Chapter 5. DANEEL AND GISKARD
18
If Fastolfe had acted quickly, Daneel had reacted far more quickly still.
To Baley, who had all but forgotten Daneel's existence, there seemed a vague rush, a confused sound, and then Daneel was standing to one side of Fastolfe holding the spicer, and saying, "I trust, Dr. Fastolfe, that I did not in any way hurt you."
Baley noted, in a dazed sort of way, that Giskard was not far from Fastolfe on the other side and that every one of the four robots at the far wall had advanced almost to the dining room table.
Panting slightly, Fastolfe, his hair quite disheveled, said, "No, Daneel. You did very well, indeed." He raised his voice. "You all did well, but remember, you must allow nothing to slow you down, even my own involvement."
He laughed softly and took his seat once more, straightening his hair with his hand.
"I'm sorry," he said, "to have startled you so, Mr. Baley, but I felt, the demonstration might be - more convincing than any word's of mine would have been."
Baley, whose moment of cringing had been purely a matter of reflex, loosened his collar and said, with a touch of hoarseness, "I'm afraid I expected words, but I agree the demonstration was convincing. I'm glad that Daneel was close enough to disarm you."
"Any one of them was close enough to disarm me, but Daneel was the closest and got to me first. He got to me quickly enough to be gentle about it. Had he been farther away, he might have had to wrench my arm or even knock me out."
"Would he have gone that far?"
"Mr. Baley," said Fastolfe. "I have given instructions for your protection and I know how to give instructions. They would not have hesitated to save you, even if the alternative was harm to me. They would, of course, have labored to inflict minimum harm, as Daneel did. All he harmed was my dignity and the neatness of my hair. And my fingers tingle a bit." Fastolfe flexed them ruefully.
Baley drew a deep breath, trying to recover from that short period of confusion. He said, "Would not Daneel have protected me even without your specific instruction?"
"Undoubtedly. He would have had to. You must not think, however, that robotic response is a simple yes or no, up or down, in or out. It is a mistake the layman often makes. There is the matter of speed of response. My instructions with regard to you were so phrased that the potential built up within the robots of my establishment, including Daneel, is abnormally high, as high as I can reasonably make it, in fact. The response, therefore, to a clear and present danger to you is extraordinarily rapid. I knew it would be and it was for that reason that I could strike out at you as rapidly as I did - knowing I could give you I a most convincing demonstration of my inability to harm you."
"Yes, but I don't entirely thank you for it."
"Oh, I was entirely confident in my robots, especially Daneel. It did occur to me, though, a little too late, that if I had not instantly released the spicer, he might, quite against his will - or the robotic equivalent of will have broken my wrist."
Baley said, "It occurs to me that it was a foolish risk for you to have undertaken."
"It occurs to me, as well - after the fact. Now if you had prepared yourself to hurl the spicer at me, Daneel would have at once countered your move, but not with quite the same speed, for he has received no special instructions as to my safety. I can hope he would have been fast enough to save me, but I'm not sure - and I would prefer not to test that matter." Fastolfe smiled genially.
Baley said, "What if some explosive device were dropped on the house from some airborne vehicle?"
"Or if a gamma beam were trained upon us from a neighboring hilltop. - My robots do not represent infinite protection, but such radical terrorist attempts are I unlikely in the extreme here on Aurora. I suggest we do not worry about them."
"I am willing not to worry about them. Indeed, I did not seriously suspect that you were a danger to me, Dr. Fastolfe, but I needed to eliminate the possibility altogether if I were to continue. We can now proceed."
Fastolfe said, "Yes, we can. Despite this additional and very dramatic distraction, we still face the problem of proving, that Jander's mental freeze-out was spontaneous chance."
But Baley had been made aware of Daneel's presence and he now turned to him and said uneasily, "Daneel, does it pain you that we discuss this matter?"
Daneel, who had deposited the spicer on one of the farther of the empty tables, said, "Partner Elijah, I would prefer that past-friend Jander were still operational, but since he is not and since he cannot be restored to proper functioning, the best of what is left is that action be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future. Since the discussion now has that end in view, it pleases rather than pains me."
"Well, then, just to settle another matter, Daneel, do you believe that Dr. Fastolfe is responsible for the end of your fellow-robot Jander? - You'll pardon my inquiring, Dr. Fastolfe?"
Fastolfe gestured his approval and Daneel said, "Dr. Fastolfe has stated that he was not responsible, so he, of course, was not."
"You have no doubts on the matter, Daneel?"
"None, Partner Elijah."
Fastolfe seemed a little amused. "You are cross-examining a robot, Mr. Baley."
"I know that, but I cannot quite think of Daneel as a robot and so I have asked."
"His answers would have no standing before any Board of Inquiry. He is compelled to believe me by his positronic potentials."
"I am not a Board of Inquiry, Dr. Fastolfe, and I am clearing out the underbrush. Let me go back to where I was. Either you bummed out Jander's brain or it happened by random circumstance. You assure me that I cannot prove random circumstance and that leaves me only with the task of disproving any action by you. In other words, if I can show that it is impossible for you to have killed Jander, we are left with random circumstance as the only alternative."