  4. Mentors And Hassocks

  Jeff wanted to pretend that Norby didn't have antigrav but this had disadvantages. The path up the hill to the large castle was steep, and the paving was ravaged by age. It was rough and uneven, and rank weeds grew in the cracks.

  Jeff sighed inwardly at the discomforts of their progress, while Norby, walking on his two-way feet, complained loudly and repetitiously until Jeff finally decided that carrying him was easier than listening to his grumbling.

  Halfway up, Jeff was forced to say, "You're no pleasure to carry uphill full weight, Norby, so could I persuade you to turn on your antigrav a little?"

  Norby complied with his usual mixed-up judgment of intensity, so that Jeff had to shout, "Not that much," as his feet began to leave the ground. "You'll reveal the ability."

  Norby added a bit of weight and they continued to climb.

  It soon became quite apparent that the paving was not the only imperfection. What had appeared to be lovely landscaping turned out to be full of flaws, although here and there it seemed as if someone had tried, halfheartedly, to prune trees and weed flower beds.

  "The Mentors don't seem to care how things look," said Jeff.

  "What's that?" Norby asked, jiggling so much that Jeff lost his balance and let go of him. Whit his own full weight suddenly restored, Jeff sat down hard. Fortunately, he sat on a patch of weeds growing where a paving stone should have been.

  Norby came down much more gently. "You keep letting go of me. What's the matter with you?"

  "Why were you jiggling? What 's the matter with you?" Jeff got up and rubbed himself where he had made contact with the ground.

  "I was looking at that. It startled me. "

  Among the flowers off to the side was an odd little metal creature, much smaller than Norby. It had a long arm with pincers at one end, another arm ending in a scoop, and yet another that looked like coiled wire. Underneath were lots of little legs, and the whole thing slightly resembled a Terran crab.

  The creature uncoiled its wire, touched Jeff with it, and immediately backed off, waving its other arms furiously.

  "We aren't going to hurt anything," said Jeff.

  The creature made no sound but turned away and began to weed the garden.

  "I think it's just a gardening robot," Jeff said. "It looks very old-all dented and discolored. No wonder the castle grounds aren't in good shape."

  "It's not intelligent," Norby said and sailed into Jeff's arms again. "It was nothing for you to be af
raid of."

  "I'm not the one who…" began Jeff, and then gave it up as a bad job.

  They climbed on to the castle until its gigantic metallic door loomed ahead of them. It had hinges, but no doorknob.

  "Do we knock?" asked Jeff, "I don't see signs of a computer scan."

  "You might not recognize one on this planet," Norby said.

  "Well, do you?"

  "No," said Norby. "I keep feeling I know this place, but the memory is so faint, it doesn't seem to help me. The diamond design on the door seems familiar."

  "That's because it's also on the dragons' collars and on the top of their hassock. Didn't you notice?"

  "Come to think of it, I did."

  "I'll bet. But now that you do, what does it mean?"

  Norby paused. Then he said in a hurt tone, "I wish I weren't so mixed up with Terran parts. If all of me were alien, or Jamyn, I'd probably understand everything."

  "I doubt that, somehow, but try to think. Does the design tell us what to do, or is it just the mark of the Others?"

  "That's it," Norby cried out triumphantly. "It just came to me like a flash. It's the mark of the Others. Now why didn't you think of that? That's how the Others marked their special property. And if you use the right computer technique, the diamond plus that squiggly border design around the door…"

  "It was around the hassock, too," said Jeff.

  "I'm glad you noticed," said Norby. "Well, the diamond plus the squiggly border design tells you how…"

  "Tells us how to what?"

  "I'm sorry, Jeff, but that's the part I can't remember."

  And just as Jeff was going to express his opinion of that, the massive door began to creak slowly open. Jeff could see nothing inside but a long, dark hallway.

  "Well, let's go in, Norby."

  Norby took a step backward. "Do we have to?"

  "Certainly. That's what we came for." Jeff strode boldly through the door and down the hall, looking for an opening into a room. Norby ran behind him, mumbling.

  "What are you talking about?" asked Jeff.

  "I'm not talking. At least, not words. I'm going over equations that keep popping into my head. I think the squiggly design is a set of mathematical relationships. I've got to figure it out. I want to understand myself so I don't keep getting into trouble, like landing in the Coliseum by mistake."

  "The old building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan? Why " did you land there?"

  "No! The one in Rome," said Norby impatiently. I told you all about it in hyperspace. "

  There didn't seem to be any doors, and the corridor began to wind.

  "I couldn't understand you in hyperspace. When were you in Rome?"

  "When I got the lion. Don't you remember the lion? It was all very unpleasant in the Coliseum. People were fighting in armor and other people were being eaten by lions. Then guards picked me up because I was in the way and threw me into the lion's cage…"

  "Norby! Was the Coliseum-intact?"

  "Sure. Not at all like the ruin in the pictures of Rome."

  Jeff stopped short before another sharp curve in the corridor. "Are you telling me the truth, Norby? We were studying Roman history and you were working with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. So when you left…Norby! You couldn't have."

  Norby said, "Well, where did the lion come from? I was thinking how nice it would be to see old Julius himself, and maybe I didn't quite make it and was a century short-a century later in time than Julius-with Christians being thrown to the lions, and one of the lions came with me."

  Jeff, feeling stunned, said "That means you actually traveled through time; but scientists say that's impossible."

  "Well, I did it anyway. I just don't know how."

  "You don't know how you do anything."

  "I'm sorry," said Norby. "I guess time travel is my other secret."

  "Can you go back into time again?"

  "I don't know."

  Jeff shook his head. He walked around the bend in the hall and saw an archway leading to a vast auditorium. High, thin slivers of windows shed a feeble light into the murkiness. In the shadows were formidable figures like the one they had seen on the computer screen, all standing very still.

  "The Mentors," said Jeff.

  "Hundreds of them," agreed Norby, "but they're inactivated.".

  "Inacti…do you mean they are robots? Dead robots?"

  "I can always tell a robot…almost always."

  Jeff walked into the enormous room, moving from one figure to another. They were all about a meter taller than he, each with the bulge on its head and the slit and three patches. There was no color or light in the patches. Their black, metallic surfaces were discolored and, in some places, cracked. They certainly seemed inactive-and very old.

  Norby sidled in ahead of Jeff and began rapping the Mentors, surfaces with his knuckles, now that he was sure they weren't alive. He stopped so suddenly that Jeff almost tripped over him.

  "Something's alive in here," whispered Norby. "One of them is still alive. And the building-it's alive, too. There's a big computer inside the walls. I should have tuned in to it before. I think it's time to go home, Jeff."

  Jeff squared his shoulders and looked around, but he saw nothing moving in the shadows.

  "What do you want?" he called out loudly. "You sent for us. What do you want?" c

  There was no answer, but Jeff became conscious of a faint vibration in the soles of his feet. Norby was right-the building was alive. Had the castle itself sent for him?

  "What do you want of me?" he called again.

  "Jeff!" yelled Norby. "Help!" Four scurrying little machines, similar to the gardener robot outside, plunged out of the darkness and hurtled toward Norby. They grabbed and held him by his arms and legs.

  As Jeff started toward Norby, one of the large Mentor robots suddenly moved. Its eyepatches began to gleam with an iridescence that was like shining quivering worms. Its four arms rose.

  "Jeff-don't let it near you!" Norby cried out as he struggled to shake off the little machines.

  It was too late. The robot's arms extended and caught Jeff in a tight grip he could not break.

  "Norby," Jeff yelled, "go into hyperspace. Try to leave the machines behind, but take them with you if you have to."

  "What about you, Jeff?"

  "I'll be all right-until you get back. I know you'll remember how to get back," said Jeff, not at all sure that Norby would.

  Norby pulled in his head, and with the small attack robots hanging onto his arms and legs, disappeared.

  "Good riddance!" The big robot that was holding Jeff spoke now in a coarse grinding voice. He spoke in Jamyn. "I do not approve of alien machines. Or alien life forms, either."

  "Now wait," said Jeff, trying vainly to twist an arm out of the robotic grip. "I'm here on a friendly visit."

  "If you are friendly, prove it by staying and performing a task for us."

  As he spoke, the Mentor lifted Jeff and carried him to the back of the room, where he pressed a depression in the wall with one of his feet. The wall split in two and slid aside, revealing machinery that glittered and flickered with shifting lights, although nothing else moved. In the center of the machinery, there was a space big enough for ten human beings to stand upright. The Mentor placed Jeff in the space and stood back.

  Jeff tried to leave, but found himself encased in walls of force that he could not see but that stung him badly when he touched them. He sat down in the center and waited.

  The lights around him began to turn and focus, as if they were concentrating on him.

  I'm being scanned, he thought.

  — Yes, you are, a telepathic voice replied-Think slowly and clearly so that the scanning of your thoughts will be done correctly.

  "No, I won't," said Jeff, aloud. "I'm not going to let you find out where I come from."

  — You will stay here until everything is found out and you have completed your task.

  "I'm not a machine." Jeff was shouting
now, trying to let feelings of indignation drown out his thoughts. "I'm protoplasmic. Organic. I need food. What about that?"

  — The Jamyn will provide. Now stop talking so that your mind can be explored, or you will be punished.

  "I won't stop. Ow!" He'd been given a rather unpleasant electric shock.

  He stopped talking and began to think furiously, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…"

  — Where is your planet?

  — Never heard of it. 'I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.' Ow! If you give me more electric shocks, I'll fall unconscious and you'll have only mixed-up gibberish in my thoughts to read instead of good Shakespeare.

  — Why are you here? What do you call yourself these days?

  — The best species in the universe, that's what we call ourselves. And what do you mean these days? 'To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer '

  It went on for some time. Fortunately. for Jeff, there was no need to get the Shakespearian speeches word-perfect, or even to think of different ones. After a while, he just kept repeating 'To be or not to be' over and over again. He had two more electric shocks, but after the second, he pretended to stagger and began to think nonsense syllables with all his might. After that there were no more shocks. Outside the walls of force, the figure of the Mentor seemed still, as if it had run down.

  And then there was another telepathic voice in his mind.

  — Jeff! I'll get you out of here.

  Jeff saw Norby beside him, inside the scanner. -Norby! I thought you weren't coming back from hyperspace after all.

  — After I refueled I left my attackers in hyperspace and hyperjumped into your prison. I'm going to try to get us out of here and into the dragon's house.

  — No! Take us home!

  — What if the Mentors' computer can detect where I head for?

  — That's smart, Norby! I should have thought of that. But why Zi's house?

  — Because I've decided we want her hassock. I don't know what it is, but it's from the Others, and I think it's supposed to be opened. I'm sure Zi doesn't know that.