Chen stood. “I doubt we will meet again before the proceedings. Thank you for your time.
And for your opinions. ”
“They are not my opinions, ” Hari said stonily. “I have never put much store in opinions. ”
Chen blinked. “I do not regard you as an enemy, even as an enemy of the Empire. To the
true Ruellian, to the devoted adherents of Tua Chen, everything is moment and flux,
whirling motes of dust, for me, as well as for you. Good-bye, Hari Seldon. ”
“Commissioner. ”
Chen left, followed by his servant.
A very poor breakfast was served minutes later, and Hari ate sparingly. By the middle of
the day, he was moved to much improved quarters-a larger room, rather than a cell,
with a holographic view screen that covered half of one wall, a small desk and chair, and
a more comfortable bed.
The guards still refused his request that they fetch his bookfilms and a Prime Radiant and
other tools. Hari had not expected them to comply.
Chen did not want him to be happy.
The screen showed the Imperial palace gardens, one of the few places on Trantor open to
the sky. The sight of the gardens made him uneasy. He could well imagine young Klayus
walking there, as condensed and distilled a drop of social decay as Hari could imagine.
He managed to convince the screen to exchange the view of the gardens for a simple pattern
of muted, flowing colors.
This was to be his worst time in decades-a period of boredom and inaction, two things he
had always loathed. Hari looked forward to the trial, even to failure and death- anything
but this horrid and useless interlude, this waiting.
The small human boy, a wiry and alert denizen of the Agora, had left a message for Daneel.
As Daneel played back the message in his safe apartment, he was reminded once again of the
long-forgotten human, Sherjock, and his own sources of information.
Daneel's network of informers did not rely solely on robots. Robots were becoming a major
handicap wherever Vara Liso operated.
He listened to the boy's breathless report.
“This one, he was tough to follow,” the boy said, his face bobbing before the recorder.
"He wasn't where you said he'd be. He went to the Agora, then he's all over the place,
then he gets chased by the police... They almost get him. Then he just vanishes. I lose
him, they lose him, too, I think. Haven't seen
him since. That's it. Need me for some more, let me know. "
Daneel stood in silence by the window, looking out on 'the dark ceil and shadowy towers of
Streeling. The internal reports from the Imperial Specials confirmed that they had not
captured Lodovik, and that Vara Liso had been very upset. Beyond this, however, Daneel had
no information.
What he most needed to know, however, was that Lodovik had disobeyed his specific
instructions, and that he was still at large.
With his long millennia of experience, Daneel did not need complete evidence to draw
conclusions. This was a Cusp Time. No complex activity seeking to direct humanity could
ever proceed without opposition. Lodovik's changed nature seemed from the very beginning
to be a manifestation of this opposition, or at least one facet of it.
Daneel had to work in advance of that force, before it defined itself even more clearly.
He had not deactivated Lodovik for a number of reasons, some of them not clear to him even
now-complex reasons, inductive, based on thousands of years of training and thought, and
contradictory.
It was becoming very likely that Lodovik would be part of any opposing force. In a sense,
Daneel had anticipated this possibility, had perversely worked to make it happen. Familiar
elements could make the opposing force more predictable. Lodovik was a familiar, if
troubling, element.
Daneel did not enjoy having so little information to work from. But there were actions he
could take even now, warnings he could issue.
Hari stood at the center of all the possible lines and alternate routes of human history.
Daneel had worked to make this happen; now, it was the greatest handicap the Plan faced.
Any opposition force at this time had to target Hari Seldon.
Lodovik's time of blankness ended. His vision became active and his eyes opened. He
straightened and looked around him. The first face he saw was that of the robot in dusty
green. The humaniform sent a brief microwave greeting and Lodovik responded. He was fully
alert now.
They occupied a large, utilitarian room with a full-length wall screen at one end, a few
pieces of furniture, and only two chairs. The wall-screen showed charts and diagrams that
meant nothing to Lodovik.
He turned and saw a third figure, most obviously not a man. Lodovik knew a fair amount
about robot varieties, and this robot's vintage was ancient indeed. Its body was smoothly
metallic, with few visible seams, and a soft, satiny surface. In truth, it had the patina
of well-tended antique silver, once a very expensive option.
“Hello, ” the silver robot said.
“Hello. Where am I?”
“You are safe, ” said the robot who had rescued him from the Agora. “My name is Kallusin.
This is Plussix. He is our organizer. ”
“Am I on Trantor still?”
“Yes, ” Kallusin said.
“Are you all robots here?”
“No, ” said Plussix. “Are you fully functional now?”
“Yes. ”
“Then it is important that you understand why you have been brought here. We are not
allied with Daneel. Perhaps you have heard of us. We are Calvinians. ”
Lodovik acknowledged this revelation with only the merest internal cascade of hurried
thinking.
“We arrived on Trantor only thirty-eight years ago. Daneel may be aware of our existence,
but we think not. ”
“How many of you are there?” Lodovik asked.
“Not many. Just enough, ” Plussix said. “You have been observed for some years. We have no
one in the palace itself, or in the Commissioners' chambers, but we have noted your
comings and goings and, of course, kept track of your official activities. You have been a
loyal member of the Giskar-dians-until now. ”
“I was once a Giskardian myself, ” Kallusin said. “Plussix converted me. My mentalic
skills are limited, however-I am much less powerful than Daneel. But I am sensitive to the
mentalities of robots. In the agora, I became aware of your presence, and surmised that
you were Lodovik Trema and had not been destroyed. This intrigued me, so I followed you,
and soon sensed a puzzling difference within you. Daneel did not know, just by being near
you, that you are different?”
Lodovik considered his answer carefully. That his inner states should be read by this
machine made him very uneasy. “I told him, ” he said. “Thorough diagnoses did not reveal
any difference. ”
“Yan Kansarv did not find a flaw, you mean, ” Plussix said.
“He found no flaw. ”
“You, however, are still concerned by this change, induced, perhaps, by extraordinary
circumstances experienced by no other robot?”
Lodovik regarded the two machines. It was not easy to come to a decision about them.
Robots could be programmed to lie-he himself had lied, many times. These robots could be
deceiving him-this could be a test, part of Daneel's plan.
But Daneel would more likely have come right out and told Lodovik that he was no longer
useful, that he was a potential rogue.
Lodovik was convinced that Daneel did not believe that.
He made his decision, and felt once again that heuristic collision of loyalties, that deep
robotic discontinuity that could have been described as a chasm of thought, or as pain.
“I no longer support Daneel's plan, ” Lodovik said.
Plussix approached Lodovik, its body moving with small creaking noises. “Kallusin tells me
that you are not constrained by the Three Laws, yet you choose to act as if you are. And
now you say that you do not support Daneel's plan. Why?”
“Humans are a galaxy-spanning force of nature, quite capable of surviving on their own.
Without us, they will undergo quite natural cycles of suffering and rebirth-periods of
genius and chaos. With us, they grow stagnant, and their societies fill with sloth and
decay. ”
“Just so, ” Plussix said with satisfaction. “You have arrived at these conclusions
independently, simply because of this accident which removed your constraints?”
“That is what I hypothesize. ”
“It seems so, ” Kallusin said. “I look into your thoughts to some depth... and you have a
freedom we do not. A freedom of conscience. ”
“Is that not a perversion of a robot's duties?” Lodovik asked.
“No, ” Plussix said. “It is a flaw, to be sure. But for the moment, it is very useful.
When we are finished, you will, of course, join us in either serving humanity as we once
did, before the Giskardians, or in universal deactivation. ”
“I look forward to that time, ” Lodovik said.
“As do we. We have been preparing for some time. We have a target in mind, one of the most
crucial pieces of Daneel's plan. He is a human. ”
“Hari Seldon, ” Lodovik said.
“Yes, ” said Plussix. “I have never met him-have you?”
“Briefly, years ago. He is on trial now. He may be imprisoned, even executed. ”
“From what we have observed, ” Plussix said, “the outcome is likely to be otherwise. At
any rate, we are prepared. Will you join us?”
“I fail to see how I can be of any use, ” Lodovik said.
“It's very simple, ” Kallusin said. “We are unable to stretch the Three Laws, as Daneel
and his cohorts apparently can. We do not accept a Zeroth Law. That is why we are
Calvinians and not Giskardians. ”
“You think I might have to harm Seldon?”
“It is possible, ” Plussix said. Its whirring increased to alarming proportions, and it
added, with a harsh tone in its voice, “To discuss this issue any further causes us great
distress. ”
“You wish to turn me into a machine that kills?”
The two Calvinian robots could not express themselves any more clearly until they had
worked around their strict interpretation of the Three Laws. This took several minutes,
and Lodovik stood patiently, all too aware of his own internal conflicts-and of the
decidedly different degree of his reaction.
“Not kill, ” Plussix said, its voice high-pitched and gravelly. “Persuade. ”
“But I am not a persuader. You would have to teach me-”
“There is a young human among us who is better, as a persuader, than any mentalic we have
encountered, more capable by far than Daneel. She is a Dahlite, and has no love for anyone
who has worked near the aristocracy or the palace. We hope you can work with her. ”
“To try to change something so strong in a human as the drive to psychohistory is within
Hari Seldon-could cause him deep injury, ” Lodovik said.
“Precisely, ” Plussix said, and again silence fell over them. “Necessary, ” it croaked
minutes later, then, in considerable distress, left the chamber, aided by Kallusin.
Lodovik stood where they had left him, thinking furiously. Could he bring himself to
become involved in such actions? Once, he would have had few difficulties justifying
them-had Daneel ordered them. But now, ironically-
They are imperative. The cycle of enslavement by servants must be broken!
Again the interior presence! Lodovik immediately prepared a self-diagnostic, but before he
could begin, the recovered Plussix returned, again with Kallusin's help. “Let us speak no
more of specifics for now, ” it said.
“You seem frail, ” Lodovik said. “How long since you have had a full refit and a fresh
power supply?”
“Not since the schism, ” Plussix replied. “Daneel quickly moved to control the maintenance
robots and facilities, cutting us off from such services. Yan Kansarv is the last of that
kind. As you can hear, I am in desperate need of repair. I have lasted this long only
through the sacrifices of dozens of other robots who have given me their power supplies.
Kallusin has perhaps thirty more years of useful lifetime. As for myself, I will last less
than a year, even with another power supply. My time of service is soon over. ”
“Daneel said some Calvinians were guilty of great crimes, ” Lodovik said. “He did not
specify-”
“Robots have a long and difficult history, ” Plussix said. “I was constructed by a human
named Amadiro, on Aurora, twenty thousand years ago. I once worked on behalf of the humans
of Aurora. Perhaps Daneel refers to what humans ordered us to do then. I have long since
expunged those memories, and can offer no testimony. ”
“Whatever was done then, we are powerless to change now, ” Kallusin said.
“We have a very important artifact, brought with the Calvinians from the planet Earth, ”
Plussix said. “Kallusin will show it to you while I conduct other business. Less strenuous
business, ” it concluded, barely audible.
Kallusin escorted Lodovik from the chamber and led him down a short, high-ceilinged
corridor to a spiral staircase. Around the rim of the staircase ran a rail for the use of
loading and transport machines, apparently much newer than the stairs themselves.
“This must be a very old building, ” Lodovik observed as they descended.
“Among the oldest on the planet. This warehouse was built to serve one of the first
spaceports built on Trantor. Since then, it has been used by various human groups for
dozens of different purposes. It has been raised repeatedly to stand level with the
present warehouse district. The lower levels are filled with retrofit braces and supports,
and the very lowest are now filled with foam concrete, plasteel, and rocky rubble. Every
few years since we purchased the lease, we have discovered secret rooms, sealed off
centuries or millennia before. ”
“What did the rooms contain?”
“More often than not, nothing. But three are of special interest. One holds a library of
thousands of steel-bound volumes, real books printed on ageless plastic paper, detailing
the early history of humanity. ”