Robots and Empire trs-4

by Isaac Asimov

  “I take you for a failure,” said Vasilia. “I don’t say Giskard can read conversations in minds, that he can transmit and receive words or ideas. Perhaps that is impossible, even in theory. But I am quite certain he can detect emotions and the general set of mental activity and perhaps can even modify it.”

  Amadiro shook his head violently. “Impossible!”

  “Impossible? Think a while. Twenty decades ago, you had almost achieved your aims. Fastolfe was at your mercy, Chairman Horder was your ally. What happened? Why did everything go wrong?”

  “The Earthman—” Amadiro began, choking at the memory.

  “The Earthman,” Vasilia mimicked. “The Earthman. Or was it the Solarian woman? It was neither! Neither! It was Giskard, who was there all the time. Sensing. Adjusting.”

  “Why should he be interested? He is a robot.”

  “A robot loyal to his master, to Fastolfe. By the First Law, he had to see to it that Fastolfe came to no harm and, being telepathic, he could not interpret that as signifying physical harm only. He knew that if Fastolfe could not have his way, could not encourage the settlement of the habitable worlds of the Galaxy, he would undergo profound disappointment—and—that would be ‘harm’ in Giskard’s telepathic Universe. He could not let that happen and he intervened to keep it from happening.”

  “No, no, no,” said Amadiro in disgust. “You want that to be so, out of some wild, romantic longing, but that doesn’t make it so. I remember too well what happened. It was the Earthman. It needs no telepathic robot to explain the events.”

  “And what has happened since, Kelden?” demanded Vasilia. “In twenty decades, have you ever managed to win out over Fastolfe? With all the facts in your favor, with the obvious bankruptcy of Fastolfe’s policy, have you ever been able to dispose of a majority in the Council? Have you ever been able to sway the Chairman to the point where you could possess real power?

  “How do you explain that, Kelden? In all those twenty decades, the Earthman has not been on Aurora. He has been dead for over sixteen decades, his miserably short life running out in eight decades or so. Yet you continue to fail—you have an unbroken record of failure. Even now that Fastolfe is dead, have you managed to profit completely from the broken pieces of his coalition or do you, find that success still seems to elude you?

  “What is it that remains? The Earthman is gone. Fastolfe is gone. It is Giskard who has worked against you all this time—and Giskard remains. He is as loyal now to the Solarian woman as he was to Fastolfe and the Solarian woman has no cause to love you, I think.”

  Amadiro’s face twisted into a mask of anger and frustration. “It’s not so. None of this is so. You’re imagining things.”

  Vasilia remained quite cool. “No, I’m not. I’m explaining things. I’ve explained things you haven’t been able to explain. Or have you an alternate explanation?—And I can give you the cure. Transfer ownership of Giskard from the Solarian woman to me and, quite suddenly, events will begin to twist themselves to your benefit.”

  “No,” said Amadiro. “They are moving to my benefit already.”

  “You may think so, but they won’t, as long as Giskard is working against you. No matter how close you come to winning, no matter how sure of victory you become, it will all melt away as long as you don’t have Giskard on your side. That happened twenty decades ago; it will happen now.”

  Amadiro’s face suddenly cleared. He said, “Well, come to think of it, though I don’t have Giskard and neither do you, it doesn’t matter, for I can show you that Giskard is not telepathic. If Giskard were telepathic, as you say, if he had the ability to order affairs to his own liking or to the liking of the human being who is his owner, then why would he have allowed the Solarian woman to be taken to what will probably be her death?”

  “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—”r />
  “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.”

  Amadiro said, “I do not see any reason to worry. In the very likely case that he is a mere robot, he will be destroyed on Solaria and we will be rid of both him and the Solarian woman. In the unlikely case that he is what you say he is, he won’t be destroyed on Solaria, but then he will have to return to Aurora. After all, the Solarian woman, though she is not an Auroran by birth, has lived on Aurora far too long to be able to face life among the barbarians—and when she insists on returning to civilization, Giskard will have no alternative but to return with her.”

  Vasilia said, “After all this, Kelden, you still don’t understand Giskard’s abilities. If he feels it important to remain away from Aurora, he can easily adjust the Solarian woman’s emotions in such a way as to make her stand life on a Settler world, just as he made her willing to board a Settler ship.”

  “Well, then, if necessary, we can simply escort that Settler ship—with the Solarian woman and with Giskard—back to Aurora.”

  “How do you propose to do that?”

  “It can be done. We are not fools here on Aurora, for all that it seems clearly your opinion that you yourself are the only rational person on the planet. The Settler ship is going to Solaria to investigate the destruction of the earlier two ships, but I hope you don’t think we intend to depend upon its good offices or even upon those of the Solarian woman. We are sending two of our warships to Solaria and we do not expect that they will have trouble if there are Solarians still on the planet, they may be able to destroy primitive Settler ships, but they won’t be able to touch an Auroran vessel of war. If, then, the Settler ship, through some magic on the part of Giskard—”

  “Not magic,” Vasilia interrupted tartly. “Mental influence.”

  “If, then, the Settler ship, for whatever reason, should be able to rise from the surface of Solaria, our ships will cut them off and politely ask for the delivery of the Solarian woman and her robots. Failing that, they will insist that the Settler ship accompany our ship to Aurora. There will be no hostility about it. Our ship will merely be escorting an Auroran national to her home world. Once the Solarian woman and her two robots disembark in Aurora, the Settler ship will then be able to proceed at will to its own destination.”

  Vasilia nodded wearily at this. “It sounds good, Kelden, but do you know what I suspect will happen?”

  “What, Vasilia?”

  “It is my opinion that the Settler ship will rise from the surface of Solaria, but that our warships won’t. Whatever is on Solaria can be countered by Giskard, but, I fear, by nothing else.”

  “If that happens,” said Amadiro with a grim smile, “then I’ll admit there may be something, after all, to your fantasy.—But it won’t happen.”

  64

  The next morning Vasilia’s chief personal robot, delicately designed to appear female, came to Vasilia’s bedside. Vasilia stirred and, without opening her eyes, said, “What is it, Nadila?” (There was no need to open her eyes. In many decades, no one had ever approached her bedside but Nadila.)

  Nadila said softly, “Madam, you are desired at the Institute by Dr. Amadiro.”

  Vasilia’s eyes flew open. “What time is it?”

  “It is 05:17, madam.”

  “Before sunrise?” Vasilia was indignant.

  “Yes, madam.”

  “When does he want me?”

  “Now, madam.”

  “Why?”

  “His robots have not informed us, madam, but they say it is important.”

  Vasilia threw aside the bed sheets. “I will have breakfast first, Nadila, and a shower before that. Inform Amadiro’s robots to take visitors’ niches and wait. If they urge speed, remind them they are in my establishment.”

  Vasilia, annoyed, did not hasten unduly. If anything, her toilette was more painstaking than usual and her breakfast more leisurely. (She was not ordinarily one to spend much time over either.) The news, which she watched, gave no indication of anything that might explain Amadiro’s call.

  By the time the ground-car (containing herself and four robots—two of Amadiro’s and two of her own) had brought her to the Institute, the sun was making its appearance over the horizon Amadiro looked up and said, “You are finally here, then.”

  The walls of his office were still glowing, though their light was no longer needed.

  “I’m sorry,” said Vasilia stiffly. “I quite realize that sunrise is a terribly late hour at which to begin work.”

  “No games, Vasilia, please. Very soon I will have to be at the Council chamber. The Chairman has been up longer than I have.—Vasilia, I apologize, quite humbly, for doubting you.”

  “The Settler ship has lifted off safely, then.”

  “Yes. And one of our ships has been destroyed, as you predicted.—The fact has not been publicized yet, but the news will leak out eventually, of course.”

  Vasilia’s eyes widened. She had predicted this outcome with a bit more in the way of outward confidence than she had felt, but clearly this was not the time to say so. What she did say was “Then you accept the fact that Giskard has extraordinary powers.”

  Cautiously, Amadiro said, “I don’t consider the matter to be mathematically proven, but I’m willing to accept it pending further information. What I want to know is what we ought to do next. The Council knows nothing of Giskard and I do not propose to tell them.”

  “I’m glad your thinking is clear to that extend, Kelden.”

  “But you’re the one who understands Giskard and you can best tell what ought to be done. What do I tell the Council, then, and how do I explain the action without giving away the whole truth?”

  “It depends. Now that the Settler ship has left Solaria, where is it going? Can we tell? After all, if it is returning now to Aurora, we need do nothing but prepare for its arrival.”

  “It is not coming to Aurora,” said Amadiro emphatically. “You were right here, too, it seems. Giskard—assuming he is running the show—seems determined to stay away. We have intercepted the ship’s messages to, its own world. Encoded, of course, but there isn’t a Settler code we haven’t broken—”

  “I suspect they’ve broken ours, too. I wonder why everyone won’t agree to send messages in the clear and save a lot of trouble.”

  Amadiro shrugged it away. “Never mind that. The point is t
hat the Settler ship is going back to its own planet.”

  “With the Solarian woman and the robots?”

  “Of course.”

  “You’re sure of that? They haven’t been left on Solaria?”

  “We’re sure of that,” said Amadiro impatiently. “Apparently, ‘the Solarian woman’ was responsible for their getting off the surface.”

  “She? In what way?”

  “We don’t yet know.”

  Vasilia said, “It had to be Giskard. He made it appear to be the Solarian woman.”

  “And what do we do now?”

  “We must get Giskard back.”

  “Yes, but I can’t very well persuade the Council to risk an interstellar crisis over the return of a robot.”

  “You don’t, Kelden. You ask for the return of the Solarian woman, something we certainly have a right to request. And do you think for one moment she would return without her robots? Or that Giskard will allow the Solarian woman to return without him? Or that the Settler world would want to keep the robots if the Solarian woman returns? Ask for her. Firmly. She’s an Auroran citizen, lent out for a job on Solaria, which is done, and she must now be returned forthwith. Make it belligerent, as though it were a threat of war.”

  “We can’t risk war, Vasilia.”

  “You won’t risk it. Giskard can’t take an action that might lead directly to war. If the Settler leaders resist and become belligerent in their return, Giskard will perforce make the necessary modifications in the attitude of the Settler leaders so as to have the Solarian woman returned peaceably to Aurora. And he himself will, of course, have to return with her.”

  Amadiro said drearily, “And once he’s back, he will alter us, I suppose, and we will forget his powers, and disregard him, and he will still be able to follow his own plan whatever it is.”

  Vasilia leaned her head back and laughed. “Not a chance. I know Giskard, you see, and I can handle him. Just bring him back and persuade the Council to disregard Fastolfe’s will—it can be done and you can do it—and to assign Giskard to me. He will then be working for us; Aurora will rule the Galaxy, you will spend the remaining decades of your life as Chairman of the Council; and I will succeed you as the head of the Robotics Institute.”