Robots and Empire (Robot 4)

2. THE ANCESTOR?

5

Memory!

Always there, of course, but usually remaining hidden. And then, sometimes, as a result of just the right kind of push, it could emerge suddenly, sharply defined, all in color, bright and moving and alive.

She was young again, younger than this man before her; young enough to feel tragedy and love - with her death-in-life on Solaria having reached its climax in the bitter end of the first whom she had thought of as "husband." (No, she would not say his name even now, not, even in thought.)

Closer still to her then-life were the months of heaving emotion with the second-not-man - whom she had thought of by that term. Jander, the humanoid robot, had been given to her and she had made him entirely her own until, like her first husband, he was suddenly dead.

And then, at last, there was Elijah Baley, who was never her husband, whom she had met only twice, two years apart, each time for a few hours on each of a very few days. Elijah, whose cheek she had once touched with her ungloved hand, on which occasion she had ignited; whose nude body she had later held in her arms, on which occasion she had flamed steadily at last.

And then, a third husband, with whom she was quiet and at peace, paying with untriumph for unmisery and buying with firmly held forgetfulness the relief from reliving.

Until one day (she was not sure of the day that so broke in upon the sleeping untroubled years) Han Fastolfe, having asked permission to visit, walked over from his adjoining establishment.

Gladia looked upon him with some concern, for he was too busy a man to socialize lightly. Only five years had passed since the crisis that had established Han as Aurora's leading statesman. He was the Chairman of the planet in all but name and the true leader of all the Spacer worlds. He had so little time to be a human being.

Those years had left their mark - and would continue to do so until he died sadly, considering himself a failure though he had never lost a battle. Kelden Amadiro, who had been defeated, lived on sturdily, as evidence that victory can exact the greater penalty.

Fastolfe, through it all, continued to be soft-spoken and patient and uncomplaining, but even Gladia, nonpolitical though she was and uninterested in the endless machinations of power, knew that his control of Aurora held firm only through constant and unremitting effort that drained him of anything that might make life worthwhile and that he held to it - or was held to it - only by what he considered the good of - what? Aurora? The Spacers? Simply some vague - concept of idealized Good?

She didn't know. She flinched from asking.

But this was only five years after the crisis. He still gave the impression of a young and hopeful man and his pleasant homely face was still capable of smiling.

He said, "I have a message for you, Gladia."

"A pleasant one, I hope," she said politely.

He had brought Daneel with him. It was a sign of the healing of old wounds that she could look at Daneel with honest affection and no pain at all, even though he was a copy of her dead Jander in all but the most insignificant detail. She could talk to him, though he answered in what was almost Jander's voice. Five years had skinned over the ulcer and deadened the pain.

"I hope so," said Fastolfe, smiling gently. "It's from an old friend."

"It's so nice that I have old friends," she said, trying not to be sardonic.

"From Elijah Baley."

The five years vanished and she felt the stab and pang of returning memory.

"Is he well?" she asked in a half-strangled voice after a full minute of stunned silence.

"Quite well. What is even more important, he is near."

"Near? On Aurora?"

"In orbit about Aurora. He knows he can receive no permission to land, even if I were to use my full influence, or I imagine he does. He would like to see you, Gladia. He had made contact with me because he feels that I can arrange to have you visit his ship. I suppose I can manage that much - but only if you wish it. Do you wish it?"

"I don't now. This is too sudden for thought."

"Or even impulse?" He waited, then he said, "Truthfully, Gladia, how are you getting along with Santirix?"

She looked at him wildly, as though not understanding the reason for the change of subject - then understanding. She said, "We get along well together."

"Are you happy?"

"I am - not unhappy."

"That doesn't sound like ecstasy."

"How long can ecstasy last, even if it were ecstasy?"

"Do you plan to have children someday?"

"Yes," she said.

"Are you planning a change in marital status?"

She shook her head firmly. "Not yet."

"Then, my dear Gladia, if you want advice from a rather tired man, who feels uncomfortably old - refuse the invitation. I remember what little you told me after Baley had left Aurora and, to tell you the truth, I was able to deduce more from that than you perhaps think. If you see him, you may find it all disappointing, not living up to the deepening and mellowing glow of reminiscence; or, if it is not disappointing, worse yet, for it will disrupt a perhaps rather fragile contentment, which you will then not be able to repair.

Gladia, who had been vaguely thinking precisely that, found the proposition needed only to be placed into words to be rejected.

She said, "No, Han, I must see him, but I'm afraid to do it alone. Would you come with me?"

Fastolfe smiled wearily. "I was not invited, Gladia. And if I were, I would in any case be forced to refuse. There is an important vote coming up in the Council. Affairs of state, you know, from which I can't absent myself."

"Poor Han!"

"Yes, indeed, poor me. But you can't go alone. As far as I know, you can't pilot a ship."

"Oh! Well, I thought I'd be taken up by - "

"Commercial carrier?" Fastolfe shook his head. "Quite impossible. For you - to visit and board an Earth ship in orbit openly, as would be unavoidable if you used commercial carrier, would require special permission and that would take weeks. If you don't want to go, Gladia, you needn't put it on the basis of not wishing to see him. If the paperwork and red tape involved would take weeks, I'm sure he can't wait that long."

"But I do want to see him," said Gladia, now determined.

"In that case, you can take my private space vessel and Daneel can take you up there. He can handle the controls very well indeed and he is as anxious to see Baley as you are. We just won't report the trip."

"But you'll get into trouble, Han."

"Perhaps no one will find out - or they'll pretend not to find out. And if anyone makes trouble, I will just have to handle it."

Gladia's head bowed in a moment of thought and then she said, "If you don't mind, I will be selfish and chance your having trouble, Han. I want to go."

"Then you'll go."

6

It was a small ship, smaller than Gladia had imagined; cozy in a way, but frightening in another way. It was small enough, after all, to lack any provision for pseudo-gravity and the sensation of weightlessness, while constantly nudging at her to indulge in amusing gymnastics, just as constantly reminded her that she was in an abnormal environment.

She was a Spacer. There were over five billion Spacers spread over fifty worlds, all of them proud of the name. Yet how many of those who called themselves Spacers were really space travelers? Very few. Perhaps eighty percent of them never left the world of their birth. Even of the remaining twenty percent, hardly any passed through space more than two or three times.

Certainly, she herself was no Spacer in the literal sense of the word, she thought gloomily. Once (once!) she had traveled through space and that was from Solaria to Aurora seven years before. Now she was entering space a second time on a small private space yacht for a short trip just beyond the atmosphere, a paltry hundred thousand kilometers, with one other person - not even a person - for company.

She cast another glance at Daneel in the small pilot room. She could just see a portion of him, where he sat at the controls.

She had never been anywhere with only one robot within call. There had always been hundreds - thousands - at her disposal on Solaria. On Aurora, there were routinely dozens, if not scores. Here there was but one.

She said, "Daneel!"

He did not allow his attention to wander from the controls. "Yes, Madam Gladia?"

"Are you pleased that you will be seeing Elijah Baley again?"

"I am not certain, Madam Gladia, how best to describe my inner state. It may be that it is analogous to what a human being would describe as being pleased."

"But you must feel something."

"I feel as though I can make decisions more rapidly than I can ordinarily; my responses seem to come more easily; my movements seem to require less energy. I might interpret it generally as a sensation of well-being. At least I have heard human beings use that word and feel that what it is intended to describe is something that is analogous to the sensations I now experience."

Gladia said, "But what if I were to say I wanted to see him alone?"

"Then that would be arranged."

"Even though that meant you wouldn't see him?"

"Yes, madam."

"Wouldn't you then feel disappointed? I mean, wouldn't you have a sensation that was the opposite of wellbeing? Your decisions would come less rapidly, your responses less easily, your movements would require more energy and so on."

"No, Madam Gladia, for I would have a feeling of well being at fulfilling your orders."

"Your own pleasant feeling is Third Law, and fulfilling my orders is Second Law, and Second Law takes precedence. Is that it?"

"Yes, madam."

Gladia struggled against her own curiosity. It would never have occurred to her to question an ordinary robot in this matter. A robot is a machine. But she couldn't think of Daneel as a machine, just as five years before she had been unable to think of Jander as a machine. But with Jander that had been only the burning of passion - and that had gone with Jander himself. For all his similarity to the other, Daneel could not set the ashes alight again. With him, there was room for intellectual curiosity.

"Doesn't it bother you, Daneel," she asked, "to be so bound by the Laws?"

"I cannot imagine anything else, madam."

"All my life I have been bound to the pull of gravity, even during my one previous trip on a spaceship, but I can imagine not being bound by it. And here I am, in fact, not bound by it."

"And do you enjoy it, madam?"

"In a way, yes."

"Does it make you uneasy?"

"In a way, that too."

"Sometimes, madam, when I think that human beings are not bound by Laws, it makes me uneasy."

"Why, Daneel? Have you ever tried to reason out to yourself why the thought of Lawlessness should make you feel uneasy?"

Daneel was silent for a moment. He said, "I have, madam, but I do not think I would wonder about such things but for my brief associations with Partner Elijah. He had a way - "

"Yes, I know," she said. "He wondered about everything. He had a restlessness about him that drove him on to ask questions at all times in all directions."

"So it seemed. And I would try to be like him and ask questions. So I asked myself what Lawlessness might be like and I found I couldn't imagine what it might be like except that it might be like being human and that made me feel uneasy. And I asked myself, as you asked me, why it made me feel uneasy."

"And what did you answer yourself?"

Daneel said, "After a long time, I decided that the Three Laws govern the manner in which my positronic pathways behave. At all times, under all stimuli the Laws constrain the direction and intensity of positronic flow along those pathways so that I always know what to do. Yet the level of knowledge of what to do is not always the same. There are times when my doing-as-I-must is under less constraint than at other times. I have always noticed that the lower the positronomotive potential, then the further removed from certainty is my decision as to which action to take. And the further removed from certainty I am, the nearer I am to ill being. To decide an action in a millisecond rather than a nanosecond produces a sensation I would not wish to be prolonged.

"What then, I thought to myself, madam, if I were utterly without Laws, as humans are? What if I could make no clear decision on what response to make to some given set of conditions? It would be unbearable and I do not willingly think of it."

Gladia said, "Yet you do, Daneel. You are thinking of it now."

"Only because of my association with Partner Elijah, madam. I observed him under conditions when he was unable, for a time, to decide on an action because of the puzzling nature of the problems that had been set him. He was clearly in a state of ill-being as a result and I felt ill-being on his behalf because there was nothing I could do that would ease - It is possible that I only grasped at the situation for him. A very small part of what it was he felt then. If I had grasped a larger part and better understood the consequences of his inability to decide on action, I might have - "

He hesitated.

"Ceased functioning? Been inactivated?" said Gladia, thinking briefly and painfully of Jander.

"Yes, madam. My failure to understand may been an in built protection device against damage to my positronic brain. But then, I noted that no matter how painful Partner Elijah found his indecision to be, he continued to make an effort to solve his problem. I admired him greatly for that."

"You are capable of admiration then, are you?"

Daneel said solemnly, "I use the word as I have heard human beings use it. I do not know the proper word to express the response within me elicited by Partner Elijah's actions of this sort."

Gladia nodded, then said, "And yet there are rules that govern human reactions, too certain instincts, drives, teachings."

"So friend Giskard thinks, madam."

"Does he now?"

"But he finds them too complicated to analyze. He wonders if there might someday be developed a system of analyzing human behavior in mathematical detail and of deriving - from that - cogent Laws that would express the rules of that behavior."

"I doubt it," said Gladia.

"Nor is friend Giskard sanguine. He thinks it will be a very long time before such a system is developed."

"A very long time, I should say."

"And now," said Daneel, "we are approaching the Earth ship and we must carry through the docking procedure, which is not simple."

7

It seemed to Gladia that it took longer to dock than to move into the Earth ship's orbit in the first place, Daneel remained calm throughout - but, then, he could not do otherwise - and assured her that all human ships could dock with each other regardless of difference in size and make.

"Like human beings," said Gladia, forcing a smile, but Daneel made no response to that. He concentrated on the delicate adjustments that had to be made. Docking was always possible, perhaps, but not always easy, it would appear.

Gladia grew uneasier by the moment. Earthmen were short-lived and aged quickly. Five years had passed since she had seen Elijah. By how much would he have aged? How would he appear? Would she be able to keep from looking shocked or horrified at the change?

Whatever his appearance, he would still be the Elijah to whom her gratitude could know no bounds.

Was that what it was? Gratitude?

She noticed that her hands were tightly entwined with each other, so that her arms were aching. It was only with an effort that she could force them to relax.

She knew when docking was completed. The Earth ship was large enough to have a pseudo-gravitation field generator and, at the moment of docking, the field expanded to include the small yacht. There was a slight rotational effect as the direction toward the floor suddenly became "down" and Gladia experienced a sickening drop of two inches. Her knees bent under the impact in lopsided fashion and she fell against the wall.

She straightened with a little difficulty and was annoyed with herself for not having anticipated the change and been ready for it.

Daneel said unnecessarily, "We have docked, Madam Gladia. Partner Elijah asks permission to come aboard."

"Of course, Daneel."

There was a whirring sound and a portion of the wall swirled into dilation. A crouching figure moved through and the wall tightened and contracted behind it.

The figure straightened and Gladia whispered, "Elijah!" and felt overwhelmed with gladness and relief. It seemed to her that his hair was grayer, but otherwise it was Elijah. There was no other noticeable change, no marked aging after all.

He smiled at her and, for a moment, seemed to devour her with his eyes. Then he lifted one forefinger, as though to say, "Wait," and walked toward Daneel.

"Daneel!" He seized the robot's shoulders and shook him.

"You haven't changed. Jehoshaphat! You're the constant in all our lives."

"Partner Elijah. It is good to see you."

"It is good to hear myself called partner again and I wish that were so. This is the fifth time I have seen you, but the first time that I do not have a problem to solve. I am not even a plainclothesman any longer. I have resigned and I am now an immigrant to one of the new worlds. - Tell me, Daneel, why didn't you come with Dr. Fastolfe when he visited Earth three years ago?"

"That was Dr. Fastolfe's decision. He decided to take Giskard."

"I was disappointed, Daneel."

"It would have been pleasant for me to see you, Partner Elijah, but Dr. Fastolfe told me afterward that the trip had been highly successful, so that perhaps his decision was the correct one."

"It was successful, Daneel. Before the visit, the Earth government was reluctant to cooperate in the Settlement procedure, but now the whole planet is pulsing and heaving and, by the million, people are anxious to go. We don't have the ships to accommodate them all - even with Auroran help - and we don't have the worlds to receive them all, for every world must be adjusted. Not one will accommodate a human community unchanged. The one I'm going to is low in free oxygen and we're going to have to live in domed towns for a generation while Earth-type vegetation spreads over the planet." His eyes were turning more and more often to Gladia as she sat there smiling.

Daneel said, "It is to be expected. From what I have learned of human history, the Spacer worlds also went through a period of terraforming."

"They certainly did! And thanks to that experience, the process can be carried through more rapidly now. - But I wonder if you would remain in the pilot room for a while, Daneel. I must speak to Gladia."

"Certainly, Partner Elijah."

Daneel stepped through the arched doorway that led into the pilot room and Baley looked at Gladia in a questioning way and made a sideways motion with his hand.

Understanding perfectly, she walked over and touched the contact that drew the partition noiselessly across the doorway. They were, to all intents, alone.

Baley held out his hands. "Gladia!"

She took them in hers, never even thinking she was ungloved. She said, "Had Daneel stayed with us, he would not have hampered us."

"Not physically. He would have psychologically!" Baley smiled sadly and said, "Forgive me, Gladia. I had to speak to Daneel first."

"You've known him longer," she said softly. "He takes precedence."

"He doesn't - but he has no defenses. If you are annoyed with me, Gladia, you can punch me in the eye if you want to. Daneel can't. I can ignore him, order him away, treat him as though he were a robot, and he would be compelled to obey and be the same loyal and uncomplaining partner."

"The fact is that he is a robot, Elijah."

"Never to me, Gladia. My mind knows he is a robot and has no feelings in the human fashion, but my heart considers him human and I must treat him so. I would ask Dr. Fastolfe to let me take Daneel with me, but no robots are allowed on the new Settler worlds."

"Would you dream of taking me with you, Elijah?"

"No Spacers, either."

"It seems you Earthmen are as unreasoningly exclusive as we Spacers are."

Elijah nodded glumly. "Madness on both sides. But even if we were sane, I would not take you. You could not stand the life and I'd never be sure that your immune mechanisms would build up properly. I'd be afraid that you would either die quickly of some minor infection or that you would live too long and watch our generations die. Forgive me, Gladia."

"For what, dear Elijah?"

"For - this." He put out his hands, palms upward, to either side. "For asking to see you."

"But I'm glad you did. I wanted to see you."

He said, "I know. I tried not to see you, but the thought of being in space and of not stopping at Aurora tore me apart. And yet it does no good, Gladia. It just means another leave-taking and that will tear me apart, too. It is why I have never written you, why I have never tried to reach you by hyperwave. Surely you must have wondered."

"Not really. I agree with you that there was no point. It would merely make it all infinitely harder. Yet I wrote to you many times."

"You did? I never received one letter."

"I never mailed one letter. Having written them, I destroyed them."

"But why?"

"Because, Elijah, no private letter can be sent from Aurora to Earth without passing through the hands of the censor and I wrote you not one letter that I was willing to let the censors see. Had you sent me a letter, I assure you that not one would have gotten through to me, however innocent it might have been. I thought that was why I never received a letter. Now that I know you weren't aware of the situation, I am extraordinarily glad that you were not so foolish as to try to remain in touch with me. You would have misunderstood my never answering your letters."

Baley stared at her. "How is it I see you now?"

"Not legally, I assure you. I am using Dr. Fastolfe's private ship, so I passed by the border guards without being challenged. Had this ship not been Dr. Fastolfe's, I would have been stopped and sent back. I assumed you understood that, too, and that that was why you were in touch with Dr. Fastolfe and didn't try to reach me directly."

"I understood nothing. I sit here amazed at the double ignorance that kept me safe. Triple ignorance, for I didn't know the proper hyperwave combination to reach you directly and I couldn't face the difficulty of trying to find the combination on Earth. I couldn't have done it privately and there was already sufficient comment all, over the Galaxy about you and me, thanks to that foolish hyperwave drama they put on the subwaves after Solaria. Otherwise, I promise you, I would have tried. I had Dr. Fastolfe's combination, however, and once I was in orbit around Aurora, I contacted him at once."

"In any case, we're here." She sat down on the side of her bunk and held out her hands.

Baley took them and tried to sit down on a stool, which he had hitched one foot over, but she drew him insistently toward the bunk and he sat down beside her.

He said awkwardly, "How is it with you, Gladia?"

"Quite well. And you, Elijah?"

"I grow old. I have just celebrated my fiftieth birthday three weeks ago."

"Fifty is not - " She stopped.

"For an Earthman, it's old. We're short-lived, you know.

"Even for an Earthman, fifty is not old. You haven't changed."

"It's kind of you to say so, but I can tell where the creaks have multiplied. Gladia - "

"Yes, Elijah?"

"I must ask. Have you and Santirix Gremionis - "

Gladia smiled and nodded. "He is my husband. I took your advice."

"And has it worked out well?"

"Well enough. Life is pleasant."

"Good. I hope it lasts."

"Nothing lasts for centuries, Elijah, but it could last for years; perhaps even for decades."

"Any children?"

"Not yet. But what about your family, my married man? Your son? Your wife?"

"Bentley moved out to the Settlements two years ago. In fact, I'll be joining him. He's an official on the world I'm heading for. He's only twenty-four and he's looked up to already." Baley's eyes danced. "I think I'll have to address him as Your Honor. In public, anyway."

"Excellent. And Mrs. Baley? Is she with you?"

"Jessie? No. She won't leave Earth. I told her that we would be living in domes for a considerable time, so that it really wouldn't be so different from Earth. Primitive, of course. Still, she may change her mind in time. I'll make it as comfortable as possible and once I've settled down, I'll ask Bentley to go to Earth and gather her in. She may be lonely enough by then to be willing to come. We'll see."

"But meanwhile you're alone."

"There are over a hundred other immigrants on the ship, so I'm not really alone."

"They are on the other side of the docking wall, however. And I'm alone, too."

Baley cast a brief, involuntary look toward the pilot room and Gladia said, "Except for Daneel, of course, who's on the other side of that door and who is a robot, no matter how intensely you think of him as a person. - And, surely you haven't asked to see me only that we might ask after each other's families?"

Baley's face grew solemn, almost anxious. "I can't ask you - "

"Then I ask you. This bunk is not really designed with sexual activity in mind, but you'll chance the possibility of falling out of it, I hope."

Baley said hesitantly, "Gladia, I can't deny that - "

"Oh, Elijah, don't go into a long dissertation in order to satisfy the needs of your Earth morality. I offer myself to you in accord with Auroran custom. It's your clear right to refuse and I will have no right to question the refusal. Except that I would question it most forcefully. I have decided that the right to refuse belongs only to Aurorans. I won't take it from an - Earthman."

Baley sighed. "I'm no longer an Earthman, Gladia."

"I am even less likely to take it from a miserable immigrant heading out for a barbarian planet on which he will have to cower under a dome. - Elijah, we have had so little time, and we have so little time now, and I may never see you again. This meeting is so totally unexpected that it would be a cosmic crime to toss it away."

"Gladia, do you really want an old man?"

"Elijah, do you really want me to beg?"

"But I'm ashamed."

"Then close your eyes."

"I mean of myself - of my decrepit body."

"Then suffer. Your foolish opinion of yourself has nothing to do with me." And she put her arms about him, even as the seam of her robe fell apart.

8

Gladia was aware of a number of things, all simultaneously.

She was aware of the wonder of constancy, for Elijah was as she had remembered him. The lapse of five years had not changed matters. She had not been living in the glow of a memory-intensified glitter. He was Elijah.

She was aware, also, of a puzzle of difference. Her feeling intensified that Santirix Gremionis, without a single major flaw that she could define, was all flaw. Santirix was affectionate, gentle, rational, reasonably intelligent - and flat. Why he was flat, she could not say, but nothing he did or said could rouse her as Baley did, even when he did and said nothing. Baley was older in years, much older physiologically, not as handsome as Santirix, and what was more, Baley carried with him the indefinable air of decay - of the aura of quick aging and short life that Earthmen must. And yet -

She was aware of the folly of men, of Elijah approaching her with hesitation, with total unappreciation of his effect on her.

She was aware of his absence, for he had gone in to speak to Daneel, who was to be last as he was first. Earthmen feared and hated robots and yet Elijah, knowing full well that Daneel was a robot, treated him only as a person. Spacers, on the other hand, who loved robots and were never comfortable in their absence, would never think of them as anything but machines.

Most of all, she was aware of time. She knew that exactly three hours and twenty-five minutes had elapsed since Elijah had entered Han Fastolfe's small vessel and she knew further that not much more time could be allowed to elapse.

The longer she remained off Aurora's surface and the longer Baley's ship remained in orbit, the more likely it was that someone would notice - or if the matter had already been noticed, as seemed almost certain, the more likely it would be that someone would become curious and investigate. And then - Fastolfe would find himself in an annoying tangle of trouble.

Baley emerged from the pilot room and looked at Gladia sadly. "I must go now, Gladia."

"I know that well."

Baley said, "Daneel will take care of you. He will be your friend as well as protector and you must be a friend to him - for my sake. But it is Giskard I want you to listen to. Let him be your adviser."

Gladia frowned. "Why Giskard? I'm not sure I like him."

"I do not ask you to like him. I ask you to trust him."

"But why, Elijah?"

"I can't tell you that. In this, you must trust me, too."

They looked at each other and said no more. It was as though silence made time stop, allowed them to hold on to the seconds and keep them motionless.

But it could only work so long. Baley said, "You don't regret?"

Gladia whispered, "How could I regret - when I may never see you again?"

Baley made as though to answer that, but she put her small clenched fist against his mouth.

"Don't lie uselessly," she said. "I may never see you again."

And she never did. Never!

9

It was with pain that she felt herself drag across the dead waste of years into the present once more.

I never did, she thought. Never!

She had protected herself against the bittersweet for so long and now she had plunged into it - more bitter than sweet - because she had seen this person, this Mandamus because Giskard has asked her to and because she was compelled to trust Giskard. It was his last request.

She focused on the present. (How much time had elapsed?)

Mandamus was looking at her coldly. He said, "From your reaction, Madam Gladia, I gather that it is true. You could not have said so more plainly."

"What is true? What are you talking about?"

"That you saw the Earthman Elijah Baley five years after his visit to Aurora. His ship was in orbit about Aurora; you traveled up to see him and were with him about the time you conceived your son."

"What evidence do you have for that?"

"Madam, it was not totally a secret. The Earthman's ship was detected in orbit Fastolfe's yacht was detected in its flight. It was observed to dock. It was not Fastolfe who was on board the yacht, so the presumption was that it was you. Dr. Fastolfe's influence was sufficient to keep it off the record."

"If it is off the record, there is no evidence."

"Nevertheless, Dr. Amadiro has spent the last two thirds of his life following Dr. Fastolfe's movements with the eyes of detestation. There were always government officials who were heart and soul with Dr. Amadiro's policy of reserving the Galaxy for the Spacers and they would quietly report to him anything they thought he would like to know. Dr. Amadiro learned of your little escapade almost as soon as it happened."

"It is still not evidence. The unsupported word of a minor official currying favor is of no account. Amadiro did nothing because even he knew he had no evidence."

"No evidence with which he could charge anyone with even a misdemeanor; no evidence with which he could trouble Fastolfe, but evidence enough to suspect me of being a descendant of Baley's and to cripple my career therefore."

Gladia said bitterly, "You may cease being troubled. My son is the son of Santirix Gremionis, a true Auroran, and it is from this son of Gremionis that you are descended."

"Convince me of it, madam. I ask nothing better. Convince me that you fired up into orbit and that you spent hours alone with the Earthman and that, during that time, you talked - politics, perhaps - discussed old times and mutual friends - told funny stories - and never touched each other. Convince me."

"What we did, did not matter, so spare me your sarcasm. At the time I saw him, I was already pregnant by my then husband. I was carrying a three-month-old fetus, an Auroran fetus.

"Can you prove that?"

"Why should I have to prove it? The date of my son's birth is on record and Amadiro must have the date of my visit to the Earthman."

"He was told it at the time, as I said, but nearly twenty decades have passed and he doesn't remember exactly. The visit is not a matter of record and cannot be referred to. I fear that Dr. Amadiro would prefer to believe that it was nine months before the birth of your son that you were with the Earthman."

"Six months."

"Prove it."

"You have my word."

"Insufficient."

"Well, then - Daneel, you were with me. When did I see Elijah Baley?"

"Madam Gladia, it was one hundred and seventy-three days before the birth of your son."

Gladia said, "Which is just under six months before the birth."

"Insufficient," said Mandamus.

Gladia's chin lifted. "Daneel's memory is perfect, as can be easily demonstrated, and a robot's statements pass for evidence in the courts of Aurora."

"This is not a matter for the courts and will not be and Daneel's memory carries no weight with Dr. Amadiro. Daneel was constructed by Fastolfe and was maintained by Fastolfe for nearly two centuries. We cannot say what modifications were introduced or how Daneel might have been instructed to deal with matters relating to Dr. Amadiro."

"Then reason it out, man. Earthmen are quite different genetically from us. We are virtually different species. We are not interfertile."

"Unproven."

"Well, then, genetic records exist. Darrel's do; Santirix's do. Compare them. If my ex-husband were not his father, the genetic differences would make that unmistakable."

"Genetic records are not for anyone's eyes. You know that."

"Amadiro is not that immersed in ethical considerations. He has the influence to see them illegally. - Or is he afraid of disproving his hypothesis?"

"Whatever the reason, madam, he will not betray an Auroran's right to privacy."

Gladia said, "Well, then, go to outer space and choke on vacuum. If your Amadiro refuses to be convinced, that is no affair of mine. You, at least, ought to be convinced and it is your job to convince Amadiro in his turn. If you cannot and if your career does not move onward as you would like to have it do, please be assured that this is entirely and intensely no concern of mine."

"That does not surprise me. I expect nothing more. And for that matter, I am convinced. I was merely hoping that you would give me some material with which to convince Dr. Amadiro. You haven't."

Gladia shrugged with disdain.

"I will use other methods, then," said Mandamus.

"I'm glad you have them," Gladia said coldly.

Mandamus said in a lower voice, almost as though he was unaware of the presence of anyone else, "So am I. There are powerful methods remaining to me."

"Good. I suggest you try blackmail on Amadiro. He must have much to be blackmailed for."

Mandamus looked up, suddenly frowning. "Don't be a fool."

Gladia said, "You may go, now. I think I have had all of you I wish to endure. Out of my establishment!"

Mandamus lifted his arms. "Wait! I told you at the start that there were two reasons for seeing you - one a personal matter and one a matter of state. I have spent - too long a time on the first, but I must request five minutes to discuss the second."

"I'll give you no more than five minutes."

"There is someone else who wants to see you. An Earthman - or at least a member of one of the Settler worlds, a descendant of Earthpeople."

"Tell him," said Gladia, "that neither Earthpeople nor their Settler descendants are allowed on Aurora and send him away. Why do I have to see him?"

"Unfortunately, madam, in the last two centuries the balance of power has shifted somewhat. These Earthpeople have more worlds than we have - and have always had a far larger population. They have more ships, even though those are not as advanced as ours, and because of their short lives and their fecundity they are apparently far readier to die than we are."

"I don't believe that last."

Mandamus smiled tightly. "Why not? Eight decades mean less than forty do. In any case, we must treat them politely - far more politely than we ever had to in Elijah Baley's day. If it is any comfort to you, it is the policies of Fastolfe that have created this situation."

"For whom do you speak, by the way? It is Amadiro who must now bring himself to be polite to Settlers?"

"No. It is the Council, actually."

"Are you the spokesman for the Council?"

"Not officially, but, I have been asked to inform you of this - unofficially."

"And if I see this Settler, what then? What does he want to see me about?"

"That is what we don't know, madam. We count on you to tell us. You are to see him, find out what he wants, and report to us."

"Who is 'us'?"

"As I said, the Council. The Settler will be here at your establishment this evening."

"You seem to assume that I have no choice but to take on this position as informer."

Mandamus rose to his feet, clearly done with his mission. "You will not be an informer. You owe nothing to this Settler. You are merely reporting to your government, as a loyal Auroran citizen should be willing - even eager to do. You would not want the Council to suppose that your Solarian birth in any way dilutes your Auroran patriotism."

"Sir, I have been an Auroran over four times as long as you've been alive."

"Undoubtedly, but you were born and raised on Solaria. You are that unusual anomaly, a foreign-born Auroran, and it is difficult to forget it. This is especially true since the Settler wishes to see you, rather than anyone else on Aurora, precisely because you are Solarian-born."

"How do you know that?"

"It is a fair presumption. He identifies you as 'the Solarian woman.' We are curious as to why that should mean anything to him - now that Solaria no longer exists."

"Ask him."

"We prefer to ask you - after you ask him. I must ask permission to leave now and, I thank you for your hospitality."

Gladia nodded stiffly. "I grant you your permission to leave with better will than I granted you my hospitality."

Mandamus stepped toward the hallway that led to the main entrance, followed closely by his robots.

He paused just before leaving the room, turned, and said, "I had almost forgotten - "

"Yes?"

"The Settler who wishes to see you has a surname that, by a peculiar coincidence, is Baley."

***