by Isaac Asimov
“I’m not exactly sure. But I can’t have you interfering with me. So for now, you’ll have to stay here.”
“Well, then, why are we still in port? I thought you said earlier that we were sailing soon.”
“We’re ready. Apparently we have to wait for a Captain Morgan to lead us out of port.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Captain Henry Morgan?”
“I don’t know his first name. I guess so.”
“I knew he was here somewhere, of course,” said Rita. “Well … let’s see. Summer, 1668. Of course — it’s his famous raid on Portobelo.”
“Where?”
“No, no.” She shook her head. “Our destination is a secret. I can’t let it get out. If it does, and the raid is foiled somehow, then we’ll change history.”
“I guess I don’t have to know. I don’t want to change history either.”
“What did you come to see me about?”
Wayne paused. “I don’t know. Maybe I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“To make sure your prisoner couldn’t escape, you mean?” She turned away, looking out the window again.
“Well … like I said, I don’t want to hurt you. I just want my robot back.”
Captain Morgan’s ship led the fleet of nine from the harbor. Steve stood by the rail with Jane and Hunter, watching the lights of Port Royal shrink in the distance and the lamps of the other ships follow them. When the fleet was safely out to sea and sailing south, most of Captain Morgan’s crew went to sleep, leaving only the customary skeleton crew on night watch.
“Hunter,” said Steve. “Can you pick out the Hungry Hawk?”
Hunter looked across the moonlit water at the other ships. “Yes, I see it.”
“Is there any way you could sneak over there tonight and bring Rita back?”
“It is not impossible for me to swim that distance,” said Hunter. “The Hungry Hawk is one of the ships closest to us. However, the risk and difficulty are too high. I will wait until we are anchored, preferably closer.”
Steve nodded. “I guess 1 knew that. I just wanted to make sure.”
“I also have to feel that you two are safe,” said Hunter. “After what happened the last time we separated, I do not want to leave you unless I feel we can reunite without difficulty, especially now that the communicators are gone.”
“What will you do if Rita is not fully cooperative when you find her?”
“She radioed me for help,” said Hunter. “I believe she wants to rejoin us.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Jane. “But I’m asking you as a roboticist. Can you bring her back against her will?”
“Normally, I could not,” said Hunter. “She would give me instructions that I would have to obey. However, in the current circumstances, I can interpret the potential harm she may cause to our future as a First Law imperative.”
“What if she puts up a real fight?” Steve asked. “And makes enough noise to bring trouble?”
“You mean, if she alerts her captors?”
“That’s right.”
“In that event, I would have to judge whether or not an even more immediate First Law imperative exists. This contingency is too complex to predict.”
“In other words, you’ll have to improvise.”
“Yes.”
“I wonder how long it will be before we anchor.” Steve looked up at the stars. “We’re still going south, maybe a little to the southwest. I wonder where we’re going.”
“I do not have enough detailed history to know,” said Hunter. “The data I stored from the city library focused on Jamaica and did not include this voyage. I hired Rita to provide this kind of historical data, which I could not foresee needing. I made a poor choice.”
“She failed to keep to her agreement,” said Jane. “That’s her responsibility, not yours.”
Steve gazed out at the other ships again. They were a silent, peaceful sight on a calm, warm night. For now he could see nothing to do but wait.
As before, Hunter remained awake next to Steve and Jane as they stretched out for the night.
At dawn, Steve rose to find that the ships were still sailing in a good wind. On the captain’s orders, some of the buccaneers broke open crates and barrels of bread, cheese, rum, and fresh water and passed them out. Steve and Jane took their shares and moved away from the crowd, as usual.
“Ah! Good morning to you, Steve and John.” captain Morgan came up to them. “Where’s Hunter?”
Steve grinned and pointed upward. “He’s up in the crow’s nest. He volunteered to take a turn up there.”
“Really?” Captain Morgan craned his neck to look. “Aye, I see him. I hope it’s strong enough to hold him. He’s a very big fellow.”
“And his eyesight is surprisingly good.” Steve grinned and took a bite out of his hunk of cheese.
“I don’t expect he’ll have much to see for a couple of days,” said Captain Morgan. “But we must have someone up there, just in case.”
“So,” Steve said casually, looking at the other ships in the fleet. “Where are we headed, Captain?”
Captain Morgan laughed. “Not yet, my friend. Not yet. In a couple of days, granted fair weather, I shall call all the captains together in council. Then I will reveal our destination, but not before.”
“I see the Hungry Hawk over there,” said Steve, pointing to it with his tankard of drinking water. “We’d like to greet Captain Quinn again, if we get the chance. He sailed on that last voyage of ours.”
“The time will come.” Captain Morgan shrugged and moved on, calling to someone else.
“Why did you say that?” Jane asked.
“I wanted to remind him that we’re buccaneers — that we belong.”
“I wouldn’t let him know we’re interested in the Hungry Hawk.” Jane paused to munch on a piece of bread. “We don’t want him to know that we have our own agenda.”
“You’re right.” Steve smiled, and nudged her playfully with his elbow. “You’re learning more all the time.”
“About what?”
“How to improvise.”
Alone in her chamber, Rita paced anxiously. She wondered if Hunter and his team were anywhere nearby. For the first time, she was considering that she might really get herself killed in the seventeenth century. At the windows, she looked out at some of the other ships in the fleet.
So far, Captain Tomann had left her alone. She liked Roland and supposed that he was with the fleet somewhere. Maybe he would save her if he learned she was locked up.
Rita decided it was time to call Hunter again — if he was still in range of her communicator. First she went to the door and listened for footsteps. She might make excuses about talking to herself if someone heard her voice, but she would not be able to explain if they heard Hunter’s. Then, just to make sure, she moved back to the rear of the room.
“Hunter. Rita calling.”
“Hunter here. Are you well, Rita?”
“Yes — but where are you? Are you close?”
“Steve, Jane, and I are on board Captain Morgan’s flagship. I will have to wait until we anchor before I can attempt taking you off the Old Laughing Lady, under present circumstances. However, if an emergency arises earlier, call me.”
“We won’t anchor for days,” said Rita.
“How long will this leg of the voyage take?”
“I don’t remember exactly. Let me think. At top speed in perfect wind, three or four days. Realistically, I would guess a week at the soonest; maybe longer — if the wind is a big problem, much longer. When we do anchor, it will only be for a short time. We’ll stop first off the coast of Costa Rica.”
“You know where we’re going then. What will happen at Costa Rica?”
“Not very much. Captain Morgan will send longboat crews to shore for fresh water and any food they can find. He’ll be meeting with his captains to give them our true destination. We’re going to attack a city in Panama called Portobelo, near
the modern city of Colon.”
“Thank you, Rita. We will help you as soon as we can. Hunter out.”
Rita sighed, wishing that he could help her right away. Still, knowing the team was nearby was reassuring. She gazed out the window again, watching the other ships.
Hunter passed the information he had learned from Rita to Steve and Jane as soon as he could. As Rita had predicted, the ships sailed for over a week. Jane avoided the buccaneers, still worried that they would discover she was a woman. Hunter and Steve usually found chores the three of them could do by themselves. Anyone who began to work on a job was allowed to continue, as the assignments on the pirate ship were haphazard. They kept to themselves and the rest of the crew mostly left them alone. Even under the influence of their nightly rum, none of the buccaneers wanted trouble with someone who could lift, carry, and climb the way Hunter could.
On the eighth day out of port, the lookout shouted that land was visible to the south. As the buccaneers ran to the side to look, Hunter used the map in his stored data and correlated it with the duration, speed, and direction of their voyage. This confirmed to him that they had arrived off the shore of Costa Rica.
“The captains will meet after we anchor,” Hunter said quietly to Steve and Jane. “But longboats will be sent ashore for supplies. It will be a good time for me to attempt reaching the Old Laughing Lady from here and I will feel more secure under the First Law if you two remain safely on board ship. So we should avoid being assigned to the longboats.”
“We won’t be close enough to drop anchor for most of the day,” said Steve. “But when the time comes, let’s go below. I doubt anyone will care, but if anyone comes down, we’ll look busy. We’ll move crates around in the hold or something.”
“Good.”
At midafternoon, the fleet finally drew near enough to drop anchor offshore. Hunter glanced at Captain Morgan, who was eyeing the jungle-covered coast through a spyglass. Then Hunter turned to Steve and Jane.
“It is time, I think. Into the hold, quickly.”
No one else was below. The three of them sat quietly on crates in the hot, dank air while the buccaneers on deck shouted and cheered. They were all anxious to get a break from the routine by rowing to land.
Hunter could tell what was happening by the sounds he heard. First the longboats were released from every ship on long lines, each one dropping into the sea with a splash. Then the buccaneers climbed down rope ladders, shouting to each other to hurry. Soon he could hear the oars splashing into the water as the longboats pulled away. For several minutes, he heard only the footsteps of the skeleton crew that remained on board.
“Captain Morgan is probably going to summon the captains to join him here now for his conference.”
“How can he summon them?” Jane asked.
“With flags,” said Steve. “But, look — the longboats are gone, so we can go up on deck again.”
“All right,” said Hunter. “But I cannot risk swimming to the Old Laughing Lady while the other captains are being rowed to this ship. I shall have to wait until they have arrived.”
“That’s right,” said Steve. “We’ll go up and wait.”
No one on deck took any special notice of them when they emerged from the hold. The buccaneers who were still on board were standing by the rail, gazing at the shore. Captain Morgan stood with them, talking and pointing.
Hunter turned toward the other eight ships. Several longboats were already coming toward Morgan’s ship first, on their way to the shore. That told Hunter the signaling had been completed already.
He moved to the seaward side of the ship and occupied his time by checking the firmness of belayed ropes and the tightness of knots. Steve and Jane did the same. Until the longboats left, they would simply pass the time quietly.
21
AS HUNTER PRETENDED to work, he kept count of the other ship captains who came on board. When all eight had arrived, Captain Morgan took them below to his quarters. Their longboats then headed across the gentle blue waves toward the shore.
“Time for me to go,” he said quietly to Steve.
Steve looked around the deck. “No one is watching. But just in case they turn around, let’s see … Jane, stand next to me and help me pull on this rope.”
Jane and Steve pulled on a loose rope dangling from a pulley in the rigging above. All the rope did was slide through the pulley, but Hunter used their bodies as a screen as he moved to the rail. As silently as possible, he climbed over it and started down the side of the ship. His hearing told him that none of the buccaneers had noticed his departure.
Using tiny irregularities in the wood on the side of the ship as handholds and footholds, Hunter worked his way down the side just as he had climbed up the side of the Cadiz. Hunter worked his way to the waterline and slipped into the sea without a splash. The Old Laughing Lady was roughly fifty meters away, with some variation as the ships drifted on the radius of their anchor lines. In the moderate waves, a good human swimmer could make it easily. For Hunter, it would take virtually no effort at all.
Hunter swam the distance half a meter under the surface of the water. If anyone happened to look in his direction, he would be no more than a shadow of the sort that a large fish or a shark might make. At the same time, he was close enough to the surface for the tropical sunlight to beat down on him as he swam, replenishing his energy through the microscopic solar collectors on his skin where his clothing left it exposed. He arrived at the waterline of the Old Laughing Lady with only a little less energy than he had possessed when he had started his swim.
When he broke the surface of the water, he heard no sound of human activity on the ship. Cautiously, he began to climb up the hull. He hesitated at the rail, looking and listening again. Some buccaneers were dozing on the deck. A few others were gazing toward the shore. None noticed him.
Moving slowly and silently, Hunter moved up on deck, always behind crates, kegs, or rolled sails in order to stay hidden.
“Rita, Hunter calling,” he radioed.
“Hunter!” She radioed back. “Is that you?”
“Yes. I am on deck, staying out of sight of crew members. Where are you?”
“I’m in one of the officer’s quarters.”
Hunter worked his way below, still alert for buccaneers, but encountered none. In the narrow hall, he saw that only one door was bolted from the outside. He unlocked it and heard another bolt move inside the door.
Rita opened it, smiling with relief. “Hunter, I can’t tell you how embarrassed I am. I had no idea I was going to cause this much trouble. When I left, I just wanted to get a feel for the times and experience some of this history.”
Hunter nodded noncommittally. “We should get away from here promptly.”
“Hunter, I’m trying to apologize.”
“I accept your apology,” Hunter said blandly. “Please help the tam from this point.”
“Of course —”
“Come on.” Hunter was not angry at her in the human sense, but he was not sure how much he could trust her. At the very least, her judgment was flawed. For now, he simply wanted to reunite his entire team.
Hunter carefully led Rita up on deck, to the side of the ship that was away from the shore. Hunter could see a few buccaneers on some f the other ships walking around on deck, but none was paying any attention to the Old Laughing Lady. The buccaneers on the Lady were still either napping or watching the shore. Over their heads, signal flags snapped in the breeze, creating enough sound to camouflage Hunter’s voice.
“Can you swim fifty meters?” Hunter whispered.
“Yes. But my clothes will weigh me down and I can’t discard anything. I’ll need them all when I get to the other ship. So I won’t be able to keep up with you.”
“I will stay right with you, of course,” said Hunter. “If you tire, I will carry you back.”
“I see a little dinghy still on board here,” said Rita. “We could row.”
“We must avo
id notice if possible,” Hunter. “We will swim.”
“What about, uh, sharks?”
“I saw none. Do you trust my judgment regarding the First Law of Robotics?”
“Yes.”
“Then we should swim.”
“All right.”
Steve sat on a crate next to Jane, who was sitting on a keg. While they had been waiting, they had stacked up some empty crates to block the buccaneers’ view of the rail where Hunter would come aboard, placing them near a rope ladder attached to the side with belaying pins. Then they watched Hunter swim toward them on his back while holding Rita in the lifeguard’s across-chest carry. Some of the buccaneers on board were napping in the shade of the sails; others were still watching the shoreline from the opposite rail. None were looking toward Hunter; nor were they concerned with Steve and Jane.
When Hunter and Rita reached the ship, Steve quietly let down the rope ladder. He moved it hand over hand, making sure that the slight thumping of the ladder against the side of the ship attracted no attention. Rita came up first, breathing hard from exertion, and gave him a self-conscious smile. He nodded coolly and held up a hand for her to wait.
Jane looked around to see if anyone was watching. Then she motioned for Rita to come over the rail. Steve helped her.
“Squat down out of sight for a moment and get your breath back,” said Steve.
Rita ducked down by the pile of crates.
Hunter climbed over the rail, slowly and silently, and joined them. He kept his voice low. “Did anyone miss me?”
“No,” said Jane. “They’re all too busy waiting to see if their friends come back with fresh water and good food.”
“The sun and wind will dry our clothes quickly,” said Hunter. “Rita, we will keep you close to us and hidden from the others as much as possible.”
Rita nodded.
“Someone is going to notice her sooner or later,” said Steve. “We should say that she came back from shore on the wrong longboat. I don’t think anybody will care. These buccaneers just want everyone to take a turn at the chores and to divide the loot fairly after a raid.”