The scream brought him up short. It wasn’t a scream of abject terror, or the scream of someone about to be murdered. More a shriek of concern and uncertainty, distinctly feminine in origin. It didn’t echo down the hallway because the corridor walls were composed of sound-absorbent materials, but it was loud enough to suggest proximity.
The young woman skidded, actually skidded, around the next turn in the corridor ahead of him. Looking both ways, she spotted Manz and stumbled toward him. The look on her pretty face was one of heightened concern. Manz stood his ground, thoughts for the restored .38 manfully set aside in the face of this puzzling behavior. He readied himself to play explicator, judge, or gallant protector, as the occasion demanded.
She ran right past him and vanished around the corner he had just turned himself. She wasn’t screaming anymore, having apparently decided it was better to save her breath for running. He didn’t recognize her, and she hadn’t paused to exchange greetings. Her haste and indifference indicated a lack of confidence in his abilities to affect the situation, whatever it might involve. He was mildly miffed.
There were no subsequent screams, no signs of general panic. He resumed his pace, wondering what could have sent an obviously self-possessed woman into such precipitous flight. He thought of querying his Minder, but some of its replies had tended to be rather acerbic lately, and at the moment he wasn’t in the mood to deal with its sarcastic circumlocutions. It was definitely in need of a tuneup, as soon as he could make the time.
A large humaniform mechanical turned the corner that had previously ejected the woman and paused there, blocking his path. Idling on its single gyroscopic trackball, it tilted its smooth, oval head to peer at him out of double blue-tinted lenses. The head was purely a concession to esthetics, since the eyes could as easily have been mounted on flexible stalks. The neural facilities were contained within the thick, free-form torso. Tentacular arms, of which there were four pointing in as many directions, hung loose against the bronzed flanks of the body. The arrangement allowed three to operate in easy tandem no matter which direction the machine happened to be facing. Their multijointed tips could perform delicate work, operate controls designed for human fingers, or play baseball with equal facility.
Any one of them could also wrench a man’s arm from its socket. Software prevented that from happening, of course. At least, that was the idea.
It rolled forward and sideways, as if to slide past him. He stepped in front of it, blocking its movements. Soundlessly it hesitated, backed up, and tried to go around the other way. Again Manz moved quickly to intercept.
Just ask it what’s going on, why don’t you? Or ask it to dance. Or let me query, mechanical to mechanical. While you waste time with this, the Earth precesses on its axis and somewhere a star dies.
Someone piped up uncertainly behind Manz, and he glanced back over his shoulder. Panting, the woman who’d just raced past him was peering around the corner.
“You’d better … better get out of its way, mister. It’s gone crazy.”
Ignoring whatever the very large mechanical might choose to do, Manz looked back over his shoulder. “AI’s don’t go crazy, lady. They suffer mechanical breakdowns, or gaps in software beyond their abilities to self-diagnose or repair, or their programming is interfered with, but they don’t go crazy.”
“Easy for you to say. It wasn’t chasing you.”
“Go back to your station, miss. I’ll take care of it.”
She hesitated. “Do you work for Maintenance?”
“No, but I told you I’d take care of it.”
“What if it follows me?”
“I’ll see to it that it doesn’t. Rest assured. Did anyone else see what happened?”
“No. I was making a delivery when … when that thing accosted me.”
“Someone’s playing a joke. I’ll fix things. No need to report the incident. I promise you it won’t recur.”
“Well, if you’re sure …” It was clear she wasn’t. “Thank you.” She smiled. “I’ll just go the long way around, if you don’t mind.” She disappeared for the second and final time.
Manz considered the humaniform mechanical for a long moment. “Moses, did you accost that lady?”
“‘Accost’ is a pejorative term, Brod.” The mechanical managed to sound slightly abashed.
Manz sighed deeply. “If you keep this up, someone will eventually file a formal complaint. I can’t cover for you indefinitely, and I don’t want you recalled. It takes time to install your kind of personalized, specialized programming. I’d have to start all over with a brand-new machine.”
“I didn’t mean to panic the lady.”
“Your efforts at calming her were apparently unsuccessful.”
“Idiot,” snapped the Minder unbidden.
Lenses flicked in the sphere’s direction. “No one asked you, no-limbs. Restrict yourself to answering questions, as was intended.”
“I am permitted to venture analytical commentary. As well as having the virtue of conciseness, ‘idiot’ seems to fit the situation.”
Did you think that a term I apply solely to humans? My prejudices are not exclusive. Humaniforms by their very nature partake of numerous human frailties and follies. Because of its programmer, this one, inaptly named, suffers from additional problems. Now they have begun to reflect on the man Manz. This is only proper and appropriate. Serves him right.
“Moses, I’ve warned you about this before. If you’re so damn curious, you can plug into the Company library or even access outside databanks. I’ll pay for the search and retrieval myself. Anything to stuff this line of inquiry. Can’t you be content with that?”
“It’s not the same,” the humaniform mumbled. “You know how strong my curiosity programming is. It’s an essential part of my makeup, vital to my work in assisting you. This particular area of interest is so deeply rooted that to try to excise it at this point would require wiping a substantial section of memory. That would result in the loss of valuable material, which …”
“I know, I know. Don’t you think I’ve considered that? Why do you think I haven’t had you half-wiped already? Tell me: just what do you think you would have done if you’d caught her?”
“Satisfied my curiosity in this area. It was only her reactions I sought. A valuable addition to the customized portion of my memory. I would not have hurt her, Brod. I could not.”
“I know that. But she doesn’t. You frightened her, Moses. I can’t have you doing that. Not only could it easily cost me your services, but it could reflect badly on me personally. Since you’re registered to my office, I’m ultimately responsible for your actions. In the future you will please satiate your curiosity in this area by accessing libraries. If it’s straightforward information on reaction you’re after, why don’t you link with Minder?”
The humaniform glanced again at the hovering sphere. “Its expertise in this area is wholly academic.”
You bet it is, groundbound. And it’s going to stay that way. I’m not about to make myself a candidate for memory wipe.
“I’ve already exhausted the information available locally. It’s just not the same as acquiring data through personal interaction.”
“That’s too bad, because it’s going to have to suffice. You’re no good to me opened up in a shop somewhere, with some geek probing your neural connections while his buddies debate whether to replace your entire cortex.”
“It’s just a hobby,” the humaniform muttered. “Mechanicals are allowed to have hobbies. It keeps our memories wet.”
“Find another,” Manz ordered curtly. “Try astral triangulation.”
