Refuge by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-05-08T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

AMNEMONIC PLAGUE

To Derec’s dismay, Ariel did not reappear that afternoon, and the next morning she arose late and looked terrible.

R. David became alarmed. “Miss Avery, you are not well. What are your symptoms?”

“The same as usual, R. David. Don’t worry; I brought this illness with me; it’s nothing to worry about.” She sounded tired and fretful, trying not to worry his Three Law-dominated brain.

But a robot will worry if it seems appropriate, whether told not to or not. They weren’t so different from humans in that respect, thought Derec, himself alarmed.

“I hope you are indeed not seriously ill, Miss Avery, but please tell me your symptoms so that I may judge. As you know, First Law compels me to help you.”

She grimaced. “Okay. I’m frequently feverish—is there any water in the place?”

“No,” Derec said. “I’ll bring you—frost! is there anything to carry water in?”

“No,” said R. David.

Mentally, Derec cursed all Earthers, individually and collectively, and the Teramin Relationship, too.

“Anyway, I’m often feverish, and tired and lethargic and listless. And—and—” she glanced at Derec. “I have mental troubles. Confusion—I forget where I am, lose track of what’s going on. A lot of the time I sit and don’t speak because I can’t follow the conversation. I’ve been reliving the past a lot. “

Suddenly she cried out passionately, “Nothing seems real! I feel like I’m in a hallucination.”

It was more serious than Derec had thought. Hesitantly, he asked, “Do you feel like going to the section kitchen?”

“No. I don’t feel like doing anything, except drinking a liter of water and going back to bed.”

“You must go to section hospital at once,” said R. David decisively, stepping forward.

Derec could have groaned. “What kind of medical care can you expect in an Earthly hospital?” he asked. “We’ve got to get you back to the Spacer worlds—”

“There’s no cure for me there,” she said quietly. Damn. That was true. Derec hesitated, torn, and said, “Well, back to Robot City, then. Maybe the Human Medical Team has a cure.”

“My medical knowledge is limited, primarily to the effects of Earthly ills on Spacers. But that knowledge makes me doubt that Miss Avery will—will live long enough for a space journey,” said R. David, the catch in his voice obvious. “She is obviously in, or approaching, the—crisis of her disease.”

Derec hesitated. That was too obviously true.

Ariel smiled sadly and said, “I fear he is right, Derec. I—I’m losing my memory—my mind. And it’s getting worse. I couldn’t remember my way back here the other night—”

Abruptly, she was weeping.

Oh. frost. Derec thought helplessly.

R. David gave them an argument; he wanted to accompany them—to carry Ariel, in fact.

“No!” said Derec. “I may be ignorant of many things about Earth, but I know well enough what Earthers do to any robots they catch on the ways. And if we tried to do anything about it, our first words would give us away as Spacers. They’d be allover us. I’ve been chased once by yeast farmers. Frost! I don’t want to have every Earther we meet at our throats.

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