Robots and Empire (Page 71)

"Certainly."

"He wants you to take him on in place of Daneel. He says Daneel doesn’t enjoy the job and keeps apologizing to his victims. Niss says he will destroy anyone who gives you the least trouble, will take pleasure in it, and will never apologize."

Gladia smiled. "Tell him I will keep his offer in mind and tell him I would enjoy shaking his hand if that can be arranged. I didn’t get a chance to do so before we landed on Baleyworld."

"You’ll wear your gloves, I hope, when you shake hands."

"Of course, but I wonder if that’s entirely necessary. I haven’t as much as sniffed since I left Aurora. The injections I’ve been getting have probably strengthened my immune system beautifully." She looked about again. "You even have wall niches for Daneel, and Giskard. That’s quite thoughtful of you, D.G."

"Madam," said D.G., "we work hard to please and we’re delighted that you’re pleased."

"Oddly enough" – Gladia sounded as though she were actually puzzled by what she was about to say – "I’m not entirely pleased. I’m not sure I want to leave your world."

"No? Cold – snow – dreary – primitive – endlessly cheering crowds everywhere. What can possibly attract you here?"

Gladia reddened. "It’s not the cheering crowds."

"I’ll pretend to believe you, madam."

"It’s not. It’s something altogether different. I – I have never done anything. I’ve amused myself in various trivial ways, I’ve engaged in force-field coloring and robot exodesign. I’ve made love and been a wife and mother and – and – in none of these things have I ever been an individual of any account. If I had suddenly disappeared from existence, or if I had never been born, it wouldn’t have affected anyone or anything – except, perhaps, one, or two close personal friends. Now it’s different."

"Yes?" There was the faintest touch of mockery in D.G.’s voice.

Gladia said, "Yes! I can influence people. I can choose a cause and make it my own. I have chosen a cause. I want to prevent war. I want the Universe populated by Spacer and Settler alike. I want each group to keep their own peculiarities, yet freely accept the others, too. I want to work so hard at this that after I am gone, history will have changed because of me and people will say things would not be as satisfactory as they are had it not been for her."

She turned to D.G., her face glowing. "Do you know what a difference it makes, after two and one-third centuries of being nobody, to have a chance, of being somebody; to find that a life you thought of as empty turns out to contain something after all, something wonderful; to be happy long, long after you had given up any hope of being happy?"

"You don’t have to be on Baleyworld, my lady, to have all that." Somehow D.G. seemed a little abashed.

"I wouldn’t have it on Aurora. I’m only a Solarian immigrant on Aurora. On a Settler world, I’m a Spacer, something unusual."

"Yet on a number of occasions – and quite forcefully you have stated you wanted to return to Aurora."

"Some time ago, yes – but I’m not saying it now, D.G. I don’t really want it now."

"Which would influence us a great deal, except that Aurora wants you. They’ve told us so."

Gladia was clearly astonished. "They want me?"

"An official message from Aurora’s Chairman of the Council tells us they do," said D.G. lightly. "We would enjoy keeping you, but the Directors have decided that keeping you is not worth an interstellar crisis. I’m not sure I agree with them, but they outrank me."

Gladia frowned. "Why should they want me? I’ve been on Aurora for over twenty decades and at no time have they ever seemed to want me. – Wait! Do you suppose they see me now as the only way of stopping the overseers on Solaria?"

"That thought had occurred to me, my lady."

"I won’t do it. I held off that one overseer by a hair and I may never be able to repeat what I did then. I know I won’t. – Besides, why need they land on the planet? They can destroy the overseers from a distance, now that they know what they are."

"Actually," said D.G., "the message demanding your return was sent out long before they could possibly have known of your conflict with the overseer. They must want you for something else."

"Oh – " She looked taken aback. Then, catching fire again, "I don’t care what else. I don’t want to return. I have my work out here and I mean to continue it."

D.G. rose. "I am glad to hear you say so, Madam Gladia. I was hoping you would feel like that. I promise you I will do my best to take you with me when we leave Aurora. Right now, though, I must go to Aurora and you must go with me.

46

Gladia watched Baleyworld, as it receded, with emotions quite different from those with which she had watched it approach. It was precisely the cold, gray, miserable world now that it had seemed at the start, but there was a warmth and life to the people. They were real, solid.

Solaria, Aurora, the other Spacer worlds that she had visited or had viewed on hypervision, all seemed filled with people who were insubstantial – gaseous.

That was the word. Gaseous.

No matter how few the human beings who lived upon a Spacer world, they spread out to fill the planet in the same way that molecules of gas spread out to fill a container. It was as if Spacers repelled each other.

And they did, she thought gloomily. Spacers had always repelled her. She had been brought up to such repulsion on Solaria, but even on Aurora, when she was experimenting madly with sex just at first, the least enjoyable aspect of it was the closeness it made necessary.

Except – except with Elijah. – But he was not a Spacer.