by Isaac Asimov
78.
BALEY SAID, “THERE is but one more subject I wish to bring up, Mr. Chairman. You have perhaps heard of Gladia Delmarre – or Gladia Solaria. She calls herself simply Gladia.”
“Yes, Mr. Baley,” said the Chairman with a testy edge to his voice. “I have heard of her. I have seen the hyperwave show in which you and she play such remarkable parts.”
“She was associated with the robot, Jander, for many months. In fact, toward the end, he was her husband.”
The Chairman’s unfavorable stare at Baley became a hard glare. “Her what?”
“Husband, Mr. Chairman.”
Fastolfe, who half – rose, sat down again, looking perturbed.
The Chairman said harshly, “That is illegal. Worse, it is ridiculous. A robot could not impregnate her. There could be no children. The status of a husband – or of a wife – is never granted without some statement as to willingness to have a child if permitted. Even an Earthman, I should think, would know that.”
Baley said, “I am aware of this, Mr. Chairman. So, I am certain, was Gladia. She did not use the word ‘husband’ in its legal sense but in an emotional one. She considered Jander the equivalent of a husband. She felt toward him as though he were a husband.”
The Chairman turned to Fastolfe. “Did you know of this, Dr. Fastolfe? He was a robot on your staff.”
Fastolfe, clearly embarrassed, said, “I knew she was fond of him. I suspected she made use of him sexually. I knew nothing of this illegal charade, however, until Mr. Baley told me of it.”
Baley said, “She was a Solarian. Her concept of ‘husband’ was not Auroran.”
“Obviously not,” said the Chairman.
“But she did have enough of a sense of reality to keep it to herself, Mr. Chairman. She never told of this charade, as Dr. Fastolfe calls it, to any Auroran. She told me the day before yesterday because she wanted to urge me on in the investigation of something that meant so much to her. Yet even so, I imagine she would not have used the word if she had not known I was an Earthman and would understand it in her sense – and not in an Auroran’s.”
“Very well,” said the Chairman. “I’ll grant her a bare minimum of good sense – for a Solarian. Is that the one more subject you wanted to bring up?”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”
“In that case, it is totally irrelevant and can play no part in our deliberations.”
“Mr. Chairman, there is one question I must still ask. One question. A dozen words, sir, and then I will be through.” He said it as earnestly as he could, for everything depended on this.
The Chairman hesitated. “Agreed. One last question.”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman.” Baley would have liked to bark out the words, but he refrained. Nor did he raise his voice. Nor did he even point his finger. Everything depended on this. Everything had led up to this and yet he remembered Fastolfe’s warning and said it almost casually. “How is it that Dr. Amadiro knew that Jander was Gladia’s husband?”
“What?” The Chairman’s white and bushy eyebrows raised themselves in surprise. “Who said he knew anything of this?”
Asked a direct question, Baley could continue. “Ask him, Mr. Chairman.”
And he merely nodded in the direction of Amadiro, who had risen from his seat and was staring at Baley in obvious horror.
79.
BALEY SAID AGAIN, very softly, reluctant to draw attention away from Amadiro, “Ask him, Mr. Chairman. He seems upset.”
The Chairman said, “What is this, Dr. Amadiro? Did you know anything about the robot as supposed husband of this Solarian woman?”
Amadiro stuttered, then pressed his lips together for a moment and tried again. The paleness which had struck him had vanished and was replaced by a dull flush. He said, “I am caught by surprise at this meaningless accusation, Mr. Chairman. I do not know what it is all about.”
“May I explain, Mr. Chairman? Very briefly?” said Baley. (Would he be cut off?)
“You had better,” said the Chairman grimly. “If you have any explanation, I would certainly like to hear it.”
“Mr. Chairman,” said Baley. “I had a conversation with Dr. Amadiro yesterday afternoon. Because it was his intention to keep me until the storm broke, he spoke more lengthily than he intended and, apparently, more carelessly. In referring to Gladia, he casually referred to the robot, Jander, as her husband. I’m curious as to how he knew that fact.”
“Is this true, Dr. Amadiro?” asked the Chairman.
Amadiro was still standing, bearing almost the appearance of a prisoner before a judge. He said, “Whether it is true or not has no bearing on the question under discussion.”
“Perhaps not,” said the Chairman, “but I was astonished at your reaction to the question when it was put. It occurs to me that there is a meaning to this that Mr. Baley and you both understand and that I do not. I therefore want to understand also. Did you or did you not know of this impossible relationship between Jander and the Solarian woman?”
Amadiro said in a choking voice, “I could not possibly have.”
“That is no answer,” said the Chairman. “That is an equivocation. You are making a judgment when I am asking you to hand me a memory. Did you or did you not make the statement imputed to you?”
“Before he answers,” said Baley, feeling more certain of his ground now that the Chairman was governed by moral outrage, “it is only fair to Dr. Amadiro for me to remind him that Giskard, a robot who was also present at the meeting, can, if asked to do so, repeat the entire conversation, word for word, using the voice and intonation of both parties. In short, the conversation is recorded.”
Amadiro burst into a kind of rage. “Mr. Chairman, the robot, Giskard, was designed, constructed, and programmed by Dr. Fastolfe, who announces himself to be the best roboticist who exists and who is bitterly opposed to me. Can we trust a recording produced by such a robot?”
Baley said, “Perhaps you ought to hear the recording and come to your own decision, Mr. Chairman.”
“Perhaps I ought,” said the Chairman. “I am not here, Dr. Amadiro, to have my decisions made for me. But let us put that aside for a moment. Regardless of what the recording says, Dr. Amadiro, do you wish to state for the record that you did not know that the Solarian woman considered her robot to be her husband and that you never referred to him as her husband? Please remember (as you both, being legislators, should) that, although no robot is present, this entire conversation is being recorded in my own device.” He tapped a small bulge at his breast pocket. “Flatly, then, Dr. Amadiro. Yes or no.”
Amadiro said, with an edge of desperation in his voice, “Mr. Chairman, I honestly cannot remember what I said in casual conversation. If I did mention the word – and I don’t admit I did – it may have been the result of some other casual conversation in which someone mentioned the fact that Gladia acted as love – struck toward her robot as though he were her husband.”
The Chairman said, “And with whom did you have this other casual conversation? Who made this statement to you?”
“At the moment, I cannot say.”
Baley said, “Mr. Chairman, if Dr. Amadiro will be so kind as to list anyone and everyone who might have used the word to him, we can question every one of them to discover which one can remember making such a remark.”
Amadiro said, “I hope, Mr. Chairman, you will consider the effect on the morale of the Institute if anything of this sort is done.”
The Chairman said, “I hope you will consider it, too, Dr. Amadiro, and come up with a better answer to our question, so that we are not forced to extremes.”
“One moment, Mr. Chairman,” said Baley, as obsequiously as he could manage, “there remains a question.”
“Again? Another one?” The Chairman looked at Baley without favor. “What is it?”
“Why is Dr. Amadiro struggling so to avoid admitting he knew of Jander’s relation to Gladia? He says it is irrelevant. In that case, why not say he knew
of the relationship and be done with it? I say it is relevant and that Dr. Amadiro knows that his admission could be used to demonstrate criminal activity on his part.”
Amadiro thundered, “I resent the expression and I demand an apology!”
Fastolfe smiled thinly and Baley’s lips pressed together grimly. He had forced Amadiro over the edge.
The Chairman turned an almost alarming red and said with passion, “You demand? You demand? To whom do you demand? I am the Chairman. I hear all views before deciding what to suggest as best to be done. Let me hear what the Earthman has to say about his interpretation of your action. If he is slandering you, he shall be punished, you may be sure, and I will take the broadest view of the slander statutes, too, you may be sure. But you, Amadiro, may make no demands upon me. Go on, Earth – man. Say what you have to say, but be extraordinarily careful.”
Baley said, “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Actually, there is one Auroran to whom Gladia did tell the secret of her relationship with Jander.”
The Chairman interrupted. “Well, who is that? Do not play your hyperwave tricks on me.”
Baley said, “I have no intention of anything but a straightforward statement, Mr. Chairman. The one Auroran is, of course, Jander himself. He may have been a robot, but he is an inhabitant of Aurora and might be viewed as an Auroran. Gladia must surely, in her passion, have addressed him as ‘my husband.’ Since Dr. Amadiro has admitted he might possibly have heard from someone else some statement to the effect of Jander’s husbandly relationship to Gladia, isn’t it logical to suppose that he heard of the matter from Jander? Would Dr. Amadiro be willing, right now, to state for the record that he never spoke to Jander during the period when Jander formed part of Gladia’s staff?”
Twice Amadiro’s mouth opened as though he would speak. Twice he did not utter a sound.
“Well,” said the Chairman, “did you speak to Jander during that period, Dr. Amadiro?”
There was still no answer.
Baley said softly, “If he did, it is entirely relevant to the matter at hand.”
“I’m beginning to see that it must be, Mr. Baley. Well, Dr. Amadiro, once again – yes or no.”
And Amadiro burst forth; “What evidence does this Earthman have against me in this matter? Does he have a recording of any conversation I have had with Jander? Does he have witnesses who are willing to say they have seen me with Jander? What does he have anything at all besides mere self – serving statements?”
The Chairman turned to look at Baley and Baley said, “Mr. Chairman, if I have nothing at all, then Dr. Amadiro should not hesitate to deny, for the record, any contact with Jander – but he does not do so. As it happens, in the course of my investigation, I spoke to Dr. Vasilia Aliena, the daughter of Dr. Fastolfe. I spoke also to a young Auroran named Santirix Gremionis. In the recordings of both interviews, it will be plain that Dr. Vasilia encouraged Gremionis to pay court to Gladia. You may question Dr. Vasilia as to her purpose in so doing and as to whether this course of action had been suggested to her by Dr. Amadiro. It also appears that it was Gremionis’ custom to take long walks with Gladia, which both enjoyed, and on which they were not accompanied by the robot, Jander. You might check on this, if you wish, sir.”
The Chairman said dryly, “I may do so, but if all is as you say, what does this show?”
Baley said, “I have stated that, failing Dr. Fastolfe himself, the secret of the humaniform robot could be obtained only from Daneel. Before Jander’s death, it could, with equal facility, have been obtained from Jander. Whereas Daneel was part of Dr. Fastolfe’s establishment and could not easily be reached, Jander was part of Gladia’s establishment and she was not as sophisticated as Dr. Fastolfe in seeing to a robot’s protection.
“Isn’t it likely that Dr. Amadiro took the occasion of Gladia’s periodic absences from her establishment, when she was walking with Gremionis, to converse with Jander, perhaps by trimensional viewing, to study his responses, to subject him to various tests, and then to erase any sign of his visit with Jander, so that he could never inform Gladia of it? It may be that he came close to finding what he wanted to know – before the attempt ended when Jander went out of action. His concentration then shifted to Daneel. He felt perhaps that he had only a few tests and observations left to make and so he set up the trap of yesterday evening, as I said earlier in my – my testimony.”
The Chairman said, in what was almost a whisper, “Now it all hangs together. I am almost forced to believe.”
“Plus one final point and then I will truly have nothing more to say,” said Baley. “In his examination and testing of Jander, it is entirely possible that Dr. Amadiro accidentally – and without any deliberate intention whatever – immobilized Jander and thus committed roboticide.”
And Amadiro, maddened, shouted, “No! Never! Nothing I did to that robot could possibly have immobilized him!”
Fastolfe interposed. “I agree. Mr. Chairman, I, too, think that Dr. Amadiro did not immobilize Jander. However, Mr. Chairman, Dr. Amadiro’s statement just now would seem an implicit admission that he was working with Jander – and that Mr. Baley’s analysis of the situation is essentially accurate.”
The Chairman nodded. “I am forced to agree with you, Dr. Fastolfe. – Dr. Amadiro, you may insist on a formal denial of all this and that may force me into a full – fledged investigation, which could do you a great deal of damage, however it turned out – and I rather suspect, at this stage, it is likely to turn out to your great disadvantage. My suggestion is that you do not force this – that you do not cripple your own position in the Legislature and, perhaps, cripple Aurora’s ability to continue along a smooth political course.
“As I see it, before the matter of Jander’s immobilization came up, Dr. Fastolfe had a majority of the legislators – not a large majority, admittedly – on his side in the matter of Galactic settlement. You would have swung enough legislators to your side by pushing the matter of Dr. Fastolfe’s supposed responsibility for Jander’s immobilization and thus have gained the majority. But now Dr. Fastolfe, if he wishes, can turn the tables by accusing you of the immobilization and, moreover, of having tried to hang a false accusation upon your opponent as well – and you would lose.
“If I do not interfere, then it may be that you, Dr. Amadiro, and you, Dr. Fastolfe, actuated by stubbornness or even vindictiveness, will both marshal your forces and accuse each other of all sorts of things. Our political forces and public opinion, too, will be hopelessly divided – even fragmented – to our infinite harm.
“I believe that, in that case, Fastolfe’s victory, while inevitable, would be a very costly one, so that it would be my task as the Chairman to swing the votes in his direction to begin with, and to place pressure upon you and your faction, Dr. Amadiro, to accept Fastolfe’s victory with as much grace as you can manage, and to do it right now – for the good of Aurora.”
Fastolfe said, “I am not interested in a crushing victory, Mr. Chairman. I propose again a compromise whereby Aurora, the other Spacer worlds, and Earth, too, all have the freedom of settlement in the Galaxy. In return, I will be glad to join the Robotics Institute, put my knowledge of humaniform robots at its disposal, and thus facilitate Dr. Amadiro’s plan, in return for his solemn agreement to abandon all thought of retaliation against Earth at any time in the future and to put this into treaty form, with ourselves and Earth as signatories.”
The Chairman nodded. “A wise and statesmanlike suggestion. May I have your acceptance of this, Dr. Amadiro?”
Amadiro now sat down. His face was a study in defeat. He said, “I have not wanted personal power or the satisfaction of victory. I wanted what I know to be best for Aurora and I am convinced that this plan of Dr. Fastolfe’s means an end to Aurora someday. However, I recognize that I am now helpless against the work of this Earthman” – he shot a quick venomous glance toward Baley –” and I am forced to accept Dr. Fastolfe’s suggestion – though I will ask for permission to address the
Legislature on the subject and to state, for the record, my fears of the consequences.”
“We will, of course, allow that,” said the Chairman. “And if you’ll be guided by me, Dr. Fastolfe, you’ll get this Earthman off our world as fast as possible. He has won your viewpoint for you, but it will not be a very popular one if Aurorans have too long a time to brood over it as an Earthly victory over Aurorans.”
“You are quite right, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Baley will be gone quickly – with my thanks and, I trust, with yours as well.”
“Well,” said the Chairman, not with the best of grace, “since his ingenuity has saved us from a bruising political battle, he has my thanks. – Thank you, Mr. Baley.”
19: Again Baley
80.
BALEY WATCHED THEM leave from a distance. Though Amadiro and the Chairman had come together, they now left separately.
Fastolfe came back from seeing them off, making no attempt to hide his intense relief.
“Come, Mr. Baley,” he said, “you will have lunch with me and then, as soon after that as possible, you will leave for Earth again.”
His robotic staff was clearly in action with that in mind. Baley nodded and said sardonically, “The Chairman managed to thank me, but it seemed to stick in his throat.”
Fastolfe said, “You have no idea how you have been honored. The Chairman rarely thanks anyone, but then no one ever thanks the Chairman. It is always left to history to praise Chairmen and this one has served for over forty years. He has grown cranky and ill – tempered, as Chairmen always do in their final decades.
“However, Mr. Baley, once again I thank you and, through me, Aurora will thank you. You will live to see Earthmen move outward into space, even in your short lifetime, and we will help you with our technology.
“How you have managed to untie this knot of ours, Mr. Baley, in two and a half days – less – I can’t imagine. You are a wonder. – But, come, you will want to wash and freshen up. I know I do.”
