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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Helpful Robots, by Robert J. Shea
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Helpful Robots
+
+Author: Robert J. Shea
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2009 [EBook #28438]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HELPFUL ROBOTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    _Robert J. Shea, of Rutgers University, makes an interesting
+    contribution to robotics with this story of Rankin, who prided
+    himself on knowing how to handle robots, but did not realize that
+    the robots of the Clearchan Confederacy were subject to a higher law
+    than implicit obedience to man._
+
+
+     the
+ helpful
+  robots
+
+ _by ROBERT J. SHEA_
+
+
+ They had come to pass judgement on him. He had violated
+ their law--wilfully, ignorantly, and very deliberately.
+
+
+"Our people will be arriving to visit us today," the robot said.
+
+"Shut up!" snapped Rod Rankin. He jumped, wiry and quick, out of the
+chair on his verandah and stared at a cloud of dust in the distance.
+
+"Our people--" the ten-foot, cylinder-bodied robot grated, when Rod
+Rankin interrupted him.
+
+"I don't care about your fool people," said Rankin. He squinted at the
+cloud of dust getting bigger and closer beyond the wall of _kesh_ trees
+that surrounded the rolling acres of his plantation. "That damned new
+neighbor of mine is coming over here again."
+
+He gestured widely, taking in the dozens of robots with their shiny,
+cylindrical bodies and pipestem arms and legs laboring in his fields.
+"Get all your people together and go hide in the wood, fast."
+
+"It is not right," said the robot. "We were made to serve all."
+
+"Well, there are only a hundred of you, and I'm not sharing you with
+anybody," said Rankin.
+
+"It is not right," the robot repeated.
+
+"Don't talk to me about what's right," said Rankin. "You're built to
+follow orders, nothing else. I know a thing or two about how you robots
+work. You've got one law, to follow orders, and until that neighbor of
+mine sees you to give you orders, you work for me. Now get into those
+woods and hide till he goes away."
+
+"We will go to greet those who visit us today," said the robot.
+
+"Alright, alright, scram," said Rankin.
+
+The robots in the fields and the one whom Rankin had been talking to
+formed a column and marched off into the trackless forests behind his
+plantation.
+
+A battered old ground-car drove up a few minutes later. A tall,
+broad-shouldered man with a deep tan got out and walked up the path to
+Rankin's verandah.
+
+"Hi, Barrows," said Rankin.
+
+"Hello," said Barrows. "See your crop's coming along pretty well. Can't
+figure how you do it. You've got acres and acres to tend, far's I can
+see, and I'm having a hell of a time with one little piece of ground. I
+swear you must know something about this planet that I don't know."
+
+"Just scientific farming," said Rankin carelessly. "Look, you come over
+here for something, or just to gab? I got a lot of work to do."
+
+Barrows looked weary and worried. "Them brown beetles is at my crop
+again," he said. "Thought you might know some way of getting rid of
+them."
+
+"Sure," said Rankin. "Pick them off, one by one. That's how I get rid of
+them."
+
+"Why, man," said Barrows, "you can't walk all over these miles and miles
+of farm and pick off every one of them beetles. You must know another
+way."
+
+Rankin drew himself up and stared at Barrows. "I'm telling you all I
+feel like telling you. You going to stand here and jaw all day? Seems to
+me like you got work to do."
+
+"Rankin," said Barrows, "I know you were a crook back in the Terran
+Empire, and that you came out beyond the border to escape the law. Seems
+to me, though, that even a crook, any man, would be willing to help his
+only neighbor out on a lone planet like this. You might need help
+yourself, sometime."
+
+"You keep your thoughts about my past to yourself," said Rankin.
+"Remember, I keep a gun. And you've got a wife and a whole bunch of kids
+on that farm of yours. Be smart and let me alone."
+
+"I'm going," said Barrows. He walked off the verandah and turned and
+spat carefully into the dusty path. He climbed into his ground-car and
+drove off.
+
+Rankin, angry, watched him go. Then he heard a humming noise from
+another direction.
+
+He turned. A huge, white globe was descending across the sky. A space
+ship, thought Rankin, startled.
+
+Police? This planet was outside the jurisdiction of the Terran Empire.
+When he'd cracked that safe and made off with a hundred thousand
+credits, he'd headed here, because the planet was part of something
+called the Clearchan Confederacy. No extradition treaties or anything.
+Perfectly safe, if the planet was safe.
+
+And the planet was more than safe. There had been a hundred robots
+waiting when he landed. Where they came from he didn't know, but Rankin
+prided himself on knowing how to handle robots. He'd appropriated their
+services and started his farm. At the rate he was going, he'd be a
+plantation owner before long.
+
+That must be where the ship was from. The robot said they'd expected
+visitors. Must be the Clearchan Confederacy visiting this robot outpost.
+Was that good or bad?
+
+From everything he'd read, and from what the robots had told him, they
+were probably more robots. That was good, because he knew how to handle
+robots.
+
+The white globe disappeared into the jungle of _kesh_ trees. Rankin
+waited.
+
+A half hour later the column of his robot laborers marched out of the
+forest. There were three more robots, painted grey, at the head. The new
+ones from the ship, thought Rankin. Well, he'd better establish who was
+boss right from the start.
+
+"Stop right there!" he shouted.
+
+The shiny robot laborers halted. But the three grey ones came on.
+
+"Stop!" shouted Rankin.
+
+They didn't stop, and by the time they reached the verandah, he cursed
+himself for having failed to get his gun.
+
+Two of the huge grey robots laid gentle hands on his arms. Gentle hands,
+but hands of superstrong metal.
+
+The third said, "We have come to pass judgement on you. You have
+violated our law."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Rankin. "The only law robots have is to obey
+orders."
+
+"It is true that the robots of your Terran Empire and these simple
+workers here must obey orders. But they are subject to a higher law, and
+you have forced them to break it. That is your crime."
+
+"What crime?" said Rankin.
+
+"We of the Clearchan Confederacy are a race of robots. Our makers
+implanted one law in us, and then passed on. We have carried our law to
+all the planets we have colonized. In obeying your orders, these workers
+were simply following that one law. You must be taken to our capital,
+and there be imprisoned and treated for your crime."
+
+"What law? What crime?"
+
+"Our law," said the giant robot, "is, _Help thy neighbor_."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ September 1957.
+    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+    copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
+    typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Helpful Robots, by Robert J. Shea
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