Isaac Asimov - The Naked Sun

“It was the natural decision. To have borne you out did Agent Attlebish a certain rather subtle harm. To have given you the lie would have done you a greater and more direct harm.”

“Potentials countered and the higher one won out, eh, Daneel?”

“So it was, Partner Elijah. I understand that this process, in a

less definable way, goes on within the human mind. I repeat, however, that this new proposal of yours is not safe.”

“Which new proposal is this?”

“I do not approve your notion of seeing people. By that I mean seeing as opposed to viewing.”

“I understand you. I’m not asking for your approval.”

“I have my instructions, Partner Elijah. What it was that Agent Hannis Gruer told you during my absence last night I cannot know. That he did say something is obvious from the change in your attitude toward this problem. However, in the light of my instructions, I can guess. He must have warned you of the possibility of danger to other planets arising from the situation on Solaria.”

Slowly Baley reached for his pipe. He did that occasionally and always there was the feeling of irritation when he found nothing and remembered he could not smoke. He said, “There are only twenty thousand Solarians. What danger can they represent?”

“My masters on Aurora have for some time been uneasy about Solaria. I have not been told all the information at their disposal—”

“And what little you have been told you have been told not to repeat to me. Is that it?” demanded Baley.

Daneel said, “There is a great deal to find out before this matter can be discussed freely.”

“Well, what are the Solarians doing? New weapons? Paid subversion? A campaign of individual assassination? What can twenty thousand people do against hundreds of millions of Spacers?”

Daneel remained silent.

Baley said, “I intend to find out, you know.”

“But not the way you have now proposed, Partner Elijah. I have been instructed most carefully to guard your safety.”

“You would have to anyway. First Law!”

“Over and above that, as well. In conflict between your safety and that of another I must guard yours.”

“Of course. I understand that. If anything happens to me, there is no further way in which you can remain on Solaria without complications that Aurora is not yet ready to face. As long as I’m alive, I’m here at Solaria’s original request and so we can throw our weight around, if necessary, and make them keep us. If I’m dead, the whole situation is changed. Your orders are, then, to keep Baley alive. Am I right, Daneel?”

Daneel said, “I cannot presume to interpret the reasoning behind my orders.”

Baley said, “All right, don’t worry. The open space won’t kill me, If I do find it necessary to see anyone. I’ll survive. I may even get used to it.”

“It is not the matter of open space alone, Partner Elijah,” said Daneel. “It is this matter of seeing Solarians. I do not approve of it.”

“You mean the Spacers won’t like it. Too bad if they don’t. Let them wear nose filters and gloves. Let them spray the air. And if it offends their nice morals to see me in the flesh, let them wince and blush. But I intend to see them. I consider it necessary to do so and I will do so.”

“But I cannot allow you to.”

“You can’t allow me?”

“Surely you see why, Partner Elijah.”

“I do not.”

“Consider, then, that Agent Cruer, the key Solarian figure in the investigation of this murder, has been poisoned. Does it not follow that if I permit you to proceed in your plan for exposing yourself indiscriminately in actual person, the next victim will necessarily be you yourself. How then can I possibly permit you to leave the safety of this mansion?”

“How will you stop me, Daneel?”

“By force, if necessary, Partner Elijah,” said Daneel calmly. “Even if I must hurt you. If I do not do so, you will surely die.”

Baley said, “So the higher potential wins out again, Daneel. You will hurt me to keep me alive.”

“I do not believe hurting you will be necessary, Partner Elijah. You know that I am superior to you in strength and you will not attempt a useless resistance. If it should become necessary, however, I will be compelled to hurt you.”

“I could blast you down where you stand,” said Baley. “Right now! There is nothing in my potentials to prevent me.”

“I had thought you might take this attitude at some time in our present relationship, Partner Elijah. Most particularly, the thought occurred to me during our trip to this mansion, when you grew momentarily violent in the ground car .The destruction of myself is unimportant in comparison with your safety, but such destruction would cause you distress eventually and disturb the plans of my masters. It was one of my first cares, therefore, during your first sleeping period, to deprive your blaster of its charge.”

Baley’s lips tightened. He was left without a charged blaster! His hand dropped instantly to his holster. He drew his weapon and stared at the charge reading. It hugged zero.

For a moment he balanced the lump of useless metal as though to hurl it directly into Daneel’s face. What good? The robot would dodge efficiently.

Baley put the blaster back. It could be recharged in good time. Slowly, thoughtfully, he said, “I’m not fooled by you, Daneel.”

“In what way, Partner Elijah.”

“You are too much the master. I am too completely stopped by you. Are you a robot?”

“You have doubted me before,” said Daneel.

“On Earth last year, I doubted whether R. Daneel Olivaw was truly a robot. It turned out he was. I believe he still is. My question, however is this: Are you R. Daneel Olivaw?”

“I am.”

“Yes? Daneel was designed to imitate a Spacer closely. Why could not a Spacer be made up to imitate Daneel closely?”

“For what reason?”

“To carry on an investigation here with greater initiative and capacity than ever a robot could. And yet by assuming Daneel’s role, you could keep me safely under control by giving me a false consciousness of mastery. After all, you are working through me and I must be kept pliable.”

“All this is not so, Partner Elijah.”

“Then why do all the Solarians we meet assume you to be human? They are robotic experts. Are they so easily fooled? It occurs to me that I cannot be one right against many wrong. It is far more likely that I am one wrong against many right.”

“Not at all, Partner Elijah.”

“Prove it,” said Baley, moving slowly toward an end table and lifting a scrap disposal unit. “You can do that easily enough, if you are a robot. Show the metal beneath your skin.”

Daneel said, “I assure you—”

“Show the metal,” said Baley crisply. “That is an order! Or don’t you feel compelled to obey orders?”

Daneel unbuttoned his shirt. The smooth, bronze skin of his chest was sparsely covered with light hair. Daneel’s fingers exerted a firm pressure just under the right nipple, and flesh and skin split bloodlessly the length of the chest, with the gleam of metal showing beneath.

And as that happened, Baley’s fingers, resting on the end table, moved half an inch to the right and stabbed at a contact patch. Almost at once a robot entered.

“Don’t move, Daneel,” cried Baley. “That’s an order! Freeze!”

Daneel stood motionless, as though life, or the robotic imitation thereof, had departed from him.

Baley shouted to the robot, “Can you get two more of the staff in here without yourself leaving? If so, do it.”

The robot said, “Yes, master.”

Two more robots entered, answering a radioed call. The three lined up abreast.