Robots and Empire trs-4

by Isaac Asimov

  “Are you sure it will work out that way?”

  “Absolutely. Just send the message and make it strong and I will guarantee all the rest—victory for the Spacers, and ourselves, defeat for Earth and the Settlers.”

  14. THE DUEL

  65

  Gladia watched Aurora’s globe on the screen. Its cloud cover seemed caught in mid-swirl along the thick crescent that was shining in the light of its sun.

  “Surely we’re not that close,” she said.

  D.G. smiled. “By no means. We’re seeing it through a rather good lens. It’s still several days away, counting the spiral approach. If we ever get an antigravitic drive, which the physicists keep dreaming about but seem helpless to bring about, spaceflight will become really simple and fast. As it is, our Jumps can only deliver us safely to a rather goodish distance from a planetary mass.”

  “It’s odd,” said Gladia thoughtfully.

  “What is, madam?”

  “When we went to Solaria, I thought to myself. ‘I’m going home,’ but when I landed I found that I wasn’t home at all. Now we’re going to Aurora and I thought to myself, ‘Now I’m going home,’ and yet—that world down there isn’t home, either.”

  “Where is home, then, madam?”

  “I’m beginning to wonder.—But why do you persist in calling me ‘madam’?”

  D.G. looked surprised. “Do you prefer ‘Lady Gladia,’ Lady Gladia?”

  “That’s also mock respect. Do you feel that way about me?”

  “Mock respect? Certainly not. But how else does a Seater address a Spacer? I’m trying to be polite and to conform to your customs—to do what makes you feel comfortable.”

  “But it doesn’t make me feel comfortable. Just call me Gladia. I’ve suggested it before. After all, I call you ‘D.G.’”

  “And that suits me fine, although in front of my officers and men, I would prefer to have you address me as ‘Captain,’ and I will call you ‘madam.’” Discipline must be maintained.”

  “Yes, of course,” said Gladia absently, staring at Aurora again. “I have no home.”

  She whirled toward D.G., “Is it possible that you might take me to Earth, D.G.?”

  “Possible,” said D.G., smiling. “You might not want to go—Gladia.”

  “I think I want to go,” said Gladia, “unless I lose my courage.”

  “Infection does exist,” said D.G., “and that’s what Spacers fear, isn’t it?”

  “Too much, perhaps. After all, I knew your Ancestor and wasn’t infected. I have been on this ship and have survived. Look, you’re near me right now. I was even on your world, with thousands crowding near me. I think I’ve worked up a certain amount of resistance.”

  “I must tell you, Gladia, that Earth is a thousand times as crowded as Baleyworld.”

  “Even so,” said Gladia, her voice warming, “I’ve changed my mind completely—about many things. I’ve told you there was nothing left to live for after twenty-three decades and it turns out there is. What happened to me on Baleyworld—that talk I gave, the way it moved people—was something new, something I’d never imagined. It was like being born all over, starting again at the first decade. It seems to me now that, even if Earth kills me, it would be worth it, for I would die young and trying and fighting death, not old and weary and welcoming it.”

  “Well!” said D.G., lifting his arms in a mock-heroic gesture, “you sound like a hyperwave historical. Have you ever watched them on Aurora?”

  “Of course. They’re very popular.”

  “Are you rehearsing for one, Gladia, or do you really mean what you say?”

  Gladia laughed. “I suppose I do sound rather silly, D.G but the funny thing is that I do mean it—if I don’t lose my courage.”

  “In that case, we’ll do it. We’ll go to Earth. I don’t think they’ll consider you worth a war, especially if you report fully on events on Solaria, as they want you to, and if you give your word of honor as a Spacer woman—if you do things like that—to return.”

  “But I won’t.”

  “But you may want to someday.—And now, my lady, I mean, Gladia—it is always a pleasure to speak with you, but I’m always tempted to spend too much time at it and I am certain I am needed in the control room. If I’m not and they can do without me, then I’d rather they didn’t find out.”

  66

  “Was that your doing, friend Giskard?”

  “To what is it that you refer, friend Daneel?”

  “Lady Gladia is anxious to go to Earth and even perhaps not to return. That is a desire so antithetical to what a Spacer such as she would want that I cannot help but suspect that you did something to her mind to make her feel so.”

  Giskard said, “I did not touch her.—It is difficult enough to tamper with any human being within the cage of the Three Laws. To tamper with the mind of the particular individual for whose safety one is directly responsible is more difficult still.”

  “Then why does she wish to go to Earth?”

  “Her experiences on Baleyworld have changed her point of view considerably. She has a mission—that of ensuring peace in the Galaxy—and bums to work at it.”

  “In that case, friend Giskard, would it not be better to do what you can to persuade the captain, in your own fashion, to go to Earth directly?”

  “That would create difficulties. The Auroran authorities are so insistent on Lady Gladia being returned to Aurora that it would be better to do so, at least temporarily.”

  “Yet it could be dangerous to do so,” said Daneel.

  “Then you still think, friend Daneel, that it is I whom they want to retain because they have learned of my abilities?”

  “I see no other reason for their insistence on Lady Gladia’s return.”

  Giskard said, “Thinking like a man has its pitfalls, I see. It becomes possible to suppose difficulties that cannot exist. Even if someone on Aurora were to suspect the existence of my abilities, it is with those abilities that I would remove the suspicion. There is nothing to fear, friend Daneel.”

  And Daneel said reluctantly, “As you say, friend Giskard.”

  67

  Gladia looked about thoughtfully, sending off the robots with a careless motion of her hand.

  She looked at her hand, as she did so, almost as though she were seeing it for the first time. It had been the hand with which she had shaken the hand of each of the crewmen of the ship before getting into the small tender that took her and D.G. down to Aurora. When she promised to return, they had cheered her and Niss had bawled out, “We won’t leave without you, my lady.”

  The cheering had pleased her enormously. Her robots served her endlessly, loyally, patiently, but they never cheered her.

  D.G., watching her curiously, said, “Surely you are at home now, Gladia.”

  “I am in my establishment,” she said in a low voice. “It has been my establishment since Dr. Fastolfe assigned it to me twenty decades ago and yet it feels strange to me.”

  “It is strange to me,” said D.G. “I’d feel rather lost staying here alone.” He looked, about with a half-smile at, the ornate furnishings and the elaborately decorated walls.

  “You won’t be alone, D.G.,” said Gladia. “My household robots will be with you and they have full instructions. They will devote themselves to your comfort.”

  “Will they understand my Settler accent?”

  “If they fail to understand, they will ask you to repeat and you must then speak slowly and make gestures. They will prepare food for you, show you how to use the facilities in the guest rooms—and they will also keep a sharp eye on you to make sure that you do not act in an unguestly manner. They will stop you—if necessary—but they will do so without hurting you.”

  “I trust they won’t consider me nonhuman.”

  “As the overseer did? No, I guarantee you that, D.G., though your beard and accent may confuse them to the point where they will be a second or two slow in reacting.”

 
; “And I suppose they’ll protect me against intruders?”

  “They will, but there won’t be any intruders.”

  “The Council may want to come and get me.”

  “Then they will send robots and mine will turn them away.”

  “What if their robots overpower your robots?”

  “That can’t happen, D.G. An establishment is inviolate.”

  “Come on, Gladia. Do you mean that nobody has ever—”

  “Nobody has ever!” she replied at once. “You just stay here comfortably and my robots will take care of all your needs. If you want to get in touch with your ship, with Baleyworld, even with the Auroran Council, they will know exactly what to do. You won’t have to lift a finger.”

  D.G. sank down into the nearest chair, spread himself out over it, and sighed deeply. “How wise we are to allow no robots on the Settler worlds. Do you know how long it would take to corrupt me into idleness and sloth if I stayed in this kind of society? Five minutes at most. In fact, I’m corrupted already.” He yawned and stretched luxuriously. “Would they mind if I sleep?”

  “Of course they wouldn’t. If you do, the robots will see to it that your surroundings are kept quiet and dark.”

  Then D.G. straightened suddenly. “What if you don’t come back?”

  “Why shouldn’t I come back?”

  “The Council seems to want you rather urgently.”

  “They can’t hold me. I’m a free Auroran citizen and I go where I please.”

  “There are always emergencies when a government wishes to manufacture one—and in an emergency, rules can always be broken.”

  “Nonsense. Giskard, am I going to be kept there?”

  Giskard said, “Madam Gladia, you will not be kept there. The captain need not be concerned with respect to that.”

  “There you are, D.G. And your Ancestor, the last time he saw me, told me I was always to trust Giskard.”

  “Good! Excellent! Just the same, the reason I came down with you, Gladia, was to make sure I get you back. Remember that and tell it to your Dr. Amadiro if you have to. If they try to keep you against your will, they will have to try to keep me as well—and my ship, which is in orbit, is fully capable of reacting to that.”

  “No, please,” said Gladia, disturbed. “Don’t think of doing that. Aurora has ships as well and I’m sure yours is under observation.”

  “There’s a difference, though, Gladia. I doubt very much that Aurora would want to go to war over you. Baleyworld, on the other hand, would be quite prepared to.”

  “Surely not. I wouldn’t want them to go to war on my account. And why should they, anyway? Because I was a friend of your Ancestor?”

  “Not exactly. I don’t think anyone can quite believe that you were that friend. Maybe your great-grandmother, not you. Even I don’t believe it was you.”

  “You know it was I.”

  “Intellectually, yes. Emotionally, I find it impossible. That was twenty decades ago.”

  Gladia shook her head. “You have the short-lived view.”

  “Maybe we all do, but it doesn’t matter. What makes you important to Baleyworld is the speech you gave. You’re a heroine and they will decide you must be presented at Earth. Nothing will be allowed to prevent that.”

  Gladia said, a trifle alarmed, “Presented at Earth? With full ceremony?”

  “The fullest.”

  “Why should that be thought so important as to be worth a war?”

  “I’m not sure I can explain that to a Spacer. Earth is a special world. Earth is a—holy world. It’s the only real world. It’s where human beings came into being and it’s the only world in which they evolved and developed and lived against a full background of life. We have trees on Baleyworld and insects—but on Earth they have a wild riot of trees and insects that none of us ever see except on Earth. Our worlds are imitations, pale imitations. They don’t exist and can’t exist except for the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual strength they draw from Earth.”

  Gladia said, “This is quite opposed to the opinion of Earth held by Spacers. When we refer to Earth, which we seldom do, it is as a world that is barbarous and in decay.”

  D.G. flushed. “That is why the Spacerworlds have been growing steadily weaker. As I said before, you are like plants that have pulled themselves loose from their roots, like animals that have cut out their hearts.”

  Gladia said, “Well, I look forward to seeing Earth for myself, but I will have to go now. Please treat this as your own establishment till I return.” She walked briskly toward the door, stopped, then turned. “There are no alcoholic drinks in this establishment or anywhere on Aurora, no tobacco, no alkaloidal stimulants, nothing of any artificial kinds of—of whatever you may be used to.”

  D.G. grinned sourly. “We Settlers are aware of that. Very puritanical, you people.”

  “Not puritanical at all,” said Gladia, frowning. “Thirty to forty decades of life must be paid for—and that’s one of the ways. You don’t suppose we do it by magic, do you?”

  “Well, I’ll make do on healthful fruit juices and sanitized near-coffee—and I’ll smell flowers.”

  “You’ll find an ample supply of such things,” said Gladia coldly, and when you get back to your ship, I’m sure you can compensate for any withdrawal symptoms you will now suffer.”

  “I will suffer only from your withdrawal, my lady,” said D.G. gravely.

  Gladia found herself forced to smile. “You’re an incorrigible liar, my captain. I’ll be back.—Daneel.—Giskard.”

  68

  Gladia sat stiffly in Amadiro’s office. In many decades, she had seen Amadiro only in the distance or on a viewing screen and on such occasions, she had made it a practice to turn away. She remembered him only as Fastolfe’s great enemy and now that she found herself, for the first time, in the same room with him—in face-to-face confrontation she had to freeze her face into expressionlessness, in order not to allow hate to peep through.

  Although she and Amadiro were the only palpable human beings in the room, there were at least a dozen high officials—the Chairman himself among them—who were present by way of sealed-beam holovision. Gladia had recognized the Chairman and some of the others, but not all.

  It was rather a grisly experience. It seemed so like the viewing that was universal of Solaria and to which she had been so accustomed as a girl—and which she recalled with such distaste.

  She made an effort to speak clearly, undramatically, and concisely. When asked a question, she was as brief as was consistent with clarity and as noncommittal as was consistent with courtesy.

  The Chairman listened impassively and the others took their cue from him. He was clearly elderly—Chairmen always were, somehow, for it was usually late in life that they attained the position. He had a long face, a still thick head of hair, and prominent eyebrows. His voice was mellifluous, but in no way friendly.

  When Gladia was done, he said, “It is your suggestion, then, that the Solarians, had redefined ‘human being’ in a narrow sense that restricted it to Solarians.”

  “I do not suggest anything, Mr. Chairman. It is merely that no one has been able to think of another explanation that would account for the events.”

  “Are you aware, Madam Gladia, that in all the history of robotic science, no robot has ever been designed with a narrowed definition of ‘human being’?”

  “I am not a roboticist, Mr. Chairman, and I know nothing of the mathematics of positronic pathways. Since you say it has never been done, I, of course, accept that. I cannot say, of my own knowledge, however, whether the fact that it has never been done means that it can never be done in the future.”

  Her eyes had never looked as wide and innocent as they did now and the Chairman flushed and said, “It is not theoretically impossible to narrow the definition, but it is unthinkable.”

  Gladia said, with a downcast glance at her hands, which were loosely clasped in her lap, “People can think such peculiar thin
gs sometimes.”

  The Chairman changed the subject and said, “An Auroran ship was destroyed. How do you account for that?”

  “I was not present at the site of the incident, Mr. Chairman. I have no idea what happened, so I can’t account for it.”

  “You were on Solaria and you were born on the planet. Given your recent experience and early background, what would you say happened?” The Chairman showed signs of a badly strained patience.

  “If I must guess,” said Gladia, “I should say that our warship was exploded by the use of a portable nuclear intensifier similar to the one that was almost used on the Settler ship.”

  “Does it not strike you, however, that the two cases are different. In one, a Settler ship invaded Solaria to confiscate Solarian robots; in the other, an Auroran vessel came to Solaria to help protect a sister planet.”

  “I can only suppose, Mr. Chairman, that the overseers—the humanoid robots left to guard the planet—were insufficiently well-instructed to know the difference.”

  The Chairman looked offended. “It is inconceivable that they would not be instructed in the difference between Settlers and fellow Spacers.”

  “If you say so, Mr. Chairman. Nevertheless, if the only definition of a human being is someone with the physical appearance of a human being, together with the ability to speak in Solarian fashion—as it seemed to us, who were on the spot, that it must be—then Aurorans, who do not speak in Solarian fashion, might not fall under the heading of human beings where the overseers were concerned.”

  “Then you are saying that the Solarians defined their fellow Spacers as nonhuman and subjected them to destruction.”

  “I present it merely as a possibility because I can’t think of any other way to explain the destruction of any Auroran warship. More experienced people may be able to present alternate explanations, to be sure.” Again that innocent, almost blank, look.