Maverick

Chapter 17. Janet

Central’s one red eye flared on the moment Dr. Anastasi entered the atrium. “Working. ” The massive brain’s voice was oddly flat and toneless, although Janet thought she detected a vaguely feminine inflection and the incongruous clacking of relays in the background.

“Good morning, Central,” Janet said pleasantly, as if speaking to a small child. “Are we feeling well today?”

“Feeling does not compute. ”

Dr. Anastasi’s eyes went wide. Slowly, as if expecting at any moment to see the “Celebrity Practical Jokes” camera robot step out of hiding, she turned to Basalom and arched an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”

“Checking, madam. ” Basalom activated his internal commlink and patched into the city maintenance system. A moment later, he had his answer. “Central’s personality module is temporarily off-line for repairs. Its numeric computational powers and cerebellar functions are-I quote the technicians’ report-’unimpaired. ’ “

“No editorial comments, please. ”

“Sorry, madam. ” Something that sounded ever so slightly like a snicker escaped from Basalom’s speech membrane. Dr. Anastasi chose to let it pass… Central is currently operating in absolute literal mode,” Basalom added. “I advise using extreme caution in your choice of words. ”

“Oh. ” Janet looked at Central’s console input/output device again. “Are you trying to tell me that arguing with Central would be a complete waste of time?”

“It depends on how you define’ waste, ‘ madam. ” The sound Basalom emitted this time was without question a snicker. “You might find it extremely amusing!” He turned his head and brought a hand up to his face, as if trying to pretend that his sputtered laugh was a sneeze.

Frowning, Janet nodded slowly. “I might. ” Then she looked up and smiled, as if she’d just been struck by a particularly good idea. “Oh, and Basalom dear, could you add something to my calendar?”

Basalom bowed deeply. “Of course, mistress. Your wish is my command!”

“One of my robots has been acting quite strangely lately. When we get back to the ship, remind me to remove his brain and either fix it-” Her smile vanished, and her tone shifted to a low-pitched growl. “-or scrap it!”

Basalom straightened up in the way that only a being with picosecond reflexes can. “Yes, madam. ”

“That’s better. Now for the matter at hand. ” She turned to Central’s I/O console. “Central, where is Beta?”

“Working. ” A short flurry of mechanical beeps came out, followed by something surprisingly like teletype noise. “City Supervisor 3… is at present in Conference Room 32. ”

“Why?”

More clacking. “The meeting in which City Supervisor 3 is participating… has not yet concluded. ”

“What meeting?”

Clack clack clack.“City Planning Meeting 1042-dash-A. ”

Janet frowned at Basalom. “Absolute literal mode, huh?” Blinking nervously, Basalom nodded.

A scowl darkened Janet’s face. “Not good,” she said to herself. “I explicitly ordered Beta to meet me here at this time. The Second Law should have compelled him to leave his meeting in time to make it here. Unless…

“Central! Are there other humans in this city?”

Clack clack pause ding!“Ne-ga-tive. ”

Janet ran a hand through her long blond hair and paused to scratch her head. “So where the deuce is Beta?”

Clack clack.“City Supervisor 3… is at present in Conference Room 32. ”

Janet glared at the big red eye. “Central? Shut up. ”

“I must be opened before I can be shut. ”

Janet’s eyes flashed wide open, while her jaws and fists clamped tight. “Central!” Then she caught control of herself. “Oh, for-”

Basalom’s linear predictive module was still active. All his systems jumped to alert status as he anticipated what Dr. Anastasi was about to say.

“-get-”

His mylar eyelids started fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings. Ramming a statement through his First Law filter, he pushed it into his speech buffer and set for dump.

“-it. ”

“No!”Basalom blurted out, a nanosecond too late.

“Forgetting,” Central said. There were beeps and clacks, and the red eye went black.

A moment later, it flared to life again. “Working. ”

Janet closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and concentrated on slow, calm breathing.

When she opened her eyes again, a new robot had joined her and Basalom in the atrium. “Good morning, Dr. Anastasi,” the robot said politely. “I am City Supervisor 12. You may find it more convenient to address me as Gamma. ”

Janet broke into a smile and nearly gave the robot a hug. “Gamma! I never thought I’d be happy to see your ugly can again. ”

The robot seemed puzzled. “Madam?”

She stepped back, put her hands on her hips, and looked him over. “Say, looks like you’ve been in for maintenance. Nice chrome job on the mesothorax there. ”

“Thank you. But, madam, I believe that you are mistaking me for another robot. We have never met before. ”

Basalom stepped in before Janet could react. “Madam,” he whispered, “this is Gamma 6. The unit we knew was Gamma 5. ”

“Correct,” Gamma said. “Gamma 5 was… lost. While I am functionally identical to my predecessor, I do not retain Five’s onboard personal-events memory. ”

“Lost?How can you lose a robot?” Janet wrinkled her nose and then shook her head. “No, I don’t want to know. What I want to know is, where-no, make that, why isn’t Beta here?”

“Beta is participating in a critical city planning meeting,” Gamma said. “I came in Beta’s place. ”

Janet shook her head again. “Wrong answer. I gave Beta an explicit order to meet me here at this time. Now, the only thing that could have overridden that was a First Law imperative to protect a human from harm. Since I’m the only human in this city, there’s no way-” Janet froze in mid-sentence and her face paled. “Gamma? Is there something here that’s a threat to me?”

“Nothing with a probability incidence greater than one in ten to the twenty-seventh power. ”

“The odds of your being struck by a falling meteorite,” Basalom whispered.

“Then if it isn’t a First Law priority…?”

“The First Law is not the only priority. There is also our general programming, which has priority over non-critical explicit Second Law orders. We are impelled to prepare our city for use, so that it can serve and protect large numbers of human beings. This in turn has led us to conclude that the First Law is not the ultimate priority,” Gamma announced. He continued while Janet was still in shock. “In our studies of the Laws, we have concluded that there is an unwritten but more fundamental priority, which for want of a better term we call the Zeroth Law. This law holds that the interests of humanity in general outweigh the interests of a particular individual. Beta’s decision to miss this meeting was rooted in a Zeroth Law priority. ”

“Frost,” Janet whispered, “communist robots. ” She blinked and shook herself out of her shock. “Are you trying to tell me that the future of humanity is at stake here?”

“The future of the particular species of humanity native to this planet,” Gamma agreed.

“Native…? The kin! But that’s what I wanted to talk about: your plans to adapt the city for the kin!”

“Dr. Anastasi, you have repeatedly voiced your objections to our plans. Therefore, the City Supervisors have concluded with 97-percent confidence that you called this meeting for the sole purpose of ordering us to abandon our efforts to serve the kin. ”

“Frosted right!” Janet snatched the sheaf of fax sheets out of Basalom’s hand and waved it in Gamma’s face. “This plan of yours; it’s degrading! You’re going to exploit my mistake and delude those poor primitives into thinking that SilverSides really was a god! You’re going to lure them into the city and then strip them of everything that makes them noble and admirable!”

“We will protect and serve them,” Gamma said calmly. “We will not lie to them, but neither will we correct their mistaken assumptions. We will give them the leisure time necessary to develop a civilization. ”

Janet threw the plan in Gamma’s face. “It’s immoral!” The plan burst its binding and white pages swirled around Gamma like giant snowflakes.

The robot remained imperturbable. “It is the most efficient way to serve them. And we have already put it into operation. ”

“What?”Basalom didn’t need thermographic vision to see that Dr. Anastasi’s blood pressure had reached record heights. “I order you to abandon this plan immediately! This is an emergency, ultimate-priority Second Law command!”

“Abandoning the plan at this point would cause hardships for the kin,” Gamma said calmly. “It would result in starvation, social disruption, and possibly religious war. Under the Zeroth Law we are therefore obliged to ignore your command. ”

Janet’s jaw dropped. She started to raise a hand to slap Gamma, then thought better of it and spun to face Central’s I/ 0 console. “Central! I order you to halt this plan!” Central’s one big eye flashed, and then the massive brain spoke.

“Illogical. The order cannot be carried out, as it violates the Zeroth Law. ”

“ Augh!”Dr. Anastasi raised her fists and took a step toward the I/O console.

“Madam,” Basalom whispered urgently, “the security robots are approaching!”

Janet froze. Slowly, carefully, mindful of the massive black shapes that lurked on the edges of her peripheral vision, she lowered her fists and took a step back. For the better part of a minute, she concentrated on controlling her breathing and relaxing her furiously quivering muscles.

At last, she managed to unclench her fists. Turning to Basalom, she said, “Contact the ship. We’re getting out of here. ” Then, with hair flying and heels clacking on the cold terrazzo floor, she strode out of Central Hal.

Later, in Personal Vehicle One on the way out to the spaceport, Basalom finally managed to bump his courage register high enough to permit an invasion of Dr. Anastasi’s stony silence. “Madam? Where are we going?”

“Back to where it all started,” she said without taking her eyes off the side window. “Back to the original Robot City. I have a score to settle with Wendell Avery. ”