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A peculiar thought struck Derec, and he sat up straight. “Wolruf? There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. I seem to remember you doing a lot of complaining about the ship not needing a pilot. How did you manage to find those manual controls?”
“Asked for ‘em,” Wolruf said with a sniff. “Second Law: Ship ‘ad to give ‘em to me. Of course, that was b’fore you an’ ‘ur father improved things. ”
. Derec sank his head in his hands. “Look, I’m really sorry about this, okay? I promise you, as soon as we get through the jump, I’ll start working on-”
The lift doors hissed open, and Mandelbrot and Dr. Avery marched into the robotics lab. “Look, son!” Dr. Avery called out, “I’ve found a little project to kill the time until we land. ”
“Dad, I don’t think-” Derec started to turn around, but Wolruf was already heading for the lift.
“Looks like this 01’ dog better get out ofth’ way an’ let ‘u ‘umans do important things. ” She stepped into the lift and punched a button. “I’m goin’ down t’ th’ bridge t’ enter warp coord’nates w’ my nails ‘n’ teeth!”
“What’s her problem?” Avery asked as the lift doors hissed shut. “Flea collar too tight?”
. Derec looked at Avery with an expression of disgust on his face. “That little dig was uncalled for, Dad. There’s an issue with the changes we made to the ship’s programming. It no longer recognizes Wolruf as human. ”
Avery shrugged. “That’s a problem? I’d call it an improvement. ”
“Dad!”
“I mean, let’s be honest. I was never too crazy about the idea of giving an alien Robotic Law status anyway. ”
. Derec slammed a fist down on the terminal display and leapt to his feet. “Frost it, Dad! May I remind you that Wolruf has twice saved my life? She’s not just the best pilot on board, she’s my friend, and I will not have you treating her like-like-”
“ A dog?”
. Derec’s eyes went wide with anger, and his face flushed red to the roots of his sandy blond hair. For a moment their glares interlocked; Derec saw the old, cruel Avery in his father’s eyes.
Avery saw his ex-wife in his son’s face. Maybe I was wrong, son. You ’ ve got my unemotional exterior, but your mother ’ s volatile temper. I drove her away by pretending that] didn ’ t care about her feelings. I won ’ t make that mistake with you. “I’m sorry, Derec, I spoke without thinking. Mandelbrot can wait. What do you want to do about Wolruf?”
Feeling strangely disappointed by his father’s acquiescence, Derec sat down again. “Actually, we’ll reach the jump point in a little less than two hours. I don’t think there’s anything we can do in that amount of time. “
Avery walked over and sat on the table next to the terminal. “Then how about if we start working on the permissions list as soon as we get through the jump?”
. Derec sagged in his chair, feeling more than a little embarrassed by his angry outburst. “Yeah, that should be fine. Wolruf can tough it out for two hours. ” He ran his fingers through his hair. Then he abruptly sat up, rubbed his fingers together, and noticed how greasy they’d become. “Gad, I sure could use a shower. ” He started to get up and noticed Mandelbrot still standing there.
“Say, Dad, what did you have in mind for Mandelbrot, anyway?”
Avery got off of the table he’d been sitting on, shuffled over, and laid a hand on the robot’s shoulder. “I couldn’t help but notice that Mandelbrot here is a Ferrier Model Ea-at least, most of him is. Now, the E-series is a pretty common domestic robot on Aurora, and if I remember correctly, Ariel had one that she called Capek. Took it with her when she left the planet. ”
“So?”
Avery turned the robot slightly and pointed out a complex structure just below Mandelbrot’s “collarbone, “ in an area that had once been covered by an access plate but now bordered on the edge of an old blaster burn. “The Ea kept its long-term memory in seven non-volatile cubes, right here. I notice that he’s only got two cubes installed now. ”
. Derec sighed. He ’ s treating me like an ignorant kid again. “If you look a little closer, Dad, you’ll notice that the rest of his cube cage got blasted. This is the only way I’ve known him, and I just never bothered to repair the damage. ”
Avery bit back the urge to reply in the same tone. Don ’ t you think I can see that, Derec? Instead, he asked in a soft voice, “Am I to infer from that statement that you hung on to his other memory cubes?”
“Two of them; the rest were scrap. They’re in his offline library bay, down by his left hip. But I don’t see-”
Avery opened the library bay and extracted the two cubes. Then he made a sweeping gesture that took in the whole room. “This is a robotics lab, isn’t it?”
. Derec stood still for a moment, then he broke into a big smile. “Well, I’ll be. We’ve got all the parts and tools we need right here, don’t we?”
Avery nodded. “We should be able to recover his memories of Aurora. If we’re lucky and his automatic backup function was set up correctly, we may even recover his memories of the first battle with Aranimas. I figure it’ll take about a half hour to find out. An hour, tops. ”
. Derec smiled again and then spoke to the robot. “How about it, Mandelbrot? Do you want us to reinstall the rest of your memory?”
The pause was barely audible. “It would please me to operate at my full capacity again, Master Derec. ”
. Derec turned to Avery. ’, And we can do it without altering his personality?”
Avery began clearing space for the robot on the worktable. “I promise. We won’t knock one positron out of orbit. ”
. Derec reached a decision. “Okay, let’s get started. He stepped over to the worktable and began helping Avery clear it. With a discreet cough, Avery got his attention.
“. Derec? Why don’t you let me prep him while you catch a shower?”
“Oh, this is more interesting. I don’t need to shower right this-”
Avery coughed again and wrinkled his nose. Derec gave his father a surprised little look. “I do?” Avery nodded. “Oh. Well, say, Dad, why don’t you prep Mandelbrot? I’ll just, uh-” He jerked a thumb at the Personal and started backing toward the door.
“Good idea,” Avery agreed.
Chapter 15. Maverick
Maverick pelted hell-for-leather through the underbrush, ears flattened against the side of his head, legs pumping faster than he ever would have believed possible, his tail a bare five steps ahead of one extremely a
So what? Feel lucky you ’ re still breathing!He burst through a clump of sandleaves and nearly ran head-on into a fallen log. No time for finesse, lad, jump! Somehow he cleared the log, although the stump of a branch gouged an angry scratch across the left side of his ribs.
Lick it later, fool!His left rear leg buckled when he hit the ground, but he managed to recover in time to tumble and come up ru
The sharpfang behind him responded with a throaty roar -It was closer now-and even angrier
“Spoor!” Maverick feinted right and then cut sharply left, ignoring the ache in his leg. An instant later the second sharpfang loomed into view dead ahead; with the brilliance of desperation, Maverick darted left again and hurdled the second sharpfang’s tail. The two lizards collided heavily and went down.
Dare I hope?He slowed slightly and looked over his shoulder.
No!Sharpfang minds were tiny things, capable of holding just one thought at a time. Both sharpfangs were focused on the kin; it didn’t occur to them that this was an excellent opportunity to fight. Within seconds, the lizards were back on their hind feet, but now they were both chasing after him.