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around. But that was nothing like this dim, empty wormhole.
GLENDALE, KIRKWOOD, MANCHESTER, WINCHESTER,
BALLWIN, ELLISVILLE, the signs flowed past, as fast as the
expressway would have taken them. Ariel ignored all the labyrinthine
branchings and windings that twisted obscurely away right and left
out of sight, peering past Derec to see as far before them as possible.
The tunnel was a rectangle of dim light, two glowing tracks overhead
and a pair of glowing, beaded tracks on the sides, the last being the
glowing signs, fading into tininess.
At last, though, there came an interruption in the shape of the tunnel.
It got dark at the limit of vision, the darkness outlined in light.
Presently the outline of light appeared as various warning signs. The
darkness was a ramp, leading up.
Donovan slowed sharply, causing R. Jennie to lean forward and
prepare itself for a snatch at the controls.
Don t worry, boy, said the Terry, grinning but not looking back.
Ariel had him in profile. I ve driven for thousands of hours, faster
than this, and no problems.
Twenty-one point three percent of all major traumas to enter
Towner Laney Memorial Hospital occur in the motorways, said R.
Jennie, unperturbed. Fewer than twenty percent occur on the ways.
A few thousand humans use the motorways; seven million use the
ways.
Damn, I always hated know-it-all robots, grunted Donovan, taking
the ramp with unnecessary flair. Could never stand to live on any
Spacer world. A man should have the right to go to hell in his own
way.
The car eased to a stop at a barrier. Donovan played a tune on his
computer controls and the barrier opened. He drove through, they
wound a complicated path that apparently avoided heavy traffic
there were thunderous rushing sounds through the walls, but no
traffic in their motorway and they were at a huge entry in the outer
wall.
Kilometer-long lines of great trucks full of produce, some robot-
driven, most computer-controlled, roared in with noisy, huge tires
but silent engines and dived into the City just below them. They were
on a higher ramp, one of a dozen that leaped out of the City from high
and low. Donovan stopped the car well back from that light-blazing
gap.
You ll have to walk from here, he said abruptly. Car won t go any
further no beamcast beyond the barrier.
CHAPTER 13
ROBOT CITY AGAIN
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Paulins, said R. Jennie. They are used to cover machinery in the
fields against rain and dew. There are no tents available in the
immediate vicinity of St. Louis. Perhaps in a day or two there will be a
tent.
The plasticated canvas of the big paulins worked as well as a tent,
strung over a couple of poles and tied to a tree limb. It was needed
more for shade than shelter. This move to the country had not been a
simple one, nor could they keep it up for more than a day or two.
But it was such a relief!
Ariel could tell that Derec felt the same sense of escape that she did.
The sky of Earth was wide and blue and very high, and little puffy
clouds ambled slowly across it, all framed by the pointed opening of
the tent. The sunlight was just right. The plants were the familiar
green of Earth life everywhere, and they too seemed just right. Except
in greenhouses, she had probably never seen Earthly plants in the
natural light of the sun in which they evolved. Even the heat was not
unpleasant.
We won t need a tent, if we have to wait that long, said Derec grimly.
You should return to the City as soon as you can, R. Jennie said.
Mrs. Avery is far from recovered from the fever.
Ariel felt quite recovered from the fever, though her memory was
returning slowly. Weak as she undoubtedly was, she thought with
concern, she could have wrestled Derec two falls out of three and
won. But he said nothing about his own condition.
Everything s so...ordinary, said Ariel, looking out at the kind of
birds and plants and small animals she had seen all her life. A
squirrel is a squirrel, and sounds just the same on Aurora. Even the
shrilling of the unseen insects was familiar. Humans had taken their
familiar symbiotic life-forms with them to the stars. She had expected
Earth to be more exotic.
The reality was a relief more than a disappointment.
It must have been a bad time for you, she said to Derec, when R.
Jennie had stepped out to the...kitchen. They had been supplied with
something called a hot plate and a dielectric oven.
Derec moodily watched the robot prepare the packaged meals,
designed for people with high enough ratings to permit them to eat in
their own apartments. This was luxury for their rate.
Bad, well. He shrugged, clearly not wishing to discuss it. I did
learn one thing from R. David: there s a spaceship belonging to Dr.
Avery in the New York port. If we could get there
How, if our rating doesn t permit us to travel that far?
We ll have to get him to make ID with higher ratings for us
R. Jennie stepped under the opening with a tray holding coffee and
juices. When she had gone, Ariel said, I hope they don t discover the
apartment.
I suspect the Terries know all about it, but won t make trouble. They
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