Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire

“Yet I believe her in this. To actually be able to read thoughts would demand so much complexity in the positronic pathway pattern that it is totally unlikely that a child could have inserted it into the robot over twenty decades ago. It is actually far beyond even the present-day state of the art, Mandamus. Surely you must agree.”

“I would certainly think it was. And they’re going to Earth?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“Would this woman, brought up as she was, actually go to Earth?”

“She has no choice if Giskard controls her.”

“And why should Giskard want her to go to Earth? Can he know about our project? You seem to think he doesn’t.”

“It is possible he doesn’t. His motivation for going to Earth might be nothing more than to place himself and the Solarian woman beyond our reach.”

“I shouldn’t think he’d fear us if he could handle Vasilia.”

“A long-range weapon,” said Amadiro icily, “could bring him down. His own abilities must have a limited range. They can be based on nothing other than the electromagnetic field and he must be subject to the inverse square law. So we get out of range as the intensity of his powers weaken, but he will then find that he is not out of range of our weapons.”

Mandamus frowned and looked uneasy. “You seem to have an un-Spacer liking for violence, Dr. Amadiro. In a cast like this, though, I suppose force would be permissible.

“A case like this? A robot capable of harming human beings? I should think so. We’ll have to find a pretext for sending a good ship in pursuit. It wouldn’t be wise to explain the actual situation—”

“No,” said Mandamus emphatically. “Think of how many would wish to have personal control of such a robot.”

“Which we can’t allow. And which is another reason why I would look upon destruction of the robot as the safer and preferable course of action.”

“You may be right,” said Mandamus reluctantly, “but I don’t think it wise to count on this destruction only. I must go to Earth—now. The project must be hastened to its conclusion, even if we don’t dot every ‘I’ and cross every ‘T.’” Once it is done, then it is done. Even a mind-handling robot—under anybody’s control—will not be able to undo the deed. And if it does anything else, that, perhaps, will no longer matter.”

Amadiro said, “Don’t speak in the singular. I will go as well.”

“You? Earth is a horrible world. I must go, but why you?”

“Because I must go, too. I cannot stay here any longer and wonder. You have not waited for this through a long lifetime as I have, Mandamus. You do not have the accounts to settle that I have.”

Gladia was in space again and once again Aurora could be made out as a globe. D.G. was busy elsewhere and the entire ship had about it a vague but pervasive air of emergency, as though it were on a battle footing, as though it were being pursued or expected pursuit.

Gladia shook her head. She could think clearly; she felt well; but when her mind turned back to that time in the Institute, shortly after Amadiro had left her, a curiously pervasive unreality swept over her. There was a gap in time. One moment she had been sitting on the couch, feeling sleepy; the next there were four robots and a woman in the room who had not been there before.

She had fallen asleep, then, but there was no awareness, no memory, that she had done so. There was a gap of nonexistence.

Thinking back, she had recognized the woman after the fact. It was Vasilia Aliena—the daughter whom Gladia had replaced in the affections of Han Fastolfe. Gladia had never actually seen Vasilia, though she had viewed her on hyperwave several times. Gladia always thought of her as a distant and inimical other self. There was the vague similarity in appearance that others always commented on but that Gladia herself insisted she did not see—and there was the odd, antithetical connection with Fastolfe.

Once they were on the ship and she was alone with her robots, she asked the inevitable question. “What was Vasilia Aliena doing in the room and why was I permitted to sleep once she had arrived?”

Daneel said, “Madam Gladia, I will answer the question, since it is a matter friend Giskard would find difficult to discuss.”

“Why should he find it difficult, Daneel?”

“Madam Vasilia arrived in the hope that she might persuade Giskard to enter her service.”

“Away from me?” said Gladia in sharp indignation. She did not entirely like Giskard, but that made no difference. What was hers was hers. “And you allowed me to sleep while you two handled the matter by yourselves?”

“We felt, madam, that you needed your sleep badly. Then, too, Madam Vasilia ordered us to allow you to sleep. Finally, it was our opinion that Giskard would not, in any case, join her service. For all these reasons, we did not wake you.”

Gladia said indignantly, “I should hope that Giskard would not for a moment consider leaving me. It would be illegal both by Auroran law and, more important, by the Three Laws of Robotics. It would be a good deed to return to Aurora and have her arraigned before the Court of Claims.”

“That would not be advisable at the moment, my lady.”

“What was her excuse for wanting Giskard? Did she have one?”

“When she was a child, Giskard had been assigned to her.

“Legally?”

“No, madam. Dr. Fastolfe merely allowed her the use of it.

“Then she had no right to Giskard.”

“We pointed that out, madam. Apparently, it was a matter of sentimental attachment on the part of Madam Vasilia.”

Gladia sniffed. “Having survived the loss of Giskard since before I came to Aurora, she might well have continued as she was without going to illegal lengths to deprive me of my property,”—Then, restlessly, “I should have been awakened.”

Daneel said, “Madam Vasilia had four robots with her. Had you been awake and had there been harsh words between the two of you, there might have been some difficulty in having the robots work out the proper responses.”

“I’d have directed the proper response, I assure you, Daneel.”

“No doubt, madam. So might Madam Vasilia and she is one of the cleverest roboticists in the Galaxy.”

Gladia shifted her attention to Giskard. “And you have nothing to say?”

“Only that it was better as it was, my lady.”

Gladia looked thoughtfully into those faintly luminous robotic eyes, so different from Daneel’s all-but-human ones, and it did seem to her that the incident wasn’t very important after all. A small thing. And there were other things with which to be concerned. They were going to Earth.

Somehow she did not think of Vasilia again.

“I am concerned,” said Giskard in his whisper of confidentiality in which sound waves barely trembled the air. The Settler ship was receding smoothly from Aurora and, as yet, there was no pursuit. The activity onboard had settled into routine and, with almost all routines automated, there was quiet and Gladia slept naturally.

“I’m concerned for Lady Gladia, friend Daneel.”

Daneel understood the characteristics of Giskard’s positronic circuits well enough to need no long explanation. He said, “It was necessary, friend Giskard, to adjust Lady Gladia. Had she questioned longer, she might have elicited the fact of your mental activities and adjustment would then have been more dangerous. Enough harm has already been done because Lady Vasilia discovered the fact. We do not know to whom—and to how many—she may have imparted her knowledge.”

“Nevertheless,” said Giskard, “I did not wish to make this adjustment. Had Lady Gladia wished to forget, it would have been a simple, no-risk adjustment. She wanted, however, with vigor and anger, to know more of the matter. She regretted not having played a greater role in it. I was forced, therefore, to break binding forces of considerable intensity.”