Baley looked after him somberly. How many other constraints would be placed on him? Improbable as successful completion of his task was, he wondered in how many different ways Aurorans would conspire to make it impossible.
Chapter 3. GISKARD
9
Baley turned and said to Daneel, "It annoys me, Daneel, that I must remain a prisoner here because the Aurorans on board this ship fear me as a source of infection. This is pure superstition. I have been treated."
Daneel said, "It is not because of Auroran fears that you are being asked to remain in your cabin, Partner Elijah."
"No? What other reason?"
"Perhaps you remember that, when we first met on this ship, you asked me my reasons for being sent to escort you. I said it was to give you something familiar as an anchor and to please me. I was then about to tell you the third reason, when Giskard interrupted us with your viewer and viewing material - and thereafter we launched into a discussion of roboticide."
"And you never told me the third reason. What is it?"
"Why, Partner Elijah, it is merely that I might help protect you."
"Against what?"
"Unusual passions have been stiffed by the incident, we have agreed to call roboticide. You are being called to Aurora to help demonstrate Dr. Fastolfe's innocence. And the hyperwave drama - "
"Jehoshaphat, Daneel," said Baley in outrage. "Have they seen that thing on Aurora, too?"
"They have seen it throughout the Spacer worlds, Partner Elijah. It was a most popular program and has made it quite plain that you are a most extraordinary investigator."
"So that whoever might be behind the roboticide may well have exaggerated fears of what I might accomplish and might therefore risk a great deal to prevent my arrival - or to kill me."
"Dr. Fastolfe," said Daneel calmly, "is quite convinced that no one is behind the roboticide, since no human being other than himself could have carried it through. It was a purely fortuitous occurrence in Dr. Fastolfe's view. However, there are those who are trying to capitalize on the occurrence and it would be to their interest to keep you from proving that. For that reason, you must be protected."
Baley took a few hasty steps to one wall of the room and then back to the other, as though to speed his thought processes by physical example. Somehow he did not feel any sense of personal danger.
He said, "Daneel, how many humaniform robots are there all together on Aurora?"
"Do you mean now that Jander no longer functions?"
"Yes, now that Jander is dead."
"One, Partner Elijah."
Baley stared at Daneel in shock. Soundlessly, he mouthed the word: "One?"
Finally, he said, "Let me understand this, Daneel. You are the only humaniform robot on Aurora?"
"Or on any world, Partner Elijah. I thought you were aware of this. I was the prototype and then Jander was constructed. Since then, Dr. Fastolfe has refused to construct any more and no one else has the skill to do it."
"But in that case, since of two humaniform robots, one has been killed, does it not occur to Dr. Fastolfe that the remaining humaniform - you, Daneel - might be in danger."
"He recognizes the possibility. But the chance that the fantastically unlikely occurrence of mental freeze-out would take place a second time is remote. He doesn't take it seriously. He feels, however, that there might be a chance of other misadventure. That, I think, played some small part in his sending me to Earth to get you. It kept me away from Aurora for a week or so."
"And you are now as much a prisoner as I am, aren't you, Daneel?"
"I am a prisoner," said Daneel gravely, "only in the sense, Partner Elijah, that I am expected not to leave this room."
"In what other sense is one a prisoner?"
"In the sense that the person so restricted in his movements resents the rest fiction. A true imprisonment has the implication of being involuntary. I quite understand the reason for being here and I concur in the necessity."
"You do," grumbled Baley. "I do not. I am a prisoner in the full sense. And what keeps us safe here, anyway?"
"For one thing, Partner Elijah, Giskard is on duty outside."
"Is he intelligent enough for the job?"
"He understands his orders entirely. He is rugged and strong and quite realizes the importance of his task."
"You mean he is prepared to be destroyed to protect the two of us?"
"Yes, of course, just as I am prepared to be destroyed to protect you."
Baley felt abashed. He said, "You do not resent the situation in which you may be forced to give up your existence for me?"
"It is my programming, Partner Elijah," said Daneel in a voice that seemed to soften, "yet somehow it seems to me that, even were it not for my programming, saving you makes the loss of my own existence seem quite trivial in comparison."
Baley could not resist this. He held out his hand and closed it on Daneel's with a fierce grip.
"Thank you, Partner Daneel, but please do not allow it to happen. I do not wish the loss of your existence. The preservation of my own would be inadequate compensation, it seems to me."
And Baley was amazed to discover that he really meant it. His was faintly horrified to realize that he would be ready to risk his life for a robot. - No, not for a robot. For Daneel.
10
Giskard entered without signaling. Baley had come to accept that. The robot, as his guard, had to be able to come and go as he pleased. And Giskard was only a robot, in Baley's eyes, however much he might be a "he" and however much one did not mention the "R." If Baley were scratching himself, picking his nose, engaged in any messy biological function, it seemed to him that Giskard would be indifferent, nonjudgmental, incapable of reacting in any way, but coldly recording the observation in some inner memory bank.