Robots and Empire (Page 13)
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 139
"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.
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 139