Lady Lure (12 page)

“Disconnect,” Rolli said. “Disconnect! Cannot
…must not—”

“It’s all right, Rolli.” Halvo caught at the
metal shoulders. “Hold still. I can do it in just a second.”

“Perri! Danger! Dang -” The robot stopped in
mid-word as Halvo hit the disconnect switch.

“Halvo?” Warned by Halvo’s tense stance and
by Rolli’s last words, Perri stayed where she was. Halvo pulled
open the metal grate on Rolli’s chest and began to work on the
circuitry there. “Halvo, did we do something wrong when we fixed
Rolli before?”

“No, we aren’t the ones who interfered with
Rolli’s programming. There, that should do it.”

“Will you please tell me what just
happened?”

“You don’t want to know.” Halvo spoke
somewhat absently, because he was unfastening the screws that held
Rolli’s head in place.

“Don’t you dare tell me what I want to know!”
Perri shouted at him. “I have been denied information all my life
and constantly warned to stop asking questions. Just look where my
obedience has brought me!”

Then, she said in a quieter voice, “Rolli has
been my closest companion, my only true friend. I have a right to
know what you just did to my robot.”

Halvo did not respond at once. Instead, he
lifted Rolli’s head from the neck with what seemed to Perri to be
exaggerated care. With equal caution he placed the head into the
air lock of the entrance hatch. Then, still moving slowly, he
wheeled the body right up to the hatch.

“Perri, I need your help to lift Rolli’s body
over the ridge and into the air lock so we can store it there. I
will explain why later. For now, please just trust me. And be
careful. Don’t drop it.”

“Of course, I won’t drop Rolli.” Perri came
forward to give Halvo an accusing look and ask more questions. She
closed her mouth on further discussion when she saw how serious he
was. Without another word she took hold of Rolli and helped Halvo
to get the robot into the air lock. Halvo sealed the hatch. Then he
stood with one hand on it while he released a long breath.

“I want to know why that was necessary,”
Perri said in what she hoped was a reasonable tone.

“The Chief Hierarch lied to you about what
was done to Rolli, as well as about everything else to do with your
mission to kidnap me,” Halvo said. “And his technicians lied to
Rolli.” He swung away from the hatch to confront Perri as he
continued.

“You heard what Rolli said. There was
something dangerous to you in that robot’s programming.
Fortunately, Rolli’s primary program contains a directive to
protect you at all costs and it was able to override the new
instructions. That is why Rolli insisted on being disconnected. If
I hadn’t said at once that I could do it, I believe Rolli would
have tried to get into the air lock and then eject from the air
lock into space in the hope of saving you.”

“Rolli would have died to protect me.” Perri
took a moment to digest what Halvo had said. She did not think it
any more peculiar that she should think of death in connection with
her dear friend, than that Halvo should speak of Rolli hoping to
save her. “What do you think the danger was?”

“Is,” Halvo said, correcting her. “The new
instructions are still in there, planted in Rolli’s memory banks.
To find out what those instructions are, we will have to take Rolli
apart for a complete examination and discover where in the main
circuitry the tampering was done. Only then will we know exactly
what Rolli was trying to warn us against.”

“On Regula, it is a crime to change the
primary programming that protects all owners of robots,” Perri
said. “What the Chief Hierarch’s technicians did was illegal.”

“That shouldn’t surprise you. After
everything else he has done, ordering a change in Rolli’s
programming can have been no more than a trivial detail to the
Chief Hierarch,” Halvo said, but Perri had already moved on to a
more immediate concern.

“You will try to repair Rolli, won’t you?”
she asked. “You won’t just find out what the problem is and then
eject Rolli from the air lock, or leave my dear old friend in
pieces?”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Halvo
said. “We need Rolli to help us fix the ship. After we land, we
will start repair work, and I promise you we will get Rolli into
functioning condition again.”

“Thank you.” Perri blinked away the moisture
that had risen to her eyes at the thought of Rolli’s unwavering
loyalty.

“It’s a funny thing,” Halvo said, moving
toward the ship’s controls. “I usually don’t care one way or the
other about Artificial Life Forms, but Rolli is the most likable
robot I have ever met. I would be very unhappy if we had to
jettison that collection of metal parts.”

“There is good reason for your feelings,”
Perri said.

But Halvo was no longer thinking about the
robot. He ordered Perri to the navigator’s position and began
giving her instructions on what to do as they approached and then
moved into orbit around the planet they had chosen as their
temporary base. Once more Perri postponed telling him what she knew
about Rolli.

“It wasn’t the smoothest landing I have ever
made,” Halvo said, shutting down the engines, “but not too shameful
for a pilot who is badly out of practice.”

“Who has only a completely inexperienced
navigator to help him.” Perri was feeling remarkably pleased with
herself. She had followed Halvo’s directions to the letter and he
had made no complaints about the navigational information she had
provided.

“First, we repair Rolli,” Perri said, leaning
back in her chair.

“No, first we find shelter,” Halvo said.

“Why can’t we just stay aboard the
Space
Dragon?”
Perri asked.

“Because thanks to our damaged heating
system, it is already too cold for comfort in here. Where we have
landed it is late afternoon. In a few hours it will be night and
the temperature will drop so low that we will freeze to death well
before morning.”

“Are you sure?” She knew he would not make
such a claim if he were not sure but, as usual, Perri was compelled
to ask questions. “Couldn’t we put all the remaining power into the
heating system and survive the night?”

“We might, but if we did, we would literally
stew in our own juices after the sun rises tomorrow morning. That
is what happens on a world where the atmosphere is too thin to
moderate the temperature by more than a few degrees. We discussed
this with Rolli before we chose this planet, but there is one
positive factor we did not mention. If the Regulans are close on
our trail, they may overlook this little world for the very reasons
that made you regard it as unwelcoming. If our pursuers think the
way you do, this unfriendly chunk of rock may prove to be the safe
haven we need.”

“How clever you are. Very well.” Perri
straightened her shoulders, standing as tall as she could. “Give me
your orders, Halvo, and I will carry them out.”

“The only space suit on this ship fits you,”
he said. “I am too big to squeeze into it. You are going to have to
locate the shelter we must have before nightfall.”

“You want me to go out there alone?”

“We will be in constant contact. There is a
comm system built into the suit.”

“Yes, there is.” She could not add that she
was afraid. She knew if the suit had fit him, Halvo would not have
hesitated to step onto the alien soil outside their ship. And she
understood how urgent their need was. The
Space Dragon’s
sensors could not provide information about areas below ground or
in deep clefts within rocks. Using a portable, hand-held sensor,
someone would have to search out a place where they could shelter.
And it needed to be done quickly before the heating system in the
space suit became as ineffective against the terrible cold as the
ship’s system was.

When Halvo opened the locker next to the exit
hatch and pulled out the familiar silver suit, Perri took it from
him without comment and began to put it on. He knew how to help her
and soon the closures were fastened, the gloves and boots sealed
tightly, and Halvo stood with the helmet in his hands.

“Which way shall I go?” Perri asked. “We
don’t have a map of the cliffs.”

“We have something better. Look here.”
Tucking the helmet under his arm, Halvo reached over to the cockpit
to call up on the large, main view-screen an image of the terrain
just outside the ship. As he manipulated a dial to change the view,
Perri could even see the swept-back glider wing that kept the ship
steady during landings and takeoffs. Halvo pointed toward a row of
cliffs in the background. “This area isn’t as far away as it looks
on the screen and our sensors indicate some deep folds in the rock.
All you have to do is shine your light into those folds. You ought
to be able to tell pretty quickly where there are caves.”

“If there are caves.” Perri hoped he could
not discern from her voice how apprehensive she was.

“There will be. Rolli agreed with me on
that.” He handed her the light she was to carry and she slipped the
strap over her left forearm, fastening it securely. “Just point in
the direction in which you want to see. There is one other thing,
Perri. The sensors have shown no evidence of any life-forms on the
surface of this planet. You don’t have to worry about wild
beasts.”

“You will be tracking me?” Perri took up the
hand-held sensor.

“Every step of the way. Ready?” Halvo lifted
the helmet to set it over her head.

“Halvo?”

“Yes?” He paused, holding the helmet in the
air, ready to lower it to her shoulders.

“If I find a suitable place, how will you
reach it?”

“I will run fast,” he said and secured the
helmet with a gesture that suggested to Perri a reluctance to
answer any more questions.

Perri went out the air lock, stepping over
Rolli’s disjointed form on the way. Then the outer hatch closed and
she was alone. Panic assailed her. Taking a deep breath, pulling
her shoulders straight, she made herself look around. Immediately,
she became so fascinated by the view that she forgot to be
afraid.

The sky above her was the darkest blue she
had ever seen and in spite of the daylight she noticed a few stars.
The soil beneath her feet was a dull reddish brown and appeared to
be loose and dusty. The land sloped upward to the tall cliffs Halvo
had pointed out to her as her destination. The distant, pale yellow
sun was setting behind these cliffs, and the lengthening shadows
the cliffs cast were an ominous pitch-black.

“Head straight for the cliffs,” Halvo’s voice
said in her ear. “Walking shouldn’t be too difficult for you. The
gravity is a little less here than on Regula.”

Perri stepped away from the
Space
Dragon,
then turned around to look at the ship.

“I can see some damage to the hull,” she
said.

“Never mind that now,” Halvo said. “We can
worry about the ship tomorrow.”

“Did you realize we have landed in a huge
crater? I was too busy to notice while we were still in the air.”
Perri’s gaze traveled over the line of jagged, red-brown cliffs
that bounded the horizon. All she could see of the planet was
contained within the bowl of the crater. “I wonder what lies beyond
the rim?”

“More of the same kind of terrain. I was not
too busy to notice. Head for those cliffs,” Halvo said. “Stop
wasting time.”

“I have never before set foot on a world
outside Regula,” she said. “You must allow me a few moments of
explorer’s license.” She thought she heard a smothered chuckle
before Halvo told her once more to get moving.

“You were right,” she said as she went along.
“The walking is easy. I am at the beginning of the shadows.”
Refusing to divulge to Halvo just how uninviting she found that
opaque darkness, Perri switched on the lamp attached to her arm.
The bright, sharp-edged beam shone out, lighting the way directly
ahead of her. By it she discovered that the ground within the
shadows was the same red-brown shade as out on the plain. However,
a different substance, packed tightly against the cliffs in several
places, reflected her light.

“Halvo! There is ice! I can’t tell how thick
it is.”

“Good,” Halvo’s voice said. “Keep looking for
caves.”

Within a few minutes she had found five
promising folds in the face of the cliff. Two of them proved to be
little more than indentations. Two others were deeper, but on
further investigation, she found that they were not deep enough to
offer adequate protection from bitter cold or scorching heat. Perri
headed toward the fifth opening.

“Keep looking.” Halvo did not sound at all
discouraged by the unhelpful discoveries she had made so far. “You
will find something.”

“You are a good officer, Admiral. You know
how to keep the spirits of your troops high.” Perri halted for a
moment at the last opening, shining her light into it. “Just in
front of me there is a very narrow crack in the ice at the base of
the cliff. It looks as if it leads back into the cliff itself. I am
going to try to slip inside it.”

“Be careful. We can’t have you injuring
yourself. And keep talking so I know you are safe.”

Halvo’s own voice faded as Perri moved along
a twisting fissure, through a layer of ice and into the solid rock.
There, inside the cliff, a rock corridor opened, sloping gently
downward. Crystals imbedded in the rock glittered when she shone
the beam of her lamp on the walls. A trickle of water coursed
downward to a half-frozen puddle. The sensor in her hand told her
the water was pure and the air was acceptable for humans to
breathe. Perri could not tell how deep the cave was, but she knew
she had found the shelter she sought.

She also knew how valuable time was. Well
aware that there was still a lot of work to be done before she and
Halvo could rest in this rocky haven, she at once began her return
journey to the outside world.