Asimov’s Future History Volume 11

by Isaac Asimov

  “A week or two. Impossible! How long do you think I can endure this planet, Mandamus?”

  “Sir, on one of my previous visits I stayed on this planet for nearly a year – on another, for over four months.”

  “And you liked it?”

  “No, sir, but I had a job to do and I did it – without sparing myself.” Mandamus stared coldly at Amadiro.

  Amadiro flushed and said in a somewhat chastened tone, “Well, then, where do we stand?”

  “I’m still weighing the reports that are coming in. We are not working with a smoothly designed laboratory-made system, you know. We have an extraordinary heterogeneous planetary crust to deal with. Fortunately, the radioactive materials are widely spread, but in places they run perilously thin and we must place a relay in such places and leave robots in charge. If those relays are not, in every case, properly positioned and in proper order, the nuclear intensification will die out and we will have wasted all these painful years of effort on nothing. Or else, there may be a surge of localized intensification that will have the force of an explosion that will blow itself out and leave the rest of the crust unaffected. In either case, total damage would be insignificant.

  “What we want, Dr. Amadiro, is to have the radioactive materials and, therefore, significantly large sections of earth’s crust grow – slowly – steadily – irreversibly” – he bit the words off as he pronounced them in spaced intervals –” more and more intensely radioactive, so that Earth becomes progressively more unlivable. The social structure of the planet will break down and the Earth, as an effective abode of humanity, will be over and done with. I take it, Dr. Amadiro, that this is what you want. It is what I described to you years ago and what you said, at that time, you wanted.”

  “I still do, Mandamus. Don’t be a fool.”

  “Then bear with the discomfort, sir – or else, leave and I will carry on for whatever additional time it takes.”

  “No, no,” muttered Amadiro. “I must be here when it’s done – but I can’t help being impatient. How long have you decided to allow the process to build? – I mean, once you initiate the original wave of intensification, how long before Earth becomes uninhabitable?”

  “That depends on the degree of intensification I apply initially. I don’t know, just yet, what degree will be required, for that depends on the overall efficiency of the relays, so I have prepared a variable control. What I want to arrange is a lapse period of ten to twenty decades.”

  “And if you allow a smaller lapse period?”

  “The less the lapse period we allow, the more rapidly portions of the crust will grow radioactive and the more rapidly the planet will Warm up and grow dangerous. And that means the less likely it will be that any significant number of its population can be removed in time.”

  “Does that matter?” murmured Amadiro.

  Mandamus frowned. “The more rapidly the Earth deteriorates, the more likely it is that Earthpeople and Settlers will suspect a technological cause – and that we are the likely ones to receive the blame. The Settlers will then attack us with fury and, in the cause of their holy world, they will fight to extinction, provided only that they can inflict substantial harm on us. This is something we have discussed before and it seems we agreed on the matter. It would be far better to allow ample time, during which we can prepare for the worst and during which a confused Earth may assume that the slowly increasing radioactivity is some natural phenomenon they don’t understand. That is something that has become more urgent today than yesterday, in my judgment.”

  “Is that so?” Amadiro was frowning also. “You have that sour, puritanical look that makes me sure you have found a way to place the responsibility for that on my shoulders.”

  “With respect, sir, that is not difficult in this case. It was unwise to send out one of our robots to destroy Giskard.”

  “On the contrary, it had to be done. Giskard is the only one who might destroy us.”

  “He must find us first – and he won’t. And even if he does, we are knowledgeable roboticists. Don’t you think we could handle him?”

  “Indeed?” said Amadiro. “So Vasilia thought and she knew Giskard better than we – and yet she couldn’t handle him. And somehow the warship that was to take him into charge and destroy him at a distance could not handle him. So he has now landed on Earth. One way or another. he must be destroyed.”

  “He has not been. There has been no report of it.”

  “Bad news is sometimes repressed by a prudent government – and Earth officials, though barbarians, might conceivably be prudent. And if our robot failed and was questioned, he would certainly go into irreversible block. That means we will have lost a robot, something we can afford to do, but nothing more. And if Giskard should still be at large, the more reason we have to hurry.”

  “If we have lost a robot, we have lost more than a robot if they manage to elicit the location of this center of operations. We ought, at least, not to have used a local robot.”

  “I used one that was immediately available. And he will reveal nothing. You can trust my programming, I think.”

  “He cannot help reveal, by his mere existence, whether frozen or not, that he is of Auroran manufacture. Earth roboticists – and there are some on this planet – will be sure of that. All the more reason to make the increase in radioactivity very slow. Enough time must pass so that Earthpeople forget the incident and don’t associate it with the progressive change in radioactivity. We must have ten decades at the very least, perhaps fifteen, or even twenty.”

  He walked away to inspect his instruments again and to re-establish contact with relays six and ten, which he still found troublesome. Amadiro looked after him with a mixture of disdain and intense dislike and muttered to himself, “Yes, but I don’t have twenty more decades, or fifteen, or maybe even ten. You do – but I don’t.”

  85.

  It was early morning in New York. Giskard and Daneel assumed that from the gradual heightening of activity.

  “Somewhere above and outside the City,” said Giskard, “it may be dawn now. Once, in speaking to Elijah Baley twenty decades ago, I referred to Earth as the World of the Dawn. Will it continue to be so for much longer? Or has it already ceased to be that?”

  “These are morbid thoughts, friend Giskard,” said Daneel. “It will be better if we occupy ourselves with what must be done on this day to help keep Earth the World of the Dawn.”

  Gladia entered the apartment, wearing a bathrobe and slippers. Her hair was freshly dried.

  “Ridiculous!” she said. “Earthwomen go through the corridors on their way to the mass Personals in the morning disheveled and slatternly. It is done on purpose, I think. It is bad manners to comb one’s hair on the way to the Personal. Apparently, dishevelment to begin with enhances that well-cared-for look afterward. I should have brought a complete morning outfit with me. You should have seen the looks I got when I left with my bathrobe on. Leaving the Personal, one must be the last word. – Yes, Daneel?”

  “Madam,” said Daneel, “May we have a word with you?”

  Gladia hesitated. “Not much of a word, Daneel. As you are probably aware, this is going to be a big day and my morning appointments begin almost at once.”

  “That is precisely what I wish to discuss, madam,” said Daneel. “On this important day, all will go better if we are not with you.”

  “What?”

  “The effect you would wish to have on Earthpeople would be greatly diminished if you surround yourself with robots.”

  “I will not be surrounded. There will be just you two. How can I do without you?”

  “It is necessary that you learn to, madam. While we are with you, you are marked off as different from Earthpeople. You are made to seem afraid of them.”

  Gladia said, troubled, “I need some protection, Daneel. Remember what happened last night.”

  “Madam, we could not have prevented what happened last night and we could not have protected you
– if that were necessary. Fortunately, you were not the target last night. The blaster bolt was aimed at Giskard’s head.”

  “Why Giskard?”

  “How could a robot aim at you or at any human being? The robot aimed at Giskard for some reason. For us to be near you, then, might but increase your danger. Remember that as the tale of last night’s events spreads, even though the Earth government may try to suppress the details, there will be a rumor to the effect that it was a robot who held a blaster and fired it. That will arouse public indignation against robots – against us – and even against you if you persist in being seen with us. It would be better if you were without us.”

  “For how long?”

  “For at least as long as your mission lasts, madam. The captain will be better able to help you in the days to come than we will be. He knows Earthpeople, he is highly thought of by them – and he thinks very highly of you, madam.”

  Gladia said, “Can you tell that he thinks very highly of me?”

  “Although I am a robot, it would seem so to me. And at any time that you should wish us back, we will come back, of course – but, for now, we think that the best way we can serve and protect you is to leave you in Captain Baley’s hands.”

  Gladia said, “I will think of it.”

  “In the meanwhile, madam,” said Daneel, “we will see Captain Baley and find out if he agrees with us.”

  “Do so!” said Gladia and passed into her bedroom.

  Daneel turned and spoke minimally to Giskard. “Is she willing?”

  “More than willing,” said Giskard. “She has always been a little restless in my presence and would not suffer unduly at my absence. For you, friend Daneel, she has ambivalent feelings. You remind her markedly of friend Jander, whose inactivation, many decades ago, was so traumatic for her. This has been a source of both attraction and repulsion to her, so it was not necessary to do much. I lessened her attraction to you and increased her strong attraction to the captain. She will do without us easily.”

  “Then let us find the captain,” said Daneel. Together, they left the room and entered the hallway that passed by the apartment.

  86.

  Daneel and Giskard had both been on Earth on previous occasions, Giskard the more recently. They understood the use of the computerized directory that gave them the section, Wing, and number of the apartment to which D. G. had been assigned and they understood, further, the color codes in the hallways that led them to the proper turnings and elevators.

  It was early enough for the human traffic to be light, but those human beings who passed or approached at first stared with astonishment at Giskard, then looked away with elaborate unconcern.

  Giskard’s steps were slightly uneven by the time they approached D. G.’s apartment door. It was not very noticeable, but it caught Daneel’s attention.

  He said in a low voice, “Are you in discomfort, friend Giskard?”

  Giskard replied, “It has been necessary for me to wipe out astonishment, apprehension, and even attention in a number of men and women – and in one youngster, which was harder still. I had no time to make completely certain I was doing no harm.”

  “It was important to do so. We must not be stopped.”

  “I understand that, but the Zeroth Law does not work well with me. I have not your facility in that respect.” He went on, as though to distract his own attention from his discomfort, “I have often noted that hyperresistance in the positronic pathways makes itself first felt in the matter of standing and walking and next in speech.”

  Daneel tapped the door signal. He said, “It is the same in my case, friend Giskard. Maintaining balance on two supports is difficult under the best of circumstances. Controlled imbalance, as in walking, is even more difficult. I have heard once that there were early attempts made to produce robots with four legs and two arms. They were called ‘centaurs.’ They worked well but were unacceptable because they were basically inhuman in appearance.”

  “At the moment,” said Giskard, “i would appreciate four legs, friend Daneel. However, I think my discomfort is passing.”

  D. G. was at the door now. He looked at them with a broad smile. He then glanced in each direction along the corridor, whereupon his smile vanished and was replaced with a look of the utmost concern. “What are you doing here without Gladia? Is she –”

  Daneel said, “Captain, Madam Gladia is well. She is in no danger. May we enter and explain?”

  D. G. glowered as he gestured them inside. His voice gained the hectoring tone one naturally assumes toward misbehaving machines and he said, “Why have you left her alone? What circumstances could possibly permit you to leave her alone?”

  Daneel said, “She is no more alone than any person is on Earth – and no more in danger. If you will question her later on die matter, I believe she will tell you that she cannot be effective here on Earth as long as she is trailed by Spacer robots. I believe she will tell you that what guidance and protection she needs should be supplied by you, rather than by robots. It is what we believe she wishes – at least for now. If, at any time, she wishes us back, she will have us.”

  D. G.’s face relaxed into a smile again. “She wants my protection, does she?”

  “At the moment, Captain, we believe she is quite anxious for your presence, rather than for ours.”

  D. G.’s smile became a grin. “Who can blame her? – I’ll get myself ready and go to her apartment as soon as I can.”

  “But first, sir –”

  “Oh,” said D. G., “there is a quid pro quo?”

  “Yes, sir. We are anxious to discover as much as we can about the robot who fired the blaster at the balcony last night.”

  D. G. looked tense again. “Do you anticipate further danger for Madam Gladia?”

  “None at all of that kind. The robot, last night, did not fire at Lady Gladia. Being a robot, he could not have. He fired at friend Giskard.”

  “Why should he have done that?”

  “It is what we would like to find out. For that purpose, we wish you to call Madam Quintana, Undersecretary of Energy, and state that it would be important and would please you and the government of Baleyworld – if you would care to add that – for her to allow me to ask her a few questions on that subject. We wish you to do whatever seems best to persuade her to agree to such an interview.”

  “Is that all you want me to do? Persuade a reasonably important and busy official to submit to cross-examination by a robot?”

  Daneel said, “Sir, she may agree if you are earnest enough in the request. In addition, since she may be located a distance away, it would be helpful if you would hire a darter on our behalf to take us there. We are, as you can imagine, in haste.”

  “And are those little things all?” asked D. G.

  “Not quite, Captain,” said Daneel. “We will need a driver and please pay him well enough so that he will consent to transport friend Giskard, who is an obvious robot. He may not mind me.”

  D. G. said, “I hope you realize, Daneel, that what you ask is completely unreasonable.”

  Daneel said, “I had hoped not, Captain. But since you tell me it is, there is nothing more to say. We have no choice, then, but to return to Madam Gladia, which will make her unhappy, for she would rather be with you.”

  He turned to leave, motioning Giskard to accompany him, but D. G. said, “Wait. There’s a public communication contact just down the hallway. I can only try. Remain here and wait for me.”

  The two robots remained standing. Daneel said. “Did you have to do much, friend Giskard?”

  Giskard seemed well balanced on his legs now. He said, “I was helpless. He was strongly opposed to dealing with Madam Quintana and as strongly opposed to getting us a darter. I could not have altered those feelings without damage. When, however, you suggested returning to Madam Gladia, his attitude changed suddenly and dramatically. You were anticipating that, I take it, friend Daneel?”

  “I was.”

  �
��You scarcely need me, it would seem. There is more than one way of adjusting minds. However, I ended by doing something. The captain’s change of mind was accompanied by a strong favorable emotion toward Madam Gladia. I took the opportunity of strengthening that.”

  “That is the reason you are needed. I could not have done that.”

  “You will be able to yet, friend Daneel. Perhaps quite soon.”

  D. G. returned. “Believe it or not, she will see you, Daneel. The darter and driver will be here in a moment – and the sooner you leave, the better. I will be heading toward Gladia’s apartment at once.”

  The two robots stepped outside in the hallway to wait.

  Giskard said, “He is very happy.”

  “So it would seem, friend Giskard,” said Daneel, “but I fear the easy part is over for us. We have easily arranged to have Madam Gladia grant us leave to move about on our own. We have then, with some difficulty, persuaded the captain to make it possible for us to see the Undersecretary. With her, however, it may be that we will come to a dead end.”

  87.

  The driver took one look at Giskard and his courage seemed to fail him. “Listen,” he said to Daneel, “I was told I’d be paid double to take a robot, but robots aren’t allowed in the City and I could get in plenty of trouble. Money isn’t going go help me if I lose my license. Can’t I just take you, mister?”

  Daneel said, “I am a robot, too, sir. We are now in the City and that is not your fault. We are trying to get out of the City and you will be helping us. We are going to a high government official who, I hope, will arrange that and it is your civic duty to help us. If you refuse to take us, driver, you will be acting to keep robots in the City and that may be considered to be against the law.”