He faded to a halt.
Baley waited, then said softly, "And your motive for the destruction of Jander Panell, Dr. Fastolfe?"
Fastolfe did not seem to hear the question. At any rate, he did not respond. He said, instead, "Daneel and Giskard are again, signaling that all is clear. Tell me, Mr. Baley, would you consider walking with me farther afield?"
"Where?" asked Baley cautiously.
"Toward a neighboring establishment. In that direction, across the lawn. Would the openness disturb you?"
Baley pressed his lips together and looked in that, direction, as though attempting to measure its effect. "I believe I could endure it. I anticipate no trouble."
Giskard, who was close enough to hear, now approached still closer, his, eyes showing no glow in the daylight. If his voice was without human emotion, his words marked his concern. "Sir, may I remind you that on the journey here you suffered serious discomfort on the descent to the planet?"
Baley turned to face him. However he might feel toward Daneel, whatever warmth of past association might paper over his attitude toward robots, there was none here. He found the more primitive Giskard distinctly repellent. He labored to fight down the touch of anger he felt and said, "I was incautious aboard ship, boy, because I was overly curious. I faced a vision I had never experienced before and I had no time for adjustment. This is different."
"Sir, do you feel discomfort now? May - I be assured of that?"
"Whether I do or not," said Baley firmly (reminding himself that the robot was helplessly in the grip of the First Law and trying to be polite to a lump of metal who, after all, had Baley's welfare as his only care) "doesn't matter. I have my duty to perform and that cannot be done if I am to hide in enclosures."
"Your duty?" Giskard said it as though he had not been programmed to understand the word.
Baley looked quickly in Fastolfe's direction, but Fastolfe stood quietly in his place and made no move to intervene. He seemed to be listening with abstracted interest, as though weighing the reaction of a robot of a given type to a new situation and comparing it, with relationships, variables, constants, and differential equations only he understood.
Or so Baley thought. He felt annoyed at being part of an observation of that type and said (perhaps too sharply, he knew), "Do you know what 'duty' means?"
"That which should be done, sir," said Giskard.
"Your duty is to obey the Laws of Robotics. And human beings have their laws, too - as your master, Dr. Fastolfe, was only this moment saying - which must be obeyed. I must do that which I have been assigned to do. It is important."
"But to go into the open when you are not - "
"It must be done, nevertheless. My son may someday go to another planet, one much less comfortable than this one, and expose himself to the Outside for the rest of his life. And if I could, I would go with him."
"But why would you do that?"
"I have told you. I consider it my duty."
"Sir - I cannot disobey the Laws. Can you disobey yours? For I must urge you to - "
"I can choose not to do my duty, but I do not choose to and that is sometimes the stronger compulsion, Giskard."
There was silence for a moment and then Giskard said, "Would it do you harm if I were to succeed in persuading you not to walk into the open?"
"Insofar as I would then feel I have failed in my duty, it would."
"More harm than any discomfort you might feel in the open?'
"Much more."
"Thank you for explaining this, sir," said Giskard and Baley imagined there was a look of satisfaction on the robot's largely expressionless face. (The human tendency to personify was irrepressible.)
Giskard stepped back and now Dr. Fastolfe spoke. "That was interesting, Mr. Baley. Giskard needed instructions before he could quite understand how to arrange the positronic potential response to the Three Laws or, rather, how those potentials were to arrange themselves in the light of the situation. Now he knows how to behave."
Baley said, "I notice that Daneel asked no questions."
Fastolfe said, "Daneel knows you. He has been with you on Earth and on Solaria. - But come, shall we walk? Let us move slowly. Look about carefully and, if at any time you should wish to rest, to wait, even to turn back, I will count on you to let me know."
"I will, but what is the purpose of this walk? Since you anticipate possible discomfort on my part, you cannot be suggesting it idly."
"I am not," said Fastolfe. "I think you will want to see the inert body of Jander."
"As a matter of form, yes, but I rather think it will tell me nothing."
"I'm sure of that, but then you might, also have the opportunity to question the one who was Jander's quasi-owner at the time of the tragedy. Surely you would like to speak to some human being other than myself concerning the matter."
22
Fastolfe moved slowly forward, plucking a leaf from a shrub that he passed, bending it in two, and nibbling at it.
Baley looked at him curiously, wondering how Spacers could put something untreated, unheated, even unwashed, into their mouths, when they feared infection so badly. He remembered that Aurora was free (entirely free?) of pathogenic microorganisms, but found the action repulsive anyway. Repulsion did not have to have a rational basis, he thought defensively - and suddenly found himself on the edge of excusing the Spacers their attitude toward Earthmen.
He drew back! That was different! Human beings were involved there!
Giskard moved ahead, forward and toward the right. Daneel lagged behind and toward the left. Aurora's orange sun (Baley scarcely noted the orange tinge now) was mildly warm on his back, lacking the febrile heat that Earth's sun had in summer (but, then, what was the climate and season on this portion of Aurora right now?).