Vasilia seemed to become aware of this from his upward glance. Her arm moved on the section of the long bench near which she was sitting and the transparency of the ceiling vanished. At the same time, a brilliant light suffused the room, bearing the same faint orange tinge that the sun itself had.
She said, "I think the interview is over. I shall have no reason to see you again, Earthman - or you me. Perhaps you had better leave Aurora. You have done" - she smiled humorlessly and said the next words almost savagely - "my father enough damage, though scarcely as much as he deserves."
Baley took a step toward the door and his two robots closed in on him. Giskard said in a low voice, "Are you well, sir?"
Baley shrugged. What was there to answer to that? Vasilia called out, "Giskard! When Dr. Fastolfe finds he has no further use for you, come join my staff?"
Giskard looked at her calmly. "If Dr. Fastolfe permits, I will do so, Little Miss."
Her smile grew warm. "Please do so, Giskard. I've never stopped missing you."
"I often think of you, Little Miss."
Baley turned at the door. "Dr. Vasilia, would you have a Personal I might use?"
Vasilia's eyes widened. "Of course not, Earthman. There are Community Personals here and there at the Institute. Your robots should be able to guide you."
He stared at her and shook his head. It was not surprising that she wanted no Earthman infecting her rooms and yet it angered him just the same.
He said out of anger, rather than out of any rational judgment, "Dr. Vasilia, I would not, were I you, speak of the guilt of Dr. Fastolfe."
"What is there to stop me?"
"The danger of the general uncovering of your dealings with Gremionis. The danger to you."
"Don't be ridiculous. You have admitted there was no conspiracy between myself and Gremionis."
"Not really. I agreed there seemed reason to conclude there was no direct conspiracy between you and Gremionis to destroy Jander. There remains the possibility of an indirect conspiracy."
"You are mad. What is an indirect conspiracy?"
"I am not ready to discuss that in front of Dr. Fastolfe's robots - unless you insist. And why should you? You know very well what I mean." There was no reason why Baley should think she would accept this bluff. It might simply worsen the situation still further.
But it didn't! Vasilia seemed to shrink within herself, frowning.
Baley thought: There is then an indirect conspiracy, whatever it might be, and this might hold her till she sees through my bluff.
Baley said, his spirits rising a little, "I repeat, say nothing about Dr. Fastolfe."
But, of course, he didn't know how much time he had bought - perhaps very little.
Chapter 11. GREMIONIS
44
They were sitting in the airfoil again - all three in the front, with Baley once more in the middle and feeling the pressure on either side. Baley was grateful to them for the care they unfailingly gave him, even though they were only machines, helpless to disobey instructions.
And then he thought: Why dismiss them with a word machines? They're good machines in a Universe of sometimes evil people. I have no right to favor the machines vs. people sub-categorization over the good vs. evil one. And Daneel, at least, I cannot think of as a machine.
Giskard said, "I must ask again, sir. Do you feel well?"
Baley nodded. "Quite well, Giskard. I am glad to be out here with you two."
The sky was, for the most part, white - off-white, actually. There was a gentle wind and it had felt distinctly cool - until they got into the car.
Daneel said, "Partner Elijah, I was listening carefully to the conversation between yourself and Dr. Vasilia. I do not wish to comment unfavorably on what Dr. Vasilia has said, but I must tell you that, in my observation, Dr. Fastolfe is a kind and courteous human being. He has never, to my knowledge, been deliberately cruel, nor has he, as nearly as I can judge, sacrificed a human being's essential welfare to the needs of his curiosity."
Baley looked at Daneel's face, which gave the impression, somehow, of intent sincerity. He said, "Could you say anything against Dr. Fastolfe, even if he were, in fact, cruel and thoughtless?"
"I could remain silent."
"But would you?"
"If, by telling a lie, I were to harm a truthful Dr. Vasilia by casting unjustified doubt on her truthfulness, and if, - by remaining silent, I would harm Dr. Fastolfe by lending further color to the true accusations against him, and if the two harms were, to my mind, roughly equal in intensity, then it would be necessary for me to remain silent. Harm through an active deed outweighs, in general, harm through passivity - all things being reasonably equal."
Baley said, "Then, even though the First Law states: 'A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm,' the two halves of the law are not equal? A fault of conimission, you say, is greater than one of omission?"
"The words of the law are merely an approximate description of the constant variations in positronomotive force along the robotic brain paths, Partner Elijah. I do not know enough to describe the matter mathematically, but I know what my tendencies are."
"And they are always to choose not doing over doing, if the harm is roughly equal in both directions?"
"In general. And always to choose truth over nontruth, if the harm is roughly equal in both directions. In general, that is."
"And, in this case, since you speak to refute Dr. Vasilia an thus do her harm, you can only do so because the First Law is mitigated sufficiently by the fact that you are telling the truth - "