The Love of Frank Nineteen

by David C. Knight

rollfor Earth. Meanwhile you can stay here."

  The next morning only the two inspectors and Frank Nineteen werestanding by the airlock.

  "Wait a minute," I said. "Aren't you taking the girl mech, too?"

  "Not allowed to tamper with other companies' robots," Wynn said."Nineteen gave us a signed confession so we don't need the girl as awitness. You'll have to contact her employers."

  That same day Min got off a radargram to Earth explaining to theAtomovair people how a robot employee of theirs had turned up out hereand what did they want us to do about it. The reply we received read:RATIONALOID DX78-947 "ELIZABETH" LOW EFFICIENCY WORKER. HAVE REPLACED.DISPOSE YOU SEE FIT. TRANSFER PAPERS FORWARDED EARLIEST IN COMPLIANCEWITH LAW.

  "The poor thing," said Min. "She'll have a hard time getting anotherjob. Robots have to have such good records."

  "I tell you what," I said. "_We'll_ hire her. You could use some helpwith the housework."

  So we put the girl mech right to work making the guests' beds andhelping Min in the kitchen. I guess she was grateful for the job butwhen the work was done, and there wasn't anything for her to do, shejust stood in front of a viewport with her slender plastic arms foldedover her waist. Min and I knew she was re-running her memory tapes ofFrank.

  A week later the publicity started. Minor Planets must have let thestory leak out somehow because when the mail rocket dropped off the BayArea papers there was Frank's picture plastered all over page one withfollow-up stories inside.

  I read some of the headlines to Min: "Bare Love Nest in Space ... MechRomeo Fired by Minor Planets ... Test Case Opens at Robot Court ...Electronics Experts Probe Robot Love Urge ..."

  The Io wasn't mentioned, but later Minor Planets must have released thewhole thing officially because a bunch of reporters and photographersrocketed out to interview us and snap a lot of pictures of Elizabeth. Weworried for a while about how the publicity would affect our businessrelations with Minor Planets but nothing happened.

  Back on Earth Frank Nineteen leaped into the public eye overnight. Therewas something about the story that appealed to people. At first itlooked pretty bad for Frank. The State Prosecutor at Robot Court had hissigned confession of theft and--what was worse--robot fraternization.But then, near the end of the trial, a young scientist named Scottintroduced some new evidence and the case was remanded to the SacramentoCourt of Appeals.

  It was Scott's testimony that saved Frank from the junk pile. The bigservo got off with only a light sentence for theft because the judgeruled that in the light of Scott's new findings robots came under humanlaw and therefore no infraction of justice had been committed. Workingindependently in his own laboratory Scott had proved that the magneticflux lines in male and female robot systems, while at firstdeteriorating to both, were actually behaving according to thepara-emotional theories of von Bohler. Scott termed the condition'hysteric puppy-love' which, he claimed, had many of the advantages ofhuman love if allowed to develop freely. Well, neither Min nor Ipretended we understood all his equations but they sure made a stiramong the scientists.

  Frank kept getting more and more publicity. First we heard he wasserving his sentence in the mech correction center at La Jolla, then wegot a report that he'd turned up in Hollywood. Later it came out thatGalact-A-vision Pictures had hired Frank for a film and had gone $10,000bail for him. Not long after that he was getting billed all over Terraas _the_ sensational first robot star.

  All during the production of _Forbidden Robot Love_ Frank remained leadcopy for the newspapers. Reporters liked to write him up as theValentino of the Robots. Frank Nineteen Fan Clubs, usually formed bylonely female robots against their employers' wishes, sprang upspontaneously through the East and Middle West. Then somebody found outFrank could sing and the human teen-agers began to go for him. It gotso everywhere you looked and everything you read, there was Frankstaring you in the face. Frank in tweeds on the golf course. Frank atCiro's or the Brown Derby in evening clothes. Frank posing in his sportsjetabout against a blue Pacific background.

  Meanwhile everybody forgot about Elizabeth Seven. The movie producershad talked about hiring her as Frank's leading lady until they found outabout a new line of female robots that had just gone on the market. Whenthey screen-tested the whole series and picked a lovely Mylarrationaloid named Diana Twelve, it hit Elizabeth pretty hard. She beganto let herself go after that and Min and I didn't have the heart to sayanything to her. It was pretty obvious she wasn't oiling herselfproperly, her hair wasn't brushed and she didn't seem to care when oneof her photons went dead.

  When _Forbidden Robot Love_ premiered simultaneously in Hollywood andNew York the critics all gave it rave reviews. There were pictures ofDiana Twelve and Frank making guest appearances all over the country.Back at the Io we got in the habit of letting Elizabeth watch TV with ussometimes in the Renting Office and one night there happened to be aninterview with Frank and Diana at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. I guessseeing the pretty robot starlet and her Frank sitting so close togetherin the nightclub must have made the girl mech feel pretty bad. Even thenshe didn't say a word against the big servo; she just never watched theset again after that.

  When we tabbed up the Io's receipts that year they were so good Min andI decided to take a month off for an Earthside vacation. Min's retiredbrother in Berkeley was nice enough to come out and look after the placefor us while we spent four solid weeks soaking up the sun in SouthernCalifornia. When we got back out to the spotel, though, I could seethere was something wrong by the look on Jim's face.

  "It's that girl robot of yours, Bill," he said. "She's gone anddeactivated herself."

  We went right to 22A and found Elizabeth Seven stretched out on thefloor. There was a screwdriver clutched in her hand and the relay banksin her side were exposed and horribly blackened.

  "Crazy mech shorted out her own DX," Jim said.

  Min and I knew why. After Jim left for Earth we dismantled Elizabeth thebest we could and put her back in Frank's old locker. We didn't knowwhat else to do with her.

  Anyway, the slack season came and went and before long we were doingthe spring cleaning again and wondering how heavy the Jovian Moons tradewas going to be. I remember I'd been making some repairs outside and wasjust hanging up my spacesuit in the Renting Office when I heard theradar announcing a ship.

  It was the biggest Marvin 990 I'd ever seen that finally suctioned up tothe boom and secured. I couldn't take my eyes off the ship. She waspretty near the last word in rockets and loaded with accessories. Ittook me a minute or two before I noticed all the faces looking out ofthe viewports.

  "Min!" I whispered. "There's something funny about those faces. Theylook like--"

  "Robots!" Min answered. "Bill, that 990 is full of mechs!"

  Just as she said it a bulky figure in white space fatigues swung out ofthe hatch and hurried up the gangplank. Seconds later it burst throughthe airlock.

  "Frank Nineteen!" we gasped together.

  "Please, where is Elizabeth?" he hummed anxiously. "Is she all right? Ihave to know."

  Frank stood perfectly still when I told him about Elizabeth'sself-deactivation; then a pitiful shudder went through him and hecovered his face with his big Neoprene hands.

  "I was afraid of that," he said barely audibly. "Where--you haven't--?"

  "No," I said. "She's where you always kept her."

  With that the big servo-pilot took off for 22A like a berserk robot andwe were right behind him. We watched him tear open his old locker andgently lay out the girl's mech's parts so he could study them. After aminute or two he gave a long sigh and said, "Fortunately it's not as badas I thought. I believe I can fix her." Frank worked hard over theblackened relays for twenty minutes, then he set the unit aside andbegan assembling the girl. When the final connections were made and thedamaged unit installed he flicked on her power. We waited and nothinghappened. Five minutes went by. Ten. Slowly the big robot turned away,his broad shoulders drooping slightly.

  "I've failed," he sai
d quietly. "Her DX doesn't respond to the gain."

  The girl mech, in her blue dress, lay there motionless where Frank hadbeen working on her as the servo-pilot muttered over and over, "It's myfault, I did this to you."

  Then Min shouted: "Wait! I heard something!"

  There was a slow click of a relay--and movement. Painfully ElizabethSeven rose on one elbow and looked around her.

  "Frank, darling," she murmured, shaking her head. "I know you're justold memory tape. It's all I have left."

  "Elizabeth, it's really me! I've come to take you away. We're going tobe together from