Predator iarit-1

by William F. Wu

  “What have you found?” Jane asked softly.

  “Nine time trips into the past have been taken. That accounts for the six component robots fleeing, Wayne’s trip back to the Late Cretaceous, and ours…plus one more.”

  “So he’s been here and gone,” said Steve. “But you can calculate where each of the component robots went?”

  “Yes,” said Hunter. “The last trip into the past matches one of the other five trips. It clearly represents Wayne’s pursuit of another component robot.”

  “What do we do next?” Steve asked. “We have to make sure that MC 1 is secure,” said Hunter. “Right now, we will all go to MC Governor’s office. I will arrange for a Security escort to meet us on the way.”

  “You sound worried,” said Jane. “What is it?”

  “No matter how long Wayne remains in the past, he may come back at any time of his choosing. This time I will leave Ishihara here in the room to apprehend Wayne in the expectation that he will come back soon.”

  “That sounds good to me,” said Steve.

  “Ishihara may catch Wayne,” said Hunter. “However, Wayne may anticipate this plan. He could come back far enough in the future that unpredictable factors will obtain here. I do not dare interfere with the equipment in any way; the First Law will not let me take any risk with his ability to return. At the moment I want to get MC 1 away from this room.”

  Ishihara remained on guard in the room. Hunter walked out with MC 1, followed by the three humans. He explained to them that he was radioing the city computer for a Security detail and vehicle. When the vehicle arrived, the detail transported everyone to MC Governor’s office.

  Steve saw that a Security robot was on duty there. Hunter greeted him briefly out loud, apparently so that the humans could hear what he was saying. “Horatio, please be on the alert for Dr. Wayne Nystrom. Apprehend him and hold him if you can.”

  “Agreed,” said Horatio.

  Hunter took his own party inside the office and closed the door.

  “Well?” Steve said. “Now what? You’re acting a little strange, Hunter.”

  “Maybe you have forgotten the question of whether or not we would change history by even small actions that we took in the past,” said Hunter.

  “I did,” Steve admitted. “But I don’t see anything different so far.”

  “I don’t, either,” said Jane. “We have come back safely, haven’t we?”

  “So far,” Hunter said carefully, “I believe that we have returned to the world just as we left it. That means that none of the changes we caused have brought about noticeable changes.”

  “Then the chaos theory applied to time is incorrect,” said Chad.

  “Precise calculations may have to be re-examined,” said Hunter. “The degree of accuracy is still in question.”

  “Something else is bothering you,” said Jane. “Ever since we got back, your manner has been stiff. What is it?”

  “A little while ago, I accessed the news through the city computer to look for changes,” said Hunter. “The networks have just reported an unexplained nuclear explosion of considerable size on the island nation of Jamaica. That is where Wayne went, after another one of the component robots.”

  Steve felt a tingling sensation. “A nuclear explosion?”

  “It set off tidal waves,” said Hunter. “They have smashed into port cities allover the Caribbean Sea, including Miami and the Florida coast. The coasts on the Gulf of Mexico will be affected too. Millions of people have died and others are injured and homeless.”

  No one spoke for a moment.

  “Wait a minute,” said Chad. “We only left here a short time ago. Why didn’t we hear about this before we left?”

  “None of us was paying attention to the news,” said Hunter. “I, for one, was focused on preparing for our trip. And the news is very recent.”

  “That’s right,” said Steve. “The trip was all we talked about.”

  “You feel you have failed under the First Law,” said Jane quietly.

  “Correct,” said Hunter. “The only reason that I have not become completely nonfunctional is that I have had to secure MC 1 here and inform the three of you in private. Next I shall report my failure under the First Law to the Governor Robot Oversight Committee, so that they can find another robot to take over my task. After that, I will shut down.”

  “Not so fast,” Jane said sharply. “Under the Second Law, I order you to hear me out.”

  “What is it?”

  “You may still be able to reverse the situation,” said Jane. “You’ve already gathered valuable experience from the first trip. You can do a better job than another robot. Let’s all go after MC 2 in Jamaica back in whatever time he chose.”

  “He went back only a few centuries, well into human history.” Hunter looked at her with interest. “You feel I could correct my failures?”

  “The Jamaican explosions will never happen if we can get back there and bring MC 2 home again with us,” said Steve. “All those lives will be saved.”

  “I see,” said Hunter cautiously. “We can leave MC 1 guarded here in this office, where Wayne cannot reach him. However, I must ask you this. When I hired you three, I thought this trip would require only one quick trip into the past. My calculations failed in that estimate, as well. You would be willing to work with me again, even after I failed the first time?”

  “Sure.” Steve shrugged.

  “Of course,” said Jane, smiling.

  “I would,” said Chad. “But you won’t need a paleontologist just a couple of centuries into the past. I guess I should say goodbye.”

  Clearly relieved at the new plan, Hunter became more natural and spontaneous again. “Goodbye, Chad. Thank you for your contribution. We could not have caught MC 1 without you. I am authorizing through the city computer that your fee be credited to your account right now.”

  “Thank you, Hunter,” said Chad, shaking his hand. “I have much more than my fee. I was the first human to ride a dinosaur and I’ve seen more live ones than anyone else in my field.” He patted his belt computer. “The data I’ve brought back will make history of its own.”

  Jane threw her arms around Chad and hugged him. “Goodbye, Chad.”

  “Goodbye, Jane.”

  Steve grinned awkwardly and held out his hand. “Chad?”

  Chad shook hands with him. “Steve, you’re okay. I guess I learned a lot about living in the wild on this trip. You know your stuff.”

  “So do you, Chad.” Steve punched him on the arm. “You handled that dinosaur stampede real well.”

  “Thanks.”

  Chad waved to them all and left the office.

  “Where do we go next, Hunter?” Steve asked. “I’ll need different equipment this time.”

  “I will have to hire an historian, too,” said Hunter. “So we will not be leaving right away. We have to do too much preparation. You two should indulge in some human comforts, such as a good dinner and a full night’s sleep.”

  “Good idea,” said Steve.

  “Quit stalling, Hunter,” Jane said excitedly. “Come on. Where and when is our next destination?”

  “Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1668,” said Hunter. “The time of Sir Henry Morgan, pirate and privateer on the Spanish Main.”

  Robot Visions

  by Isaac Asimov

  I suppose I should start by telling you who I am. I am a very junior member of the Temporal Group. The Temporalists (for those of you who have been too busy trying to survive in this harsh world of 2030 to pay much attention to the advance of technology) are the aristocrats of physics these days.

  They deal with that most intractable of problems-that of moving through time at a speed different from the steady temporal progress of the Universe. In short, they are trying to develop time-travel.

  And what am I doing with these people, when I myself am not even a physicist, but merely a-? Well, merely a merely.

  Despite my lack of qualification, it was ac
tually a remark I made some time before that inspired the Temporalists to work out the concept of VPIT (“virtual paths in time”).

  You see, one of the difficulties in traveling through time is that your base does not stay in one place relative to the Universe as a whole. The Earth is moving about the Sun; the Sun about the Galactic center; the Galaxy about the center of gravity of the Local Group-well, you get the idea. If you move one day into the future or the past-just one day-Earth has moved some 2.5 million kilometers in its orbit about the Sun. And the Sun has moved in its journey, carrying Earth with it, and so has everything else.

  Therefore, you must move through space as well as through time, and it was my remark that led to a line of argument that showed that this was possible; that one could travel with the space-time motion of the Earth not in a literal, but in a “virtual” way that would enable a time-traveler to remain with his base on Earth wherever he went in time. It would be useless for me to try to explain that mathematically if you have not had Temporalist training. Just accept the matter.

  It was also a remark of mine that led the Temporalists to develop a line of reasoning that showed that travel into the past was impossible. Key terms in the equations would have to rise beyond infinity when the temporal signs were changed.

  It made sense. It was clear that a trip into the past would be sure to change events there at least slightly, and no matter how slight a change might be introduced into the past, it would alter the present; very likely drastically. Since the past should seem fixed, it makes sense that travel back in time is impossible.

  The future, however, is not fixed, so that travel into the future and back again from it would be possible.

  I was not particularly rewarded for my remarks. I imagine the Temporalist team assumed I had been fortunate in my speculations and it was they who were entirely the clever ones in picking up what I had said and carrying it through to useful conclusions. I did not resent that, considering the circumstances, but was merely very glad-delighted, in fact-since because of that (I think) they allowed me to continue to work with them and to be part of the project, even though I was merely a-well, merely.

  Naturally, it took years to work out a practical device for time travel, even after the theory was established, but I don’t intend to write a serious treatise on Temporality. It is my intention to write of only certain parts of the project, and to do so for only the future inhabitants of the planet, and not for our contemporaries.

  Even after inanimate objects had been sent into the future-and then animals-we were not satisfied. All objects disappeared; all, it seemed, traveled into the future. When we sent them short distances into the future-five minutes or five days-they eventually appeared again, seemingly unharmed, unchanged, and, if alive to begin with, still alive and in good health.

  But what was wanted was to send something far into the future and bring it back.

  “We’d have to send it at least two hundred years into the future,” said one Temporalist. “The important point is to see what the future is like and to have the vision reported back to us. We have to know whether humanity will survive and under what conditions, and two hundred years should be long enough to be sure. Frankly, I think the chances of survival are poor. Living conditions and the environment about us have deteriorated badly over the last century.”

  (There is no use in trying to describe which Temporalist said what. There were a couple of dozen of them altogether, and it makes no difference to the tale I am telling as to which one spoke at anyone time, even if I were sure I could remember which one said what. Therefore, I shall simply say “said a Temporalist,” or “one said,” or “some of them said,” or “another said,” and I assure you it will all be sufficiently clear to you. Naturally, I shall specify my own statements and that of one other, but you will see that those exceptions are essential.)

  Another Temporalist said rather gloomily, “I don’t think I want to know the future, if it means finding out that the human race is to be wiped out or that it will exist only as miserable remnants.”

  “Why not?” said another. “We can find out in shorter trips exactly what happened and then do our best to so act, out of our special knowledge, as to change the future in a preferred direction. The future, unlike the past, is not fixed.”

  But then the question arose as to who was to go. It was clear that the Temporalists each felt himself or herself to be just a bit too valuable to risk on a technique that might not yet be perfected despite the success of experiments on objects that were not alive; or, if alive, objects that lacked a brain of the incredible complexity that a human being owned. The brain might survive, but, perhaps, not quite all its complexity might.

  I realized that of them all I was least valuable and might be considered the logical candidate. Indeed, I was on the point of raising my hand as a volunteer, but my facial expression must have given me away for one of the Temporalists said, rather impatiently, “Not you. Even you are too valuable.” (Not very complimentary.) “The thing to do,” he went on, “is to send RG-32.”

  That did make sense. RG-32 was a rather old-fashioned robot, eminently replaceable. He could observe and report-perhaps without quite the ingenuity and penetration of a human being-but well enough. He would be without fear, intent only on following his orders, and he could be expected to tell the truth.

  Perfect!

  I was rather surprised at myself for not seeing that from the start, and for foolishly considering volunteering myself. Perhaps, I thought, I had some sort of instinctive feeling that I ought to put myself into a position where I could serve the others. In any case, it was RG-32 that was the logical choice; indeed, the only one.

  In some ways, it was not difficult to explain what we needed. Archie (it was customary to call a robot by some common perversion of his serial number) did not ask for reasons, or for guarantees of his safety. He would accept any order he was capable of understanding and following, with the same lack of emotionality that he would display if asked to raise his hand. He would have to, being a robot.

  The details took time, however.

  “Once you are in the future,” one of the senior Temporalists said, “you may stay for as long as you feel you can make useful observations. When you are through, you will return to your machine and come back with it to the very moment that you left by adjusting the controls in a manner which we will explain to you. You will leave and to us it will seem that you will be back a split-second later, even though to yourself it may have seemed that you had spent a week in the future, or five years. Naturally, you will have to make sure the machine is stored in a safe place while you are gone, which should not be difficult since it is quite light. And you will have to remember where you stored the machine and how to get back to it.”

  What made the briefing even longer lay in the fact that one Temporalist after another would remember a new difficulty. Thus, one of them said suddenly, “How much do you think the language will have changed in two centuries?”

  Naturally, there was no answer to that and a great debate grew as to whether there might be no chance of communication whatever, that Archie would neither understand nor make himself understood.

  Finally, one Temporalist said, rather curtly, “See here, the English language has been becoming ever more nearly universal for several centuries and that is sure to continue for two more. Nor has it changed significantly in the last two hundred years, so why should it do so in the next two hundred? Even if it has, there are bound to be scholars who would be able to speak what they might call ‘ancient English. ‘ And even if there were not, Archie would still be able to make useful observations. Determining whether a functioning society exists does not necessarily require talk.”

  Other problems arose. What if he found himself facing hostility? What if the people of the future found and destroyed the machine, either out of malevolence or ignorance?

  One Temporalist said, “It might be wise to design a Temporal engine so miniaturized that it
could be carried in one’s clothing. Under such conditions one could at any time leave a dangerous position very quickly.”

  “Even if it were possible at all,” snapped another, “it would probably take so long to design so miniaturized a machine that we-or rather our successors-would reach a time two centuries hence without the necessity of using a machine at all. No, if an accident of some sort takes place, Archie simply won’t return and we’ll just have to try again.”

  This was said with Archie present, but that didn’t matter, of course. Archie could contemplate being marooned in time, or even his own destruction, with equanimity, provided he were following orders. The Second Law of Robotics, which makes it necessary for a robot to follow orders, takes precedence over the Third, which makes it necessary for him to protect his own existence.

  In the end, of course, all had been said, and no one could any longer think of a warning, or an objection, or a possibility that had not been thoroughly aired.

  Archie repeated all he had been told with robotic calmness and precision, and the next step was to teach him how to use the machine. And he learned that, too, with robotic calmness and precision.

  You must understand that the general public did not know, at that time, that time-travel was being investigated. It was not an expensive project as long as it was a matter of working on theory, but experimental work had punished the budget and was bound to punish it still more. This was most uncomfortable for scientists engaged in an endeavor that seemed totally “blue-sky.”

  If there was a large failure, given the state of the public purse, there would be a loud outcry on the part of the people, and the project might be doomed. The Temporalists all agreed, without even the necessity of debate, that only success could be reported, and that until such a success was recorded, the public would have to learn very little, if anything at all. And so this experiment, the crucial one, was heart-stopping for everyone.