Isaac Asimov - Caliban

“Come on, Fredda,” he said. “It’s nearly time to start again.”

“WE cannot talk here!” Tonya hissed angrily under her breath. She hated this, but there was no help for it. Here was Gubber, not half a meter from her. And instead of reaching out to him, throwing her arms around him, and feeling the warmth of his embrace, she was forced to snap at him, to stand apart, to make it seem that he was the last man in the world she wanted to be with. “It’s bad enough that this charade has forced us to appear in public on the same stage, but we cannot be seen talking together. The situation is bad enough without one of Kresh’s goons putting two and two together.”

“The—the curtain is drawn closed,” Gubber said, awkwardly wringing his hands together. “Kresh can’t see us.”

“For all we know, he has undercover surveillance robots working as stagehands, or listening devices trained on the backstage area,” Tonya said, struggling to keep her voice firm. For both their sakes, she dare not give in to him, much as she wanted to do.

“Why in the world would he do that?” Gubber asked, deeply confused.

“Because he might already suspect. There’s gossip about us, I’m sure of it. If he has heard any of it, he might be very interested to hear what we have to say to each other. So we must say nothing. We can’t meet, and we must assume that every comm system will be tapped. We must have no direct contact with each other until this is over, or everything will be ruined.”

“But how can we—” Gubber began, but then it seemed that he could not bear to say more. The poor man. She could see it in his eyes. He thought this was the end. Tonya’s heart welled up with sadness. He was always so afraid that she was going to break off with him, cut her losses, reduce her risk. He thought it a mad dream to think a woman like her would want a fellow like him.

How little he knew. Half the Settler women Tonya knew would do anything to have a man like Gubber, a gentle, thoughtful man who knew how to treat a woman with affection and courtesy. Settler men were so full of bluster, so determined to prove their virility with yet another conquest. Tonya smiled to herself. Not that Gubber had anything to prove on that score.

“Gubber, Gubber,” Tonya said, her voice suddenly soft and gentle. “Darling. I can see what you’re thinking, and it’s just not so. I’m not going to leave you. I could never do that. But with the way things are, it would be almost suicidal for us to meet or use the comm nets. I’ll send Ariel to you with a message later tonight. That’s all we dare risk. All right?”

Tonya saw the wave of relief wash over him. It was going to be all right.

“Thank you,” he said, “Come on. They’re about to start.”

ALVAR Kresh was in his seat in the first row of the auditorium, Donald accompanying him. Alvar Kresh was the only person whose personal robot was permitted to stay. Rank hath its privileges—and he needed Donald close.

“Excuse me, sir. I am receiving an encrypted transmission. Stand by. Reception is complete.”

On the other hand, there were times when having Donald close could be a positive nuisance. This was not the best time or place to receive a confidential document. “Hell. The lecture’s about to start. Read it, Donald, and tell me if it will keep until after the lecture.”

“Yes, sir. One moment.” Donald stared off into nothing at all for several seconds and then came back to life. “Sir, I believe you had best read it at once. It is a raw transcript of the first interview with the robot Horatio. Robopsychologist Patras appears to have been successful in pulling the robot out of catatonia.”

“What’s in the transcript?”

“Sir, I think you should read it for yourself. I would not wish to color your reactions, and I must admit that I find the contents rather—disturbing. I would find it most unpleasant to discuss them.”

Kresh grunted in annoyance. It seemed as if Donald’s mental state was getting to be more and more delicate. Well, police robots had to be on the lookout for that, but it was getting to be an all-too-frequent inconvenience. “All right, all right,” he said. “Print me out a hard copy and maybe I can get through it before Leving starts her talk.”

There was a soft whirring noise from inside Donald, and a door slid open on his chest, revealing a slot. Paper started to feed out from the slot, a page at a time. Donald caught each page neatly in his left hand and transferred it to his right. He handed the pages to Kresh.

Kresh began to read, absently handing each page back to Donald as he was done.

And then Kresh began to swear.

“Most disturbing, as I said, sir.”

Alvar Kresh nodded. He dared not discuss this openly with Donald, not here in public, not with the other members of the audience all around. Best not to say anything direct at all. Clearly Donald had come to the same conclusion.

No wonder Donald had found the transcript upsetting. No wonder this Horatio robot had come unhinged. If the very clear implications in this transcript were accurate, then there was a robot out there that did not have the Three Laws.

No. He could not believe it. No one would be insane enough to build a robot without the Laws. There had to be some other explanation. There had to be some mistake.

Except Caliban, the robot in question, had been built by the woman up on the stage, who had used her first lecture to say how robots were no good for humans. So why the devil was she shielding the rogue robot who had attacked her? Alvar Kresh handed the last page to Donald, and the robot slipped the pages of the document into a storage slot on the side of his body.

“What are we to do, sir?” Donald asked.

Do? That was an excellent question. The situation was a tinderbox. In theory, he now had the evidence to move against Fredda Leving, but not now. What could he do? Clamber up on the stage and arrest her in the midst of her speech? No. Doing so could easily upend the entire intricate arrangement with the Settlers. Fredda Leving fit into that somehow, that much was clear. How, he had no idea. Besides, he had the very strong impression that he would need hear what she had to say if he was going to pursue this case.

But there were other avenues open to him besides the arrest of Fredda Leving.

“We can’t take Leving in, Donald, much as I’d like to,” Kresh said at last. “Not with the Governor and Welton with her. But the moment this damned talk is over with, we are picking up Terach and Anshaw. It’s time we sweated those two a little.”

As for Fredda Leving, maybe he could not arrest her tonight. But he had no intention of making her life easy. He glared up at the stage, waiting for the curtain to open.

AT long last, and far too soon, Fredda could hear the sound she had been waiting for—and dreading. The gong sounded, and the audience began to settle down, grow quiet. It was about to begin. A stagehand robot gave Governor Grieg a hand signal and he nodded. He came over to Fredda and touched her forearm. “Ready, Doctor?”

“What? Oh, yes, yes of course.”

“Then I think we should begin.” He guided her to a seat behind a table at one side of the stage, between Tonya Welton on one side, and Gubber and Jomaine on the other.

All had their attendant robots hovering nearby. Gubber’s old retainer Tetlak, with him since forever. Jomaine’s latest updated, upgraded unit. What was the name? Bertram? Something like that. The joke around the lab was that he changed his personal robot more frequently than he changed underwear. Tonya Welton with Ariel.

A strange, slight irony there. Tonya was here on Inferno to preach against reliance on robots, and here she was with the robot Fredda had given her in happier days. Meanwhile, she, Fredda, had no robot with her at all.