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."
For the first time since the Chairman arrived, Baley had time to think of something besides his next sentence.
He still didn't know what it was that had come to him three times, first on the point of sleep, then on the point of unconsciousness, and finally in postcoital relaxation.
"He was there first!"
It was still meaningless, yet he had made his point to the Chairman and carried all before him without it. Could it have any meaning at all, then, if it was a part of a mechanism that didn't fit and didn't seem needed? Was it nonsense?
It chafed at the corner of his mind and he came to lunch a victor without the proper sensation of victory. Somehow, he felt as though he had missed the point.
For one thing, would the Chairman stick to his resolve? Amadiro had lost the battle, but he didn't seem the kind of person who would give up altogether under any circumstances. Give him credit and assume he meant what he said, that he was driven not by personal vainglory but by his concept of Auroran patriotism. If that were so, he could not give up.
Baley felt it necessary to warn Fastolfe.
"Dr. Fastolfe," he said, "I don't think it's over. Dr. Amadiro will continue the fight to exclude Earth."
Fastolfe nodded as the dishes were served. "I know he will. I expect him to. However, I have no fear as long as the matter of Jander's immobilization is set to rest. With that aside, I'm sure I can always outmaneuver him in the Legislature. Fear not, Mr. Baley, Earth will move along. Nor need you fear personal danger from a vengeful Amadiro. You will be off this planet and on your way back to Earth before sunset - and Daneel will escort you, of course. What's more, the report we'll send with you will ensure, once more, a healthy promotion for you."
"I am eager to go," said Baley, "but I hope I will have time to say my good-byes. I would like to - to see Gladia once more. I would like to say good-bye to Giskard, who may have saved my life last night."
"No question of that, Mr. Baley. But please eat, won't you?"
Baley went through the motions of eating, but didn't enjoy it. Like the confrontation with the Chairman and the victory that ensued, the food was oddly flavorless.
He should not have won. The Chairman should have cut him off.
Amadiro, if necessary, should have made a flat denial. It would have been accepted over the word - or the reasoning - of an Earthman.
But Fastolfe was jubilant. He said, "I had feared the worst, Mr. Baley. I feared the meeting with the Chairman was premature and that nothing you could say would help the situation. Yet you managed it so well. I was lost in admiration, listening to you. At any moment, I expected Amadiro to demand that his word be taken against an Earthman who, after all, was in a constant state of semimadness at finding himself on a strange planet in the open - "
Baley said frigidly, "With all respect, Dr. Fastolfe, I was not in a constant state of semimadness. Last night was exceptional, but it was the only time - I lost control. For the rest of my stay on Aurora, I may have been uncomfortable from time to time, but I was always in my perfect mind." Some of the anger he had suppressed at considerable cost to himself in the confrontation - with the Chairman was expressing itself now. "Only during the storm, sir - except, of course" - recollecting - "for a moment or two on the approaching spaceship - "
He was not conscious of the manner in which the thought the memory, the interpretation - came to him or at what speed. One moment it did not exist, the next moment it was full-blown in his mind, as though it had been there all the time and needed only the bursting of a soap-bubble veil to show it.
"Jehoshaphat!" he said in an awed whisper. Then, with his fist coming down on the table and rattling the dishes, 'Jehoshaphat!"
"What is it, Mr. Baley?" asked Fastolfe, startled.
Baley stared at him and heard the question only belatedly. "Nothing, Dr. Fastolfe. I was just thinking of Dr. Amadiro's infernal gall in doing the damage to Jander and then laboring to fix the blame on you, in arranging to have me go half-mad in the storm last night and then using that as a way of casting doubt on my statements. I was just - momentarily - angry."
"Well, no need to be, Mr. Baley. And actually, it is quite impossible for Amadiro to have immobilized Jander. It remains purely a chance event. - To be sure, it is possible that Amadiro's investigation may have increased the odds of such a chance event taking place, but I would not argue the matter."
Baley heard the statement with half of one ear. What he had just said to Fastolfe was fiction and what Fastolfe was saying didn't matter. It was (as the Chairman would have said) irrelevant. In fact, everything that had happened - everything that Baley had explained - was irrelevant. - But nothing had to be changed because of that.
Except one thing - after a while.
Jehoshaphat! He whispered in the silence of his mind and turned suddenly to the lunch, eating with gusto and with joy.
81
Once again, Baley crossed the lawn between Fastolfe's establishment and Gladia's. He would be seeing Gladia for the fourth time in three days - and (his heart seemed to compress into a hard knot in his chest) now for the last time.
Giskard was with him but at a distance, more intent than ever on the surroundings. Surely, with the Chairman in full possession of the facts, there should be a relaxation of any concern for Baley's safety - if there ever had been any, by rights, when it was Daneel who had been in danger. Presumably, Giskard had not yet been reinstructed in the matter.
Only once did he approach Baley and that was when the latter called out, "Giskard, where's Daneel?"
Swiftly, Giskard covered the ground between them, as though reluctant to speak in anything but a quiet tone. "Daneel is on his way to the spaceport, sir, in the company of several others, of the staff, in order to make arrangements for your transportation to Earth. When you are taken to the spaceport, he will meet you there and be on the ship with you, taking his final leave of you at Earth."
"Good news. I treasure every day of companionship with Daneel. And you, Giskard? Will you accompany us?"
"No, sir. I am instructed to remain on Aurora. However, Daneel will serve you well, even in my absence."
"I am sure of that, Giskard, but I will miss you."
"Thank you, sir," said Giskard and retreated as rapidly as he had come. Baley gazed after him speculatively for a moment or so. - No, first things first. He had to see Gladia.
82
She advanced to greet him - and what a world of change had taken place in two days. She was not joyous, she was not dancing, she was not bubbling; there was still the grave look of one who had suffered a shock and a loss - but the troubled aura around her was gone. There was a kind of serenity now, as though she had grown aware of the fact that life continued after all and might even, on occasion, be sweet.
She managed a smile, warm and friendly, as she advanced to him and held out her hand.
"Oh, take it, take it, Elijah," she said when he hesitated. "It's ridiculous for you to hang back and pretend you don't want to touch me after last night. You see, I still remember it and I haven't come to regret it. Quite the contrary."
Baley performed the unusual operation (for him) of smiling in return. "I remember it, too, Gladia. And I don't regret it either. I would even like to do it again, but I have come to say good-bye."
A shade fell across her face. "Then you'll be going back, to Earth. Yet the report I got by way of the robot network that always operates between Fastolfe's establishment and my own is that all went well. You can't have failed."
"I did not fail. Dr. Fastolfe, has, in fact, won completely. I don't believe there, will be, any suggestion at all that he was in any way involved in Jander's death."
"Because of what you had to say, Elijah?"
"I believe so."
"I knew it." There was a tinge of self-satisfaction to that. "I knew you would do it when I told them to get you on the case. - But then why are you being sent home?"
"Precisely because the case is solved. If I remain here longer, I will be a foreign irritant in the body politic, apparently."
She looked at him dubiously for a moment and said, "I'm not sure what you mean by that. It sounds like an Earth expression to me. But never mind. Were you able to find out who killed Jander? That is the important part."
Baley looked around. Giskard was standing in one niche, one of Gladia's robots in another.
Gladia interpreted the look without trouble. She said, "Now, Elijah, you must learn to stop worrying about robots. You don't worry about the presence of the chair, do you, or of these drapes?"
Baley nodded. "Well, then, Gladia, I'm sorry - I'm terribly sorry - but I had to tell them of the fact that Jander was your husband."
Her eyes opened wide and he hastened on. "I had to. It was essential to the case, but I promise it won't affect your status on Aurora." As briefly as he might, he summarized the events of the confrontation and concluded, "So, you see, no one killed Jander. The immobilization was the result of a chance change in his positronic pathways, though the probabilities of that chance change may have been enhanced by what had been going on."
"And I never knew," she moaned. "I never knew. I connived at this Amadiro's foul plan. - And he is the one responsible just as much, as though he had deliberately hacked away at him with a sledgehammer."
"Gladia," said Baley earnestly, "that is uncharitable. He had no intention of doing harm to Jander and what he was doing was, in his own eyes, for the good of Aurora. As it is, he is punished. He is defeated, his plans are in shambles, and the Robotics Institute wilt come under the domination of Dr. Fastolfe. You yourself could not work out a more suitable punishment, no matter how you I tried."
She said, "I'll think about that. - But what do I do with Santirix Gremionis, this good-looking young lackey whose job it was to lure me away? No wonder he appeared to cling to hope despite my repeated refusal. Well, he'll come here again and I will have the pleasure of - "
Baley shook his head violently. "Gladia, no. I have interviewed him and I assure you he had no knowledge of what was going on. He was as much deceived as you were. In fact, you have it reversed. He was not persistent because it was important to lure you away. He was useful to Amadiro because he was so persistent - and that persistence was out of regard or you. Out of love, if the word means on Aurora what it means on Earth."
"On Aurora, it is choreography. Jander was a robot and you are an Earthman. It is different with the Aurorans."
"So you have explained. But Gladia, you learned from Jander to take; you learned from me - not that I meant it - to give. If you benefit by learning, is it not only right and fair that you should teach in your turn. Gremionis is sufficiently attracted to you to be willing to learn. He already defies Auroran convention by persisting in the face of your refusal. He will defy more. You can teach him to give and take and you will learn to do both in alternation or together, in company with him."
Gladia looked searchingly into his eyes. "Elijah, are you trying to get rid of me?"
Slowly, Baley nodded. "Yes, Gladia, I am. It's your happiness I want at this moment, more than I have ever wanted anything for myself or for Earth. I can't give you happiness, but if Gremionis can give it to you, I will be as happy - almost as happy as if it were I myself who were making the gift.
"Gladia, he may surprise you with how eagerly he will break through the choreography when you show him how. And the word will somehow spread, so that others will come to swoon at your feet - and Gremionis may find it possible to teach other women. Gladia, it may be that you will revolutionize Auroran sex before you are through. You will have three centuries in which to do so."
Gladia stared at him and then broke into a laugh. "You are teasing. You are being - I wouldn't have thought it of you, Elijah. You always look so long-faced and grave. Jehoshaphat!" (And, with the last word, she tried to imitate his somber baritone.)
Baley said, "Perhaps I'm teasing a little, but I mean it in essence. Promise me that you will give Gremionis his chance."
She came closer to him and, without hesitation, he put his arm around her. She placed her finger on his lips and he made a small kissing motion. She said softly, "Wouldn't you rather have me for yourself, Elijah?"
He said, just as softly (and unable to become unaware of the robots in the room), "Yes, I would, Gladia. I am ashamed to say that at this moment I would be content to have the Earth fall to pieces if I could have you - but I can't. In a few hours, I'll be off Aurora, and there's no way you will be allowed to go with me. Nor do I think I will ever be allowed to come back to Aurora, nor is it possible that you will ever visit Earth.
"I will never see you again, Gladia, but I will never forget you, either. I will die in a few decades and when I do you will be as young as you are now, so we would have to say goodbye soon whatever we could imagine as happening."
She put her head, against his chest. "Oh, Elijah, twice you came into my life, each time for just a few hours. Twice you've done so much for me and then said good-bye. The first time all I could do was - touch your face, but what a difference that made. The second time, I did so much more - and again what a difference that made. I'll never forget you, Elijah, if I live more centuries than I can count."
Baley said, "Then let it not be the kind of memory that cuts you off from happiness. Accept Gremionis and make him happy - and let him make you happy as well. And remember, there is nothing to prevent you from sending me letters. The hyperpost between Aurora and Earth exists."
"I will, Elijah. And you will write to me as well?"
"I will, Gladia."
Then there was silence and, reluctantly, they moved apart. She remained standing in the middle of the room and when he went to the door and turned back, she was still standing there with a little smile. His lips shaped: Good-bye. And then because there was no sound - he could not have done it with sound he added, my love.
And her lips moved, too. Good-bye, my dearest love.
And he, turned and walked away, knew he would never see her in tangible form, never touch her again.
83
It was a while before Elijah could bring himself to consider the task that still lay before him. He had walked in silence perhaps half the distance back to Fastolfe's establishment before he stopped and lifted his arm.
The observant Giskard was at his side in a moment.
Baley said, "How much time before I must leave for the spaceport, Giskard?"
"Three hours and ten minutes, sir."
Baley thought a moment, "I would like to walk over to that tree there and sit down with my back against the trunk and spend some time there alone. With you, of course, but away from other human beings."
"In the open, sir?" The robot's voice was unable to express surprise and shock, but somehow Baley had the feeling that, if Giskard were human, those words would express those feelings.
"Yes," said Baley. "I have to think and, after last night, a calm day like this - sunny, cloudless, mild scarcely seems dangerous. I'll go indoors if I get agoraphobic. I promise. So will you join me?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good." Baley led the way. They reached the tree and Baley touched the trunk gingerly and then stared at his finger, which remained perfectly clean. Reassured that, leaning against the trunk would not dirty him, he inspected the ground and then sat down carefully and rested his back against the tree.
It was not nearly as comfortable as the back of a chair would have been, but there was a feeling of peace (oddly, enough) that perhaps he would not have had inside a room.
Giskard remained standing and Baley said, "Won't you sit down - too?"
"I am as comfortable standing, sir."
"I know that, Giskard, but I will think better if I don't have to look up at you."
"I could not guard you against possible harm as efficiently if I were seated, sir."
"I know that, too, Giskard, but there is no reasonable danger at the moment. My mission is over, the case is solved, Dr. Fastolfe's position is secure. You can risk being seated and I order you to sit down."
Giskard at once sat down, facing Baley, but his eyes continued to wander in, this direction and that and were ever alert.
Baley looked at the sky, through the leaves of the tree green against blue, listened to the susurration of insects and to the sudden call of a bird, noted a disturbance of grass nearby that might have meant a small animal passing by, and again thought - how oddly peaceful it how different this peacefulness was from the clamor of the City. This was a quiet unhurried peace.
For the first time, Baley caught a faint suggestion of how it might be to prefer Outside to the City. He caught himself being thankful to his experiences on Aurora, to the storm most of all - for he knew now that he would be able to leave Earth and face the conditions, of whatever new world he might settle on, he and Ben - and perhaps Jessie.
He said, "Last night, in the darkness of the storm, I wondered if I might have seen Aurora's satellite were it not for the clouds. It has a satellite, if I recall my reading correctly."
"Two, actually, sir. The larger is Tithonus, but it is still so small that it appears only as a moderately bright star. The smaller is not visible at all to the unaided eye and is simply called Tithonus, when it is referred to at all."
"Thank you. - And thank you, Giskard, for rescuing me last night." He looked at the robot. "I don't know the proper way of thanking you."
"It is not necessary to thank me at all. I was merely following the dictates of the First Law. I had no choice in the matter."
"Nevertheless, I may even owe you my life and it is important that you know I understand this. - And now, Giskard, what ought I to do."
"Concerning what matter, sir?"
"My mission is over. Dr. Fastolfe's views are secure. Earth's future may be assured. It would seem I have nothing more to do and yet there is the matter of Jander."
"I do not understand, sir."
"Well, it seems settled that he died by a chance shift of positronic potential in his brain, but Fastolfe admits the chance of that is infinitesimally small. Even with Amadiro's activities, the chance, though possibly greater, would remain infinitesimally small. At least, so Fastolfe thinks. It continues to seem to me, then, that Jander's death was one of deliberate roboticide. Yet I don't dare raise this point now. I don't want to unsettle matters that have been brought to such a satisfactory conclusion. I don't want to put Fastolfe in jeopardy again. I don't want to make Gladia unhappy. I don't know what to do. I can't talk to a human being about this, so I'm talking to you, Giskard."
"Yes, sir."
"I can always order you to erase whatever I have said and to remember it no more."
"Yes, sir."
"In your opinion, what ought I to do?"
Giskard said, "If there is a roboticide, sir, there must be someone, capable of committing the act. Only Dr. Fastolfe is capable, of committing it and he says he did not do it."
"Yes we started with that situation. I believe Dr. Fastolfe and am quite certain he did not do it."
"Then how could there have been a roboticide, sir?"
"Suppose that someone else knew as much about robots as Dr. Fastolfe does, Giskard."
Baley drew up his knees and clasped his hands around them. He did not look at Giskard and seemed lost in thought.
"Who might that be, sir?" asked Giskard.
And finally, Baley reached the crucial point.
He said, "You, Giskard."
84
If Giskard had been human, he might have simply stared, silent and stunned; or he might have raged angrily; or shrunk back in terror; or had any of a dozen responses. Because he was a robot, he showed no sign of any emotion whatever and simply said, "Why do you say so, sir?"
Baley said, "I am quite certain, Giskard, that you know exactly how I have come to this conclusion, but you will do me a favor if you allow me, in this quiet place and in this bit of time before I must leave, to explain the matter for my own benefit. I would like to hear myself talk about it. And I would like you to correct me where I am wrong."
"By all means, sir."
"I suppose my initial mistake was to suppose that you are a less complicated and more primitive robot than Daneel is, simply because you look less human. A human being will always suppose that, the more human a robot is, the more advanced, complicated, and intelligent he will be. To be sure, a robot like you is easily designed and one like Daneel is a great problem for men like Amadiro and can be handled only by a robotics genius such as Fastolfe. However, the difficulty in designing Daneel lies, I suspect, in reproducing all the human aspects such as facial expression, intonation of voice, gestures and movements that are extraordinarily intricate but have nothing really to do with complexity of mind. Am I right?"
"Quite right, sir."
"So I automatically underestimated you, as does everyone. Yet you gave yourself away even before we landed on Aurora. You remember, perhaps, that during the landing, I was overcome by an agoraphobic spasm and was, for a moment, even more helpless than I was last night in the storm."
"I do, sir."
"At the time, Daneel was in the cabin with me, while you were outside the door. I was falling into a kind of catatonic state, noiselessly, and he was, perhaps, not looking at me and so knew nothing of it. You were outside the cabin and yet it was you who dashed in and turned off the viewer I was holding. You got there first, ahead of Daneel, though his reflexes are as fast as yours, I'm sure - as he demonstrated when he prevented Dr. Fastolfe from striking me."
"Surely it cannot be that Dr. Fastolfe was striking you."
"He wasn't. He was merely demonstrating Daneel's reflexes. - And yet, as I say, in the cabin you got there first. I was scarcely in condition to observe that fact, but I have been trained to observe and I am not put entirely out of action even by agoraphobic terror, as I showed last night. I did notice you were there first though. I tended to forget the fact. There is, of course, only one logical solution."
Baley paused, as though expecting Giskard to agree, but the robot said nothing.
(In later years, this was what Baley pictured first when thinking of his stay on Aurora. Not the storm. Not even Gladia. It was, rather, the quiet time under the tree, with the green leaves against the blue sky, the mild breeze, the soft sound of animals, and Giskard opposite him with faintly glowing eyes.)
Baley said, "It would seem that you could somehow detect my state of mind and, even through the closed door, tell that I was having a seizure of some sort. Or, to put it briefly and perhaps simplistically, you can read minds."
"Yes, sir," said Giskard quietly.
"And you can somehow influence minds, too. I believe you noted that I had detected this and you obscured it in my mind, so that I somehow did not remember or did not see the significance - if I did casually recall the situation. Yet you did not do that entirely efficiently, perhaps because your powers are limited - "
Giskard said, "Sir, the First Law is paramount. I had to come to your rescue, although I quite realized that would give me away. And I had to obscure your mind minimally, in order not to damage it in any way."
Baley nodded. "You have your difficulties, I see. Obscured minimally - so I did remember it when my mind was sufficiently relaxed and could think by free association. Just before I lost consciousness in the storm, I knew you would find me first, as you had on the ship. You may have found me by infrared radiation, but every mammal and bird was radiating as well and that might be confusing - but you could also detect mental activity, even if I were unconscious, and that would help you to find me."
"It certainly helped," said Giskard.
"When I did remember close to sleep or unconsciousness, I would forget again when fully conscious. Last night, however, I remembered for the third time and I was not alone. Gladia was with me and could repeat what I had said, which was 'He was there first.' And even then I could not remember the meaning, until a chance remark of Dr. Fastolfe's led to a thought that worked its way past the obscuration. Then, once it dawned on me, I remembered other things. Thus, when I was wondering if I were really landing on Aurora, you assured me that our destination was Aurora before I actually asked. - I presume you allow no one to know of your mind-reading ability."
"That is true, sir."
"Why is that?"
"My mind reading gives me a unique ability to obey the First Law, sir, so I value its existence. I can prevent harm to human beings far more efficiently. It seemed to me, however, that neither Dr. Fastolfe - nor any other human being - would long tolerate a mind-reading robot, so I keep the ability secret. Dr. Fastolfe loves to tell the legend of the mind-reading robot who was destroyed by Susan Calvin and I would not want him to duplicate Dr. Calvin's feat."
"Yes, he told the legend to me. I suspect that he knows, subliminally, that you read minds or he wouldn't harp on the legend so. And it is dangerous for him to do so, as, far as you are concerned, I should think. Certainly, it helped put the matter in my mind."
"I do what I can to neutralize the danger without unduly tampering with Dr. Fastolfe's mind. Dr. Fastolfe invariably stresses the legendary and impossible nature of the story when he tells it."
"Yes, I remember that, too. But if Fastolfe does not know you can read minds, it must be that you were not designed originally with these powers. How, then, do you come to have them? - No, don't tell me, Giskard. Let me suggest something. Miss Vasilia was particularly fascinated with you when she was a young woman first becoming interested in robotics. She told me that she had experimented by programming you under Fastolfe's distant supervision. Could it be that, at one time, quite by accident, she did something that gave you the power? Is that correct?"
"That is correct, sir."
"And do you know what that something is?"
"Yes, sir.
"Are you the only mind-reading robot that exists?"
"So far, yes, sir. There will be others."
"If I asked you what it was that Dr. Vasilia did to you to give you such powers - or if Dr. Fastolfe did - would you tell us by virtue of the Second Law?"
"No, sir, for it is my judgment that it would do you harm to know and my refusal to tell you under the First Law would take precedence - The problem would not arise, however, for I would know that someone was going to ask the question and give the order and I would remove the impulse to do so from the mind before it could be done."
"Yes," said Baley. "Evening before last, as we were walking from Gladia's to Fastolfe's I asked Daneel if he had had any contact with Jander during the latter's stay with Gladia and he answered quite simply that he had not. I then turned to ask you the same question and, somehow, I never did. You quashed the impulse for me to do so, I take it."
"Yes, sir."
"Because if I had asked, you would have had to say that you knew him well at that time and you were not prepared to have me know that."
"I was not, sir."
"But during this period of contact with Jander, you knew he was being tested by Amadiro, because, I presume, you could read Jander's mind or detect his positronic potentials - "
"Yes, sir, the same ability covers both robotic and human mental activity. Robots are far easier to understand."
"You disapproved of Amadiro's activities because you agreed with Fastolfe on the matter of settling the Galaxy."
"Yes, sir."
"Why did you not stop Amadiro? Why did you not remove from his mind the impulse to test Jander?"
Giskard said, "Sir, I do not lightly tamper with minds. Amadiro's resolve was so deep and complex that, to remove it, I would have had to do much - and his mind is an advanced and important one that I would be reluctant to damage. I let the matter continue for a great while, during which I pondered on which action would best fulfill my First Law needs. Finally, I decided on the proper manner to correct the situation. It was not an easy decision."
"You decided to immobilize Jander before Amadiro could work out the method for designing a true humaniform robot. You knew how to do so, since you had, over the years, gained a perfect understanding of Fastolfe's theories from Fastolfe's mind. Is that right?"
"Exactly, sir."
"So that Fastolfe was not the only one, after all, expert enough to immobilize Jander."
"In a sense, he was, sir. My own ability is merely the reflection - or the extension - of his."
"But it will do. Did you not see that this immobilization would place Fastolfe in great danger? That he would be the natural suspect? Did you plan on admitting your action and revealing your abilities if that - were necessary to save him?"
Giskard said, "I did indeed see that Dr. Fastolfe would be in a painful situation, but I did not intend to admit my guilt. I had hoped to utilize the situation as a wedge for getting you to Aurora."
"Getting me here? Was that your idea?" Baley felt rather stupefied.
"Yes, sir. With your permission, I would like to explain."
Giskard said, "I knew of you from Miss Gladia and from Dr. Fastolfe, not only from what they said but from what was learned of the situation on Earth. Earthmen in their minds, it was clear, live behind walls, which they find difficult to escape from, but it was just as clear to me that Aurorans live behind walls, too.
"Aurorans live behind walls made of robots, who shield them from all the vicissitudes - of life and who, in Amadiro's plans, would build up shielded societies to wall up Aurorans, settling new worlds. Aurorans also live behind walls made up of their own extended lives, which forces them to overvalue individuality and keeps them from pooling their scientific resources. Nor do they indulge in the rough-and-tumble of controversy, but, through their Chairman, demand a short circuiting of all uncertainty and, that decisions on solutions be reached before problems are aired. They could not be bothered with actually thrashing out best solutions. What they wanted were quiet solutions.
"The Earthman's walls are crude and literal, so that their existence is obtrusive and obvious - and there are always some who long to escape. The Aurorans' walls are immaterial and aren't even seen as walls, so that none can even conceive of escaping. It seemed to me, then, that it must be Earthmen and not Aurorans - or any other Spacers - who must settle the Galaxy and establish what will someday become a Galactic Empire.
"All this was Dr. Fastolfe's reasoning and I agreed with it. Dr. Fastolfe was, however, satisfied with the reasoning, while I, given my own abilities, could not be. I had to examine the mind of at least one Earthman directly, in order that I might check my conclusions, and you were the Earthman I thought I could bring to Aurora. The immobilization of Jander served both to stop Amadiro and to be the occasion for your visit. I pushed Miss Gladia very slightly to have her suggest your coming to Dr. Fastolfe; I pushed him in turn, very slightly, to have him suggest it to the Chairman; and I pushed the Chairman, very slightly, to have him agree. Once you arrived, I studied you and was pleased - with what I found."
Giskard stopped speaking and became robotically impassive again.
Baley frowned. "It occurs to me that I have earned no credit in what I have done here. You must have seen to it that I found my way to the truth."
"No, sir. On the contrary. I placed barriers in your way reasonable ones, of course. I refused to let you recognize my abilities, even though I was forced to give myself away. I made sure that you felt dejection and despair at odd times. I encouraged you to risk the open, in order to study your responses. Yet you found your way through and over all these obstacles and I was pleased.
"I found that you longed for the walls of your City but recognized that you must learn to do without them. I found that you suffered from the view of Aurora from space and from your exposure to the storm, but that neither prevented you from thinking nor drove you from your problem. I found that you accept your shortcomings and your brief life - and that, you do not dodge controversy."
Baley said, "How do you know I am representative of Earthpeople generally?"
"I know you are not. But from your mind, I know there are some like you and we will build with those. I will see to it and now that I know clearly the path that must be followed, I will prepare other robots like myself - and they will see to it."
Baley said suddenly, "You mean that mind-reading robots will come to Earth?"
"No, I do not. And you are right to be alarmed. Involving robots directly will mean the construction of the very walls that are dooming Aurora and the Spacer worlds to paralysis. Earthmen will have to settle the Galaxy without robots of any kind. It will mean difficulties, dangers, and harm without measure - events that robots would labor to prevent if they were present - but, in the end, human beings will be better off for having worked on their own. And perhaps someday - some long away day in the future - robots can intervene once more. Who can tell?"
Baley said curiously, "Do you see the future?"
"No sir, but studying minds as I do, I can tell dimly that there are laws that govern human behavior as the Three Laws of Robotics govern robotic behavior; and with these it may be that the future will be dealt with, after a fashion - someday. The human law's are far more complicated than the Laws of Robotics are and I do not have any idea as to how they may be organized. They may be statistical in nature, so that they might not be fruitful expressed except when dealing with huge populations. They may be loosely binding, so that they might not make sense unless those huge populations are unaware of the operation of those laws."
"Tell me, Giskard, is this what Dr. Fastolfe refers to as the future science of 'psychohistory'?"
"Yes, sir. I have gently inserted it into his mind, in order that the process of working it out begin. It will be needed someday, now that the existence of the Spacer worlds as a long-lived robotized culture is coming to an end and a new wave of human expansion by short-lived human beings - without robots - will be beginning.
"And now" - Giskard rose to his feet - "I think, sir, that we must go to Dr. Fastolfe's establishment and prepare for your leave taking. All that we have said here will not be repeated, of course."
"It is strictly confidential, I assure you," said Baley.
"Indeed," said Giskard calmly. "But you need not fear the responsibility of having to remain silent. I will allow you to remember, but you will never have the urge to repeat the matter - not the slightest."
Baley lifted his eyebrows in resignation over that and said, "One thing, though, Giskard, before you clamp down on me. Will you see to it that Gladia is not disturbed on this planet, that she is not treated unkindly because she is a Solarian and has accepted a robot as her husband, and - and that she will accept the offers of Gremionis?"
"I heard your final conversation with Miss Gladia, sir, and I understand. It will be taken care of. Now, sir, may I take my leave of you while no other is watching?" Giskard thrust out his hand in the most human gesture Baley had ever seen him make.
Baley took it. The fingers were hard and cool in his grip. "Good-bye - friend Giskard."
Giskard said, "Good-bye, friend Elijah, and remember that, although people apply the phrase to Aurora, it is, from this point on, Earth itself that is the true World of the Dawn."