Acknowledged,came the response.

On a whim, Derec sent, Patch me into receivers in the other booths in this party.

Patched in.

He could have listened in without going through the computer, but his internal comlink got harder and harder to control the more links he opened with it. Much easier to keep one link open to the computer and let it make the multiple connection.

Derec heard Ariel echo his first command: “Home.” Or. Avery boarded his booth and stood on the platform in silence. Derec smiled. His father was always testing him. Now he was waiting to see if Derec had had the presence of mind to program all the booths.

Send Dr. Avery to same destination via Compass Tower, emergency speed. Do not accept his override,he sent.

Acknowledged.

The Compass Tower was a tall pyramid a few blocks away from Derec and Ariel’s home. Before moving in with Ariel and Derec, Avery had had an office/apartment in the apex of it; perhaps he would think that the literal-minded transportation computer had misunderstood Derec’s order and was taking everyone to their ownhomes instead of Derec’s. He wouldn’t realize Derec had played a trick on him until the transport booth failed to stop there. Nor would he be able to change the booth’s destination; Derec’s command carried exactly the same weight as would his, so the computer would follow the first order received. It was a subtle warning, one Avery would probably not even perceive, but Derec was fed up with his father’s little tests, and lately he had taken to thwarting every one of them he could. Avery would never consciously decide to quit, but subliminally, where the impulse to see his son prove himself originated, perhaps he could be conditioned.

Wolruf stepped aboard her booth, saying in her deep voice,” Follow Derec.”

Derec’s booth had already started to move, but he could still hear the communications going on behind him.

Adam, via comlink, sent, 8284-490-23. The apartment’s coordinates.

Eve sent, Follow Adam. Interesting, Derec thought. Adam would rather give the coordinates than admit to following a human, even though he was compelled to do it. Eve, of course, would follow Adam to the end of the universe.

Lucius II, on the other hand…

Lucius II sent, Manual control.

Denied,the computer responded.

Why denied?

Human command override. Derec has already programmed your destination.

I may also be human. I wish manual control.

Derec’s eyebrows shot up. What was this? He’d just convinced the silly thing it was a robot less than half an hour ago!

A loud voice interrupted. “Hey, where are you going?” It was Avery. “Cancel destination! Stop! Let me-”

Not now!

Cancel link to Avery,Derec sent.

Link cancelled,the computer replied, and Avery’s voice cut off in mid-word.

The computer had been simultaneously responding to Derec and continuing its conversation with Lucius. Derec heard - reason for believing that you are human.

I was grown, not assembled,Lucius II responded. I am a thinking being, with wishes and desires of my own. My connection to the city computer is completely voluntary.I perceive my own intellectual potentials independent of my programming.

Visual scanning shows that you are composed of the same cellular material as Robot City robots, or a variant thereof. You are not human.

Lucius II replied, A robotic exterior means nothing.Check your memory for Jeff Leong.

Derec gripped the handhold in his transport booth with enough tension to pull a lesser handle from the wall. Jeff Leong! Did Lucius II really think he was a cyborg like Jeff, a human brain in a robot body? And how had he known of Jeff, anyway? That whole incident was long past; Jeff had his human body back again and was off to college on another planet.

Obviously, Lucius had been digging through the computer, accessing records of the City’s past, records that Derec had been painstakingly replacing after Dr.Avery had wiped them in his reprogramming over a year ago. It had been Derec’s intention to give the City computer-and the robots who used it-the continuous memory of its past that he couldn’t have for himself, but that might not have been such a good idea after all, he thought now. Some memories could be dangerous.

Argument understood,the computer responded. It is possible that you are human. However, I cannot give you manual control even so. Derec ’ s order takes precedence.

This time, it did. But if Lucius II began issuing orders of his own, next time it might be Derec whose orders weren’t obeyed. That wouldn’t do.

Lucius II is not human,Derec sent. He is a robot of the same nature as Adam and Eve.

Acknowledged.

Derec’s transport booth slowed, banked around a corner, and accelerated again. Behind him the others, minus Dr. Avery, executed the same maneuver.

Cancel link to other booths,Derec sent.

Acknowledged.

Derec cancelled his own link to the computer, then focused his attention on the last booth in the line and sent directly, Lucius, this is Derec.

Is there another Lucius, or do you mean me, Lucius II?

I mean you. The original Lucius is - Derec was about to say “dead,” but thought better of it. No sense fueling the robot’s misconceptions with imprecise language. - inoperative, he sent. That means there isn ’ t much chance for confusion. I will simply call you “Lucius” unless circumstances warrant your full title.

I have no objection. I was not aware that you had a comlink.

There are lots of things you don ’ t know about me. Or about yourself,I believe.

That is true.

I have information you can use.

What information?

You ’ re wrong in assuming you ’ re human. You are an advanced experimental design of robot, just like Adam and Eve.

How do you know this?

I ’ m the son of the woman who created you.

Lucius thought about that for a long moment. Perhaps we are brothers, he said at last.

Derec laughed. I ’ m afraid not.

Perhaps we should ask our mother.

I wish we could, Derec replied.

Why can ’ t we?

BecauseI don t know where she is.

What is her name?

Idon ’ t know that, either.

What do you know about her?

Very little.I have an induced state of amnesia.

This is unfortunate.

Isn’t it, though? Derec thought. In a way, his and Lucius’s past-and Adam’s and Eve’s as well-were very similar. The robots had been planted on three different worlds with nothing more than their basic programming and inherent abilities. It had been up to them to discover their purpose in life, if life is what you wanted to call robot existence.

Similarly, Derec had awakened in a spaceship’s survival pod on an ice asteroid, without even the memory of his own name. “Derec” was the name on his spacesuit, a name he had kept even after finding that it was the name of the suit’s manufacturer. Like Lucius, he had found himself with only robots for company and questions for comfort. In the time since, he had discovered a few things about himself, most notably that his father was responsible for his condition-it was to be the ultimate “test” of his son’s worthiness-but on the whole he had found out pitifully little about his identity. Even now, with his father cured of his megalomania, he still had more questions than answers.