“All right.” Jeff nodded. “In other words, force it into shutting itself down because it thinks it has violated the First Law. That makes sense to me. We have a better chance of that than of wrestling it to the ground.”

“How?” Ariel demanded. “They aren’t exactly stupid. They’ll know if they’ve harmed you or not.”

“We’ll have to play-act a scene,” said Derec. “I haven’t really figured out the details. Maybe if it thinks it caused you two to attack me, or something like that.”

“I hear footsteps,” said Jeff.

Derec got down low and carefully looked around the nearest plant, up the slope. A lone humanoid robot was coming down the row. Derec gathered his feet under him and waited.

“What are we supposed to do?” Ariel whispered.

“We’ll all have to improvise,” he whispered back, gesturing with his hand. “Quiet.”

Just as the robot reached him, Derec threw himself forward to clutch at the robot’s legs.

“Stop!” Derec called hoarsely, looking up at the robot’s face. He didn’t have to fake his pain any, but he gave vent to it in his facial expression. “You hurt me.”

The robot stopped, looking down at him. “If I did so, it was inadvertent. I apologize.” The robot reached down to take Derec under its arms and lift him.

At the contact, Derec let out a scream and went limp. He slid out of the robot’s grasp to lie on the ground face up.

“You’ve killed him!” Ariel screamed, jumping up. “You murderer, you’ve killed him!”

Derec struggled not to smile at her vehemence. He lay with his eyes open, so he could follow what was happening.

“Looks that way,” said Jeff. “Maybe you ought to shut down, pal. You can’t go around violating the First Law like that.”

The robot was visibly quivering. “I did not harm him. Our contact was minimal and of very low impact. This is a misunderstanding. I will help him find care.”

“No! Don’t you touch him!” Ariel shouted, waving her arms wildly. “You’ll do it again.”

“Humans cannot die more than once,” said ‘;he robot. “Besides, he is not dead.”

“He’s in very bad shape,” said Jeff. “It’s your fault. Do you understand that?”

Derec started grimacing and writhing in pain, with relatively little play-acting required.

“I…could…not have harmed him,” the robot insisted. “My contact…with him…would not damage him.”

The robot’s hesitation revealed his doubt. Derec was encouraged. They just had to keep at it.

“And no reporting to the central computer,” Jeff said suddenly. “I almost forgot. You haven’t done that, have you?”

“No…I was…distracted.”

“Well, don’t. That’s an order. Second Law. Got it?” Jeff demanded, pointing a finger at him.

“Yes…”

“Don’t you think you ought to shut down?” Ariel said forcefully, her hands on her hips. “After doing this to him?”

“I am… not… convinced.”

“If you won’t shut down,” said Jeff, “then we’ll have beat him up ourselves. And that will definitely be your fault.”

“That…is illogical.”

“Are you going to shut down or not?” Ariel demanded.

“No…I will not…”

“Wait a minute,” Derec wheezed, trying to sound as injured as he could. “Do you admit that you are in doubt about this?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should at least agree to come with us where we can discuss it further.”

“That’s right,” said Jeff. “You can’t argue that, can you?”

“Good idea,” said Ariel, looking up the slope. “We, uh, don’t want to be interrupted.”

“Carry me,” Derec said to the robot. “Who are you, anyway? And what do you do?”

“I…am Pei,” said the robot, with somewhat less hesitation. “My task is Architectural Designer.” He bent down and gently picked up Derec. “Where…shall we go?”

“We want to be out of sight of this row,” said Jeff. “But not too far. Uh, let’s cross that row and go to the other side.”

“Very well,” said Pei. “However, we cannot go out of sight of this row unless we go some distance. I see a slight dip in the row ahead that may suffice if we all sit on the ground.”

“Perfect,” said Ariel. “C’mon, let’s hurry.”

With Pei carrying Derec, the group moved quickly for the first time since they had left the Minneapolis. As they walked, Derec relaxed a little and closed his eyes. It was a relief to rest again, even for a few moments before they stopped.

Pei set him down with extreme care. Then the others sat down around him on the damp, soft soil.

“Explain…my transgression…of the First Law,” said Pei. He began quivering a little more again.

Derec, lying with eyes closed, felt guilty about distressing the robot this way. He reminded himself, however, that the same robot was under Avery programming. He would turn them all in if the central computer or the Hunters knew he was with them and instructed him to do so.

Besides, he could be repaired or reprogrammed later with no lasting damage.l can’t, Derec thought. He opened his eyes.

“You harmed me,” Derec asserted as firmly as he could. “Shut yourself down.”

“At least for a while, you know, until you can be checked,” said Ariel. “That’s standard procedure, isn’t it?”

Her phrasing sounded lame to Derec. He realized that she felt guilty about this, too.

“I…must be…convinced,” said Pei.

Chapter 16. To Challenge Utopia

Derec suddenly acted on another impulse. With effort, he rolled onto his side and got his aching legs under him. Then he launched himself at Jeff without warning, reaching for Jeff’s throat as if he wanted to strangle him.

Just as he got his hands around Jeff’s neck, Pei gently grasped his wrists. Even at the slight pressure, Derec screamed and fell back, drawing his arms away with his hands limp. Then he collapsed to the ground with his eyes closed.

“You did it again!” Jeff cried, not too loudly.

“You’ve really hurt him this time,” said Ariel.

“This is an acceptable move,” said Pei. “I have prevented greater harm to this human by making a less harmful move to the one attacking him. No violation of the First Law has been made.” His confidence was returning.

Derec opened his eyes, not otherwise moving.

“Uh…” Jeff looked helplessly at Ariel.

“You overdid it,” said Ariel excitedly. “Look at him. That’s not called for!”

“That’s right,” Jeff declared. “Stopping him with reasonable force is all right, but this is something else!”

Pei looked down at Derec. “I…could not…have hurt him. I…was…gentle.”

“Not gentle enough,” Ariel wailed. “That’s twice you’ve hurt him. You just don’t understand how fragile humans are.”

“That’s right,” said Jeff eagerly. “That’s the problem. If you’ve never had contact with humans before, that explains it. Suppose you shut down till your judgement is fixed up. Or something.” He shrugged lamely at Ariel.

“It’s your judgement,” Ariel agreed, “that must be faulty at the core, so to speak. You can’t risk harming a human because of that, can you?”

“Perhaps…you have…a point.” Pei’s voice grew faint and he froze in place.

“Pei, are you awake?” Ariel asked cautiously.

“Pei, if you can hear me, I order you to say so,” said Jeff.

When Derec didn’t hear anything, he forced himself up on one elbow. “Hey, it finally worked.”

“I guess it did,” said Ariel.

“Then it should work again,” said Jeff. “And now that we know what it takes, we can refine our scenario.”

“Let’s get back over to that row they’re taking,” said Derec. “Can you help me up?”

Yet again, Jeff and Ariel helped him to his feet and supported his arms over their shoulders. The trio shuffled back to the one row that these humanoid robots were using for their trip down into the valley. There Derec once more sank to the ground.

Jeff and Ariel this time paced nervously between the high stalks on each side of the furrow.

“Maybe we ought to move on,” said Ariel. “Isn’t one mugged robot enough? I mean, one murdered human and one murdered robot caused major crises in Robot City before.”