Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire

“Dare I use the word ‘chance’ again, Dr. Mandamus?”

“In this case, it may be chance, but the moon remains unique.”

“Even so. What possible connection can the satellite have with Earth’s profusion of life?”

“That may not be obvious and a connection may be unlikely—but it is far more unlikely that two such unusual examples of uniqueness in a single planet can have no connection at all. I have found such a connection.”

“Indeed?” said Amadiro alertly. Now ought to come unmistakable evidence of crackpotism. He looked casually at the time strip on the wall. There really wasn’t much more time he could possibly spend on this, for all that his curiosity continued to be aroused.

“The moon,” said Mandamus, “is slowly receding from Earth, due to its tidal effect on the Earth. Earth’s large tides are a unique consequence of the existence of this large satellite. Earth’s sun produces tides, too, but to only a third of the extent of the moon’s tides—just as our sun produces small tides on Aurora.

“Since the moon recedes because of its tidal action, it was far closer to Earth during the early history of its planetary system. The closer the moon to the Earth, the higher the tides on Earth. These tides had two important effects on Earth. It flexed the Earth’s crust continually as the Earth rotated and it slowed the Earth’s rotation, both through that flexing and through the friction of the ocean’s water tides on shallow sea bottoms—so that rotational energy was converted to heat.

“The Earth, therefore, has a thinner crust than any other habitable planet we know of and it is the only habitable planet that displays volcanic action and that has a lively system of plate tectonics.”

Amadiro said, “But even all this can have nothing to do with Earth’s profusion of life. I think you must either get to the point, Dr. Mandamus, or leave.”

“Please bear with me, Dr. Amadiro, for just a little while longer. It is important to understand the point once we get to it. I have made a careful computer simulation of the chemical development of Earth’s crust, allowing for the effect of tidal action and plate tectonics, something that no one has ever done before in as meticulous and elaborate a way as I have managed to do—if I may praise myself.”

“Oh, by all means,” murmured Amadiro.

“And it turns out, quite clearly—I will show you all the necessary data at any time you wish—that uranium and thorium collect in Earth’s crust and upper mantle in concentrations of up to a thousand times as high as in any other habitable world. Moreover, they collect unevenly, so that scattered over the Earth are occasional pockets where uranium and thorium are even more concentrated.”

“And, I take it, dangerously high in radioactivity?”

“No, Dr. Amadiro. Uranium and thorium are very weakly radioactive and even where they are relatively concentrated, they are not very concentrated in an absolute sense.—All this, I repeat, is because of the presence of a large moon.”

“I assume, then, that the radioactivity, even if not intense enough to be dangerous to life, does suffice to increase the mutation rate. Is that it, Dr. Mandamus?”

“That is it. There would be more rapid extinctions now and then, but also more rapid development of new species—resulting in an enormous variety and profusion of life-forms. And, eventually, on Earth alone, this would have reached the point of developing an intelligent species and a civilization.”

Amadiro nodded. The young man was not a crank. He might be wrong, but he was not a crank. And he might be right, too—

Amadiro was not a planetologist, so he would have to check books on the subject to see whether Mandamus had perhaps discovered only the already-known, as so many enthusiasts did. There was, however, a more important point he had to check at once.

He said in a soft voice, “You’ve spoken of the possible destruction of Earth. Is there some connection between that and Earth’s unique properties?”

“One can take advantage of unique properties in a unique manner,” said Mandamus just as softly.

“In this particular case—in what way?”

“Before discussing the method, Dr. Amadiro, I must explain that, in one respect, the question as to whether destruction is physically possible depends on you.”

“On me?”

“Yes,” said Mandamus firmly. “On you. Why, otherwise, should I come to you with this long story if not to persuade you that I know what I’m talking about, so that you would be willing to cooperate with me in a manner that will be essential to my success?”

Amadiro drew a long breath. “And if I refused, would anyone else serve your purpose?”

“It might be possible for me to turn to others if you refuse. Do you refuse?”

“Perhaps not, but I am wondering how essential I am to you.”

“The answer is, not quite as essential as I am to you. You must cooperate with me.”

“Must?”

“I would like you to—if you prefer it phrased in that fashion. But if you wish Aurora and the Spacers to triumph, now and forever, over Earth and the Settlers, then you must cooperate with me, whether you like the phrase or not.”

Amadiro said, “Tell me what it is, exactly, that I must do.”

“Begin by telling me if it is not true that the Institute has, in the past, designed and constructed humanoid robots.”

“Yes, we did. Fifty of them all together. That was between fifteen and twenty decades ago.”

“That long ago? And what happened to them?”

“They failed,” said Amadiro indifferently.

Mandamus sat back in his chair with a horrified expression on his face. “They were destroyed?”

Amadiro’s eyebrows shot upward. “Destroyed? No one destroys expensive robots. They are in storage. The power units are removed and a special long-lived microfusion battery is in each to keep the positronic paths minimally alive.”

“Then they can be brought back to full action?”

“I am sure they can.”

Mandamus’s right hand beat out a tightly controlled rhythm against the arm of the chair. He said grimly, “Then we can win!”

It had been a long time since Amadiro had thought of the humanoid robots. It was a painful thought and he had, with some difficulty, trained himself to keep his mind away from that topic. And now Mandamus had unexpectedly brought it up.

The humanoid robot had been Fastolfe’s great trump card in those long-gone days when Amadiro had been within a millimeter of taking the game, trump card and all. Fastolfe had designed and built two humanoid robots (of which one still existed) and no one else could build any. The entire membership of the Robotics Institute, working together, could not build them.

All that Amadiro had salvaged out of his great defeat had been that trump card. Fastolfe had been forced to make public the nature of the humanoid design.

That meant humanoid robots could be built and were built and—behold—they were not wanted. The Aurorans would not have them in their society.

Amadiro’s mouth twisted in the remnant of remembered chagrin. The tale of the Solarian woman had somehow come to be known—the fact that she had had the use of Jander, one of Fastolfe’s two humanoid robots, and that the use had been sexual. Aurorans had no objection to such a situation in theory. When they stopped to think of it, however, Auroran women simply did not enjoy the thought of having to compete with robot women. Nor did Auroran men wish to compete with robot men.

The Institute had labored mightily to explain that the humanoid robots were not intended for Aurora itself, but were meant to serve as the initial wave of pioneers who would seed and adjust new habitable planets for Aurorans to occupy later, after they had been terraformed.