The Positronic Man (Page 38)

"A book," George said, sounding puzzled. " About robots. A manual of design?"

"Not at all. A history of their development is what I have in mind."

"Ah," George said, nodding and frowning at the same time. "Well, then. Let’s walk home, shall we?"

"Of course. May I put my clothes on or shall I simply carry them?"

"Put them on. By all means."

"Thank you."

Andrew dressed quickly and he and George began to walk back up the road.

"You want to write a book on the history of robotics," George said, as if revolving the concept in his mind. "But why, Andrew? There are a million books on robotics already and at least half a million of them go into the history of the robot concept. The world is growing saturated not only with robots but with information about robots."

Andrew shook his head, a human gesture that he had lately begun to make more and more frequently. "Not a history of robotics, George. A history of robots-by a robot. Surely no such book has ever been written. I want to explain how robots feel about themselves. And especially about how it has been for us in our relationships with human beings, ever since the first robots were allowed to work and live on Earth."

George’s eyebrows lifted. But he offered no other direct response.

Chapter Twelve

LITTLE MISS was making one of her periodic visits to her family’s California estate. She had reached her eighty-third birthday and she seemed frail as a bird these days. But there was nothing about her that was lacking in either energy or determination. Though she carried a cane, she used it more often to gesture with than she did for support.

She listened to the story of Andrew’s unhappy attempt to reach the library in a fury of mounting indignation. At the end she tapped her cane vehemently against the floor and said, "George, that’s absolutely horrible. Who were those two young ruffians, anyway?"

"I don’t know, Mother."

"Then you should make it your business to find out."

"What difference does it make? Just a couple of local hooligans, I suppose. The usual idling foolish kids. In the end they didn’t do any damage."

"But they might have. If you hadn’t come along when you did, they could have caused serious harm to Andrew. And even when you did come along, you might well have been physically attacked yourself. The only thing that saved you from that, it seems, is that they were so stupid that they failed to realize that Andrew wouldn’t be able to harm them even at your direct order."

"Really, Mother. Do you think they would have touched me? People attacking an absolute stranger on a country road? In the Twenty-Third Century?"

"Well-perhaps not. But Andrew was certainly in danger. And that’s something we can’t allow. You know that I regard Andrew as a member of our family, George."

"Yes, of course. So do I. We always have."

"Then we can’t permit a couple of moronic young louts to treat him like some kind of disposable wind-up toy, can we?"

"What would you have me do, Mother?" asked George.

"You’re a lawyer, aren’t you? Put your legal training to some good use, then! Listen to me: I want you to set up a test case, somehow, that will force the Regional Court to declare for robot rights, and then get the Regional Legislature to pass the necessary enabling bills, and if there are any political problems you carry the whole thing to the World Court, if you have to. I’ll be watching, George, and I’ll tolerate no shirking. "

"Mother, didn’t you say just a short while ago that what you wanted most in the world for me was that I run for the seat that Grandfather held in the Legislature?"

"Yes, of course. But what does that have to do with-"

"And now you want me to launch a controversial campaign for robot rights. Robots can’t vote, Mother. But there are plenty of human beings who do, and a lot of them aren’t as fond of robots as you are. Do you know what will happen to my candidacy if the main thing that people know about me is that I was the lawyer who forced the Legislature to pass robot-rights laws?"

"So?"

"Which is more important to you, Mother? That I get elected to the Legislature, or that I get myself involved with this test case of yours?"

"The test case, naturally," said Little Miss at once.

George nodded. " All right. I just wanted to make sure we had things perfectly clear. I’ll go out there and fight for civil rights for robots, if that’s what you want me to do. But it’s going to be the end of my political career even before my political career has begun, and you have to realize that."

"Of course I realize that, George. You may find that you’re mistaken-I don’t know-but in any case, the main thing is that I want Andrew to be protected against a repetition of this brutal incident. First and foremost that is what I want."

"Well, then," said George. "That’s what I’ll see that you get, Mother. You can count on it "

He began his campaign right away. And what had begun simply as a way of placating the fearsome old lady swiftly turned into the fight of his life.

George Charney had never really yearned for a seat in the Legislature, anyway. So he was able to tell himself that he was off that hook, now that his mother had decided that he should be a civil-rights crusader instead. And the lawyer in him was fascinated by the challenge. There were deep and profound legal implications to the campaign that called for the most careful analysis and calculation.

As senior partner of Feingold and Charney, George plotted much of the strategy, but left the actual work of research and filing papers to his junior partners. He placed his own son Paul, who had become a member of the firm three years before, in charge of piloting the day-by-day maneuvers. Paul had the additional responsibility of making dutiful progress reports virtually every day to his grandmother. She, in turn, discussed the campaign every day with Andrew.