Robots and Empire
17. THE ASSASSIN

86
Secretary-General Edgar Andrev, chief executive of Earth, was a rather tall and imposing man, clean-shaven in the Spacer style. He moved always in a measured fashion, as though on constant display, and he had a twinkling way about him as though he was always very pleased with himself. His voice was a bit too high-pitched for his body but it fell well short of being squeaky. Without seeming obdurate, he was not easily swayed.
And he wasn't this time. "Impossible," he said firmly to D.G. "She must make her appearance."
"She's had a hard day, Secretary-General," said D.G. "She is not accustomed to crowds or to these surroundings. I am responsible to Baleyworld for her well-being and my personal honor is at stake."
"I appreciate your position," said Andrev, "but I represent, and I cannot deny Earthpeople their view of her. The corridors are filled, the hyperwave channels are ready, and I would not be able to hide her, even if I desperately wished to do so. After this - and how long can it last? Half an hour? - she can retire and she need not I make another appearance till her speech tomorrow night."
"Her comfort must be cared for," said D.G., tacitly abandoning his position. "She has to be kept at some distance from the crowd."
"There will be a cordon of security guards that will give her ample breathing space. The front row of the crowd will be kept well back. They're out there now. If we don't announce that she will soon appear, there might well be disorder.
D.G. said, "It shouldn't have been arranged. It isn't safe. There are Earthpeople who aren't fond of Spacers."
The Secretary-General shrugged. "I wish you could tell me how I could possibly have kept it from being arranged. At the present moment she is a heroine and she cannot be withheld. Nor will anyone offer her anything but cheers for the moment. But if she doesn't appear, that will change. Now, let us go."
D.G. backed away discontentedly. He caught Gladia's eye. She looked tired and more than a little unhappy.
He said, "You must, Gladia. There's no way out."
For a moment, she stared down at her hands as though wondering if they could do anything to protect her, then she straightened herself and lifted her chin - a small Spacer amid this horde of barbarians. "If I must, I must. Will you remain with me?"
"Unless they remove me physically."
"And my robots?"
D.G. hesitated. "Gladia, how will two robots be able to help you in the midst of millions of human beings?"
"I know, D.G. And I also know that I will have to do without them eventually if I am to continue this mission of mine. But not just yet, please. For the moment, I will feel safer with them, whether that makes sense or not. If these Earth officials want me to acknowledge the crowd, to smile, to wave, to do whatever it is I am supposed to do, the presence of Daneel and Giskard will comfort me. - Look, D.G., giving in to them on a very big thing, even though I am so uneasy that I think nothing would be so nice as to run away. Let them give in to me on this very little thing."
"I'll try," said D.G., in clear discouragement and, as he stepped toward Andrev, Giskard moved quietly with him.
A few minutes later, when Gladia, surrounded by a carefully picked contingent of officials, moved forward toward an open balcony, D.G. remained a little behind Gladia, flanked on his left by Giskard and on his right by Daneel.
The Secretary-General had said ruefully, "All right, all right. I don't know how you managed to make me agree, but all right." He rubbed his forehead, aware of a small vague ache in his right temple. For some reason he caught Giskard's eye and turned away with a stifled shudder. "But you must keep them motionless, Captain, remember. And please keep the one that looks like a robot as unobtrusive as you can. He makes me uneasy and I don't want people any more aware of him than they have to be."
D.G. said, "They will be looking at Gladia, Secretary General. They will see no one else."
"I hope so," said Andrev waspishly. He paused to take a message capsule someone placed in his hand. He put it into his pocket, then walked on and didn't think of it again till they had reached the balcony.
87
To Gladia, it seemed that each time she moved into another scene, it grew worse - more people, more noise, more confusing light, more invasion of every sense perception.
There was shouting. She could hear her own name being shouted out. With difficulty, she overcame her own tendency to retreat and become immobile. She lifted her arm and waved it and smiled and the shouting became louder, someone began to speak, his voice booming out over the loudspeaker system, his image on a large screen high above them so that it could be visible to all the crowd. Undoubtedly, it was also visible on innumerable screens in innumerable meeting halls in every Section of every City on the planet.
Gladia sighed with relief at having someone else in the spotlight. She tried to shrink within herself and let the sound of the speaker distract the attention of the crowd.
Secretary-General Andrev, seeking cover under the voice, even as Gladia did, was rather thankful that, in giving precedence to Gladia, it had not seemed necessary for him to speak on this occasion. He suddenly remembered the message he had pocketed.
He frowned in sudden disturbance over what it might be that warranted the interruption of so important a ceremony and then experienced a reverse feeling of intense irritation over the fact that it would probably prove to be utterly unimportant.
He pressed the ball of his right thumb hard, against the slight concavity, designed to accept the pressure and the capsule opened. He removed the thin piece of plastipaper, read the message it contained, and then watched it crumble and fragment. He brushed away the impalpable powder that remained and gestured imperiously to D.G.
It was scarcely necessary to whisper under the conditions of the vast and continuing noise in the square.
Andrev said, "You said you encountered an Auroran war vessel within the space of the Solar System."
"Yes - and I imagine Earth's sensors detected it."
"Of course they did. You said there were no hostile actions on either side."
"No weapon was used. They demanded Madam Gladia and her robots. I refused and they left. I explained all this."
"How long did it all take?"
"Not very long. Several hours."
"You mean that Aurora sent a warship just to argue back and forth with you for a couple of hours and then leave."
D.G. shrugged. "Secretary General, I don't know their motivations. I can only report what happened."
The Secretary-General stared at him haughtily. "But you do not report all that happened. The information of the sensors has now been thoroughly analyzed by computer and it would seem that you attacked."
"I did not fire a kilowatt of energy, sir."
"Have you considered kinetic energy? You used the ship itself as a projectile."
"So it may have seemed to them. They did not choose to withstand me and call, what might have been a bluff."
"But was it a bluff?"
"It might have been."
"It seems to me, Captain, that you were ready to destroy two ships inside the Solar System and perhaps create a war crisis. That was a terrible chance to take."
"I did not think it would come to actual destruction and it didn't."
"But, the whole process delayed you and occupied your attention."
"Yes, I suppose so, but why are you pointing this out?"
"Because our sensors did observe one thing you did not observe - or, at any rate, did not report."
"What might that be, Secretary-General?"
"It caught the launching of an orbital module, which seems to have had two human beings on board and which descended toward Earth."
The two were immersed in a world of their own. No other human being on the balcony was paying any attention to them. Only the two robots flanking D.G. were staring at them and listening.
It was at this point that the speaker ceased, his last words being, "Lady Gladia, born a Spacer on the world of Solaria, living as a Spacer on the world of Aurora, but becoming a Citizen of the Galaxy on the Settler world of Baleyworld." He turned to her and gestured expansively, "Lady Gladia - "
The sound of the crowd became a long, happy rumble and the many-headed crowd became a forest of waving arms. Gladia felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and heard a voice in her ear that said, "Please. A few words, my lady."
Gladia said weakly, "People of Earth." The words boomed out and, uncannily, silence fell. Gladia said again, more, firmly, "People of Earth, I stand before you a human being as you are. A bit older, I admit, so that I lack your youth, your hopefulness, your capacity for enthusiasm. My misfortune is tempered at this moment, however, by the fact that in your presence I feel myself catching your fire, so that the cloak of age falls away - "
Applause swelled and someone on the balcony said to someone else, "She's making them happy they're shortlived. That Spacer woman has the impudence of a devil."
Andrev was not paying attention. He said to D.G., "The whole episode with you may have been a device to get those men on Earth."
D.G. said, "I had no way of knowing that. I could think of very little else but saving Lady Gladia and my ship. Where have they landed?"
"We don't know. They have not landed in any of the City spaceports."
D.G. said, "I guess they wouldn't."
"Not that it matters," said the Secretary-General, "except, to give me passing annoyance. Over the past several years, there have been a number of landings of this sort, though none so carefully prepared. Nothing's ever happened and we pay no attention. Earth, after all, is an open world. It is humanity's home and any person from any world can come and go freely - even Spacers, if they wish."
D.G. rubbed his beard with a rasping noise. "And yet their intentions might not be to do us any good whatever."
(Gladia was saying, "I wish you all well on this world of human origin, on this well-packed special world, and in this marvel of a City - " and acknowledged the gathering applause with a smile and a wave as she stood there and allowed the enthusiasm to catch - and gather.)
Andrev raised his voice, to be heard over the clamor of the crowd. "Whatever their intentions, it can come to nothing. The peace that has descended on Earth since the Spacers withdrew and Settlement began is unbreakable within and without. For many decades now, the wilder spirits among ourselves have been leaving for the Settler worlds so that a spirit such as yours, Captain, which can dare risk the destruction of two vessels within the space of the Solar system is not to be found on Earth. There is no substantial level of crime on Earth any longer, no violence. The security guards assigned to control this crowd have no weapons because they have no need for any."
And as he spoke, from the anonymity of the vast crowd a blaster pointed upward toward the balcony and was carefully aimed.
88
A number of things happened at nearly the same time.
Giskard's head had turned to stare at the crowd, drawn by some sudden effect.
Daneel's eyes followed, saw the aimed blaster, and, with faster-than-human reflexes, he lunged.
The sound of the blaster rang out.
The people on the balcony froze and then broke out into loud exclamations.
D.G. seized Gladia and snatched her to one side.
The noise from the crowd erupted into a full-throated and terrifying roar.
Daneel's lunge had been directed at Giskard and he knocked the other robot down.
The shot from the blaster entered the room behind the balcony and gouged a hole out of a portion of the ceiling. A line drawn from the blaster to the hole might have passed through that portion of space occupied a second earlier by Giskard's head.
Giskard muttered as he was forced down. "Not human. A robot."
Daneel, releasing Giskard, surveyed the scene quickly. Ground level was some six meters beneath the balcony and the space below was empty. The security guards were struggling their way toward the region of upheaval within the crowd that marked the spot where the would-be assassin had stood.
Daneel vaulted over the balcony and dropped, his metal skeleton absorbing the shock easily, as a human being's would not have.
He ran toward the crowd.
Daneel had no choice. He had never encountered anything like this before. The supreme need was to reach the robot with the blaster before it was destroyed and, with that in mind, Daneel found that, for the first time in his existence, he could not stand on the niceties of preserving individual human beings from harm. He had to shake them up somewhat.
He tossed them aside, in actual fact, as he plowed into the crowd, crying out in stentorian fashion, "Make way! Make way! The person with the blaster must be questioned!"
Security guards fell in behind him and they found the person at last, down and somewhat battered.
Even on an Earth that prided itself on being nonviolent, an eruption of rage against an obvious murderer left its mark. The assassin had been seized, kicked, and beaten. It was only the very density of the crowd that had saved the assassin from being torn apart. The multiple assailants, getting in each other's way, succeeded in doing comparatively little.
The security guards pushed back the crowd with difficulty. On the ground near the prone robot was the blaster. Daneel ignored it.
Daneel was kneeling by the captured assassin. He said, "Can you talk?"
Bright eyes stared up at Daneel's. "I can," said the assassin in a voice that was low but quite normal otherwise.
"Are you of Auroran origin?"
The assassin did not answer.
Daneel said quickly, "I know you are. It was an unnecessary question. Where on this planet is your base?"
The assassin did not answer.
Daneel said, "Your base? Where is it? You must answer. I am ordering you to answer."
The assassin said. "You cannot order me. You are R. Daneel Olivaw. I have been told of you and I need not obey you."
Daneel looked up, touched the nearest guard, and said, "Sir, would you ask this person where his base is?"
The guard, startled, tried to speak but only a hoarse croak emerged. He swallowed in embarrassment, cleared his throat, and then barked out, "Where is your base?"
"I am forbidden to answer that question, sir," said the assassin.
"You must," said Daneel firmly. "A planetary official is asking it. - Sir, would you order him to answer it?"
The guard echoed, "I order you to answer it, prisoner."
"I am forbidden to answer that question, sir."
The guard reached downward to seize the assassin roughly by the shoulder, but Daneel said rapidly, "I would suggest that it would not be useful to offer force, sir."
Daneel looked about. Much of the clamor of the crowd had died down. There seemed to be a tension in the air, as though a million people were waiting anxiously to see what Daneel would do.
Daneel said to the several guards who had now clustered about him and the prone assassin, "Would you clear the way for me, sirs? I must take the prisoner to Lady Gladia. It may be that she can force an answer."
"What about medical attention for the prisoner?" asked one of the guards.
"That will not be necessary, sir," said Daneel. He did not explain.
89
"That this should have happened," said Andrev tightly, his lips trembling with passion. They were in the room off the balcony and he glanced up at the hole in the ceiling that remained as mute evidence of the violence that had taken place.
Gladia said, in a voice that she strove successfully to keep from shaking, "Nothing has happened. I am unharmed. There is that hole in the ceiling that you will have to repair and perhaps some additional repairs in the room above. That's all."
Even as she spoke, she could hear people upstairs moving objects away from the hole and presumably assessing damage.
"That is not all," said Andrev. "It ruins our plans for your appearance tomorrow, for your major address to the planet."
"It does the opposite," said Gladia. "The planet will be the more anxious to hear me, knowing I have been the near victim of an assassination attempt."
"But there's the chance of another attempt."
Gladia shrugged lightly. "That just makes me feel I'm on the right track. Secretary-General Andrev, I discovered not too long ago that I have a mission in life. It did not occur to me that this mission might place me in danger, but since it does, it also occurs to me that I would not be in danger and not worth the killing if I was not striking home. If danger is a measure of my effectiveness, I am willing to risk that danger."
Giskard said, "Madam Gladia, Daneel is here with, I presume, the individual who aimed a blaster in this direction."
It was not only Daneel - carrying a relaxed, unstruggling figure - who appeared in the doorway of the room, but half a dozen security guards as well. Outside, the noise of the crowd seemed lower and more distant. It was clearly beginning to disperse and periodically one could hear the announcement over the loudspeakers: "No one has been hurt. There is no danger. Return to your homes."
Andrev waved the guards away. "Is that the one?" he asked sharply.
Daneel said, "There is no question, sir, but that this is the individual with the blaster. The weapon was near him, but the people close to the scene witnessed his action, and he himself admits the deed."
Andrev stared at him in astonishment. "He's so calm. He doesn't seem human."
"He is not human, sir. He is a robot, a humanoid robot."
"But we don't have any humanoid robots on Earth. - Except you."
"This robot, Secretary-General," said Daneel, "is, like myself, of Auroran manufacture."
Gladia frowned. "But that's impossible. A robot couldn't have been ordered to assassinate me."
D.G., looking exasperated and, with a most possessive arm about Gladia's shoulder, said in an angry rumble, "An Auroran robot, specially programmed - "
"Nonsense, D.G.," said Gladia. "No way. Auroran or not, special programming or not, a robot cannot deliberately try to harm a human being it knows to be a human being. If this robot did fire the blaster in my direction, he must have missed me on purpose."
"To what end?" demanded Andrev. "Why should he miss, madam?"
"Don't you see?" said Gladia. "Whoever it was that gave the robot, its orders must have felt that the attempt would be enough to disrupt my plans here on Earth and it was the disruption they were after. They couldn't order the robot to kill me, but they could order him to miss me - and if that was enough to disrupt the program, they would be satisfied.
"Except that it won't disrupt the program. I won't allow that."
D.G. said, "Don't be a heroine, Gladia. I don't know what they'll try next and nothing - nothing - is worth losing you."
Gladia's eyes softened. "Thank you, D.G. I appreciate your feelings, but we must chance it."
Andrev pulled at his ear in perplexity. "What do we do? The knowledge that a humanoid robot used a blaster in a crowd of human beings will not be taken well by Earth people."
"Obviously, it wouldn't," said D.G. "Therefore, let's not tell them."
"A number of people must already know - or guess that we are dealing with a robot."
"You won't stop the rumor, Secretary-General, but there is no need to make it more than that by means of an official announcement."
Andrev said, "If Aurora is willing to go to this extreme to - "
"Not Aurora," said Gladia quickly. "Merely certain people on Aurora, certain fire-eaters. There are such bellicose extremists among the Settlers, too, I know, and probably even on Earth. Don't play into the hands of these extremists, Secretary-General. I'm appealing to the vast majority of sensible human beings on both sides and nothing must be done to weaken that appeal."
Daneel, who had been waiting patiently, finally found a pause long enough to make it possible for him to insert his comment. "Madam Gladia - sirs - it is important to find out from this robot where on this planet he is based. There may be others."
"Haven't you asked him?" said Andrev.
"I have, Secretary-General, but I am a robot. This robot is not required to answer questions put to him by another robot. Nor is he required to follow my orders."
"Well, then, I will ask," said Andrev.
"That may not help, sir. The robot is under stringent orders not to answer and your order to answer will probably not overcome them. You do not know the proper phraseology and intonation - Madam Gladia is an Auroran and knows how this may be done. Madam Gladia, would you inquire as to where his planetary base might be?"
Giskard said in a low voice, so that only Daneel heard him, "It may not be possible. He may have been ordered into irreversible freeze if the questioning becomes too insistent."
Daneel's head turned sharply to Giskard. He whispered, "Can you prevent that?"
"Uncertain," said Giskard. "The brain has been physically damaged by the act of firing a blaster toward human beings."
Daneel turned back to Gladia. "Madam," he said, "I would suggest you be probing, rather than brutal."
Gladia said doubtfully, "Well, I don't know." She faced the robot assassin, drew a deep breath, and in a voice that was firm yet soft and gentle, she said, "Robot, how may I address you?"
The robot said, "I am referred to as R. Ernett Second, madam."
"Ernett, can you tell that I am an Auroran?"
"You speak in the Auroran fashion, yet not entirely, madam."
"I was born on Solaria, but I am a Spacer who has lived for twenty decades on Aurora and I am accustomed to being served by robots - I have expected and received service from robots every day of my life since I was a small child. I have never been disappointed."
"I accept the fact, madam."
"Will you answer my questions and accept my orders, Ernett?"
"I will, madam, if they are not counteracted by a competing order."
"If I ask you the location of your base on this planet what portion of it you count as your master's establishment - will you answer that?"
"I may not do so, madam. Nor any other question with respect to my master. Any question at all."
"Do you understand that if you do not answer I will be bitterly disappointed and that my rightful expectation of robotic service will be permanently blunted?"
"I understand, madam," said the robot faintly.
Gladia looked at Daneel, "Shall I try?"
Daneel said, "Mere is no choice but to try, Madam Gladia. If the effort leaves us without information, we are no worse off than now."
Gladia said, in a voice that rang with authority, "Do not inflect damage on me, Ernett, by refusing to tell me the location of your base on this planet. I order you to tell me."
The robot seemed to stiffen. His mouth opened but made no sound. It opened again and he whispered huskily, "...mile..." It opened a third time silently - and then, while the mouth remained open, the gleam went out of the robot assassin's eyes and they became flat and waxen. One arm, which had been a little raised, dropped downward.
Daneel said, "The positronic brain has frozen."
Giskard whispered to Daneel only, "Irreversible! I did my best but could not hang on."
"We have nothing," said Andrev. "We don't know where the other robots might be.
D.G. said, "It said, 'mile.'"
"I do not recognize the word," said Daneel. "It is not Galactic Standard as the language is used on Aurora. Does it have meaning on Earth?"
Andrev said, rather blankly, "He might have been trying to say 'smile' or 'Miles.' I once knew a man whose first name was Miles."
Daneel said gravely, "I do not see how either word could make sense as an answer - or part of an answer - to the question. Nor did I hear any sibilance, either before or after the sound."
An elderly Earthman, who till now had remained silent, said, with a certain appearance of diffidence, "I am under the impression a mile may be an ancient measure of distance, robot."
"How long a measure, sir?" asked Daneel.
"I do not know," said the Earthman. "Longer than a kilometer, I believe."
"It isn't used any longer, sir?"
"Not since the prehyperspatial era."
D.G. pulled at his beard and he said thoughtfully, "It's still used. At least, we have an old saying on Baleyworld that goes, 'A miss is as good as a mile.' It is used to mean that, in avoiding misfortune, avoidance by a little is as good as avoidance by a great deal. I always thought 'mile' meant a great deal. If it really represents a measure of distance, I can understand the phrase better."
Gladia said, "If that is so, the assassin may have been trying to say exactly that. He may have indicated his satisfaction that a miss - his deliberately missed shot - would accomplish what he was ordered to accomplish or, perhaps, that his missed shot, doing no harm, was equivalent to his not having fired at all."
"Madam Gladia," said Daneel, "a robot of Auroran manufacture would scarcely be using phrases that might exist on Baleyworld but have certainly never been heard on Aurora. And, in his damaged condition, he would not philosophize. He was asked a question and he would only be trying to answer the question."
"Ah," said Andrev, "perhaps he was trying to answer. He was trying to tell us that the base was a certain distance from here, for instance. So many miles."
"In that case," said D.G., "why should he use an archaic measure of distance! No Auroran would use anything but kilometers in this connection, nor would any robot of Auroran manufacture. In fact," he went on with an edge of impatience, "the robot was rapidly sinking into total inactivity and it might have been making nothing more than random sounds. It is useless to try to extract meaning from something that doesn't contain it. - And now I want to make sure that Madam Gladia gets some rest or that she is at least moved out of this room before the rest of the ceiling comes down."
They moved out quickly and Daneel, lingering behind for a moment, said softly to Giskard, "Again we fail!"
90
The City never grew entirely quiet, but there were periods when the lights were dimmer, the noise of the ever moving Expressways was subdued, and the endless clatter of machinery and humanity subsided just a bit. In several million apartments people slept.
Gladia got into bed in the apartment assigned to her, uncomfortable over the missing amenities that she feared might force her out into the corridors during the night.
Was it night on the surface, she wondered just before falling asleep, or was it merely an arbitrary "sleep period" fixed within this particular cave of steel, in deference to a habit developed over the hundreds of millions of years that human beings and their ancestors had lived on the surface of the land.
And then she slept.
Daneel and Giskard did not sleep. Daneel, finding there was a computer outlet in the apartment, spent an absorbed half-hour learning the unfamiliar key combinations by hit-and-miss. There were no instructions of any sort available (who needs instructions for what every youngster learns in grade school?) but, fortunately, the controls, while not the same as those of Aurora, were not wholly different either. Eventually, he was able to tune into the reference section of the City library and call up the encyclopedia. Hours passed.
At the lowest depth of the humans' sleep period, Giskard said, "Friend Daneel."
Daneel looked up. "Yes, friend Giskard."
"I must ask for an explanation of your actions on the balcony."
"Friend Giskard, you looked toward the crowd. I followed your glance, saw a weapon aimed in your direction, and reacted at once."
Giskard said, "So you did, friend Daneel, and given certain assumptions, I can understand why it was me that you lunged forward to protect. Begin with the fact that the would-be assassin was a robot. In that case, however it might be programmed, it could not aim its weapon at any human being with the intention of hitting him or her. Nor was it likely to aim it's weapon at you, for you look enough like a human being to activate the First Law. Even if the robot had been told that a humanoid robot would be on the balcony, he could not be certain that you were he. Therefore, if the robot intended to destroy someone in the balcony, it could only be me - the obvious robot and you acted at once to protect me.
"Or begin with the fact that the assassin was an Auroran whether human or robot does not matter. Dr. Amadiro is most likely to have ordered such an attack, since he is an extremist in his anti-Earth stand and, we believe, is plotting its destruction. Dr. Amadiro, we can be reasonably certain, has learned of my special abilities from Madam Vasilia and it might be argued that he would give my destruction top priority, since he would naturally fear me more than anyone priori else - robot or human. Reasoning this out, it would be logical for you to act as you did to protect me. And, indeed, had you not knocked me down, I believe the blast would have destroyed me.
"But, friend Daneel, you could not possibly have known that the assassin was a robot or that he was Auroran. I myself had only just caught the strange anomaly of a robotic brain pattern against the vast blur of human emotion when you struck me - and it was only after that, that I had the chance of informing you. Without my ability, you could only be aware that a weapon was being aimed by what you must naturally have - thought of as a human being and an Earthperson. The logical target, then, was Madam Gladia, as, in fact, everyone on the balcony assumed it to be. Why, then, did you ignore Madam Gladia and protect me, instead?"
Daneel said, "Friend Giskard, consider my line of thought. The Secretary-General had said that a two-man Auroran landing module had come to Earth's surface. I assumed at once that Dr. Amadiro and Dr. Mandamus had come to Earth. For this, there could be only one reason. The plan they have, whatever its nature, is at - or very nearly at - the point of maturity. Now that you have come to Earth, friend Giskard, they have dashed here to see it carried through at once before you have a chance to stop it with your mind adjusting powers. To make matters doubly sure, they would act to destroy you if they could. Therefore, when I saw an aimed weapon, I moved at once to force you out of the line of fire."
Giskard said, "The First Law should have forced you to move Madam Gladia out of the line of fire. No thought, no reasoning should have altered that."
"No, friend Giskard. You are more important than Madam Gladia is. You are, in fact, more important than any human being could be at this moment. If anyone at all can stop the destruction of Earth, you can. Since I am aware of your potential service to humanity, then, when I am, confronted by a choice of action, the Zeroth Law demands that I protect you ahead of anyone else."
"And you do not feel uncomfortable at your having acted in defiance of the First Law."
"No, for I acted in obedience to the overriding Zeroth Law."
"But the Zeroth Law has not been imprinted into you."
"I have accepted it as a corollary of the First Law, for how can a human being best be kept from injury, if not by ensuring that human society in general is protected and kept functioning?"
Giskard thought a while. "I see what you are trying to say, but what if - in acting to save me and, therefore, in acting to save humanity - it had turned out that I was not aimed at and that Madam Gladia was killed? How would you have felt then, friend Daneel?"
Daneel said in a low tone, "I do not know, friend Giskard. Yet, had I leaped to save Madam Gladia and had it turned out that she was, in any case, safe and that I had allowed you to be destroyed and with you, in my opinion, the future of humanity, how could I have survived that blow?"
The two stared at each other - each, for a while, lost in thought.
Giskard said finally, "That may be so, friend Daneel, but do you agree, however, that judgment is difficult in such cases?"
"I agree, friend Giskard."
"It is difficult enough, when one must choose quickly between individuals, to decide which individual may suffer or inflict - the greater harm. To choose between an individual and humanity, when you are not sure of what aspect of humanity you are dealing with, is so difficult that the very validity of Robotic Laws comes to be suspect. As soon as humanity in the abstract is introduced, the Laws of Robotics begin to merge with the Laws of Humanics which may not even exist."
Daneel said, "I do not understand you, friend Giskard."
"I am not surprised. I am not certain I understand myself. But consider - when we think of the humanity we must save, we think of Earthpeople and the Settlers. They are more numerous than the Spacers, more vigorous, more expansive. They show more initiative because they are less dependent on robots. They have a greater potential for biological and social evolution because they are shorter-lived, though long-lived enough to contribute great things individually."
"Yes," said Daneel, "you put it succinctly."
"And yet the Earthpeople and the Settlers seem to possess a mystical and even irrational confidence in the sanctity and inviolability of Earth. Might not this mystique be as fatal to their development as the mystiques, of robots and long life that hobble the Spacers?"
"I had not thought of this," said Daneel. "I do not know."
Giskard said, "If you were as aware of minds as I am, you would have been unable to avoid thinking of this. How does one choose?" he went on with sudden intensity. "Think of humanity as divided into two species: the Spacers, with one apparently fatal mystique, and the Earthpeople plus the Settlers, with another possibly fatal mystique. It may be that there will be other species, in the future, with even less attractive properties.
"It is not sufficient to choose, then, friend Daneel. We must be able to shape. We must shape a desirable species and then protect it, rather than finding ourselves forced to select among two or more undesirabilities. But how can we achieve the desirable unless we have psychohistory, the science I dream of and cannot attain?"
Daneel said, "I have not appreciated the difficulty, friend Giskard, of possessing the ability to sense and influence minds. Is it possible that you learn too much to allow the Three Laws of Robotics to work smoothly within you?"
"That has always been possible, friend Daneel, but not until these recent events has the possibility become actual. I know the pathway pattern that produces this mind-sensing and mind-influencing effect within me. I have studied myself carefully for decades in order that I might know it and I can pass it on to you so that you might program yourself to be like me - but I have resisted the urge to do so. It would be unkind to you. It is enough that I bear the burden."
Daneel said, "Nevertheless, friend Giskard, if ever, in your judgment, the good of humanity would require it, I would accept the burden. Indeed, by the Zeroth Law, I would be obliged to."
Giskard said, "But this discussion is useless. It seems apparent that the crisis is nearly upon us - and since we have not even managed to work out the nature of the crisis - "
Daneel interrupted. "You are wrong, there at least, friend Giskard. I now know the nature of the crisis."
91
One would not expect Giskard to show surprise. His face was, of course, incapable of expression. His voice possessed modulation, so that his speech sounded human and was neither monotonous nor unpleasant. That modulation, however, was never altered by emotion in any recognizable way.
Therefore, when he said, "Are you serious?" it sounded as it would have had he expressed doubt over a remark Daneel had made concerning what the weather would be like the next day. Yet, from the manner in which his head turned toward Daneel, the way in which one hand lifted, there was no doubt that he was surprised.
Daneel said, "I am, friend Giskard."
"How did the information come to you?"
"In part, from what I was told by Madam Undersecretary Quintana at the dinner table."
"But did you not say that you had obtained nothing helpful from her, that you supposed you had asked the wrong questions?"
"So it seemed in the immediate aftermath. On further reflection, however, I found myself able to make helpful deductions from what she had said. I have been searching Earth's central encyclopedia through the computer outlet these past few hours - "
"And found your deductions confirmed?"
"Not exactly, but I found nothing that would refute them, which is perhaps the next best thing."
"But is negative evidence sufficient for certainty?"
"It is not. And therefore I am not certain. Let me tell you, however, my reasoning and if you find it faulty, say so."
"Please proceed, friend Daneel."
"Fusion power, friend Giskard, was developed on Earth before the days of hyperspatial travel and, therefore, while human beings were to be found, only on the one planet, Earth. This is well known. It took a long time to develop practical controlled fusion power after the possibility had first been conceived and put on a sound scientific footing. The chief difficulty in converting the concept into practice involved the necessity of achieving a sufficiently high temperature in a sufficiently dense gas for a long enough time to bring about fusion ignition.
"And yet several decades before controlled fusion power had been established, fusion bombs had existed - these bombs representing an uncontrolled fusion reaction. But controlled or uncontrolled, fusion could not take place without an extremely high temperature in the millions of degrees. If human beings could not produce the necessary temperature for controlled fusion power, how could they do so for an uncontrolled fusion explosion?
"Madam Quintana told me that before fusion existed on Earth, there was another variety of nuclear reaction in existence - nuclear fission. Energy was derived from the splitting - or fission - of large nuclei, such as those of uranium and thorium. That, I thought, might be one way of achieving a high temperature.
"The encyclopedia I have this night been consulting gives very little information about nuclear bombs of any sort and, certainly, no real details. It is a taboo subject, I gather, and it must be so on all worlds, - for I have never read of such details on Aurora either, even though such bombs still exist. It is a part of history that human beings are ashamed of, or afraid of, or both, and I think this is rational. In what I did read of fusion bombs, however, I read nothing about their ignition that would have eliminated the fission bomb as the igniting mechanism. I suspect, then, that based, in part, on this negative evidence, the fission bomb was the igniting mechanism.
"But, then, how was the fission bomb ignited? Fission bombs existed before fusion bombs and if fission bombs required an ultrahigh temperature for ignition, as fusion bombs did, then there was nothing that existed before fission bombs that would supply a high enough temperature. From this, I conclude - even though the encyclopedia contained no information on the subject, - that fission bombs could be ignited at relatively low temperatures, perhaps even at room temperature. There were difficulties involved, for it took several years of unremitting effort after the discovery that fission existed before the bomb was developed. Whatever those difficulties might have been, however, they did not involve the production of ultrahigh temperatures. - Your opinion of all this, friend Giskard?"
Giskard had kept his eyes steadily on Daneel throughout his explanation and he now said, "I think the structure you have built up has serious weak points, friend Daneel, and therefore may not be very trustworthy - but even if it were all perfectly sound, surely this has nothing to do with the possible forthcoming crisis that we are laboring to understand."
Daneel said, "I plead for your patience, friend Giskard, and I will continue. As it happens, both the fusion process and the fission process are expressions of the weak interactions, one of the four interactions that control all events in the Universe. Consequently, the same nuclear intensifier that will explode a fusion reactor will also explode a fission reactor.
"There is, however, a difference. Fusion takes place only at ultrahigh temperatures. The intensifier explodes the ultrahot portion of the fuel that is actively undergoing fusion, plus some of the surrounding fuel that is heated to fusion in the initial explosion - before the material is blown explosively outward and the heat is dissipated to the point where other quantities of fuel present are not ignited. Some of the fusion fuel is exploded, in other words, but a good deal perhaps even most - is not. The explosion is powerful enough even so, of course, to destroy the fusion reactor and anything in its immediate neighborhood, such as a ship carrying the reactor."
"On the other hand, a fission reactor can operate at low temperatures, perhaps not much above the boiling point of water, perhaps even at room temperature. The effect of the nuclear intensifier, then, will be to make all the fission fuel go. Indeed, even if the fission reactor is not actively working, the intensifier will explode it. Although, gram for gram, I gather that fission fuel liberates less energy than fusion fuel, the fission reactor will produce the greater explosion because more of its fuel explodes than in the case of the fusion reactor."
Giskard nodded his head slowly and said, "All this may well be so, friend Daneel, but are there any fission power stations on Earth?"
"No, there aren't - not one. So Undersecretary Quintana seemed to indicate and the encyclopedia seems to agree. Indeed, whereas there are devices on Earth that are powered by small fusion reactors, there is nothing - nothing at all - that is powered by fission reactors, large or small."
"Then, friend Daneel, there is nothing for a nuclear intensifier to act upon. All your reasoning, even were it impeccable, ends in nothing."
Daneel said earnestly, "Not quite, friend Giskard. There remains a third type of nuclear reaction to be taken into consideration."
Giskard said, "What might that be? I cannot think of a third."
"It is not an easy thought, friend Giskard, for on the Spacer and Settler worlds, there is very little uranium and thorium in the planetary crusts and, therefore, very little in the way of obvious radioactivity. The subject is of little interest, in consequence, and is ignored by all but a few theoretical physicists. On Earth, however, as Madam Quintana pointed out to me, uranium and thorium are comparatively common, and natural radioactivity, with its ultraslow production of heat and energetic radiation, must therefore be a comparatively prominent part of the environment. That is the third type of nuclear reaction to be taken into consideration."
"In what way, friend Daneel?"
"Natural radioactivity is also an expression of the weak interaction. A nuclear intensifier that can explode a fusion reactor or a fission reactor can also accelerate natural radioactivity to the point, I presume, of exploding a section of the crust - if enough uranium or thorium is present."
Giskard stared at Daneel for a period of time without moving or speaking. Then he said softly, "You suggest, then, that it is Dr. Amadiro's plan to explode Earth's crust, destroy the planet as an abode of life, and, in this way, ensure the domination of the Galaxy by the Spacers."
Daneel nodded. "Or, if there is not enough thorium and uranium for mass explosion, the increase of radioactivity may produce excess heat that will alter the climate, and excess radiation that will produce cancer and birth defects, and these will serve the same purpose - if a bit more slowly."
Giskard said, "This is an appalling possibility. Do you think it can really be brought about?"
"Possibly. It seems to me that for several years now just how many I do not know - humanoid robots from Aurora, such as the would-be-assassin - have been on Earth. They are advanced enough for complex programming and are capable, when needed, of entering the Cities for equipment. They have, it is to be presumed, been setting up nuclear intensifiers in places where the soil is rich in uranium or thorium. Perhaps many intensifiers have been set up over the years. Dr. Amadiro and Dr. Mandamus are here now to oversee the final details and to activate the intensifiers. Presumably, they are arranging matters so that they will have time to escape before the planet is destroyed."
"In that case," said Giskard, "it is imperative that the Secretary-General be informed, that Earth's security forces be mobilized at once, that Dr. Amadiro and Dr. Mandamus be located without delay, and that they be restrained from completing their project."
Daneel said, "I do not think that can be done - the Secretary-General is very likely to refuse to believe us, thanks to the widespread mystical belief in the inviolability of the planet. You have referred to that as something that would work against humanity and I suspect that is just what it will do in this case. If his belief in the unique position of Earth is challenged, he will refuse to allow his conviction, however irrational, to be shaken and he will seek refuge by refusing to believe us.
"Then, too, even if he believed us, any preparation for counter-measures would have to go through the governmental bureaucracy and, no matter how that process was speeded, it would take far too long to serve its purpose.
"Not only that but, even if we could imagine the full resources of Earth mobilized at once, I do not think Earthpeople are adapted to locate the presence of two human beings in an enormous wilderness. The Earthpeople have lived in the Cities for many scores of decades and almost never venture beyond the City confines. I remember that well from the occasion of my first case with Elijah Baley here on Earth. And even if Earthpeople could force themselves to tramp the open spaces, they are not likely to come across the two human beings soon enough to save the situation except by the most incredible of coincidences - and that is something we cannot count upon."
Giskard said, "Settlers could easily form a search party. They are not afraid of open environments or of strange ones."
"But they would be as firmly convinced in the planet's inviolability as Earthpeople are, just as insistent on refusing to believe us, and just as unlikely to find the two human beings quickly enough to save the situation - even if they should believe us."
"What of Earth's robots, then?" said Giskard. "They swarm in the spaces between the Cities. Some should already be aware of human beings in their midst. They should be questioned."
Daneel said, "The human beings in their midst are expert roboticists. They would not have failed to see to it that any robots in their vicinity remain unaware of their presence. Nor, for this same reason, need they fear danger from any robots who might be part of a searching party. The party will be ordered to depart and forget. To make it worse, Earth's robots are comparatively simple models, designed for very little more than for specific tasks in growing crops, herding animals, and operating mines. They cannot easily be adapted to such a general purpose as conducting a meaningful search."
Giskard said, "You have eliminated every possible action, friend Daneel? Does anything remain?"
Daneel said, "We must find the two human beings ourselves and we must stop them - and we must do it now."
"Do you know where they are, friend Daneel?"
"I do not, friend Giskard."
"Then if it seems unlikely that an elaborate search party composed of many, many Earthpeople, or Settlers, or robots, or, I presume, all three, could succeed in finding their location in time except by the most marvelous of coincidences, how can we two do so?"
"I do not know, friend Giskard, but we must."
And Giskard said, in a voice that seemed to have an edge of harshness in its choice of words, "Necessity is not enough, friend Daneel. You have come a long way. You have worked out the existence of a crisis and, bit by bit, you have worked out its nature. And none of it serves. Here we remain, as helpless as ever to do anything about it."
Daneel said, "There remains one chance - a farfetched one, an all-but-useless one - but we have no choice except to try. Out of Amadiro's fear of you, he sent an assassin robot to destroy you and that may turn out to have been his mistake."
"And if that all-but-useless chance fails, friend Daneel?"
Daneel looked calmly at Giskard. "Then we are helpless, and Earth will be destroyed, and human history will dwindle to an eventual end."