It wasn’t a major revelation. Derec had already known he had training in robotics, but nonetheless it was a welcome shot of deja vu. It was a true memory in a mind mostly devoid of them, and as such it was as precious to Derec as gold.

Avery switched the display again.

“Hello, hello, test, test.” With each word spoken, what had been a smooth sine wave erupted into a fit of jagged peaks and troughs: Avery’s voice processed through the robot’s microphone ears.

Derec let out a sigh. The memory was already fading. To avoid the crushing disappointment that so often came from such a tantalizing glimpse into his past, he focused his attention on what was happening before him. “Looks like he’s hearing us,” he said. “The signal must not be getting processed.”

“Let’s see.” Avery switched the display again, spoke, “Hello, hello, test, test,” again, and again the waveform-a modulated square wave this time-burst into activity.

“It’s on the main input line.” Avery sounded puzzled. He switched again, spoke again, but this time the display remained a constant flat line.

“Aha! Not getting to the command interpreter. Something’s blocking it.” Avery switched the display back to the input line.

Step by step he focused the monitor deeper and deeper into the brain’s positronic pathways, searching for the block, and finally found it in a combination of potentials from the volition circuitry and the self-awareness logic. Plus, the comlink line was saturated with information. The information transfer rate was so high that no other inputs were being monitored.

“I tried listening on the comlink before, but there was just static,” Derec said when they discovered the comlink activity. He tried again and heard the same thing as before. “Still there.”

“Static, or information flow too fast to recognize?” Avery asked. He pressed keys on a signal processor beside the brain display, and the same static that Derec had heard over the comlink filled the room. Avery began slowing the signal down, and eventually, after being slowed by a factor of one hundred, the static resolved into the familiar bleeps of binary data transfer.

“Sounds like they’re having quite a conversation,” Derec said.

“Conversation,” Avery said disgustedly. “They’re ignoring us. That’s aberrant behavior. It’s already led them into disobeying orders.”

“Not really. They only follow the orders they can hear. If they’re really not hearing us, then they’re not disobeying anything.” Derec glanced over at Eve on the next table, and thus Avery’s next move took him completely by surprise. Before he knew what was happening, Avery’s backhand sent him sprawling on the floor.

“Talk back to me, will you?” Avery screamed. “I’ve had enough of your insolence, boy! Maybe a boot up alongside your head will knock some respect into you! “ He leaped around the table and drew back his foot to follow through on his threat.

Frost, he’s flipped again, Derec thought as he twisted frantically to avoid Avery’s kick.

Avery screamed in frustration. “Oh, you’re quicker than me, are you? We’ll see how long that lasts when I shoot you in the leg!” He snatched up a cutting laser from the rack of tools beside the examining table and fired toward Derec, but his shot went wide. Derec heard a loud crack of superheated metal vaporizing, but he was already scrambling for the relative shelter of Eve’s table.

Security Alert,he sent over the comlink. Avery ’ s laboratory. Help!

He heard another shot, then Avery’s quiet laughter, followed by, “Wow, they’re really out of it, aren’t they?”

Derec stayed silent, gauging the distance from his hiding place to the closest doorway, one leading into one of the lab’s other rooms. He was about to make his leap when he heard the scrape of metal sliding on metal, and the laser skidded to a stop beside him.

“False alarm,” Avery said.

Derec eyed the laser. Had Avery been playing with him before, or was this just a decoy to get him out into the sights of another laser now? Avery’s first shot had gone wide, but was that significant? Could he afford to guess wrong?

Well, Derec could play the decoy game as well as Avery. He pulled off his wristcomp and tossed it to his left, over the laser and beyond. The moment it hit the floor he was up and lunging for the tool rack beside Eve’s exam table. It tipped over with a crash, spilling equipment across the floor, but Derec was already rolling to his feet with the laser from the rack before the clatter had even begun to die down.

Avery stood beside Lucius, his hands held out to his sides, an amused expression on his face. “It really was a false alarm,” he said. “I wanted to test whether or not they’d respond to a First Law imperative.”

“Test,” Derec spat. “I’m tired of your tests! You’ve been testing me and using me since the day I was born and I’m sick of it! Do you understand me?”

It was then that the six cargo robots burst into the room. They had already left for their normal duties after carrying the other three into the lab, but they were evidently still the closest robots who could answer Derec’s frantic summons for help. The first one through the door surveyed the scene and reacted immediately, picking up a small circuit analyzer from a bench by the door and hurling it with all its might at Derec. Before Derec could even flinch, the analyzer knocked the laser from his hands, and both fell to the floor to die in a fit of sparks and smoke. The other robots rushed past the first and split up, two of them going for Avery while three more came for Derec and pinned his arms to his sides. Within seconds both humans were held immobile in the grip of the robots.

“Let me go,” Avery said calmly, but the robots didn’t budge.

The robot who had knocked the laser from Derec ‘ s hands said, “Not until we understand what has happened here. It was master Derec, was it not, who summoned our help?”

“That’s right,” Derec said. “He was shooting at me with a laser.”

“Yet you were the one holding the laser when we entered.”

“I grabbed it in self -defense. “

“Defense? I fail to see how a weapon can be used for defense.”

Derec blushed under his father’s sudden onslaught of laughter. “He’s got you there!” Avery said.

The robot had, Derec realized. If he’d actually used the laser, he would have been guilty of the very action he was defending himself against. In the robot’s eyes, harm to a human was harm to a human, no matter what the provocation.

It was embarrassing to have such a thing pointed out to him. He should have realized it from the start, should have felt an instinctive, rather than belated, urge to preserve his attacker as well as himself from harm.

Even if that attacker was his father.

“I stand corrected,” he said at last. “I should have retreated.”

“I am glad you realize that,” the robot said. Of Avery it asked, “Why did you shoot at him?”

“I needed to provoke a First Law response in these robots. I didn’t shoot directly at him, just close.”

“I see,” the robot said, scanning the room for verification. It probably did see, Derec realized. The heat trails of his path and the path of the laser beam would still be visible in infrared light; it would be easy for the robot to tell how close the beam had come.

“Do you accept his explanation?” the robot asked Derec.

“I guess,” Derec said with a sigh.

“Do either of you wish to continue your hostilities?”

Derec shook his head. “No.”

“No,” echoed Avery.

“Very well.” Derec felt the robots let go of his arms, but the ones holding Avery still held him. The first robot, moving to stand closer to him, said, “You should understand that psychological shock, especially shock concerning fear for one’s life, is still considered harm to a human. You have caused Derec harm. Do you understand this?”