"Of course not. I am heading the Humanist party, which believes that all human beings have a fight to share in the Galaxy. When I refer to 'my enemies,' I mean the Globalists."
"Lumen, then, is one of your enemies."
"Vasilia is one, also. She is, indeed, a member of the Robotics Institute of Aurora - the RIA - that was founded a few years ago and which is run by roboticists who view me as a demon to be defeated at all costs. As far as I know, however, my various ex-wives are apolitical, perhaps even Humanist. "He smiled wryly and said, "We'll, Mr. Baley, have you asked all the questions you wanted to ask?"
Baley's hands aimlessly searched for pockets in his smooth, loose Auroran breeches - something he had been doing periodically since he had begun wearing them on the ship - and found none. He compromised, as he sometimes did, by folding his arms across his chest.
He said, "Actually, Dr. Fastolfe, I'm not at all sure you have yet answered the first question. It seems to me that you never tire of evading that. Why did you give Jander to Gladia? Let's get all of it into the open, so that we may be able to see light in what now seems darkness."
29
Fastolfe reddened again. It might have been anger this time, but he continued to speak softly.
He said, "Do not bully me, Mr. Baley. I have given you your answer. I was sorry for Gladia and I thought Jander would be company for her. I have spoken more frankly to you than I would to anyone else, partly because of the position I am in and partly because you are not an Auroran. In return, I demand a reasonable respect."
Baley bit his lower lip. He was not on Earth. He had no official authority behind him and he had more at stake than his professional pride.
He said, "I apologize, Dr. Fastolfe, if I have hurt your feelings. I do not mean to imply you are being untruthful or uncooperative. Nevertheless, I cannot operate without the whole truth. Let me suggest the possible answer I am looking for and you can then tell me if I am correct, or nearly correct, or totally wrong. Can it be that you have given Jander to Gladia, in order that he might serve as a focus for her sexual drive and so that - she might not have occasion to offer herself to you? Perhaps that was not your conscious reason, but think about it now. Is it possible that such a feeling contributed to the gift?"
Fastolfe's hand picked up a light and transparent ornament that had been resting on the dining room table. It turned it over and over, over and over. Except for that motion, Fastolfe seemed frozen. Finally, he said, "That might be so, Mr. Baley. Certainly, after I loaned her Jander - it was never an outright gift, incidentally - I was less concerned about her offering herself to me."
"Do you know whether Gladia made use of Jander for sexual purposes?"
"Did you ask Gladia if she made use of him, Mr. Baley?"
"That has nothing to do with my question. Do you know? Did you witness any overt sexual actions between, them? Did any of your robots inform you of such? Did she herself tell you?"
"The answer to all those questions, Mr. Baley, is no. If I stop to think about it, there is nothing particularly unusual about the use of robots for sexual purposes by either men or women. Ordinary robots are not particularly adapted to it, but human beings are ingenious in this respect. As for Jander, he is adapted to it because he is as humaniform as we could make him - "
"So that he might take part in sex."
"No, that was never in our minds. It was the abstract problem of building a totally humaniform robot that exercised the late Dr. Sarton and myself."
"But such humaniform robots are ideally designed for sex, are they not?"
"I suppose they are and now that I allow myself to think of it - and I admit I may have had it hidden in my mind from the start - Gladia might well have used Jander so. If she did, I hope the process gave her pleasure. I would consider my loan to her a good deed, if it had."
"Could it have been more of a good deed than you counted upon?"
"In what way?"
"What would you say if I told you that Gladia and Jander were wife and husband?"
Fastolfe's hand, still holding the ornament, closed convulsively upon it, held it tightly for a moment, then let it drop. "What? That's ridiculous. It is legally impossible. There is no question of children, so there can't conceivably be an application for any. Without the intention of such an application, there can be no marriage."
"This is not a matter of legality, Dr. Fastolfe. Gladia is a Solarian, remember, and doesn't have the Auroran outlook. It is a matter of emotion. Gladia herself told me that she considered Jander to have been her husband. I think she considers herself now his widow and that she has had another sexual trauma - and a very severe one. If, in any way, you knowingly contributed to this event - "
"By all the stars," said Fastolfe with unwonted emotion, "I didn't. Whatever else was in my mind, I never imagined that Gladia could fantasize marriage to a robot, however humaniform he might be. No Auroran could have imagined that."
Baley nodded and raised his hand. "I believe you. I don't think you are actor enough to be drowning me in a faked sincerity. But I had to know. It was, after all, just possible that - "
"No, it was not. Possible that I foresaw this situation? That I deliberately created this abominable widowhood, for some reason? Never. It was not conceivable, so I did not conceive it. Mr. Baley, whatever I meant in placing Jander in her establishment, I meant well. I did not mean this. Meaning well is a poor defense, I know, but it is all that I have to offer."
"Dr. Fastolfe, let us refer to that no more," said Baley. "What I have now to offer is a possible solution to the mystery."