Robots and Empire

"Her death? What are you talking about, Kelden?"

"Are you aware, Vasilia, that two Settler ships have been destroyed on Solaria? Or have you been doing nothing lately but dreaming of patterns and of the brave days of childhood when you were modifying your pet robot?"

"Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Kelden. I have heard about the Settler ships on the news. What of them?"

"A third Settler ship is going out to investigate. It may be destroyed, too."

"Possibly. On the other hand, it would take precautions."

"It did. It demanded and received the Solarian woman, feeling that she knows the planet well enough to enable them to avoid destruction."

Vasilia said, "That’s scarcely likely, since she hasn’t been there in twenty decades."

"Right! The chances are, then, that she’ll die with them. It would mean nothing to me personally. I would be delighted to have her dead and, I think, so would you. And, putting that to one side, it would give us good grounds for complaint to the Settler worlds and it would make it difficult for them to argue that the destruction of the ships is a deliberate action on the part of Aurora. Would we destroy one of our own? – Now the question is, Vasilia, why would Giskard, if he had the powers you claim he has – and the loyalties – allow the Solarian woman to volunteer to be taken to what is very likely to be her death?"

Vasilia was taken aback. "Did she go of her own free will?"

"Absolutely. She was perfectly willing. It would have been politically impossible to force her to do so against her will."

"But I don’t understand."

"There is nothing to understand except that Giskard is merely a robot."

For a moment, Vasilia froze in her seat, one hand to her chin. Then she said slowly, "They don’t allow robots on Settler worlds or on Settler ships. That means she went alone. Without robots."

"Well, no, of course not. They had to accept personal robots if they expected to get her willingly. They took along that man-mimic robot Daneel and the other was – he paused and brought out the word with a hiss – Giskard. Who else? So this miracle robot of your fantasy goes to his destruction as well. He could no more – "

His voice faded away. Vasilia was on her feet, eyes blazing, face suffused with color.

"You mean Giskard went? He’s off this world and on a Settler ship? Kelden, you may have ruined us all!"

63

Neither finished the meal.

Vasilia walked hastily out of the dining room and disappeared into the Personal. Amadiro, struggling to remain coldly logical, shouted to her through the closed door, perfectly aware that it damaged his dignity to do so.

He called out, "It’s all the stronger an indication that Giskard is no more than a robot. Why should he be willing to go to Solaria to face destruction with his owner?"

Eventually, the sound of running water and splashing ceased and Vasilia emerged with her face freshly washed and almost frozen in its grip on calmness.

She said, "You really don’t understand, do you? You amaze me, Kelden. Think it through. Giskard can never be in danger, as long as he can influence human minds, can he? Nor can the Solarian woman, as long as Giskard devotes himself to her. The Settler who carried off the Solarian woman must have found out, on interviewing her, that she had not been on Solaria in twenty decades, so he can’t really have continued to believe, after that, that she could do him much good. With her he took Giskard, but he didn’t know that Giskard could do him good, either – or could he have known that?"

She thought a while and then said slowly, "No, there is no way he could have known it. If, in more than twenty decades, no one has penetrated the fact that Giskard has mental abilities, then Giskard is clearly interested in having no one guess it – and if that is so, then no one can possibly have guessed it."

Amadiro said spitefully, "You claim to have worked it out."

Vasilia said, "I had special knowledge, Kelden, and even so it was not till now that I saw the obvious – and then only because of the hint on Solaria. Giskard must have darkened my mind in that respect, too, or I would have seen it long ago. I wonder if Fastolfe knew – "

"How much easier," said Amadiro restlessly, "to accept the simple fact that Giskard is simply a robot."

"You will walk the easy road to ruin, Kelden, but I don’t think I will let you do that, no matter how much you want to. – What it amounts to is that the Settler came for the Solarian woman and took her along, even though he discovered she would be of little – if any – use to him. And the Solarian woman volunteered to go, even though she must dread being on a Settler ship along with diseased barbarians – and even though her destruction on Solaria must have seemed to her a very likely consequence.

"It seems to me, then, that this is all the work of Giskard, who forced the Settler to continue to demand the Solarian woman against reason and forced the Solarian woman to accede to the request against reason."

Amadiro, said, "But why? May I ask that simple question? Why?"

"I suppose, Kelden, that Giskard felt it was important to get away from Aurora. – Could he have guessed that I was on the point, of learning his secret? If so, he may well have been uncertain of his present ability to tamper with me. I am, after all, a skilled roboticist. Besides, he would remember that he was once mine and a robot does not easily ignore the demands of loyalty. The only way, perhaps, that he felt he could keep the Solarian woman secure was to move himself away from my influence."

She looked up at Amadiro and said firmly, "Kelden, we must get him back. We can’t let him work at promoting the Settler cause in the safe haven of a Settler world. He did enough damage right here among us. We must get him back and you must make me his legal owner. I can handle him, I assure you, and make him work for us. Remember! I am the only one who can handle him."