Christopher Stasheff - The Warlock's Companion

"One of those new ones—the FCC series."

Al smiled. "Well, at least, if you had to do it, you used one that's just into production." Then he turned thoughtful. "Wait a minute, though—maybe it's not a total loss."

Jose felt a surge of hope and tried to ignore it. "How?"

"That's the 'Faithful Cybernetic Companion' series. The program's for extreme loyalty, as well as the usual total obedience." Al turned to his screen and called up the program. "It just might be strong enough to counter the Declaration."

Jose frowned. "How could it…" Then his face lit up. "Of course! If the robot's extremely loyal to you, it can be totally independent, and still be on your side!"

Al nodded. "Independence might counter an inclination toward obedience, but loyalty would make the robot do what his owner said to, anyway—unless there was a damn good reason not to." He shrugged. "But all our programs have overrides for illegal or blatantly unethical commands, anyway."

Jose felt excitement building. "Then the robot might not have to be destroyed?"

"And you might not have to be fired." Al nodded. "I'm routing this whole snafu over to programming to be checked. I don't think there'll be any problem, though—this time." He turned back to Jose, suddenly totally serious. "But don't let it happen again—okay?"

Jose stared straight into Al's eyes and nodded slowly. "Never, Al. My word."

"Who was the argument with, anyway?"

Jose swallowed. "My wife."

Al turned grave. "Not much you can do about that. But next time, if you're upset, don't come in. All right?"

Jose nodded slowly. "I promise, Al. Better not here at all, than not all here."

Al grinned. "You got it. And you still have your job."

But Jose's attention had drifted again. He was thinking that, if a robot could be independent down to its most basic programming and still be intensely loyal, maybe a person could, too. And if that was so, maybe it was possible to be really independent but still be married, after all. He whistled, and went back to his work.