Asimov, Isaac - Foundation 03 - Naked Sun

by Naked Sun (lit)

  analyzed and the proper measures taken. As for Gruer, your fantasy concerning poisoning is of no importance."

  Baley said incredulously, "You seem to imply that I'm not needed here."

  "I believe not. If you wish to return to Earth, you may do so. I may even say we urge you to."

  Baley was amazed at his own reaction. He cried, "No, sir. I don't budge."

  "We hired you, Plainclothesman. We can discharge you. You will return to your home planet."

  "No! You listen to me. I'd advise you to. You're a big-time Spacer and I'm an Earthman, but with all respect, with deepest and most humble apologies, you're scared."

  "Withdraw that statement!" Attlebish drew himself to his six-footplus, and stared down at the Earthman haughtily.

  "You're scared as hell. You think you'll be next if you pursue this thing. You're giving in so they'll let you alone; so they'll leave you your miserable life." Baley had no notion who the "they" might be or if there were any "they" at all. He was striking out blindly at an arrogant Spacer and enjoying the thud his phrases made as they hit against the other's self-control.

  "You will leave," said Attlebish, pointing his finger in cold anger, "within the hour. There'll be no diplomatic considerations about this, I assure you."

  "Save your threats, Spacer. Earth is nothing to you, I admit, but I'm not the only one here. May I introduce my partner, Daneel Olivaw. He's from Aurora. He doesn't talk much. He's not here to talk. I handle that department. But he listens awfully well. He doesn't miss a word.

  "Let me put it straight, Attlebish"-Baley used the unadorned name with relish-"whatever monkeyshines are going on here on Solaria, Aurora and forty-odd other Outer Worlds are interested. If you kick us off, the next deputation to visit Solaria will consist of warships. I'm from Earth and I know how the system works. Hurt feelings mean warships by return trip."

  Attlebish transferred his regard to Daneel and seemed to be considering. His voice was gentler. "There is nothing going on here that need concern anyone outside the planet."

  "Gruer thought otherwise and my partner heard him." This was no time to cavil at a lie.

  Daneel turned to look at Baley, at the Earthman's last statement, but Baley paid no attention. He drove on: "I intend to pursue this investigation. Ordinarily, there's nothing I wouldn't do to get back to Earth. Even just dreaming about it gets me so restless I can't sit. If I owned this robot-infested palace I'm living in now, I'd give it with the robots thrown in and you and all your lousy world to boot for a ticket home.

  "But I won't be ordered off by you. Not while there's a case to which I've been assigned that's still open. Try getting rid of me against my will and you'll be looking down the throats of space-based artillery.

  "What's more, from now on, this murder investigation is going to be run my way. I'm in charge. I see the people I want to see. I see them. I don't view them. I'm used to seeing and that's the way it's going to be. I'll want the official approval of your office for all of that."

  "This is impossible, unbearable--"

  "Daneel, you tell him."

  The humanoid's voice said dispassionately, "As my partner has informed you, Agent Attlebish, we have been sent here to conduct a murder investigation. It is essential that we do so. We, of course, do not wish to disturb any of your customs and perhaps actual seeing will be unnecessary, although it would be helpful if you were to give approval for such seeing as becomes necessary as Plainclothesman Baley has requested. As to leaving the planet against our will, we feel that would be inadvisable, although we regret any feeling on your part or on the part of any Solarian that our remaining would be unpleasant."

  Baley listened to the stilted sentence structure with a dour stretching of his lips that was not a smile. To one who knew Daneel as a robot, it was all an attempt to do a job without giving offense to any human, not to Baley and not to Attlebish. To one who thought Daneel was an Auroran, a native of the oldest and most powerful militarily of the Outer Worlds, it sounded like a series of subtly courteous threats.

  Attlebish put the tips 0f his fingers to his forehead. "I'll think about it."

  "Not too long," said Baley, "because I have some visiting to do within the hour, and not by viewer. Done viewing!"

  He signaled the robot to break contact, then he stared with surprise and pleasure at the place where Attlebish had been. None of this had been planned. It had all been impulse born of his dream and of Attlebish's unnecessary arrogance. But now that it had happened, he was glad. It was what he had wanted, really-to take control.

  He thought: Anyway, that was telling the dirty Spacer!

  He wished the entire population of Earth could have been here to watch. The man looked such a Spacer, and that made it all the better, of course. All the better.

  Only, why this feeling of vehemence in the matter of seeing? Baley scarcely understood that. He knew what he planned to do, and seeing (not viewing) was part of it. All right. Yet there had been the tight lift to his spirit when he spoke of seeing, as though he were ready to break down the walls of this mansion even though it served no purpose.

  Why?

  There was something impelling him beside the case, something that had nothing to do even with the question of Earth's safety. But what?

  Oddly, he remembered his dream again; the sun shining down through all the opaque layers of t'he gigantic underground Cities of Earth.

  Daneel said with thoughtfulness (as far as his voice could carry a recognizable emotion), "I wonder, Partner Elijah, if this is entirely safe."

  "Bluffing this character? It worked. And it wasn't really a bluff. I think it is important to Aurora to find out what's going on on Solana, and that Aurora knows it. Thank you, by the way, for not catching me out in a misstatement."

  "It was the natural decision. To have borne you out did Agent Attlebish a certain rather subtle harm. To have given you the lie would have done you a greater and more direct harm."

  "Potentials countered and the higher one won out, eh, Daneel?"

  "So it was, Partner Elijah. I understand that this process, in a

  less definable way, goes on within the human mind. I repeat, however, that this new proposal of yours is not safe."

  'Which new proposal is this?"

  "I do not approve your notion of seeing people. By that I mean seeing as opposed to viewing."

  "I understand you. I'm not asking for your approval."

  "I have my instructions, Partner Elijah. What it was that Agent Hannis Gruer told you during my absence last night I cannot know. That he did say something is obvious from the change in your attitude toward this problem. However, in the light of my instructions, I can guess. He must have warned you of the possibility of danger to other planets arising from the situation on Solaria."

  Slowly Baley reached for his pipe. He did that occasionally and always there was the feeling of irritation when he found nothing and remembered he could not smoke. He said, "There are only twenty thousand Solarians. What danger can they represent?"

  "My masters on Aurora have for some time been uneasy about Solaria. I have not been told all the information at their disposal-"

  "And what little you have been told you have been told not to repeat to me. Is that it?" demanded Baley.

  Daneel said, "There is a great deal to find out before this matter can be discussed freely."

  "Well, what are the Solarians doing? New weapons? Paid subversion? A campaign of individual assassination? What can twenty thousand people do against hundreds of millions of Spacers?"

  Daneel remained silent.

  Baley said, "I intend to find out, you know."

  "But not the way you have now proposed, Partner Elijah. I have been instructed most carefully to guard your safety."

  "You would have to anyway. First Law!"

  "Over and above that, as well. In conflict between your safety and that of another I must guard yours."

  "Of course. I understand that. If anything happens to me, there
is no further way in which you can remain on Solaria without complications that Aurora is not yet ready to face. As long as I'm alive, I'm here at Solaria's original request and so we can throw our weight around, if necessary, and make them keep us. If I'm dead, the whole situation is changed. Your orders are, then, to keep Baley alive. Am I right, Daneel?"

  Daneel said, "I cannot presume to interpret the reasoning behind my orders."

  Baley said, "All right, don't worry. The open space won't kill me, If I do find it necessary to see anyone. I'll survive. I may even get used to it."

  "It is not the matter of open space alone, Partner Elijah," said Daneel. "It is this matter of seeing Solarians. I do not approve of it."

  "You mean the Spacers won't like it. Too bad if they don't. Let them wear nose filters and gloves. Let them spray the air. And if it offends their nice morals to see me in the flesh, let them wince and blush. But I intend to see them. I consider it necessary to do so and I will do so."

  "But I cannot allow you to."

  "You can't allow me?"

  "Surely you see why, Partner Elijah."

  "I do not."

  "Consider, then, that Agent Cruer, the key Solarian figure in the investigation of this murder, has been poisoned. Does it not follow that if I permit you to proceed in your plan for exposing yourself indiscriminately in actual person, the next victim will necessarily be you yourself. How then can I possibly permit you to leave the safety of this mansion?"

  "How will you stop me, Daneel?"

  "By force, if necessary, Partner Elijah," said Daneel calmly. "Even if I must hurt you. If I do not do so, you will surely die."

  9

  A Robot Is Styrnied

  BALEY SAID, "So the higher potential wins out again, Daneel. You will hurt me to keep me alive."

  "I do not believe hurting you will be necessary, Partner Elijah. You know that I am superior to you in strength and you will not attempt a useless resistance. If it should become necessary, however, I will be compelled to hurt you."

  "I could blast you down where you stand," said Baley. "Right now! There is nothing in my potentials to prevent me."

  "I had thought you might take this attitude at some time in our present relationship, Partner Elijah. Most particularly, the thought occurred to me during our trip to this mansion, when you grew momentarily violent in the ground-car .The destruction of myself is unimportant in comparison with your safety, but such destruction would cause you distress eventually and disturb the plans of my masters. It was one of my first cares, therefore, during your first sleeping period, to deprive your blaster of its charge."

  Baley's lips tightened. He was left without a charged blaster! His hand dropped instantly to his holster. He drew his weapon and stared at the charge reading. It hugged zero.

  For a moment he balanced the lump of useless metal as though to hurl it directly into Daneel's face. What good? The robot would dodge efficiently.

  Baley put the blaster back. It could be recharged in good time. Slowly, thoughtfully, he said, "I'm not fooled by you, Daneel." "In what way, Partner Elijah."

  "You are too much the master. I am too completely stopped by you. Are you a robot?"

  "You have doubted me before," said Daneel.

  "On Earth last year, I doubted whether R. Daneel Olivaw was truly a robot. It turned out he was. I believe he still is. My question, however is this: Are you R. Daneel Olivaw?"

  "I am."

  "Yes? Daneel was designed to imitate a Spacer closely. Why could not a Spacer be made up to imitate Daneel closely?"

  "For what reason?"

  "To carry on an investigation here with greater initiative and capacity than ever a robot could. And yet by assuming Daneel's role, you could keep me safely under control by giving me a false consciousness of mastery. After all, you are working through me and I must be kept pliable."

  "All this is not so, Partner Elijah."

  "Then why do all the Solarians we meet assume you to be human? They are robotic experts. Are they so easily fooled? It occurs to me that I cannot be one right against many wrong. It is far more likely that I am one wrong against many right."

  "Not at all, Partner Elijah."

  "Prove it," said Baley, moving slowly toward an end table and lifting a scrap-disposal unit. "You can do that easily enough, if you are a robot. Show the metal beneath your skin."

  Daneel said, "I assure you-"

  "Show the metal," said Baley crisply. "That is an order! Or don't you feel compelled to obey orders?"

  Daneel unbuttoned his shirt. The smooth, bronze skin of his chest was sparsely covered with light hair. Daneel's fingers exerted a firm pressure just under the right nipple, and flesh and skin split bloodlessly the length of the chest, with the gleam of metal showing beneath.

  And as that happened, Baley's fingers, resting on the end table, moved half an inch to the right and stabbed at a contact patch. Almost at once a robot entered.

  "Don't move, Daneel," cried Baley. "That's an order! Freeze!"

  Daneel stood motionless, as though life, or the robotic imitation thereof, had departed from him.

  Baley shouted to the robot, "Can you get two more of the staff in here without yourself leaving? If so, do it."

  The robot said, "Yes, master."

  Two more robots entered, answering a radioed call. The three lined up abreast.

  "Boys!" said Baley. "Do you see this creature whom you thought a master?"

  Six ruddy eyes had turned solemnly on Daneel. They said in unison, We see him, master.

  Baley said, "Do you also see that this so-called master is actually a robot like yourself since it is metal within. It is only designed to look like a man."

  "Yes, master."

  "You are not required to obey any order it gives you. Do you understand that?"

  "Yes, master."

  "I, on the other hand," said Baley, "am a true man."

  For a moment the robots hesitated. Baley wondered if, having had it shown to them that a thing might seem a man yet be a robot, they would accept anything in human appearance as a man, anything at all.

  But then one robot said, "You are a man, master," and Baley drew breath again.

  He said, "Very well, Daneel. You may relax."

  Daneel moved into a more natural position and said calmly, "Your expressed doubt as to my identity, then, was merely a feint designed to exhibit my nature to these others, I take it."

  "So it was," said Baley, and looked away. He thought: The thing is a machine, not a man. You can't double-cross a machine.

  And yet he couldn't entirely repress a feeling of shame. Even as Daneel stood there, chest open, there seemed something so human about him, something capable of being betrayed.

  Baley said, "Close your chest, Daneel, and listen to me. Physically, you are no match for three robots. You see that, don't you?"

  "That is clear, Partner Elijah."

  "Good! . . . Now you boys," and he turned to the other robots again. "You are to tell no one, human or master, that this creature is a robot. Never at any time, without further instructions from myself and myself alone."

  "I thank you," interposed Daneel softly.

  "However," Baley went on, "thjs manlike robol is not to be allowed to interfere with my actions in any way. If it attempts any such interference, you will restrain it by force, taking care not to damage it unless absolutely necessary. Do not allow it to establish contact with humans other than myself, or with robots other than yourselves, either by seeing or by viewing. And do not leave it at any time. Keep it in this room and remain here yourselves. Your other duties are suspended until further notice. Is all this clear?"

  "Yes, master," they chorused.

  Baley turned to Daneel again. "There is nothing you can do now, so don't try to stop me."

  Daneel's arms hung loosely at his side. He said, "I may not, through inaction, allow you to come to harm, Partner Elijah. Yet under the circumstances, nothing but inaction is possible. The logic is unassa
ilable. I shall do nothing. I trust you will remain safe and in good health."

  There it was, thought Baley. Logic was logic and robots had nothing else. Logic told Daneel he was completely stymied. Reason might have told him that all factors are rarely predictable, that the opposition might make a mistake.

  None of that. A robot is logical only, not reasonable.

  Again Baley felt a twinge of shame and could not forbear an attempt at consolation. He said, "Look, Daneel, even if I were walking into danger, which I'm not" (he added that hurriedly, with a quick glance at the other robots) "it would only be my job. It is what I'm paid to do. It is as much my job to prevent harm to mankind as a whole as yours is to prevent harm to man as an individual. Do you see?"

  "I do not, Partner Elijah."

  "Then that is because you're not made to see. Take my word for it that if you were a man, you would see."

  Daneel bowed his head in acquiescence and remained standing, motionless, while Baley walked slowly toward the door of the room. The three robots parted to make room for him and kept their photoelectric eyes fixed firmly on Daneel.

  Baley was walking to a kind of freedom and his heart beat rapidly in anticipation of the fact, then skipped a beat. Another robot was approaching the door from the other side.

  Had something gone wrong?

  "What is it, boy?" he snapped.

  "A message has been forwarded to you, master, from the office of Acting Head of Security Attlebish."

  Baley took the personal capsule handed to him and it opened at once. A finely inscribed strip of paper unrolled. (He wasn't startled. Solaria would have his fingerprints on file and the capsule would be adjusted to open at the touch of his particular convolutions.)

  He read the message and his long face mirrored satisfaction. It was his official permission to arrange "seeing" interviews, subject to the wishes of the interviewees, who were nevertheless urged to give "Agents Baley and Olivaw" every possible co-operation.