Robots and Empire (Page 69)

And yet if one Spacer world had a portable intensifier, why not others? Why not Aurora? If those weapons grew small enough to place on warships, a Spacer fleet could wipe out any number of Settler ships without trouble. How far toward that development were they? And how fast could Baleyworld progress in the same direction with the help of the intensifier D.G. had brought back?

He signaled at D.G.’s hotel room door, then entered without quite waiting for a response and sat down without quite waiting for an invitation. There were some useful perquisites that went along with being Senior Director…

D.G. looked out of the bathroom and said through the towel with which he was giving his hair a first dry, "I would have liked to greet your Directorial Excellence in a properly imposing manner, but you catch me at a disadvantage, since I am in the extremely undignified predicament of having just emerged from my shower."

"Oh, shut up," said Pandaral pettishly.

Ordinarily, he enjoyed D.G.’s irrepressible breeziness, but not now. In some ways, he never really understood D.G. at all. D.G. was a Baley, a lineal descendant of the great Elijah and the Founder, Bentley. That made D.G. a natural for a Director’s post, especially since he had the kind of bonhomie that endeared him to the public. Yet he chose to be a Trader, which was a difficult life – and a dangerous one. It might make you rich, but it was much more likely to kill you or – what was worse – prematurely age you.

What’s more, D.G.’s life as a Trader took him away from Baleyworld for months at a time and Pandaral preferred his advice to those of most of his department heads. One couldn’t always tell when D.G. was serious, but, allowing for that, he was worth listening to.

Pandaral said heavily, "I don’t think that that woman’s speech was the best thing that could have happened to us."

D.G., mostly dressed, shrugged his shoulders, "Who could have foretold it?"

"You might have. You must have looked up her background – if you had made up your mind to carry her off."

"I did look up her background, Director. She spent over three decades on Solaria. It was Solaria that formed her and she lived there entirely with robots. She saw human beings only by holographic images, except for her husband and he didn’t visit her often. She had a difficult adjustment to make when she came to Aurora and even there she lived mostly with robots. At no time in twenty-three decades would she have faced as many as twenty people all together, let alone four thousand. I assumed she wouldn’t be able to speak more than a few words – if that. I had no way of knowing she was a rabble-rouser."

"You might have stopped her, once you found out she was. You were sitting right next to her."

"Did you want a riot? The people were enjoying her. You were there. You know they were. If I had forced her down, they would have mobbed the stage. After all, Director, you didn’t try to stop her."

Pandaral cleared his throat. "I had that in mind, actually, but each time I looked back, I’d catch the eye of her robot the one who looks like a robot."

"Giskard. Yes, but what of it? He wouldn’t harm you."

"I know. Still, he made me nervous and it put me off somehow."

"Well, never mind, Director," said D.G. He was fully clothed now and he shoved the breakfast tray toward the other. "The coffee is still warm. Help yourself to the buns and jams if you want any. – It will pass. I don’t think the public will really overflow with love for the Spacers and spoil our policy. It might even serve a purpose. If the Spacers hear of it, it might strengthen the Fastolfe party. Fastolfe may be dead, but his party isn’t – not altogether – and we need to encourage their policy of moderation."

"What I’m thinking of," said Pandaral, "is the All-Settler Congress that’s coming up in five months. I’m going to have to listen to any number of sarcastic references to Baleyworld appeasement and to Baleyworlders being Spacer lovers. I tell you," he added gloomily, "the smaller the world, the more war hawkish it is."

"Then tell them that," said D.G. "Be very statesmanlike in public, but when you get them to one side, look them right in the eye – unofficially – and say that there’s freedom of expression on Baleyworld and we intend to keep it that way. Tell them Baleyworld has the interests of Earth at heart, but that if any world wishes to prove its greater devotion to Earth by declaring war on the Spacers, Baleyworld will watch with interest but nothing more. That would shut them up.

"Oh, no," said Pandaral with alarm. "A remark like that would leak out. It would create an impossible stink."

D.G. said, "You’re right, which is a pity. But think it and don’t let those big mouthed small brains get to you."

Pandaral sighed. "I suppose we’ll manage, but last night upset our plans to end on a high note. That’s what I really regret.

"What high note?"

Pandaral said, "When you left Aurora for Solaria, two Auroran warships went to Solaria as well. Did you know that?"

"No, but it was something I expected," said D.G. indifferently. "It was for that reason I took the trouble of going to Solaria by way of an evasive path."

"One of the Auroran ships landed on Solaria, thousands of kilometers away from you – so it didn’t seem to be making any effort to keep tabs on you – and the second remained in orbit."

"Sensible. It’s what I would have done if I had had a second ship at my disposal."

"The Auroran ship that landed was destroyed in a matter of hours. The ship in orbit reported the fact and was ordered to return. – A Trader monitoring station picked up the report and it was sent to us."

"Was the report uncoded?"