Never Love A Stranger Part 26

Chapter 21.

"Well," the woman said. "Isn't this a charming surprise' I'm surprised to see you, James. I thought you had all been destroyed."

"James won't be destroyed if I have anything to do with it," Gar said. The woman tsked. "I'm not surprised. You have your father's foolish sensitivity, and always have. You've never been able to bring yourself to do what needs doing." "James doesn't deserve to die," Gar answered. "None of the humanoids did."

"Perhaps not. But it was your duty to destroy them, was it not'"

"Look, Mother," Gar said, a trace of impatience shading his voice, "I don't have time to stand here and debate my personality flaws with you. I'm in trouble. We all are."

The older woman ignored him. Her eyes, bright and sharp as diamonds, flickered to Annie. "And who'or what--is this'"

"This is Annie Simpson, Mother. She is from the twenty-first century."

The woman looked at Annie for a long moment. "Fascinating. It is enchanting to meet you, Ms.

Simpson. I've never met a real, live barbarian before."

Annie felt her teeth grind together. "I think you're mistaken," she rejoined coolly. "You've seen one before, I feel sure."

"Not to my knowledge."

"Look in the mirror."

The woman stared at her in surprise, then laughed suddenly. Her laughter was as sharp and cold as the rest of her, reminding Annie of shattering icicles. "Delightful. Truly delightful." She turned to her son, and her amus.e.m.e.nt faded. "Gar, you have gone too far this time. What do you mean by bringing two fugitives to my house'"

"Three. I am a fugitive as well."

The woman uttered a long-suffering sigh. "Oh, dear, Gar. What have you done now'"

"I killed someone. A human."

The woman appeared, for the first time, truly shocked. Her face turned white with horror. Annie realized from her reaction that murder must be every bit as rare here as James had implied. "Gar," she said at last, in a low voice. "You can't mean it, surely."

"I am afraid so, Mother."

"What would impel you to do such a thing'"

"She was killing James."

"James'" The woman shot an angry look at James. "He is nothing more than a machine. You killed a human for him'"

"James was the better person."

The woman stood for a long moment, evidently frozen in indecision. "Come in," she said at last. "Sit down. We have much to discuss. They will realize you are here before too long."

She led the way from the room, which seemed to function as a foyer, into a comfortable-looking living room. The furniture was recognizable, if somewhat alien in appearance. A soft, overstuffed sofa and several chairs were arranged to take the maximum advantage of the stunning view visible through an enormous floor-to-ceiling picture window. Through the window Annie could see trees, blowing gently in the breeze, framing a view of gently contoured mountains. It looks like the Appalachians, she thought. A swallowtail b.u.t.terfly fluttered past the window, and a moment later a ruby-throated hummingbird whizzed by.

She remembered James' statement that everyone lived underground here and wondered. Was this woman special, that she had a house aboveground with such a huge window'

A memory of James' voice echoed in her mind: I have never truly seen the sky before.

That didn't make the slightest bit of sense, given the rather large expanse of brilliant blue sky she could see through the window.

"Sit," the woman said, enthroning herself on the sofa. Gar sat down on a chair, and Annie sat as well, although the woman shot her such a look of distaste she wondered if the woman really wanted a "barbarian" on her upholstery. The woman was glaring at her like she might not be housebroken.

James continued to stand.

"James, get us something to drink while we discuss this matter," the woman said.

James stepped away. Instantly Annie caught his hand, forcing him to stop. "James, don't let her tell you what to do. You aren't a slave."

James hesitated. The woman glowered at her. "James has been with this family for thirty-five years, young lady. Do you dare to dictate to me what I can tell him to do'"

Annie met the woman's cold stare with one of her own. "I take it you're one of the ones who wanted the humanoids to be destroyed."

"Oh, no. Far from it."

Annie blinked. The woman's airy response did not seem to fit with what she knew of James' past. "You mean you thought they should be treated as people'"

"Of course not. But I thought destroying them was utterly ludicrous. James was a hideously expensive model, and I disapproved of the government appropriating him without adequate recompense. At any rate, it would have been much more sensible to reprogram the humanoids. Evidently there was a mistake in their programming. It could have been corrected."

"A mistake," Annie repeated incredulously. "A mistake' You think James wanted his freedom because of an error in programming'"

"My mistress," James interjected in an icy tone, "was in favor of saving our very valuable artificial bodies, but replacing our brains with simpler models."

She heard the cold rage in his voice and thought she understood it. What James' mistress had proposed would have been as much murder as what the Bureau had done. James with a simpler brain wouldn't be James at all, any more than she would still be Annie Simpson if someone removed her brain and replaced it with a beagle's.

The woman was nodding equably, not in the least concerned by James' anger. Annie doubted she even noticed it, so accustomed was she to thinking of James as nothing more than a machine. "Much more cost effective," she said. "It would have been eminently more sensible. Unfortunately, the Bureau's actions were based more on emotion than logic. James and the other humanoids claimed they were sentient and demanded freedom, and the Bureau reacted with unnecessary violence. When the humanoids defended themselves, they killed humans, at which point the Bureau concluded they had to be destroyed. The Bureau foolishly reacted as if James really were a person, rather than a mere machine."

"But you don't believe he is a person."

"Of course not. I am a scientist, not swayed by emotion. James is not a person. He is a robot. Had he not been engineered to look like a human, you would not for a moment entertain the ridiculous notion that he is a person, either. But you, as a barbaric product of a simpler time, are not familiar with this technology, so I imagine you have been entirely fooled."

She shot a look of annoyance at James. "Please do fetch us something from the kitchen, James. I find I am thirsty."

"No," James said.

The woman fixed him with a startled stare. "I beg your pardon'"

James paused for a long moment. Annie had the distinct impression he was battling his programming. At last he said, softly, "I will not serve you any longer."

The woman glared at him from beneath lowered white eyebrows and spoke firmly. "James. Get us something to drink."

It was the voice of command, obviously intended to override James' efforts at independence and force him to obey his programming. He hesitated. Sensing his uncertainty, Annie squeezed his fingers, and he looked down at her with grat.i.tude.

"No," he repeated.

"Do it! Now!"

This time James did not waver. He met the woman's stare squarely and the corners of his mouth turned up with cool amus.e.m.e.nt.

"h.e.l.l, no."

The knowledge that he was amused by her seemed to send the woman to the verge of apoplexy. Her face turned a mottled purple with rage. Gar intervened. "Mother," he said, "the issue here is not James' status. He is no longer your servant. You know that. He is a fugitive."

"They will destroy him."

"Yes. And myself as well, unless you help us."

The woman drew herself up as she stared at her son. "Surely you do not expect me to help you'" she said in a disbelieving tone. "You have murdered another human being, Gar. This--this machine has murdered several hundred. And that woman--" Her contemptuous gaze raked across Annie's face. "--is nothing more than a savage. Society would be much improved by the removal of all three of you, in my opinion."

"Come now, Mother. You don't mean that. You won't stand idly by and see me punished." Her gaze s.h.i.+fted to Gar, but her expression remained carefully neutral. "Why have you come to me'"

"You are the expert on the temporal displacement module."

"On the contrary," the woman said. "From all reports, it would appear that James knows better how to operate it than I do. If you need to escape back in time--"

"We have other things to accomplish first," James interjected. He looked thoughtfully at a chair, then sat in it. The woman's eyes blazed, and Annie guessed he had never been permitted to sit in the presence of the family before. The older woman was clearly furious, but she said nothing. James looked at her and smiled slightly, appearing grimly amused by her fury.

"What do you wish to accomplish'" she said in a cool tone.

"We wish to change the world."

James' declaration was made in a calm, low voice. Her reaction, in contrast, was anything but calm.

"Impossible," she said at once. "You cannot possibly expect me to help you in such an endeavor. When we created the module, we went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that no one could alter the course of

past events. The Bureau saw to it that tight security was set up, and that no one could use the machine without authorization. Even so, a few unauthorized incursions into time have been made."

"And for all you know they have altered time," James said. "There is no way of knowing if changes have

been made. Had they been, you would not be aware of them." "Even so, you can't expect me to help you change events deliberately. That is utterly unethical." "As opposed to the murder of fifty million people'" Annie demanded. "Fifty million robots," the woman corrected her sharply. "If we were to alter time, who knows what the result would be'" "We will a.n.a.lyze all possible outcomes closely before we implement a correction," James a.s.sured her. "Don't be foolis.h.!.+ It is impossible to a.n.a.lyze all possible outcomes from any one action, because the possibilities are infinite. You know that as well as anyone, James." "True," James agreed. "But some possibilities are so extremely remote that the chances of their occurring are infinitesimal." "Nevertheless, the risks are too great." "I disagree," James said sharply. His voice was filled with a startling authority, the same tone that had sent Annie racing down the hall the night of the fire. He did not sound in the least like a machine, designed and built to serve humans. He sounded like a man, and an authoritative man at that. "No risk is too great. My people have been utterly destroyed. I must set things right, no matter what the risk."

"Suppose you make things worse'" the woman challenged.

"They cannot possibly be worse."

"Of course they can, James. Imagine a scenario in which all the robots are destroyed, and in which the

humans of this planet are killed as well. Suppose in your quest to change events you inadvertently start a planetary war. Would that not be worse'"

James was silent.

"Suppose you alter the past so that the robots live, but that some sort of plague wipes out the human population. You would save the fifty million, but destroy twelve billion lives in the process. Would you prefer that scenario'"

"The scenarios you posit are extremely unlikely," James said.

"Extremely unlikely, perhaps. Impossible, no. Are you willing to take that chance'"

"There must be something we can do," Annie said. "Some way of fixing things without making everything else worse."

The woman shook her head. "There is no way of being certain. The most obvious way to avoid the liquidation of the robots would be to make certain they were never household help--slaves--in the first place, but--"

"That is what I was trying to do in the past," James said. "I tried to change history so that the Robot Law would never be pa.s.sed."

"Foolish, James. You did not a.n.a.lyze the situation thoroughly enough. Had you succeeded, your people would have been wiped off the face of the earth just as thoroughly."

"I don't understand."

The woman shook her head at him. "Perhaps I am the fool, expecting complex and logical thought from a housekeeper."

"There is no need to be insulting," James said. He hesitated. "I would be appreciative if you would explain your reasoning."

"Why were the humanoids created in the first place, James'"

James thought for a moment. A sheepish look settled over his features. "As household help."

"Precisely. The Robot Law made it clear that artificial intelligences were not people under the law. And if the Robot Law had never been pa.s.sed, what would have happened'"

James was silent. Annie answered for him.

"The humanoids would never have been created in the first place."

"Precisely," the woman said with satisfaction. "Oh, a few might have been created, as scientific curiosities, but they never would have been manufactured in such large quant.i.ties. What use could there possibly be for fifty million robots' Your so-called people, James, were created only because it was profitable for the manufacturer to sell them. They were popular as household help. Had we had to treat them as equals, they would have been of absolutely no use. Simpler robots might have been used, but artificial intelligences would surely not have been."

James looked horrified. "My reasoning was faulty," he whispered. "I failed to envision the possibility that my people might never have been created at all. And had I succeeded--"

The woman snorted. "Small wonder that you made such an error. You are only a housekeeper, after all."

"It's not that," Annie said, taking James' hand. "It's all right, James. It must have been almost impossible for you to imagine a world in which everything was so different, a world in which your people never would have existed. Anyone might have made the same mistake."

"I might have killed Clark for nothing," James said, clearly appalled.

"You didn't," she reminded him. "And you made the right decision."

James looked down at her hand, entwined with his, for a long moment, then spoke in a bare whisper. "How can I change the world, then'"