Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire

Gladia was running forward, screaming. It never occurred to her to fear a robot simply because it had knocked down a strong man with a blow and was battling an even stronger robot to a draw.

“How dare you?” she screamed in a Solarian accent so thick that it grated on her own ear—but how else does one speak to a Solarian robot? “How dare you, girl? Stop all resistance immediately!”

The woman’s muscles seemed to relax totally and simultaneously, as though an electric current had suddenly been shut off. Her beautiful eyes looked at Gladia without enough humanity to seem startled. She said in an indistinct, hesitating voice, “My regrets, madam.”

Daneel was on his feet, staring down watchfully at the woman who lay on the grass. D.G., suppressing a groan, was struggling upright.

Daneel bent for the weapons, but Gladia waved him away furiously.

“Give me those weapons, girl,” she said.

The woman said, “Yes, madam.”

Gladia snatched at them, chose the blaster swiftly, and handed it to Daneel. “Destroy her when that seems best, Daneel. That’s an order.” She handed the neuronic whip to D.G. and said, “This is useless here, except against me and yourself. Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not all right,” muttered D.G., rubbing one hip. “Do you mean she’s a robot?”

“Would a woman have thrown you like that?”

“Not any whom I have ever met before. I said there might be special robots on Solaria who were programmed to be dangerous.”

“Of course,” said Gladia unkindly, “but when you saw something that looked like your idea of a beautiful woman, you forgot.”

“Yes, it is easy to be wise after the fact.”

Gladia sniffed and turned again to the robot, “What is your name, girl?”

“I am called Landaree, madam.”

“Get up, Landaree.”

Landaree rose much as Daneel had—as though she were on springs. Her struggle with Daneel seemed to have left her, totally unharmed.

Gladia said, “Why, against the First Law, have you attacked these human beings?”

“Madam,” said Landaree firmly, “these are not human beings.”

“And do you say that I am not a human being?”

“No, madam, you a human being.”

“Then, as a human being, I am defining these two men as human beings.—Do you hear me?”

“Madam,” said Landaree a little more softly, “these are not human beings.”

“They are indeed human beings because I tell you they are. You are forbidden to attack them or harm them in any way.”

Landaree stood mute.

“Do you understand what I have said?” Gladia’s voice grew more Solarian still as she reached for greater intensity.

“Madam,” said Landaree, “these are not human beings.”

Daneel said to Gladia softly, “Madam, she has been given orders of such firmness that you cannot easily countervail them.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Gladia, breathing quickly.

Landaree looked about. The group of robots, during the few minutes of conflict, had come closer to Gladia and her two companions. In the background were two robots who, Gladia decided, were not members of the original group and they were carrying between them, with some difficulty, a large and very massive device of some sort. Landaree gestured to them and they moved forward a bit more quickly.

Gladia cried out, “Robots, stop!”

They stopped.

Landaree said, “Madam, I am fulfilling my duties. I am following my instructions.”

Gladia said, “Your duty, girl, is to obey my orders!”

Landaree said, “I cannot be ordered to disobey my instructions!”

Gladia said, “Daneel, blast her!”

Afterward, Gladia was able to reason out what had happened. Daneel’s reaction time was much faster than a human being’s would have been and he knew that he was facing a robot against which the Three Laws did not inhibit violence. However, she looked so human that even the precise knowledge that she was a robot did not totally overcome his inhibition. He followed the order more slowly than he should have.

Landaree, whose definition of “human being” was clearly not the one Daneel used, was not inhibited by his appearance and she stuck the more quickly. She had her grip on the blaster and again the two struggled.

D.G. turned his neuronic whip butt-first and came in at a half-run to strike. He hit her head squarely, but it had no effect on the robot and her leg sent him flailing backward.

Gladia said, “Robot! Stop!” Her clenched hands were raised.

Landaree shouted in a stentorian contralto, “All of you. Join me! The two apparent males are not human beings. Destroy them without harming the female in any way.”

If Daneel could be inhibited by a human appearance, the same was true in considerably greater intensity for the simple Solarian robots, who inched forward slowly and intermittently.

“Stop!” shrieked Gladia. The robots stopped, but the order had no effect on Landaree.

Daneel held fast to the blaster, but was bending backward under the—force of Landaree’s apparently greater strength.

Gladia, in distraction, looked about as though hoping to find some weapon somewhere.

D.G. was attempting to manipulate his radio transmitter. He said, grunting, “It’s been damaged. I think I fell on it.”

“What do we do?”

“We have to make it back to the ship. Quickly.”

Gladia said, “Then run. I can’t abandon Daneel.” She faced the battling robots, crying out wildly, “Landaree, stop! Landaree, stop!”

“I must not stop, madam,” said Landaree. “My instructions are precise.”

Daneel’s fingers were forced open, and Landaree had the blaster again.

Gladia threw herself before Daneel. “You must not harm this human being.”

“Madam,” said Landaree, her blaster pointed at Gladia, unwavering. “You are standing in front of something that looks like a human being but is not a human being. My instructions are to destroy such on sight.” Then, in a louder, voice, “You two porters—to the ship.”

The two robots, carrying the massive device between them, renewed their forward movement.

“Robots, stop!” screamed Gladia and the forward motion stopped. Me robots trembled in place, as though attempting to move forward and yet not quite able to do so.

Gladia said, “You cannot destroy my human friend Daneel without destroying me—and you yourself admit that I am a human being and therefore must not be harmed.”

Daneel said in a low voice, “My lady, you must not draw harm upon yourself in an effort to protect me.”

Landaree said, “This is useless, madam. I can remove you easily from your present position and then destroy the nonhuman being behind you. Since that may harm you, I ask you, with all respect, to move from your present position voluntarily—”

“You must, my lady,” said Daneel.

“No, Daneel. I’ll stay here. In the time it will take her to move me, you run!”

“I cannot run faster than the beam of a blaster—and if I try to run, she will shoot through you rather than not at all. Her instructions are probably that firm. I regret, my lady, that this will cause you unhappiness.”

And Daneel lifted the struggling Gladia and tossed her lightly to one side.

Landaree’s finger tightened on the contact, but never completed the pressure. She remained motionless.

Gladia, who had staggered to a sitting position, got to her feet. Cautiously, D.G., who had remained in place during the last exchanges, approached Landaree. Daneel quite calmly reached out and took the blaster from her unresisting fingers.

“I believe,” said Daneel, “that this robot is permanently deactivated.”

He pushed her gently and she fell over in one piece, with her limbs, torso, and head in the relative positions they occupied when she was standing. Her arm was still bent, her hand was holding an invisible blaster, and her finger was pressing on an invisible contact.