Robots and Empire (Page 46)

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.

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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But even as the thought struck her, it was out of date, for Daneel had already caught the woman’s left wrist and twisted it, saying, "Drop those weapons at once," in a harsh peremptory voice she had never heard him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."