Robots and Empire (Robot 4)

7. THE OVERSEER

It was morning on Solaria, morning on the estate - her estate. Off in the distance was the establishment that might have been her establishment. Somehow twenty decades dropped away and Aurora seemed to her to be a far-off dream that had never happened.

She turned to D.G., who was tightening the belt about his thin outer garment, a belt from which two sidearms hung. On his left hip was the neuronic whip; on his right, something shorter and bulkier that she guessed was a blaster.

"Are we going to the house?" she asked.

"Eventually," said D.G. with a certain absence of mind. He was inspecting each sidearm in turn, holding one of them to his ear as though he were listening for a faint buzz that would tell him it was alive.

"Just the four of us?" She automatically turned her eyes to each of the others: D.G., Daneel - She said to Daneel, "Where is Giskard, Daneel?"

Daneel said, "It seemed to him, Madam Gladia, that it would be wise to act as an advance guard. As a robot, he might not be noticeable among other robots - and if there should be anything wrong, he could warn us. In any case, he is more expendable than either yourself or the captain."

"Good robotic thinking," said D.G. grimly. "It's just as well. Come, we're moving forward now."

"Just the three of us?" said Gladia, a touch plaintively. "To be honest, I lack Giskard's robotic ability to accept expendability."

D.G. said, "We're all expendable, Lady Gladia. Two ships have been destroyed, every member of each crew indiscriminately brought to an end. There's no safety in numbers here."

"You're not making me feel any better, D.G."

"Then I'll try. The earlier ships were not prepared. Our ship is. And I'm prepared, too." He slapped his two hands to his hips. "And you've got a robot with you who has showed himself to be an efficient protector. What's more, you yourself are our best weapon. You know how to order robots to do what you want them to do and that may well be crucial. You are the only one with us who can do that and the earlier ships had no one at all of your caliber. Come, then - "

They moved forward. Gladia said, after a while, "We're not walking toward the house."

"No, not yet. First, we're walking toward a group of robots. You see them, I hope."

"Yes, I do, but they're not doing anything."

"No, they're not. There were many more robots present when we first landed. Most of them have gone, but these remain. Why?"

"If we ask them, they'll tell us."

"You will ask them, Lady Gladia."

"They'll answer you, D.G., as readily as they'll answer me. We're equally human."

D.G. stopped short and the other two stopped with him. He turned to Gladia and said, smiling, "My dear Lady Gladia, equally human? A Spacer and a Settler? Whatever has come over you?"

"We are equally human to a robot," she said waspishly.

"And please don't play games. I did not play the game of Spacer and Earthman with your Ancestor."

D.G.'s smile vanished. "That's true. My apologies, my lady. I shall try to control my sense of the sardonic for, after all, on this world we are allies."

He said, a moment later, "Now, madam, what I want you to do is to find out what orders the robots have been given - if any; if there are any robots that might, by some chance, know you; if there are any human beings on the estate or on the world; or anything else it occurs to you to ask. They shouldn't be dangerous; they're robots and you're human; they can't hurt you. To be sure," he added, remembering, "your Daneel rather manhandled Niss, but that was under conditions that don't apply here. And Daneel may go with you."

Respectfully, Daneel said, "I would in any case accompany Lady Gladia, Captain. That is my function."

"Giskard's function, too, I imagine," said D.G., "and yet he's wandered off."

"For a purpose, Captain, that he discussed with me and that we agreed was an essential way of protecting Lady Gladia."

"Very well. You two move forward. I'll cover you both."

He drew the weapon on his right hip. "If I call out 'Drop,' the two of you fall down instantly. This thing does not play favorites."

"Please don't use it as anything but a last resort, D.G.," said Gladia. "There would scarcely be an occasion to against robots. Come, Daneel!"

Off she went, stepping forward rapidly and firmly toward the group of about a dozen robots that were standing just in front of a line of low bushes with the morning sun reflecting in glints here and there from their burnished exteriors.

The robots did not retreat, nor did they advance. They remained calmly in place. Gladia counted them. Eleven in plain sight. There might be others, possibly, that were unseen.

They were designed Solaria-fashion. Very polished. Very smooth. No illusion of clothing and not much realism. They were almost like - mathematical abstractions of the human body, with no two of them quite alike.

She had the feeling that they were by no means as flexible or complex as Auroran robots but were more single mindedly adapted to specific tasks.

She stopped at least four meters from the line of robots and Daneel (she sensed) stopped as soon as she did and remained less than a meter behind. He was close enough to interfere at once in case of need, but was far enough back to make it clear that she was the dominant spokesperson of the pair. The robots before her, she was certain, viewed Daneel as a human being, but she also knew that Daneel was too conscious of himself as a robot to presume upon the misconception of other robots.

Gladia said, "Which one of you will speak with me?"

There was a brief period of silence, as though an unspoken conference were taking place. Then one robot took a step forward. "Madam, I will speak."

"Do you have a name?"

"No, madam. I have only a serial number."

"How long have you been operational?"

"I have been operational twenty-nine years, madam."

"Has anyone else in this group been operational for longer?"

"No, madam. It is why I, rather than another, am speaking."

"How many robots are employed on this estate?"

"I do not have that figure, madam."

"Roughly."

"Perhaps ten thousand, madam."

"Have any been operational for longer than twenty decades?"

"The agricultural robots some who may, madam."

"And the household robots?"

"They have not been operational long, madam - The masters prefer new-model robots."

Gladia nodded, turned to Daneel, and said, "That makes sense. It was so in my day, too."

She turned back to the robot. "To whom does this estate belong?"

"It is the Zoberlon Estate, madam."

"How long has it belonged to the Zoberlon family?"

"Longer, madam, than I have been operational. I do not know how much longer, but the information can be obtained."

"To whom did it belong before the Zoberlons took possession?"

"I do not know, madam, but the information can be obtained."

"Have you ever heard of the Delmarre family?"

"No, madam."

Gladia turned to Daneel and said, rather ruefully, "I'm trying to lead the robot, little by little, as Elijah might once have done, but I don't think I know how to do it properly."

"On the contrary, Lady Gladia," said Daneel gravely, "it seems to me you have established much. It is not likely that any robot on this estate, except perhaps for a few of the agriculturals, would have any memory of you. Would you have encountered any of the agriculturals in your time?"

Gladia shook her head. "Never! I don't recall seeing any of them even in the distance."

"It is clear, then, that you are not known on this estate."

"Exactly. And poor D.G. has brought us along for nothing. If he expected any good of me, he has failed."

"To know the truth is always useful, madam. Not to be known is, in this case, less useful than to be known, but not to know whether one is known or not would be less useful still. Are there not, perhaps, other points on which you might elicit information?"

"Yes, let's see - " For a few seconds, she was lost in thought, then she said softly, "It's odd. When I speak to robots, I speak with a pronounced Solarian accent, yet I do not speak so to you."

Daneel said, "It is not surprising, Lady Gladia. The robots speak with such an accent, for they are Solarian. That brings back the days of your youth and you speak, automatically, as you spoke then. You are at once yourself, however, when you turn to me because I am part of your present world."

A slow smile appeared on Gladia's face and she said, "You reason more and more like a human being, Daneel."

She turned back to the robots and was keenly aware of the peacefulness of the surroundings. The sky was an almost unmarked blue, except for a thin line of clouds on the western horizon (indicating that it might turn cloudy in the afternoon). There was the sound of rustling leaves in a light wind, the whirring of insects, a lonely birdcall. No sound of human beings. There might be many robots about, but they worked silently. There weren't the exuberant sounds of human beings that she had grown accustomed to (painfully, at first) on Aurora.

But now back on Solaria, she found the peace wonderful. It had not been all bad on Solaria. She had to admit it.

She said to the robot quickly, with a note of compulsion, edging her voice, "Where are your masters?"

It was useless, however, to try to hurry or alarm a robot or to catch it off-guard. It said, without any sign of perturbation. "They are gone, madam."

"Where have they gone?"

"I don't know, madam. I was not told."

"Which of you knows?"

There was a complete silence.

Gladia said, "Is there any robot on the estate who would know?"

The robot said, "I do not know of any, madam."

"Did the masters take robots with them?"

"Yes, madam."

"Yet they didn't take you. Why do you remain behind?"

"To do our work, madam."

"Yet you stand here and do nothing. Is that work?"

"We guard the estate from those from outside, madam."

"Such as we?"

"Yes, madam."

"But here we are and yet you still do nothing. Why is that?"

"We observe, madam. We have no further orders."

"Have you reported your observations?"

"Yes, madam."

"To whom?"

"To the overseer, madam."

"Where is the overseer?"

"In the mansion, madam."

"Ah." Gladia turned and walked briskly back to D.G. Daneel followed.

"Well?" said D.G. He was holding both weapons at the ready, but put them back in their holsters as they returned. Gladia shook her head. "Nothing. No robot knows me. No robot, I'm sure, knows where the Solarians have gone. But they report to an overseer."

"An overseer?"

"On Aurora and the other Spacer worlds, the overseer on large estates with numerous robots is some human whose profession it is to organize and direct groups of working robots in the fields, mines, and industrial establishments."

"Then there are Solarians left behind?"

Gladia shook her head. "Solaria is an exception. The ratio of robots to human beings has always been so high that it has not been the custom to assign a man or woman to oversee the robots. That job has been done by another robot, one that is specially programmed."

"Then there is a robot in that mansion" - D.G. nodded with his head - "who is more advanced than these and who might profitably be questioned."

"Perhaps, but I am not certain it is safe to attempt to go into the mansion."

D.G. said sardoncially, "It is only an - other robot."

"The mansion may be booby-trapped."

"This field may be booby-trapped."

Gladia said, "It would be better to send one of the robots to the mansion to tell the overseer that human beings wish to speak to him."

D.G. said, "That will not be necessary. That job has apparently been done already. The overseer is emerging and is neither a robot nor a 'him.' What I see is a human female."

Gladia looked up in astonishment. Advancing rapidly toward them was a tall, well-formed, and exceedingly attractive woman. Even at a distance, there was no doubt whatever as to her sex.

D.G. smiled broadly. He seemed to be straightening himself a bit, squaring his shoulders, throwing them back. One hand went lightly to his beard, as though to make sure it was sleek and smooth.

Gladia looked at him with disfavor. She said, "That is not a Solarian woman."

"How can you tell?" said D.G.

"No Solarian woman would allow herself to be seen so freely by other human beings. Seen, not viewed."

"I know the distinction, my lady. Yet you allow me to see you."

"I have lived over twenty decades on Aurora. Even so I have enough Solarian left in me still not to appear to others like that."

"She has a great deal to display, madam. I would say she is taller than I am and as beautiful as a sunset."

The overseer had stopped twenty meters short of their position and the robots had moved aside so that none of them remained between the woman on one side and the three from the ship on the other.

D.G. said, "Customs can change in twenty decades."

"Not something as basic as the Solarian dislike of human contact," said Gladia sharply. "Not in two hundred decades." She had slipped into her Solarian twang again.

"I think you underestimate social plasticity. Still, Solarian or not, I presume she's a Spacer - and if there are other Spacers like that, I'm all for peaceful coexistence."

Gladia's look of disapproval deepened. "Well, do you intend to stand and gaze in that fashion for the next hour or two? Don't you want me to question the woman?"

D.G. started and turned to look at Gladia with distinct annoyance. "You question the robots, as you've done. I question the human beings."

"Especially the females, I suppose."

"I wouldn't like to boast, but - "

"It is a subject on which I have never known a man who didn't."

Daneel interposed, "I do not think the woman will wait longer. If you wish to retain the initiative, Captain, approach her now. I will follow, as I did with Madam Gladia."

"I scarcely need the protection," said D.G. brusquely.

"You are a human being and I must not, through inaction, allow harm to come to you."

D.G. walked forward briskly, Daneel following. Gladia, reluctant to remain behind alone, advanced a bit tentatively.

The overseer watched quietly. She wore a smooth white robe that reached down to mid-thigh and was belted at the waist. It showed a deep and inviting cleavage and her nipples were clearly visible against the thin material of the robe. There was no indication that she was wearing anything else but a pair of shoes.

When D.G. stopped, a meter of space separated them. Her skin, he could see, was flawless, her cheekbones were high, her eyes wide-set and somewhat slanted, her expression serene.

"Madam," said D.G., speaking as close an approximation to Auroran patrician as he could manage, "have I the pleasure of speaking to the overseer of this estate?"

The woman listened for a moment and then said, in an accent so thickly Solarian as to seem almost comic when coming from her perfectly shaped mouth, "You are not a human being."

She then flashed into action so quickly that Gladia, still some ten meters off, could not see in detail what had happened. She saw only a blur of motion and then D.G. lying on his back motionless and the woman standing there with his weapons, one in each hand.

What stupefied Gladia most in that one dizzying moment was that Daneel had not moved in either prevention or reprisal.

But even as the thought struck her, it was out of date, for Daneel had already caught the woman's left wrist and twisted it, saying, "Drop those weapons at once," in a harsh peremptory voice she had never heard him use before. It was inconceivable that he should so address a human being.

The woman said, just as harshly in her higher register, "You are not a human being." Her right arm came up and she fired the weapon it held. For a moment, a faint glow flickered over Daneel's body and Gladia, unable to make a sound in her state, of shock, felt her sight dim. She had never in her life fainted, but this seemed a prelude.

Daneel did not dissolve, nor was there an explosive report. Daneel, Gladia realized, had prudently seized the arm that held the blaster. The other held the neuronic whip and it was that which had been discharged in full - and at close range - upon Daneel. Had he been human, the massive stimulation of his sensory nerves might well have killed him or left him permanently disabled. Yet he was, after all, however human in appearance, a robot and his equivalent of a nervous system did not react to the whip.

Daneel seized the other arm now, forcing it up. He said again, "Drop those weapons or I will tear each arm from its socket."

"Will you?" said the woman. Her arms contracted and, for a moment, Daneel was lifted off the ground. Daneel's legs swung backward, then forward, pendulum like, using the points where the arms joined as a pivot. His feet struck the woman with force and both fell heavily to the ground.

Gladia, without putting the thought into words, realized that although the woman looked as human as Daneel did, she was just as nonhuman. A sense of instant outrage flooded Gladia, who was suddenly Solarian to the core - outrage that a robot should use force on a human being. Granted that she might somehow have recognized Daneel for what he was, but how dare she strike D.G.?

Gladia was running forward, screaming. It never occurred to her to fear a robot simply because it had knocked down a strong man with a blow and was battling an even stronger robot to a draw.

"How dare you?" she screamed in a Solarian accent so thick that it grated on her own ear - but how else does one speak to a Solarian robot? "How dare you, girl? Stop all resistance immediately!"

The woman's muscles seemed to relax totally and simultaneously, as though an electric current had suddenly been shut off. Her beautiful eyes looked at Gladia without enough humanity to seem startled. She said in an indistinct, hesitating voice, "My regrets, madam."

Daneel was on his feet, staring down watchfully at the woman who lay on the grass. D.G., suppressing a groan, was struggling upright.

Daneel bent for the weapons, but Gladia waved him away furiously.

"Give me those weapons, girl," she said.

The woman said, "Yes, madam."

Gladia snatched at them, chose the blaster swiftly, and handed it to Daneel. "Destroy her when that seems best, Daneel. That's an order." She handed the neuronic whip to D.G. and said, "This is useless here, except against me and yourself. Are you all right?"

"No, I'm not all right," muttered D.G., rubbing one hip. "Do you mean she's a robot?"

"Would a woman have thrown you like that?"

"Not any whom I have ever met before. I said there might be special robots on Solaria who were programmed to be dangerous."

"Of course," said Gladia unkindly, "but when you saw something that looked like your idea of a beautiful woman, you forgot."

"Yes, it is easy to be wise after the fact."

Gladia sniffed and turned again to the robot, "What is your name, girl?"

"I am called Landaree, madam."

"Get up, Landaree."

Landaree rose much as Daneel had - as though she were on springs. Her struggle with Daneel seemed to have left her, totally unharmed.

Gladia said, "Why, against the First Law, have you attacked these human beings?"

"Madam," said Landaree firmly, "these are not human beings."

"And do you say that I am not a human being?"

"No, madam, you a human being."

"Then, as a human being, I am defining these two men as human beings. - Do you hear me?"

"Madam," said Landaree a little more softly, "these are not human beings."

"They are indeed human beings because I tell you they are. You are forbidden to attack them or harm them in any way."

Landaree stood mute.

"Do you understand what I have said?" Gladia's voice grew more Solarian still as she reached for greater intensity.

"Madam," said Landaree, "these are not human beings."

Daneel said to Gladia softly, "Madam, she has been given orders of such firmness that you cannot easily countervail them."

"We'll see about that," said Gladia, breathing quickly.

Landaree looked about. The group of robots, during the few minutes of conflict, had come closer to Gladia and her two companions. In the background were two robots who, Gladia decided, were not members of the original group and they were carrying between them, with some difficulty, a large and very massive device of some sort. Landaree gestured to them and they moved forward a bit more quickly.

Gladia cried out, "Robots, stop!"

They stopped.

Landaree said, "Madam, I am fulfilling my duties. I am following my instructions."

Gladia said, "Your duty, girl, is to obey my orders!"

Landaree said, "I cannot be ordered to disobey my instructions!"

Gladia said, "Daneel, blast her!"

Afterward, Gladia was able to reason out what had happened. Daneel's reaction time was much faster than a human being's would have been and he knew that he was facing a robot against which the Three Laws did not inhibit violence. However, she looked so human that even the precise knowledge that she was a robot did not totally overcome his inhibition. He followed the order more slowly than he should have.

Landaree, whose definition of "human being" was clearly not the one Daneel used, was not inhibited by his appearance and she stuck the more quickly. She had her grip on the blaster and again the two struggled.

D.G. turned his neuronic whip butt-first and came in at a half-run to strike. He hit her head squarely, but it had no effect on the robot and her leg sent him flailing backward.

Gladia said, "Robot! Stop!" Her clenched hands were raised.

Landaree shouted in a stentorian contralto, "All of you. Join me! The two apparent males are not human beings. Destroy them without harming the female in any way."

If Daneel could be inhibited by a human appearance, the same was true in considerably greater intensity for the simple Solarian robots, who inched forward slowly and intermittently.

"Stop!" shrieked Gladia. The robots stopped, but the order had no effect on Landaree.

Daneel held fast to the blaster, but was bending backward under the - force of Landaree's apparently greater strength.

Gladia, in distraction, looked about as though hoping to find some weapon somewhere.

D.G. was attempting to manipulate his radio transmitter. He said, grunting, "It's been damaged. I think I fell on it."

"What do we do?"

"We have to make it back to the ship. Quickly."

Gladia said, "Then run. I can't abandon Daneel." She faced the battling robots, crying out wildly, "Landaree, stop! Landaree, stop!"

"I must not stop, madam," said Landaree. "My instructions are precise."

Daneel's fingers were forced open, and Landaree had the blaster again.

Gladia threw herself before Daneel. "You must not harm this human being."

"Madam," said Landaree, her blaster pointed at Gladia, unwavering. "You are standing in front of something that looks like a human being but is not a human being. My instructions are to destroy such on sight." Then, in a louder, voice, "You two porters - to the ship."

The two robots, carrying the massive device between them, renewed their forward movement.

"Robots, stop!" screamed Gladia and the forward motion stopped. Me robots trembled in place, as though attempting to move forward and yet not quite able to do so.

Gladia said, "You cannot destroy my human friend Daneel without destroying me - and you yourself admit that I am a human being and therefore must not be harmed."

Daneel said in a low voice, "My lady, you must not draw harm upon yourself in an effort to protect me."

Landaree said, "This is useless, madam. I can remove you easily from your present position and then destroy the nonhuman being behind you. Since that may harm you, I ask you, with all respect, to move from your present position voluntarily - "

"You must, my lady," said Daneel.

"No, Daneel. I'll stay here. In the time it will take her to move me, you run!"

"I cannot run faster than the beam of a blaster - and if I try to run, she will shoot through you rather than not at all. Her instructions are probably that firm. I regret, my lady, that this will cause you unhappiness."

And Daneel lifted the struggling Gladia and tossed her lightly to one side.

Landaree's finger tightened on the contact, but never completed the pressure. She remained motionless.

Gladia, who had staggered to a sitting position, got to her feet. Cautiously, D.G., who had remained in place during the last exchanges, approached Landaree. Daneel quite calmly reached out and took the blaster from her unresisting fingers.

"I believe," said Daneel, "that this robot is permanently deactivated."

He pushed her gently and she fell over in one piece, with her limbs, torso, and head in the relative positions they occupied when she was standing. Her arm was still bent, her hand was holding an invisible blaster, and her finger was pressing on an invisible contact.

Through the trees to one side of the grassy field on which the drama had played itself out Giskard was approaching, his robotic face showing no signs of curiosity, though his words might have.

"What has taken place in my absence?" he asked.

The walk back to the ship was rather anticlimactic. Now that the frenzy of fear and action was over, Gladia felt hot and cross. D.G. limped rather painfully and they progressed slowly, partly because of the limp and partly because the two Solarian robots were still carrying their massive instrument, plodding along under its weight.

D.G. looked over his shoulder at them. "They obey my orders now that that overseer is out of action."

Gladia said through her teeth, "Why didn't you run at the end and get help? Why did you remain helplessly watching?"

"Well," said D.G., with an attempt at the kind of lightness he would have showed easily were he feeling better, "with you refusing to leave Daneel, I rather hesitated to play the coward by comparison."

"You fool! I was safe. She would not have harmed me."

Daneel said, "Madam, it distresses me to contradict you, but I think she would have done so as her urge to destroy me grew stronger."

Gladia turned on him hotly. "And that was a smart thing you did, pushing me out of the way. Did you want to be destroyed?"

"Rather than see you harmed, madam, yes. My failure to stop the robot through inhibitions set up by her human appearance demonstrated, in any case, an unsatisfactory limit to my usefulness to you."

"Even so," said Gladia, "she would have hesitated to shoot me, since I am human, for a perceptible period of time and you could have had the blaster in your own possession by that time."

"I couldn't gamble your life, madam, on anything as uncertain as her hesitation," said Daneel.

"And you," said Gladia, showing no signs of having heard Daneel and turning to D.G. again, "shouldn't have brought the blaster in the first place."

D.G. said, frowning, "Madam, I am making allowances for the fact that we have all been very close to death. The robots do not mind that and I have grown somehow accustomed to danger. To you, however, this was an unpleasant novelty and you are being childish as a result. I forgive you - a little. But please listen. There was no way I could have known the blaster would be taken from me so easily Had I not brought the weapon, the overseer could have killed me with her bare hands as quickly and as effectively as she could have by blaster. Nor was there any point in my running, to answer an earlier complaint of yours. I could not outrun a blaster. Now please continue if you must still get it out of your system, but I do not intend to reason with you any further."

Gladia looked from D.G. to Daneel and back and said in a low voice, "I suppose I am being unreasonable. Very well, no more hind sights."

They had reached the ship. Crew members poured out at the sight of them. Gladia noticed they were armed.

D.G. beckoned to his second-in-command. "Oser, I presume you see that object the two robots are carrying?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, have them carry it on board. Have it put in the security room and kept there. The security room is then to be locked and kept locked." He turned away for a moment, then turned back. "And Oser, as soon as that is done, we will prepare to take off again."

Oser said, "Captain, shall we keep the robots as well?"

"No. They are too simple in design to be worth much and, under the circumstances, taking them would create undesirable consequences. The device they are carrying is much more valuable than they are."

Giskard watched the device being slowly and very carefully maneuvered into the ship. He said, "Captain, I am guessing that that is a dangerous object."

"I'm under that impression, too," said D.G. "I suspect that the ship would have been destroyed soon after we were."

"That thing?" said Gladia. "What is it?"

"I can't be certain, but I believe it is a nuclear intensifier. I've seen experimental models on Baleyworld and this looks like a big brother."

"What is a nuclear intensifier?"

"As the name implies, Lady Gladia, it's a device that intensifies nuclear fusion."

"How does it do that?"

D.G. shrugged. "I'm not a physicist, my lady. A stream of W particles is involved and they mediate the weak interaction. That's all I know about it."

"What does that do?" asked Gladia.

"Well, suppose the ship has its power supply as it has right now, for instance. There are small numbers of protons, derived from our hydrogen fuel supply, that are ultrahot and fusing to produce power. Additional hydrogen is constantly being heated to produce free protons, which, when hot enough, also fuse to maintain that power. If the stream of W particles from the nuclear intensifier strikes the fusing protons, these fuse more quickly and deliver more heat. That heat produces protons and sets them to fusing more quickly than they should be and their fusion produces still more heat, which intensifies the vicious cycle. In a tiny fraction of a second, enough of the fuel fuses to form a tiny thermonuclear bomb and the entire ship and everything upon it is vaporized.

Gladia looked awed. "Why doesn't everything ignite? Why doesn't the whole planet blow up?"

"I don't suppose there's danger of that, madam. The protons have to be ultrahot and fusing. Cold protons are so unapt to fuse that even when the tendency is intensified to the full extent of such a device, that still is not enough to allow fusion. At least, that's what I gathered from a lecture I once attended. And nothing but hydrogen is affected, as far as I know. Even in the case of ultrahot protons, the heat produced does not increase without measure. The temperature cools with distance from the intensifier beam, so that only a limited amount of fusion can be forced. Enough to destroy the ship, of course, but there's no question of blowing up the hydrogen-rich oceans, for instance, even if part of the ocean were ultraheated - and certainly not if it were cold."

"But - if the machine gets turned on accidentally in the storage room - "

"I don't think it can get turned on." D.G. opened his hand and in it rested a two - centimeter cube of polished metal. "From what little I - know of such things, this is an activator and the nuclear intensifier can do nothing without it."

"Are you sure?"

"Not entirely, but we'll just have to chance it, since I must get that thing back to Baleyworld. Now let's get on board."

Gladia and her two robots moved up the gangplank and into the ship. D.G. followed and spoke briefly to some of his officers.

He then said to Gladia, his weariness beginning to show, "It will take us a couple of hours to place all our gear on board and be ready for takeoff and every moment increases the danger."

"Danger?"

"You don't suppose that fearful woman robot is the only one of its kind that may exist on Solaria, do you? Or that the nuclear intensifier we have captured is the only one of its kind? I suppose it will take time for other humanoid robots and other nuclear intensifiers to be brought to this spot - perhaps considerable time - but we must give them as little as possible. And in the meantime, madam, let us to go your room and conduct some necessary business."

"What necessary business would that be, Captain?"

"Well," said D.G., motioning them forward, "in view of the fact that I may have been victimized by treason, I think I will conduct a rather informal court-martial."

D.G. said, after seating himself with an audible groan, "What I really want is a hot shower, a rubdown, a good meal, and a chance to sleep, but that will all have to wait till we're off the planet. It will have to wait in your case, too, madam. Some things will not wait, however, my question is this. Where were you, Giskard, while the rest of us were faced with considerable danger?"

Giskard said, "Captain, it did not seem to me that if robots alone were left on the planet, they would represent any danger. Moreover, Daneel remained with you."

Daneel said, "Captain, I agreed, that Giskard would reconnoiter and that I would remain with Madam Gladia and with you."

"You two agreed, did you?" said D.G. "Was anyone else consulted?"

"No, Captain," said Giskard.

"If you were certain that the robots were harmless, Giskard, how did you account for the fact that two ships were destroyed?"

"It seemed to me, Captain, that there must remain human beings on the planet, but that they would do their best not to be seen by you. I wanted to know I where they were and what they were doing. I was in search of them, covering the ground as rapidly as I could. I questioned the robots I met."

"Did you find any human beings?"

"No, Captain."

"Did you examine the house out of which the overseer emerged?"

"No, Captain, but I was certain there were no human beings within it. I still am."

"It contained the overseer."

"Yes, Captain, but the overseer was a robot."

"A dangerous robot."

"To my regret, Captain, I did not realize that."

"You feel regret, do you?"

"It is an expression I choose to describe the effect on my positronic circuits. It is a rough analogy to the term as human beings seem to use it, Captain."

"How is it you didn't realize a robot might be dangerous?"

"By the Three Laws of Robotics - "

Gladia interrupted, "Stop this, Captain. Giskard only knows what he is programmed to know. No robot is dangerous to human beings, unless there is a deadly quarrel between human beings and the robot must attempt to stop it. In such a quarrel, Daneel and Giskard would undoubtedly have defended us with as little harm to others as possible."

"Is that so?" D.G. put two fingers to the bridge of his nose and pinched. "Daneel did defend us. We were fighting robots, not human beings, so he had no problem in deciding whom to defend and to what extent. Yet he showed astonishing lack of success, considering that the Three Laws do not prevent him from doing harm to robots. Giskard remained out of it, returning at the precise moment when it was over. Is it possible that there is a bond of sympathy among robots? Is it possible that robots, when defending human beings against robots, somehow feel what Giskard calls 'regret' at having to do so and perhaps fail or absent themselves - "

"No!" exploded Gladia forcefully.

"No?" said D.G. "Well, I don't pretend to be an expert roboticist. Are you, Lady Gladia?"

"I am not a roboticist of any sort," said Gladia, "but I have lived with robots all my life. What you suggest is ridiculous. Daneel was quite prepared to give his life for me and Giskard would have done the same.

"Would any robot have done so?"

"Of course."

"And yet this overseer, this Landaree, was quite ready to attack me and destroy me. Let us grant that, in some mysterious way, she detected that Daneel, despite appearances, was as much a robot as she herself was - despite appearances - and that she had no inhibitions when it came to harming him. How is it, though, that she attacked me when I am unquestionably a human being? She hesitated at you, admitting you were human, but not me. How could a robot discriminate between the two of us? Was she perhaps not really a robot?"

"She was a robot," said Gladia. "Of course she was. But - the truth is, I don't know why she acted as she did. I have never before heard of such a thing. I can only suppose the Solarians, having learned how to construct humanoid robots, designed them without the protection of the Three Laws, though I would have sworn that the Solarians - of all Spacers - would have been the last to do so. Solarians are so outnumbered by their own robots as to be utterly dependent on them - to a far greater extent than any other Spacers are - and for that reason they fear them more. Subservience and even a bit of stupidity were built into all Solarian robots. The Three Laws were stronger on Solaria than anywhere else, not weaker. Yet I can think of no other way of explaining Landaree than to suppose that the First Law was - "

Daneel said, "Excuse me, Madam Gladia, for interrupting. May I have your permission to attempt an explanation of the overseer's behavior?"

D.G. said sardonically, "It comes to that, I suppose. Only a robot can explain a robot."

"Sir," said Daneel, "unless we understand the overseer, we might not be able to take effective measures in the future against the Solarian danger. I believe I have a way of accounting for her behavior."

"Go ahead," said D.G.

"The overseer," said Daneel, "did not take instant measures against us. She stood and watched us, for a while, apparently uncertain as to how to proceed. When you, Captain, approached and addressed her, she announced that you were not human and attacked you instantly. When I intervened and cried out that she was a robot, she announced that I was not human and attacked me at once, too. When Lady Gladia came forward, however, shouting at her, the overseer recognized her as human and, for a while, allowed herself to be dominated."

"Yes, I remember all that, Daneel. But what does it mean?"

"It seems to me, Captain, that it is possible to alter a robot's behavior fundamentally without ever touching the Three Laws, provided, for instance, that you alter the definition of a human being. A human being, after all, is only what it is defined to be."

"Is that so? What do you consider a human being to be?"

Daneel was not concerned with the presence or absence of sarcasm. He said, "I was constructed with a detailed description of the appearance and behavior of human beings, Captain. Anything that fits that description is a human being to me. Thus, you have the appearance and the behavior, while the overseer had the appearance but not the behavior.

"To the overseer, on the other hand, the key property of a human being was speech, Captain. The Solarian accent is a distinctive one and to the overseer something that looked like a human being was defined as a human being only if it spoke like a Solarian. Apparently, anything that looked like a human being but did not speak with a Solarian accent was to be destroyed without hesitation. As was any ship carrying such beings."

D.G. said thoughtfully, "You may be right."

"You have a Settler accent, Captain, as distinctive in its way, as the Solarian accent is, but the two are widely different. As soon as you spoke, you defined yourself as nonhuman to the overseer, who announced that and attacked."

"And you speak with an Auroran accent and were likewise attacked."

"Yes, Captain, but Lady Gladia spoke with an authentic Solarian accent and so she was recognized as human."

D.G. considered the matter silently for a while, then said, "That's a dangerous arrangement, even for those who would make use of it. If a Solarian, for any reason, at any time addressed such a robot in a way that the robot did not consider an authentic Solarian accent, that Solarian would be attacked at once. If I were a Solarian, I would be afraid to approach such a robot. My very effort to speak pure Solarian might very likely throw me off and get me killed."

"I agree, Captain," said Daneel, "and I would imagine that that is why those who manufacture robots do not ordinarily limit the definition of a human being, but leave it as broad as possible. The Solarians, however, have left the planet. One might suppose that the fact that overseer robots have this dangerous programming is the best indication that the Solarians have really left and are not here to encounter the danger. The Solarians, it appears, are at this moment concerned only that no one who is not a Solarian be allowed to set foot on the planet."

"Not even other Spacers?"

"I would expect, Captain, that it would be difficult to define a human being in such a way as to include the dozen of different Spacer accents and yet exclude the scores of different Settler accents. Keying the definition to the distinctive Solarian accent alone would be difficult enough."

D.G. said, "You are very intelligent, Daneel, I disapprove of robots, of course, not in themselves but as an unsettling influence on society. And yet, with a robot such as yourself at my side, as you were once at the Ancestor's - "

Gladia interrupted. "I'm afraid not, D.G. Daneel will never be a gift, nor will he ever be sold, nor can he be easily taken by force."

D.G. lifted his hand in a smiling negative. "I was merely dreaming, Lady Gladia. I assure you that the laws of Baleyworld would make my possession of a robot unthinkable."

Giskard said suddenly, "May I have your permission, Captain, to add a few words?"

D.G. said, "Ah, the robot who managed to avoid the action and who returned when all was safely over."

"I regret that matters appear to be as you have stated. May I have your permission, Captain, to add a few words, notwithstanding?"

"Well, go on."

"It would seem, Captain, that your decision to bring the Lady Gladia with you on this expedition has worked out very well. Had she been absent and had you ventured on your exploratory mission with only members of the ship's crew as companions, you would all have been quickly killed and the ship destroyed. It was only Lady Gladia's ability to speak like a Solarian and her courage in facing the overseer that changed the outcome."

"Not so," said D.G., "for we would all have been destroyed, possibly even Lady Gladia, but for the fortuitous event that the overseer spontaneously inactivated."

"It was not fortuitous, Captain," said Giskard, "and it is extremely unlikely that any robot will inactivate spontaneously. There has to be a reason for inactivation and I can suggest one possibility. Lady Gladia ordered the robot to stop on several occasions, as friend Daneel has told me, but the instructions under which the overseer worked were more forceful.

"Nevertheless, Lady Gladia's actions served to blunt the overseer's resolution, Captain. The fact that Lady Gladia was an undoubted human being, even by the overseer's definition, and that she was acting in such a way as to make it necessary, perhaps, for the overseer to harm her - or even kill her - blunted it even farther. Thus, at the crucial moment, the two contrary requirements having to destroy nonhuman beings and having to refrain from harming human beings balanced and the robot froze, unable to do anything. Its circuits burned out - "

Gladia's brows drew together in a puzzled frown. "But - " she began and then subsided.

Giskard went on, "It strikes me that it might be well for you to inform the crew of this. It might well ease their distrust of Lady Gladia if you stress what her initiative and courage have meant to every man in the crew, since it has kept them alive. It might also give them an excellent opinion of your own foresight in insisting on having her on board on this occasion, perhaps even against the advice of your own officers."

D.G. let loose a great shout of laughter. "Lady Gladia, I see now why you will not be separated from these robots. They are not only as intelligent as human beings, they are every bit as devious. I congratulate you on your having them. And now, if you don't mind, I must hurry the crew. I don't want to stay on Solaria for one moment more than necessary. And I promise you that you won't be disturbed for hours. I know you can use freshening and rest as much as I can."

After he was gone, Gladia remained for a while in deep thought, then turned to Giskard and said in Auroran Common, a patter version of Galactic Standard that was widespread on Aurora and difficult for any non-Auroran to understand, "Giskard, what is all this nonsense about the burning out of circuits?"

"My lady," said Giskard, "I advanced it only as a possibility and nothing more. I thought it well to emphasize your role in putting an end to the overseer."

"But how could you think he would believe that a robot could bum out that easily?"

"He knows very little about robots, madam. He may traffic in them, but he is from a world that doesn't make use of them."

"Yet I know a great deal about them and so do you. The overseer showed no signs whatever of balancing circuits; no stuttering, no trembling, no behavior difficulty of any kind. It just - stopped."

Giskard said, "Madam, since we do not know the precise specifications to which the overseer was designed, we may have to be content with ignorance as to the rationale behind the freeze."

Gladia shook her head. "Just the same, it's puzzling."

***

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