Robots and Empire (Page 49)

"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."

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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 – "