Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire

“None, since it was a robot.”

“It seems to me that, had I succeeded in destroying her, I would have suffered some obstruction to the free positronic flow, no matter how thoroughly I understood her to be a robot.”

“The humanoid appearance, friend Daneel, cannot be fought off when that is all one can directly judge by. Seeing is so much more immediate than deducing. It was only because I could observe her mental structure and concentrate on that, that I could ignore her physical structure.”

“How do you suppose the overseer would have felt if she had destroyed us, judging from her mental structure?”

“She was given exceedingly firm instructions and there was no doubt in her circuits that you, and the captain were nonhuman by her definition.”

“But she might have destroyed Madam Gladia as well.”

“Of that we cannot be certain, friend Daneel.”

“Had she done so, friend Giskard, would she have survived? Have you any way of telling?”

Giskard was silent for a considerable period. “I had insufficient time to study the mental pattern. I cannot say what her reaction might have been had she killed Madam Gladia.”

“If I imagine myself in, the place of the overseer”—Daneel’s voice trembled and grew slightly lower in pitch, “it seems to me that I might kill a human being in order to save the life of another human being, whom, there might be some reason to think, it was more necessary to save. The action would, however, be difficult and damaging. To kill a human being merely in order to destroy something I considered nonhuman would be inconceivable.”

“She merely threatened. She did not carry through the threat.”

“Might she have, friend Giskard?”

“How can we say, since we don’t know the nature of her instructions?”

“Could the instructions have so completely negated the First Law?”

Giskard said, “Your whole purpose in this discussion, I see, has been to raise this question. I advise you to go no further.”

Daneel said stubbornly, “I will put it in the conditional, friend Giskard. Surely what may not be expressed as fact can be advanced as fantasy. If instructions could be hedged about with definitions and conditions, if the instructions could be made sufficiently detailed in a sufficiently forceful manner, might it be possible to kill a human being for a purpose less overwhelming than the saving of the life of another human being?”

Giskard said tonelessly, “I do not know, but I suspect that this might be possible.”

“But, then, if your suspicion should be collect, that would imply that it was possible to neutralize the First Law under specialized conditions. The First Law, in that case, and, therefore, certainly the other Laws might be modified into almost nonexistence. The Laws, even the First Law, might not be an absolute then, but might be whatever those who design robots defined it to be.”

Giskard said, “It is enough, friend Daneel. Go no further.”

Daneel said, “There is one more step, friend Giskard. Partner Elijah would have taken that additional step.”

“He was a human being. He could.”

“I must try. If the Laws of Robotics—even the First Law—are not absolutes and if human beings can modify them, might it not be that perhaps, under proper conditions, we ourselves might mod—” He stopped.

Giskard said faintly, “Go no further.”

Daneel said, a slight hum obscuring his voice, “I go no further.”

There was a silence for a long time. It was with difficulty that the positronic circuitry in each ceased undergoing discords.

Finally, Daneel said, “Another thought arises. The overseer was dangerous not only because of the set of her instructions but because of her appearance. It inhibited me and probably the captain and could mislead and deceive human beings generally, as I deceived, without meaning to, First Class Shipper Niss. He clearly was not aware, at first, that I was a robot.”

“And what follows from that, friend Daneel?”

“On Aurora, a number of humanoid robots were constructed at the Robotics Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Amadiro, after the designs of Dr. Fastolfe had been obtained.”

“This is well known.”

“What happened to those humanoid robots?”

“The project failed.”

In his turn, Daneel said, “This is well known. But it does not answer the question. What happened to those humanoid robots?”

“One can assume they were destroyed.”

“Such an assumption need not necessarily be correct. Were they, in actual fact, destroyed?”

“That would have been the sensible thing to do. What else with a failure?”

“How do we know the humanoid robots were a failure, except in that they were removed from sight?”

“Isn’t that sufficient, if they were removed from sight and destroyed?”

“I did not say ‘and destroyed,’ friend Giskard. That is more than we know. We know only that they were removed from sight.”

“Why should that be so, unless they were failures?”

“And if they were not failures, might there be no reason for their being removed from sight?”

“I can think of none, friend Daneel.”

“Think again, friend Giskard. Remember, we are talking now of humanoid robots who, we now think, might from the mere fact of their humanoid nature be dangerous. It has seemed to us in our previous discussion that there was a plan on foot on Aurora to defeat the Settlers drastically, surely, and at a blow. We decided that these plans must be centered on the planet Earth. Am I correct so far?”

“Yes, friend Daneel.”

“Then might it not be that Dr. Amadiro is at the focus and center of this plan? His antipathy to Earth has been made plain these twenty decades. And if Dr. Amadiro has constructed a number of humanoid robots, where might these have been sent if they have disappeared from view? Remember that if Solarian roboticists can distort the Three Laws, Auroran roboticists can do the same.”

“Are you suggesting, friend Daneel, that the humanoid robots have been sent to Earth?”

“Exactly. There to deceive the Earthpeople through their human appearance and to make possible whatever it is that Dr. Amadiro intends as his blow against Earth.”

“You have no evidence for this.”

“Yet it is possible. Consider for yourself the steps of the argument.”

“If that were so, we would have to go to Earth. We would have to be there and somehow prevent the disaster.”

“Yes, that is so.”

“But we cannot go unless Lady Gladia goes and that is not likely.”

“If you can influence the captain to take this ship to Earth, Madam Gladia would have no choice but to go as well.”

Giskard said, “I cannot without harming him. He is firmly set on going to his own planet of Baleyworld. We must maneuver his trip to Earth—if we can—after he has done whatever he plans in Baleyworld.”

“Afterward may be too late.”

“I cannot help that. I must not harm a human being.”

“If it is too late—Friend Giskard, consider what that would mean.”

“I cannot consider what that would mean. I know only that I cannot harm a human being.”

“Then the First Law is not enough and we must—” He could go no farther and both robots lapsed into helpless silence.

Baleyworld came slowly into sharper view as the ship approached it. Gladia watched it intently in her cabin’s viewer; it was the first time she had ever seen a Settler world.

She had protested this leg of the journey when she had first been made aware of it by D.G., but he shrugged it off with a small laugh. “What would you have, my lady? I must lug this weapon of your people”—he emphasized “your” slightly—“to my people. And I must report to them, too.”