Robots and Empire (Page 68)
- 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
"May I not wait while you live?"
"I don’t wish it. If I die while you watch, it may affect you badly despite all my words. Go now. That is an order. I will allow you to be a robot if you wish but, in that case, you must follow my orders. You cannot save my life by anything you can do, so there is nothing to come ahead of Second Law. Go!"
Baley’s finger pointed feebly and he said, "Good-bye, friend Daneel."
Daneel turned slowly, following Baley’s orders with unprecedented difficulty "Good-bye, Partner – " He paused and then said, with a faint hoarseness, "Good-bye, friend Elijah."
Bentley confronted Daneel in the next room. "Is he still alive?"
"He was alive when I left."
Bentley went in and came out almost at once. "He isn’t now. He saw you and then – let go."
Daneel found he had to lean against the wall. It was some time before he could stand upright.
Bentley, eyes averted, waited and – then together they returned to the small ship and moved back up into orbit where Gladia waited.
And she, too, asked if Elijah Baley was still-alive and when they told her gently that he was not, she turned away, dry-eyed, and went into her own cabin to weep.
43
Daneel continued his thought as though the sharp memory of Baley’s death in all its details had not momentarily intervened. "And yet I may understand something more of what Partner Elijah was saying now in the light of Madam Gladia’s speech.
"In what way?"
"I am not yet sure. It is very difficult to think in the direction – I am trying to think."
"I will wait for as long as is necessary," said Giskard.
44
Genovus Pandaral was tall and not, as yet, very old for all his thick shock of white hair which, together with his fluffy white sideburns, gave him a look of dignity and distinction. His general air of looking like a leader had helped his advancement through the ranks, but as he himself knew very well, his appearance was much stronger than his inner fiber.
Once he had been elected to the Directory, he had gotten over the initial elation rather rapidly. He was in beyond his depth and, each year, as he was automatically pushed up a notch, he knew that more clearly. Now he was Senior Director.
Of all the times to be Senior Director!
In the old days, the task of ruling had been nothing. In the time of Nephi Morler, eight decades before, the same Morler who was always being held up to the schoolchildren as the greatest of all Directors, it had been nothing. What had Baleyworld been then? A small world, a trickle of farms, a handful of towns clustered along natural lines of communication. The total population had been no more than five million and its most important exports had been raw wood and some titanium.
The Spacers had ignored them completely under the more or less benign influence of Han Fastolfe of Aurora and life was simple. People could always make trips back to Earth – if they wanted a breath of culture or the feel of technology – and there was a steady flow of Earthpeople arriving as immigrants. Earth’s mighty population was inexhaustible.
Why shouldn’t Morler have been a great Director, then? He had had nothing to do.
And, in the future, ruling would again be simple. As the Spacers continued to degenerate (every schoolchild was told that they would, that they must drown in the contradictions of their society – though Pandaral wondered, sometimes, whether this was really certain) and as the Settlers continued to increase in numbers and strength, the time would soon come when life would be again secure. The Settlers would live in peace and develop their own technology to the utmost.
As Baleyworld filled, it would assume the proportion and ways of another Earth, as would all the worlds, while new ones would spring up here and there in ever greater numbers, finally making up the great Galactic Empire to come. And surely Baleyworld, as the oldest and most populous of the Settler worlds, would always have a prime place in that Empire, under the benign and perpetual rule of Mother Earth.
But it was not in the past that Pandaral was Senior Director. Nor was it in the future. It was now.
Han Fastolfe was dead, now, but Kelden Amadiro was alive. Amadiro had held out against Earth being allowed to send out Settlers twenty decades ago and he was still alive now to make trouble. The Spacers were still too strong to be disregarded; the Settlers were still not quite strong enough to move forward with confidence. Somehow the Settlers had to hold off the Spacers till the balance had shifted sufficiently.
And the task of keeping the Spacers quiet and the Settlers at once resolute and yet sensible fell more upon Pandaral’s shoulders than on anyone else’s – and it was a task he neither liked nor wanted.
Now it was morning, a cold, gray morning with more snow coming – though that was no surprise – and he made his way through the hotel alone. He wanted no retinue.
The security guards, out in force, snapped to attention as he passed and he acknowledged them wearily. He spoke to the captain of the – guard when the latter advanced to meet him. "Any trouble, Captain?"
"None, Director. All is quiet."
Pandaral nodded. "In which room has Baley been put? – Ah. – And the Spacer woman and her robots are under strict guard? – Good."
He passed on. On the whole, D.G. had behaved well. Solaria, abandoned, could be used by Traders as an almost endless supply of robots and as a source of large profits though profits were not to be taken as the natural equivalent of world security, Pandaral thought morosely. But Solaria, booby-trapped, had best be left alone. It was not worth a war. D.G. had done well to leave at once.
And to take the nuclear intensifier with him. So far, such devices were so overwhelmingly massive that they could be used only in huge and expensive installations designed to destroy invading ships – and even these had never gotten beyond the planning stage. Too expensive. Smaller and cheaper versions were absolutely necessary, so D.G. was right in feeling that bringing home a Solarian intensifier was more important than all the robots on that world put together. That intensifier should help the scientists of Baleyworld enormously.
- 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