“As far as I’m concerned, the best meal out of this machine is the fastest one I can eat, so I don’t have to taste it any longer than necessary.”

“Fine. We don’t want to waste time, anyway.” Derec entered the code and turned it on. “Nutrition bars it is-again.”

“I’ll take the fruit punch to drink, though.”

“Yeah-me, too.”

A moment later, they each sat down with a dark brown, warm, rectangular shape. Each bar had a combination of proteins, carbohydrates, and cellulose that would fill them up. The taste was more bland than bad. The chemical processor could also produce more complex meals, which were equally or more nutritious but also equally bland to the taste. It was no match even for the autogalleys on ships.

Derec washed down a mouthful of food with simulated fruit punch. At least the citric acid gave it a strong tang. “If I get the time, I can try ordering the computer to give me some improvements to try on the processor. The trouble is, I don’t know what chemicals have to be added to make it taste better…and I doubt that the central computer knows, either. Robots have sensory capabilities for analytical purposes, but they don’t care about human gourmet preferences.”

“If we can get the Key today, we’ll be gone, anyway. Let’s work on that premise. How are we going to talk Keymo out of the Key?”

“When you put it that way, it sounds a little preposterous, I must admit. Well…do you have any ideas?” He was hoping to divert her from his own lack of plans.

“Our only chance is to force him to surrender the Key under some interpretation of the Laws. So we’ll have to pose an argument to him, like…” She shrugged, unable to suggest anything.

“If the food were any worse, we could tell him we have to get off the planet or suffer harm.” Derec laughed.

“The trouble is, it’s not that bad.”

“We can probably figure that the Second Law by itself won’t help us. Like I said about getting information from the central computer, any request from us will almost certainly be overridden by prior programming orders under the Second Law. Whoever created Robot City got his instructions in first.”

Katherine looked down at her glass, and picked it up even though it was empty. Suddenly she got up and went to the processor to fill it. Then she just stood there looking at the glass.

Derec had no idea why her manner had just turned chilly. He reflected that it figured, somehow; just as he became comfortable enough to joke around a little, she started to withdraw from him again. He watched her without speaking.

Katherine turned and walked into her room.

Derec, feeling snubbed, did not try to approach her. Instead, he got up and carried their plates and glasses to the washer. After turning it on, he straightened up a little and wiped the inside of the chemical processor’s delivery receptacle. He could not tell what she was doing.

Once again, Derec felt trapped by his own circumstances. Some time ago, he had awakened in a lifepod from a larger spacecraft with no memory of his name or his earlier life. Even the name “Derec” had been adopted only so that he could call himself something. He had had a number of crazy adventures since that time, but none of them had brought his memory back.

He had met Katherine along the way, and they had formed a partnership of necessity. After all, even now they were the only humans of the planet, and shared a desire to get off Robot City. He still found her difficult to deal with. Nevertheless, if they were going to get off Robot City, they would have to get the Key to Perihelion. Derec took a deep breath.

“Katherine?”

“Yes.” Her voice was low and listless.

“Are you, urn, feeling okay?”

“Yes!” She spoke sharply, almost too insistently.

“I suppose we ought to go visit Keymo, wherever he is. You still want to go, don’t you?”

“Of course I want to go,” she snapped, coming to the doorway. “Why wouldn’t I want to go?”

“Idon’t know!” Derec threw up his arms. “Sometimes you’re as big a mystery to me as the origin of Robot City.”

Katherine pushed past him and turned. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Are we going now or what? You were in such a big hurry.”

“Sure! Sure, we’re going. I’m in a big hurry to get off this planet, and I thought you were, too. Come on, let’s go!”

“All right!”

Seething with anger, Derec stalked out of their quarters, aware that she was right behind him.

Outside, the great pyramidal Compass Tower glittered in the sunlight. It was taller by half than any other structure in the city, and stood as a familiar landmark. Below it, the skyline was a varied line of spires, domes, cubes, and towers.

Derec and Katherine rode the slidewalk in silence. He had an idea of where to find Keymo, since the ongoing shapechanging of the city had been discontinued-although the robots still renovated and built constantly. One of the many benefits of ending the shapechanging was that the robots had been building a coherent system of slidewalks for pedestrian traffic. Still, finding one’s way around Robot City remained a challenge.

His anger was cooling quickly. In the distance ahead, he could see a large dome on the horizon, a brilliant, shining bronze in color. It was near the site of Keymo’s operation, and Derec guessed it was the Key Center itself.

“I noticed a similar dome here once,” she said, also gazing at it. “Any idea what it is?”

“Not exactly, no.”

“What does that mean?”

He glanced at her warily, thinking he had detected an edge in her voice, but she was still looking up at the building. He raised his gaze again, still walking. “Well, actually…what I mean is, sometimes the robots have to house a certain class of facilities that can’t be fit into normal industrial bays or doors. I haven’t looked closely at any of these domes, but I think they’re used for stuff like that.”

“I don’t see any doors, now that you mention it. I suppose they’re on the other side. The Key is small enough to carry, though. I don’t see why they would need a gigantic dome for it.”

“Maybe that’s not the place.” Derec shrugged. “Maybe the Key Center is in a mud hut next door.”

“Very funny. If that particular dome is new, I’m betting it was set up for the Key.”

“I’m not arguing. But we have to get off the slidewalk. It’s being fixed up or something just ahead. There isn’t a functioning one to take us from here to there.”

“I hope you don’t expect me to walk that far!” She stepped off the slidewalk with him.

A small function robot, the class without the positronic brains, skittered out of her way. It was a small scrap collector, gathering debris as it moved on a cushion of short, nimble legs around a construction site. It was heading for a sewer chute in which to deposit its load.

A humanoid robot, of the foreman class in the city, approached them. The sunlight shone on the distinctive, helmeted head and blue skin.

“Identify yourself,” Katherine ordered.

“I am Construction Foreman 391.” The robot’s eyes, deep in the darkness of its horizontal eyeslit, focused on her.

“What is the most convenient way for us to reach-Derec, tell it where.”

He noted that she had spoken to him in the same imperious tone she used with the robots. “We’re going to that dome, or somewhere close to it. It’s about 6.4 kilometers.”

“Frost!” She turned on him. “You weren’t going to walk that far, were you?”

“Of course not.”

“Perhaps the vacuum chute would be safe for humans,” said Foreman 391. “You must ask a chute foreman. May the maintenance robot resume its duties?”

“Oh-of course.” Katherine glanced down at the scrap collector, which she had inadvertently trapped against the sewer chute. It whirred patiently at her feet until she moved out of the way. Then it headed back into the construction site.