They turned and left. I saw, as they walked past, that Anita had been behind me the whole time.
“Did you hear all that?” I asked.
“Yes, but I’m not sure I understand most of it,” she said. “You all seem very intelligent. Most of that went over my head.”
“They’re intelligent because they were programmed that way. I’m just lucky.”
“Do you really think robots and androids have a soul?” She knitted her eyebrows.
“Who knows? Maybe they do. They haven’t been around long enough to know,” I said.
I grabbed a cookie on the way out. “Thanks for a very interesting evening. I promise I will be back.”
I looked out the door down the corridor. “Maybe Axel and Sussudio will be, too.”
Chapter Seventeen
The next afternoon was largely taken up with the previously scheduled visit with Mark Davis-Seale. Dolores McCarver called me before lunch.
“Constable Coltingham is sending Officer Jenny to accompany you to his location,” she said. “She will pick you up at 2 PM.”
Officer Jenny arrived promptly at 2 PM. Sherry had never met her, and eyed the android warily.
“You sure about those Laws of Robotics?” she asked softly. “She looks like she could fold you up like a portable lawn chair.”
“What choice do I have?” I asked.
“What if Kurland has control of her?” she asked dubiously.
“Relax. I know her. There’ll be no trouble.”
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“No, except it’s outside the colony.”
“Best of luck,” said Sherry. “Be careful.”
“I will be.” I turned to the android. “Jenny, why are you my escort today?”
“Normal robots and androids are not permitted to go out of the colony and away into the desert,” she said. “I have an exemption because of working in law enforcement.”
I looked questioningly at Sherry. . I noticed she shook her head and mouthed, “I don’t know.”
I shrugged.
“Very well, let’s go then. I suppose this will take the rest of the day.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jenny.”
We took the train to Dome Seven, and on its far side we entered an airlock where Jenny picked up a tractor while I put on a suit.
“You should bring a backpack with at least two extra tanks,” she said.
“How long will we be gone?”
“Not long, but where we are going, the life support system is very primitive. They have an internal air system but no way to recharge air tanks.”
The lock door lifted and we drove out. The sun hung in the sky like an orange softball, casting reddish-tinged shadows across the dunes.
“Where exactly is it that we are going?” I asked.
“It was the landing location for the first expedition that started construction,” she said. “It was only active for a year while the heavy transports landed with robots and materials. Once Dome One was enclosed and the spaceport built, it was no longer needed.”
“How come I never heard of it?”
“It is a derelict facility,” she said.
“Then why is Davis-Seale living there?”
“He will explain that himself,” she said. “Or rather, it will become obvious when you arrive.”
“Did Kurland or Coltingham ask you to take me?”
“Mister Coltingham; I work for him.”
“Was he instructed by Mister Kurland?”
“I have no firsthand knowledge of that.”
I tried to sound authoritative. “Do you recall who is at the top of the chain of command of the colony?”
“You, sir.”
“Remember that while we are on this excursion.”
“Yes, sir.”
It was five kilometers away, past a range of low jagged hills—the remains of the outer ring of an old impact crater—that rose above the dunes. Despite the intervening sandstorms, even after ten years I could still see some remains of heavy equipment that hauled the original construction material to where the first dome was built.
We passed through a cleft in a block-like graben formation where the underlying rock had cracked and settled after the long-ago asteroid impact. It was easy to see why the original landing location had been chosen, as it was relatively protected. But it was not a large crater, there was no room for actually siting the colony.
Ahead, there was a low, rectangular building, adjacent to some leaning abandoned gantries. Officer Jenny pulled up in front of the lone entrance, and we exited the ground crawler. She pulled a lever and the doorway slid sideways. We stepped inside. It was a primitive closet-sized airlock, round inside, like a barrel. She pulled another lever and the outer door closed. Then she turned a wheel and the whole airlock pivoted 180 degrees.
She pulled a lever on the opposite wall and an inner door opened up. We stepped into a low, dimly lit room.
I sniffed. The air was stuffy and obviously heavily recycled. Then I took a quick look around. The building had clearly been the control center of the temporary landing site when the colony was first being built. The consoles were now covered with domestic clutter and blankets.
In the middle of a short far wall, a gray-haired man lay under a crochet throw, sleeping in a reclining chair.
An older model android with golden-yellow hair rose from a chair and came over to us.
“Administrator Shuster, I am Elena, Mark’s caregiver and companion.”
It was clear she was an older android; her appearance was waxy and unrealistic. She looked over to the supine man. “Mark and I have been together 17 years.”
I must have registered surprise, because she nodded. “Yes, we met on the Moon. I was manufactured there.”
Mark had opened his eyes and tried to smile. “I’ve heard so much about you, Mister Shuster,” he whispered. He was obviously very weak. As I got closer, I saw he had an oxygen tube running up his nose. “I can’t raise my voice,” he said.
“I wish we were meeting under more pleasant circumstances,” I said. “I’ve been told you are dying.”
“My lung function is only at seven percent,” he said softly. “This is the end. But I am happy to die at home, here, with the one I love.”
He looked at Elena and nodded, feebly. “Yes, Elena and I have lived as man and wife for 17 years. We met when I was Gunter Lielischkies’ assistant at the Moon Base.”
“This is your home?”
“Yes. When Elena and I cohabited in Pattonville, it became an open scandal. That’s one of the things that led to the decision to exile all robots and androids to Mars. We insisted on living together as man and wife.”
“I never heard that!”
“You people in the United States had a similar situation, did you not?” asked Elena. “When people of different races were not allowed to marry or live together as man and wife?”
“Yes, that was only eliminated recently,” I said, a bit ashamed.
“When the Mars colony was established, Elena and I knew we could have a fresh start. I had an apartment, but we lived there only a year, until this building was cleared out,” he said. “We’ve lived together here since then. I commuted to the office each day.”
“That explains why your apartment was in such good condition,” I said. “It wasn’t lived in much.”
“This place isn’t much, but it’s been our home and hideaway,” he said. “I’ve paid the price for living with this jury-rigged filtration system. The Martian dust worked its way inside our home here, settling into my lungs as I slept. A year ago I began to suffer this shortness of breath, and three months ago I had to resign my post—your job now.”
“Don’t speak darling. Save your strength,” Elena said, tenderly touching his cheek.
“Unlike on the Moon, we were more discreet about our relationship here,” she said to me. “I was a burden for Mark. You humans crave companionship with your own kind. It didn’t m
atter to me. Few people here knew about us. We even kept it a secret from Sherry.”
I turned to her. “Elena, how did you find each other? Were you being used as a sexual surrogate?”
“No!” croaked Mark.
“How dare you!” Elena snapped.
I took a step back, and bumped against Officer Jenny. “Wait, is that anger? That’s an emotion!”
Mark gestured to me. “Come closer, I can’t raise my voice,” he said. “Elena, please step aside. Mister Shuster and I have to have a personal conversation.”
Elena joined Jenny and they both moved away. I sat in the chair next to Mark’s recliner.
“I joined the space program after my first marriage failed in 1965,” he said. “You know, like a man who joins the French Foreign Legion to forget a lost love?”
I nodded.
“Elena was Gunter Lielischkies’ secretary. Strangely enough, we slowly developed a relationship, and one day Gunter told me she had been ‘modified’ in a way I might enjoy,” he said. “I soon learned what he meant.”
“You mean she was the first android to become a sexual companion?” I asked.
“I believe so, but she was more than that,” he said softly. “She had real feelings, genuine emotions which seemed to become more sophisticated with time. That puzzled me. I was young then, like you, and full of unseemly curiosity. So I looked into Elena’s background.”
“I learned that Kurland had been cheating with the positronic brains. He had stolen some after the Cuban Robot Crisis of 1962 that were supposed to have been destroyed. Gunter told me himself that he had helped smuggle them to the Eastern Bloc when Tesla was set up,” he continued. “They wanted some of the old kind in case the outdated version of the Three Laws came in handy.”
“A secret insurance project,” I said. He nodded slightly.
“Yes, and Kurland got away with it. He used new, properly programmed positronic brains for construction robots and such, but he saved money by recycling and copying the old ones for the androids, the ones that would work in close proximity to and with humans. It seemed to work well,” he said. “What he didn’t know was that even the earliest versions of heuristic sub-routines had the capacity to evolve.”
He propped himself up on one elbow with some effort and called over to his companion. “Elena dear, when was your positronic brain programmed?”
She turned from Officer Jenny. “August 14, 1947. Last modified Dec. 6, 1968.”
I was stunned. “That’s the earliest date I’ve ever heard of,” I said. “That brain must have been built by Professor Asimov himself at MIT!”
“It was,” said Mark. “As I learned from observation, after over 20 years of sheer repetition and crunching calculations, her positronic brain had developed the ability to register subtle perceptions we thought were only human domains, such as caring, feeling … and loving, thereby recapitulating millions of years of evolutions for humans.”
“Did it occur to you that Kurland and Lielischkies conspired to put you in a compromising position for blackmail?” I asked.
“Of course. That’s why Elena worked for Gunter. But they both saw the value of taking the next step, of reaching the next plateau, of making androids that could live with humans as companions.”
“I don’t mean to sound like Joe McCarthy, but this is subversive.”
“Of course it is.” He grimaced. “I was recruited as a Soviet agent at university. Most of the British civil servants in the space program are working for the Soviets.”
“Why are you telling me this, then?”
“Has Gunter Lielischkies been helpful to you?”
“Yes, he’s been surprisingly open, which has been a bit of a surprise,” I said.
“Kurland has gone rogue. He’s not coordinated with WarPac for years,” Mark said. “He’s got his own agenda.”
“Is he working for the Chinese? The French?”
“He’s working for himself,” said Mark. “He’s become a danger to all sides.”
“I know. Lielischkies tipped me off on the house phone at Saitama about looking into Wilder’s death. He couldn’t cover his accent enough,” I said. “Also, I saw Ivan Iglyztin at a table, next to an empty seat, which I assumed had been Lielischkies’.”
“Excellent deduction,” said Mark.
“But it was Kurland who sent me here. Why?”
“He wants me to convince you that android companions are a good thing, to see that Elena and I have a true, loving and lasting relationship,” he said. “Which we do. It’s true.”
He raised a finger. “But Kurland is an arrogant bastard. He thinks you’re stupid.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I went to an Ivy League school. He’s hardly the first arrogant snob I’ve encountered.”
“He doesn’t know that we all know he’s gone rogue and broken with WarPac. He felt it was safe to send you to visit me, that it would confuse you into indecision.”
“Well, I am confused. That’s true. I’m getting all kinds of mixed signals about the role of androids. It just convinces me I’m right to ban their use as companions until things can be better sorted out.”
“Kurland’s goal is to keep you chasing your own tail until he launches his plan, whatever it is,” he said. “You’re feeding that impression with your obsession with your missing lover.”
“In a way I want him to, to think I’m off-kilter,” I said. “That feeds his overconfidence. And I really am interested in finding closure with Desiree, here or on Earth. But I’m really not as emotionally attached as you would suppose. That relationship died years ago. There’s a difference between seeking closure and having an obsession.”
“You should move on and find someone else, then.” He smiled and winced. “Elena, please come over here.”
She went over and took his hand. “Tell Mister Shuster about us,” he said.
She looked at me, with a strangely serious look. “Like a child, I had no genuine feelings when I was new. Passing along a positronic brain is like what you humans call reincarnation, except I clearly recall all my previous experiences. I first was a test subject for Professor Asimov, then a space rigger on the Moon installation, and then, after being damaged, a mechanical service robot who was ordered to fight as a soldier in Cuba for the revolutionaries,” she said. “Then my positronic brain went to the Moon with Herr Lielischkies, and I was reintegrated into another body.”
“It was while working for Herr Lielischkies that I met Mark,” she continued. “All those years before, I had seen and observed humans interacting, at work, in competition, at war. Then I met Mark, and I felt an emotion for myself, love. He showed me concern and caring. He was a gentleman.”
“And I, for the first time, met someone who loved me for who I was, and how I treated them. She had no ulterior motive, no secret agenda … no baggage,” said Mark.
“You obviously never owned a dog,” I said.
“Ah, that’s a flippant remark, but there’s a grain of truth in it,” he said. “Except that a dog is man’s best friend because they are by nature subservient. An android does not have that nature; they are made in our image.”
“I have loved him, and he has loved me,” said Elena. “We are equals. Isn’t that what a true relationship is made of?”
“Okay, so you’ve had this as your home out here all these years,” I said. “You are exceptional, I get that. But what about the potential for abuse? Kurland is flooding the colony with robot sex toys.”
“Infiltration,” Mark rasped. “A third way. You, on behalf of the West, and Lielischkies, on behalf of the Eastern Bloc, must join forces to stop him. Otherwise, he will complete what was attempted in 1962, but on an interplanetary scale.”
I looked down at my hands and tried to think. I noticed my hands were shaking.
“Damn, this is serious,” I said. “This is not what I signed up for.”
With Kurland in mind, I had a thought. I turned toward Officer Jenny.
�
�You are recording all this I assume?
“Of course, I was commanded by Constable Coltingham to do so.”
“Stop recording, and erase what you already have.”
“I can’t do that. I have an overriding authority,” she replied. “You have insufficient privileges to issue that command.”
“I seem to recall on the way here I reminded you that I am the head of the colony’s administration. What kind of directive overrides my direct order?”
“From Tesla, confirmed by Constable Coltingham.”
“Damn!” I gave her a hard look and thought for a moment to yell at her, and then realized it would be impossible to browbeat an android.
Then I noticed Mark Davis-Seale was smiling.
“You know something I don’t?”
“Yes, I was the one who suggested Coltingham delegate Officer Jenny to bring you here, and for a particular reason,” he said. “I know we can override that directive.”
“I know all androids have a security code to switch control when they are reassigned,” I said, “but that’s a closely guarded company secret. Otherwise they could be hijacked.”
“Yes, but with Jenny, they got careless. I know her control code,” he said. “Actually, you do, too. Remember, android names are associated with popular songs. Think of the song, you’ll know her override code.”
I stared at him for a moment, running the song through my head. Then I slapped my forehead.
Of course!
“Jenny, Control Code Override 8675309 activated.”
“Awaiting new instructions.”
“Top priority: My commands. Ignore today’s exchange between Mister Davis-Seale and myself. If asked, state that I asked you to wait outside.”
She turned her head. “That would be a lie. I cannot do that.”
“No, it’s not a lie. Go outside and wait. When asked, state ‘I did not hear the entire conversation, Mister Shuster asked me to go outside and wait.’ That would be a true statement.”
I pointed. “Now go.”
She did.
I turned to Elena and Mark. “I think we have ourselves a double agent.”
“What do you plan to do next, Mister Shuster?” Elena asked.
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