Isaac Asimov - The Robots of Dawn

Daneel said softly, “Partner Elijah is quite correct in his request, friend Giskard. He will be reasonably safe.”

Giskard, perhaps reluctantly (Baley could not interpret the expression on his not-quite-human face), gave in and took his place at the controls. Baley followed and looked out of the clear glass of the windshield without quite the assurance he had presented in his voice. However, the pressure of a robot on either side, was comforting.

The car rose on its jets of compressed air and swayed a bit as though it were finding its footing. Baley felt a queasy sensation in the pit of his stomach and tried not to regret his brave performance of moments before. There was no use trying to tell himself that Daneel and Giskard showed no signs of fear and should be imitated. They were robots and could not feel fear.

And then the car moved forward suddenly and Baley felt himself pushed hard against the seat. Within a minute he was moving at as fast a speed as he had ever experienced on the Expressways of the City. A wide, grassy road stretched out, ahead.

The speed seemed the greater for the fact, that there were none of the friendly lights and structures of the City on either side but rather wide gulfs of greenery and irregular formations.

Baley fought to keep his breath steady and to talk as naturally as he might of neutral things.

He said, “We don’t seem to be passing any farmland, Daneel. This seems to be unused land.”

Daneel said, “This is city territory, Partner Elijah. It is privately owned parkland and estates.”

“City?” Baley could not accept the word. He knew what a City was.

“Eos is the largest and most important city on Aurora. The first to be established. The Auroran World Legislature sits here. The Chairman of the Legislature has his estate here and we will be passing it.”

Not only a city but the largest. Baley looked about to either side. “I was under the impression that the Fastolfe and Gladia establishments were on the outskirts of Eos. I should think. We would have passed the city limits, by now.”

“Not at all, Partner Elijah. We’re passing through its center. The limits are seven kilometers away and our destination is nearly forty kilometers beyond that.”

“The center of the city? I see no structures.”

“They are not meant to be seen from the road, but there’s, one you can make out between the trees. That is the establishment of Fuad Labord, a well-known writer.”

“Do you know all the establishments by sight?”

“They are in my memory banks,” said Daneel solemnly.

“There’s no traffic on the road. Why is that?”

“Long distances are covered by air-cars or magnetic subcars. Trimensional connections—”

“They call it viewing on Solaria,” said Baley.

“And here, too, in informal conversation, but TVC more formally. That takes care of much communication. Finally, Aurorans are fond of walking and it is not unusual to walk several kilometers for social visiting or even for business meetings where time is not of the essence.”

“And we have to get somewhere that’s too far to walk, too close for air-cars, and trimensional viewing is not wanted so we use a ground-car.”

“An airfoil, more specifically, Partner Elijah, but that qualifies as a ground-car, I suppose.”

“How long will it take to reach Vasilia’s establishment?”

“Not long, Partner Elijah. She is at the Robotics Institute, as perhaps you know.”

There were some moments of silence and then Baley said, “It looks cloudy near the horizon there.”

Giskard negotiated a curve at high speed, the airfoil tipping through an angle of some thirty degrees. Baley choked back a moan and clung to Daneel, who flung his left arm around Baley’s shoulders and held him in a strong viselike grip, one hand on each shoulder. Slowly, Baley let out his breath as the airfoil righted itself.

Daneel said, “Yes, those clouds will bring precipitation later in the day, as predicted.”

Baley frowned. He had been caught in the rain once once—during his experimental work in the field Outside on Earth. It was like standing under a cold shower with his clothes on. There had been sheer panic for a moment when he realized that there was no way in which he could reach for any controls that would turn it off. The water would come down forever!—Then everyone was running and he ran with them, making for the dryness and controllability of the City.

But this was Aurora and he had no idea what one did when it began to rain and there was no City to escape into. Run into the nearest establishment? Would refugees automatically be welcome?

Then there was another brief turn and Giskard said, “Sir, we are in the parking lot of the Robotics Institute. We can now enter and visit the establishment that Dr. Vasilia maintains on the Institute grounds.”

Baley nodded. The trip had taken something between fifteen and twenty minutes (as nearly as he could judge, Earth time) and he was glad it was over. He said, rather breathlessly, “I want to know something about Dr. Fastolfe’s daughter before I meet her. You did not know her, did you, Daneel?”

Daneel said, “At the time I came into existence, Dr. Fastolfe and his daughter had been separated for a considerable time. I have never met her.”

“But as for you, Giskard, you and she knew each other well. Is that not so?”

“It is so, sir,” said Giskard impassively.

“And were fond of each other?”

“I believe, sir,” said Giskard, “that it gave Dr. Fastolfe’s daughter pleasure to be with me.”

“Did it give you pleasure to be with her?”

Giskard seemed to pick his words. “It gives me a sensation that I think is what human beings mean by ‘pleasure’ to be with any human being.”

“But more so with Vasilia, I think. Am I right?”

“Her pleasure at being with me, sir,” said Giskard, “did seem to stimulate those positronic potentials that produce actions in me that are equivalent to those that pleasure produces in human beings. Or so I was once told by Dr. Fastolfe.”

Baley said suddenly, “Why did Vasilia leave her father?”

Giskard said nothing.

Baley said, with the sudden peremptoriness of an Earthman addressing a robot, “I asked you a question, boy.”

Giskard turned his head and stared at Baley, who, for a moment, thought the glow in the robot’s eyes might be brightening into a blaze of resentment at the demeaning word.

However, Giskard spoke mildly and there was no readable expression in his eyes when he said, “I would like to answer, sir, but in all matters concerning that separation, Miss Vasilia ordered me at that time to say nothing.”

“But I’m ordering you to answer me and I can order you very firmly indeed—if I wish to.”

Giskard said, “I am sorry. Miss Vasilia, even at that time, was skilled in robotics and the orders she gave me were sufficiently powerful to remain, despite anything you are likely to say, sir.”

Baley said, “She must have been skilled in robotics, since Dr. Fastolfe told me she reprogrammed you on occasion.”

“It was not dangerous to do so, sir. Dr. Fastolfe himself could always correct any errors.”

“Did he have to?”

“He did not, sir.”

“What was the nature of the reprogramming?”

“Minor matters, sir.”

“Perhaps, but humor me. Just what was it she did?”

Giskard hesitated and Baley knew what that meant at once. The robot said, “I fear that any questions concerning there programming cannot be answered by me.”

“You were forbidden?”

“No, sir, but the reprogramming automatically wipes out what went before. If I am changed in any particular, it would seem to me that I have always been as changed and I would have no memory of what I was before I was I changed.”