"Who? Mom? Surely you jest."
"Some jest. When the time comes to take off, I won't be able to go along - because she won't."
"And you'll be glad of it. Don't kid yourself, Dad. It won't, be for quite a while - and if you're not too old now, you'll be too old then. It's going to be a game for young people."
"You know," said Baley, half-balling his fist, "you are such a wise guy with your 'young people.' Have you ever been off Earth? Have any of those people in the field been off Earth? I have. Two years ago. That was before I had any of this acclimatization - and I survived."
"I know, Dad, but that was briefly, and in the line of duty, and you were taken care of in a going society. It's not the same - "
"It was the same," said Baley stubbornly, knowing in his heart that it wasn't. "And it won't take us so long to be able to leave. If I could get permission to go to Aurora, we could get this act off the ground."
"Forget it. It's not going to happen that easily."
"We've got to try. The government won't let us go without Aurora giving us the go-ahead. It's the largest and strongest of the Spacer worlds and what, it says - "
"Goes! I know. We've all talked this over a million times. But you don't have to go there to get permission. There are such things as hyper-relays. You can talk to them from here. I've said that any number of times before."
"It's not the same. We'll need face-to-face contact - and I've said that any number of times before."
"In any case" said Ben, "we're not ready yet."
"We're not ready because Earth won't give us the ships. The Spacers will, together with the necessary technical help."
"Such faith! Why should the Spacers do it? When did they start feeling kindly toward us short-lived Earthpeople?"
"If I could talk to them - "
Ben laughed. "Come on, Dad. You just want to go to Aurora, to see that woman again."
Baley frowned and his eyebrows beetled over his deep-set eyes. "Woman? Jehoshaphat, Ben, what are you talking about?"
"Now, Dad, just between us - and not a word to Mom what did happen with that woman on Solaria? I'm old enough. You can tell me."
"What woman on Solaria?"
"How can you look at me and deny any knowledge of the woman everyone on, Earth saw in the hyperwave dramatization? Gladia Delmarre. That woman!"
"Nothing happened. That hyperwave thing was nonsense. I've told you that a thousand times. She didn't look that way. I didn't look that way. It was all made up and you know it was produced over my protests, just because the government thought it would put Earth in a good light, with the Spacers. - And you make sure you don't imply anything different to your mother."
"Wouldn't dream of it. Still, this Gladia went to Aurora and you keep wanting to go there, too."
"Are you trying to tell me that you honestly think the reason I want to go to Aurora - Oh, Jehoshaphat!"
His son's eyebrows raised. "What's the matter?"
"The robot. That's R. Geronimo."
"Who?"
"One of our Department messenger robots. And it's out here! I'm off-time and I deliberately left my receiver at home because I didn't want them to get at me. That's my privilege and yet they send for me by robot."
"How do you know it's coming to you, Dad?"
"By very clever deduction - One: there's no one else here, who has any connection with the Police Department; and two: that miserable thing is heading right toward me. From that I deduce that it wants me. I should get on the other side of the tree and stay there."
"It's not a wall, Dad. The robot can walk around the tree."
And the robot called out, "Master Baley, I have a message for you. You are wanted at Headquarters."
The robot stopped, waited, then said again, "Master Baley, I have a message for you. You are wanted at Headquarters."
"I hear and understand," Baley said tonelessly. He had to say that or the robot would have continued to repeat.
Baley frowned slightly as he studied the robot. It was a new model, a little more humaniform, than the older models were. It had been uncrated and activated only a month before and with some degree of fanfare. The government was always trying for something anything - that might produce more acceptance of robots.
It had a grayish surface with a dull finish and a somewhat resilient touch (perhaps like soft leather). The facial expression, while largely changeless, was not quite as idiotic as that of most robots. It was, though, in actual fact, quite as idiotic, mentally, as all the rest.
For a moment, Baley thought of R. Daneel Olivaw, the Spacer robot, who had been on two assignments with him, one on Earth and one on Solaria, and whom he had last encountered when Daneel had consulted him in the mirror-image case. Daneel was a robot who was so human that Baley could treat him as a friend and could still miss him, even now. If all robots were like that -
Baley said, "This is my day off, boy. There is no necessity for me to go to Headquarters."
R. Geronimo paused. There was a trifling vibration in his hands. Baley noticed that and was quite aware that it meant a certain amount of conflict in the robot's positronic pathways.' They had to obey human beings, but it was quite common for two human beings to want two different types of obedience.
The robot made a choice. It said, "It is your day off, master. - You are wanted at Headquarters."
Ben said uneasily, "If they want you, Dad - "
Baley shrugged. "Don't be fooled, Ben. If they really wanted me badly, they'd have sent an enclosed car and probably used a human volunteer, instead of ordering a robot to do the walking and irritate me with one of its messages."