“I won’t go back there. They’ll ship me off to Terminus, along with my parents. This damned brain fever will just make things worse. They’ll say it means I’m a blasted genius! They’ll be even more eager to drag me off to that horrible rock, and there I’ll rot!”
Sybyl went over to Jeni, distracted for a moment by her pain, attempting to offer the girl some more chemical relief. Mors Planch and Hari shared a look.
Planch doesn’t have to go into more detail,Hari thought.No sense in upsetting the girl. Besides, I know what he’s suggesting. There are age-old methods that emperors have used, in order to keep people in safe “exile” right there in the capital. It’s a risky option. Perhaps Planch thinks he can escape from such confinement, even though imperial hostages have tested the constraints for thousands of years.
Orelse, maybe he’d just rather live comfortably in a cosmopolitan place, as an alternative to having his memory wiped.
Any further discussion of the matter was forestalled when R. Gornon shouted over his shoulder, “Everyone get belted in! They don’t have a sophisticated guide beam here, so it may be rougher than you are used to.”
No one thought of disobeying. Gornon’s power had been amply demonstrated. As the passengers watched Pengia’s rustic spaceport loom ahead, everyone knew there were matters left unsettled. Each of them would meet a point of decision on Pengia. A shifting of destiny.
They were met at the edge of the landing field by half a dozen sturdy-looking men. Hari had an unmistakable feeling that they were robots-doubtless members of Gornon’s small Calvinian cult.
Three large vehicles came alongside the ship, which had settled down next to a hangar. Into one car went Biron Maserd’s crewmen and those who had served aboard Mors Planch’s raider ship. The second took aboard Horis, Sybyl, Planch, and Maserd, with Jeni’s levitation chair gently loaded in back. Their immediate stop would be a local hospital, where doctors were familiar with brain fever and had facilities to help the young woman.
Gornon showed no concern that she might talk about what she had seen. Brain fever victims often had extravagant hallucinations, and no one would take her wild stories seriously. Besides, Hari noted that the ship’s motivators had been left running on idle. The Calvinians didn’t plan to stay long-a few days at most.
Even that may be too long, if Daneel’s organization is as efficient as ever.Hari wondered what could possibly drive these robot heretics to take such a risk.
Hari and Gornon joined the others. On automatic pilot, the limousine started heading toward some nearby hills, evidently a zone where local gentry lived. Hari presumed Gornon had a villa waiting. Nothing but the best for his captives.
As the limo reached a side gate to depart the provincial spaceport, Hari looked back at thePride of Rhodia, and the acuity that had been newly restored to his eyesight made him notice something strange.
The robots Gornon had left in charge of the ship were now unloading something bulky through the passenger hatchway. It was white and shaped like an oversize coffin.
Even the burly robots seemed to strain under its weight as they carried it toward the third and last vehicle. Their movements indicated great care, as if their cargo were somehow more precious than their own lives.
As if many hopes rested on its safe journey to some faraway destination.
Part 5. A Recurring Rendezvous
PENGIA…A world in Rigel Sector noted for producing elegant craft-ceramics and for certain anomalous oceanic life-forms that have recently been investigated for their unique neuromentalic traits, offering hope for organic humans with immune systems that reject standard symbiotic host-implants…
Pengia stands out mainly for its almost complete lack of historical interest. A modest agricultural world, it appears to have taken part in few notable events during the dark ages, and none at all in the Imperial Era. Only once-520 years into the Interregnum-did it experience momentary prominence, right after the Battle of Chjerrups, by playing host to the first Galactic Coalescence Investigation Commission. Those hearings made Pengia’s name briefly famous, wherever broadcasts were not jammed by… .
That illustrious phase soon passed, however, as the tumultuous destiny debates spread their heady turmoil to more populated venues. Thereafter, Pengia soon lapsed… .
1.
R. Zun Lurrin at last understood the awesome scope of Daneel’s long-range design for the salvation of humanity.
“You plan to help them unite. To create a telepathic network, in which each human soul connects to every other.”
The Immortal Servant nodded as he gazed at sixty human subjects with identical expressions of contentment playing across their faces, meditating beneath a high-arched dome.
“Imagine it. No more rancor. An end to bitterness and egotistic rivalry. And above all, there would be no solipsism. For how can anyone ignore the feelings of other people, when those feelings have become intensely palpable, like integral parts of your own mind?”
“Unity and oneness,” Zun sighed. “The old dream. And we could provide it to them at last.”
But then Zun frowned as he contemplated the sixty humans in front of him.
“They are at peace, in total connectedness, because each one is paired with a positronic mentalic amplifier. Only now you say wecannot do the same thing on a massive scale?”
Daneel nodded. “That sort of dependency on mechanical methods we must not allow.”
“But it would let us combine with our masters! Robots and humans, bound together in permanent, loving synergy.”
“And in such a synergy, the machine portion would grow ever more dominant with the passage of time,” Daneel said. “Moreover, consider how many robots we would have to build. It could only be done by unleashing self-reproduction. That opens the door to selection, Darwinism, evolution…and eventually a new androidspecies. One that thinks primarily of its own self-interest instead of humanity’s. I swore never to permit this.
“No. We must not let humans become overly dependent upon robots. That was the Spacer approach-the heresy that Elijah Baley warned against. The abomination that forced Giskard to act as he did.”
Daneel’s voice resonated with determination. “Humansmust eventually stand on their own. And there are more reasons than the ones that I have told you so far. Reasons having to do with survival of the race itself.”
Zun Lurrin contemplated this for a time.
“In that case let me extrapolate, Daneel. From this data, I shall hazard to guess your plan.
“A hundred years ago, you began a series of genetic experiments on small groups of human beings. One of these projects brought forth the mathematical genius of Hari Seldon. Another produced a sudden wave of mutants on Trantor-humans capable of mentalic powers that only a few robots formerly possessed.”
“Excellent. You are on the right track, Zun.” Daneel nodded. “Think about the scene in front of you-these sixty humans united in glorious tranquility, power, and contentment. Now envision it taking placewithout robotic aid! They would form their own mental comity. A union of souls. One that is sturdy, free of reliance on artificial aids.”
Zun Lurrin nodded. “I understand what you are saying, Daneel. That would certainly be more desirable. And yet, consider the delay! It will take centuries to develop human mentalics strong and numerous enough to serve as psychic bridges, connecting whole cities, territories, even planets. Why wait so long? At this very moment, we have tools at hand that could be modified for this very purpose! Why not use these devices-strictly for the interim, until enough powerful human mentalics become available~ The Galactic Empire need not fall. It could simply be transformed, almost overnight, if we only reprogram certain implements-”