Isaac Asimov - The Robots of Dawn

Gladia said, “Come. Sit down, Elijah. You must excuse me for not quite being myself. I am, for a second time, the center of a planetary sensation—and the first time was more than enough.”

“I understand, Gladia. Please do not apologize,” said Baley.

“And as for you, dear Doctor, please don’t feel you need go.”

“Well—” Fastolfe looked at the time strip on the wall. “I will stay for a short while, but then, my dear, there is work that must be done though the skies fall. All the more so, since I must look forward to a near future in which I may be restrained from doing any work at all.”

Gladia blinked rapidly, as though holding back tears. “I know, Dr. Fastolfe. You are in deep trouble because of—of what happened here and I don’t seem to have time to think of anything but my own—discomfort.”

Fastolfe said, “I’ll do my best to take care of my own problem, Gladia, and there is no need for you to feel guilt over the matter.—Perhaps Mr. Baley will be able to help us both.”

Baley pressed his lips together at that, then said heavily, “I was not aware, Gladia, that you were in any way involved in this affair.”

“Who else would be?” she said with a sigh.

“You are—were—in possession of Jander Panell?”

“Not truly in possession. I had him on loan from Dr. Fastolfe.”

“Were you with him when he—” Baley hesitated over some way of putting it.

“Died? Mightn’t we say died?—No, I was I not. And before you ask, there was no one else in the house at the time. I was alone. I am usually alone. Almost always. That is my Solarian upbringing, you remember. Of course, that is not obligatory. You two are here and I do not mind—very much.”

“And you were definitely alone at the time Jander died? No mistake?”

“I have said so,” said Gladia, sounding a little irritated. “No, never mind, Elijah. I know you must have everything repeated and repeated. I was alone. Honestly.”

“There were robots present, though.”

“Yes, of course. When I say ‘alone,’ I mean there were no other human beings present.”

“How many robots do you possess, Gladia? Not counting Jander.”

Gladia paused as though she were counting internally. Finally, she said, “Twenty. Five in the house and fifteen on the grounds. Robots move freely between my house and Dr. Fastolfe’s, too, so that it isn’t always possible to judge, when a robot is quickly seen at either establishment, whether it is one of mine or one of his.”

“Ah,” said Baley, “and since Dr. Fastolfe has fifty-seven robots in his establishment, that means, if we combine the two, that there are seventy-seven robots available, altogether. Are there any other establishments whose robots may mingle with yours indistinguishably?”

Fastolfe said, “There’s no other establishment near enough to make that practical. Nor is the practice of mixing robots really encouraged. Gladia and I are a special case because she is not Auroran and because I have taken rather a responsibility for her.”

“Even so. Seventy-seven robots,” said Baley.

“Yes,” said Fastolfe, “but why are you making this point?”

Baley said, “Because it means you can have any of seventy-seven moving objects, each vaguely human in form, that you are used to seeing out of the corner of the eye and to which you would pay no particular attention. Isn’t it possible, Gladia, that if an actual human being were to penetrate the house, for whatever purpose, you would scarcely be aware of it? It would be one more moving object, vaguely human in form, and you would pay no attention.”

Fastolfe chuckled softly and Gladia, unsmiling, shook her head.

“Elijah,” she said, “one can tell you are an Earthman. Do you imagine that any human being, even Dr. Fastolfe here, could possibly approach my house without my being informed of the fact by my robots. I might ignore a moving form, assuring it to be a robot, but no robot ever would. I was waiting for you just now when you arrived, but that was because my robots had informed me you were approaching. No, no, when Jander died, there was no other human being in the house.”

“Except yourself?”

“Except myself. Just as there was no one in the house except myself when my husband was killed.”

Fastolfe interposed gently. “There is a difference, Gladia. Your husband was killed with a blunt instrument. The physical presence of the murderer was necessary and, if you were the only one present, that was serious. In this case, Jander was put out of operation by a subtle spoken program. Physical presence was not necessary. Your presence here alone means nothing, especially since you do not know how to block the mind of a humaniform robot.”

They both turned to look at Baley, Fastolfe with a quizzical look on his face, Gladia with a sad one. (It irritated Baley that Fastolfe, whose future was as bleak as Baley’s own, nevertheless seemed to face it with humor. What on Earth is there to the situation to cause one to laugh like an idiot? Baley thought morosely.)

“Ignorance,” said Baley slowly, “may mean nothing. A person may not know how to get to a certain place and yet may just happen to reach it while walking blindly. One might talk to Jander and, all unknowingly, push the button for mental freeze-out.”

Fastolfe said, “And the chances of that?”

“You’re the expert, Dr. Fastolfe, and I suppose you will tell me they are very small.”

“Incredibly small. A person may not know how to get to a certain place, but if the only route is a series of tight ropes stretched in sharply changing directions, what are the chances of reaching it by walking randomly while blindfolded?”

Gladia’s hands fluttered in extreme agitation. She clenched her fists, as though to hold them steady, and brought them down on her knees. “I didn’t do it, accident or not. I wasn’t with him when it happened. I wasn’t. I spoke to him in the morning. He was well, perfectly normal. Hours later, when I summoned him, he never came. I went in search of him and he was standing in his accustomed place, seeming quite normal. The trouble was, he didn’t respond to me. He didn’t respond at all. He has never responded since.”

Baley said, “Could something you had said to him, quite in passing, have produced mind-freeze only after you had left him—an hour after, perhaps?”

Fastolfe interposed sharply, “Quite impossible, Mr. Baley. If mind-freeze is to take place, it takes place at once. Please do not badger Gladia in this fashion. She is incapable of producing mind-freeze deliberately and it is unthinkable that she would produce it accidentally.”

“Isn’t it unthinkable thatit would be produced by random positronic drift, as you say it must have?”

“Not quite as unthinkable.”

“Both alternatives are extremely unlikely. What is the difference in unthinkability?”

“A great one. I imagine that a mental freeze-out, through positronic drift might have a probability of 1 in 1012; that by accidental pattern-building 1 in 1000. That is just an estimate, but a reasonable one. The difference is greater than that between a single electron and the entire Universe—and it is in favor of the positronic drift.”

There was silence for a while.

Baley said, “Dr. Fastolfe, you said earlier that you couldn’t stay long.”

“I have stayed too long already.”

“Good. Then would you leave now?”

Fastolfe began to rise, then said, “Why?”

“Because I want to speak to Gladia alone.”

“To badger her?”

“I must question her without your interference. Our situation is entirely too serious to worry about politeness.”

Gladia said, “I am not afraid of Mr. Baley, dear Doctor.” She added wistfully, “My robots will protect me if his impoliteness becomes extreme.”