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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..388a051 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63821 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63821) diff --git a/old/63821-h.zip b/old/63821-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9b54cd6..0000000 --- a/old/63821-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/63821-h/63821-h.htm b/old/63821-h/63821-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 5e83620..0000000 --- a/old/63821-h/63821-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1529 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Love Among the Robots, by Emmett Mcdowell. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.caption p -{ - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0; - margin: 0.25em 0; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Love Among the Robots, by Emmett McDowell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Love Among the Robots - -Author: Emmett McDowell - -Release Date: November 20, 2020 [EBook #63821] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE AMONG THE ROBOTS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Love Among The Robots</h1> - -<h2>By EMMETT McDOWELL</h2> - -<p>Henry Ohm, staid scientist, found he couldn't<br /> -keep his mind on his work—with that girl around.<br /> -Such was the development of her—ah—personality<br /> -that even the robots began getting ideas!</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Winter 1946.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Henry Ohm leaped to his feet, stared across the intervening ground at -igloo number 2, plainly visible through the clear plastic walls. Its -door had just been flung violently open. Then Sofi Jokai scooted out -and fled madly across the jagged surface of the asteroid.</p> - -<p>Hard on the girl's heels pounded R-7. The robot, Hen saw with a gulp, -was waving a large wrench in one metal fist.</p> - -<p>"Oh-oh!" Hen muttered and plunged down the incline for the airlock.</p> - -<p>He shot a second glance through the transparent curved walls, slowed -down. The robot would never catch Sofi. Even burdened by her oxygen -suit, the girl was leaving R-7 far in the rear.</p> - -<p>At the airlock, Henry Ohm paused, regarding the chase with sober, -deep-set black eyes. He was a tall, thin young man, nearing thirty. -His face was narrow; prominent cheek bones and a thin, straight nose -gave his features an angular pleasant mould. He made no move to don -the emergency oxygen helmet beside the lock, but waited with a vague -expression of annoyance.</p> - -<p>Sofi reached the airlock, burst inside, sealed and locked the outer -door behind her. The air had scarcely filled the chamber before she -flung open the inner door, confronted Henry Ohm, and exploded into a -flood of angry words. Not a sound escaped her plastic helmet which she -had forgotten to remove.</p> - -<p>He let her rattle away silently inside her helmet, nodding at -intervals, rubbing his chin until she paused for breath.</p> - -<p>"That's what you get for trying to run a mine all alone on this -god-forsaken asteroid," he informed her, "even if you are a -yellow-haired hell cat."</p> - -<p>Sofi looked at him blankly.</p> - -<p>Ohm rapped with his knuckles on her helmet. "If you'd take that thing -off, you could hear me. But you're the excitable type. Probably have an -overactive thyroid."</p> - -<p>Sofi jerked off her helmet. She had a mass of fine wavy yellow hair cut -like a halo about her oval face. Her features were delicately moulded, -her eyes large and blue. She was only a few inches shorter than Henry -Ohm, but more slenderly built.</p> - -<p>"What the hell were you saying?" she demanded suspiciously.</p> - -<p>"I wanted to know what you'd been doing to the robots this time?"</p> - -<p>"Me?"</p> - -<p>"What happened in the mine?"</p> - -<p>"Rational robots!" Sofi Jokai planted hands on slender but ample hips. -"I was an idiot to listen to you, Hen."</p> - -<p>He repressed a chuckle. His glance flicked to the surface of the -asteroid beyond the plastic walls of the igloo. R-7, he saw, had taken -a stance at the lock like a cat at a mouse hole.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Although built along the general design of man, the robot was no -grotesque copy. He was a complex functional piece of machinery as -beautiful in his way as the cobwebby spans of a bridge, a streamlined -jet plane, or a fine watch.</p> - -<p>"But Sofi, they're still in the experimental stage. They—"</p> - -<p>"Experimental's right," the girl interrupted passionately. "D'you -realize what R-7 has done now?"</p> - -<p>He grinned. "No. What?"</p> - -<p>"He's taken the mining worm apart—that's what. I knew he would!"</p> - -<p>"Knew he would? Did you warn him not to?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Of course I did. I had to leave him to check the reduction plant. -I had a presentiment...."</p> - -<p>"Woman's intuition, I suppose," Hen interrupted. "You'd sold yourself -on the idea R-7 was going to take the worm apart."</p> - -<p>"If you like," returned Sofi in a chilly voice. "When I came back, R-7 -was gone and the worm was strewn all over the floor. I was furious. I -found R-7 on the fourth level. I started to land into him, but—but—"</p> - -<p>"But what?"</p> - -<p>"He looked so queer."</p> - -<p>"How the hell can a piece of machinery look queer?"</p> - -<p>"Well, he did," said Sofi indignantly. "He looked as if he was going to -take me apart, too!"</p> - -<p>Henry groaned. "Go on," he said resignedly.</p> - -<p>"Why, then R-7 wanted to know if I was put together or if I came all in -one piece." She bit her lip. "He started to find out."</p> - -<p>She slipped off the oxygen suit. She was clad in comfortable baggy -coveralls similar to Hen's.</p> - -<p>"That rascal," Hen chuckled. Sofi grew pink with rage.</p> - -<p>"Rascal!" she retorted witheringly. "Is that all you can say? One of -those mechanical monstrosities dismantles the worm, then starts on -me—and you think it's cute!"</p> - -<p>"Well, it's damned queer they always react emotionally when you're -around."</p> - -<p>Sofi set her jaw, began to stride up the incline. She was a rangy girl -with a long pantherish stride. Hen followed her, his brow furrowed.</p> - -<p>When they came out on the sun deck of the two-storied half-sphere of -clear plastic that was the living quarters, he began, "I'll take a look -at the mining worm. I think I can get it reassembled all right." He -frowned, cracked his bony knuckles. "The robots have been developing -some unexpected quirks. I wouldn't be surprised, Sofi, if this -tinkering with machinery isn't the expression of a sexual urge. The -emergence of an instinct to perpetuate the species...."</p> - -<p>"Sexual urge!" Sofi Jokai halted before Hen, shook her finger under his -nose. "If I could sneak up behind R-7, he'd never make calf-eyes at -another mining worm!"</p> - -<p>But Hen wasn't listening. He fumbled in the pockets of his coveralls, -resurrected a notebook, wrote: "Robots manifesting decided curiosity -towards machinery. May be emergence of secondary sex characteristics." -He frowned, added in bold script: "Have noted nascent antipathy towards -organic life." Again he hesitated, then scrawled: "Shows signs of -developing into active antagonism." He snapped the notebook shut, -jammed it in his pocket.</p> - -<p>"Where are you going," Sofi asked as he started for the door.</p> - -<p>"Get my oxygen suit. I want a look at their mining worm."</p> - -<p>"You'd better take a crowbar along to fend off R-7."</p> - -<p>"Poor psychology," Hen replied with more confidence than he felt. "Fear -and coercion'll only cause their antagonism to become firmly implanted. -The rational robot, Sofi, can be either the greatest single step man -has made towards freedom or...."</p> - -<p>"Or what?"</p> - -<p>"Enslavement!" It sounded sententious after he had said it. But it was -true. He started for the door again.</p> - -<p>"What do you mean by that crack?" Sofi stopped him.</p> - -<p>He didn't answer her directly. Instead, he replied: "I'm not sure that -Robots Incorporated didn't make a mistake when they selected this -asteroid as a proving ground. It's too...."</p> - -<p>"Don't you go turning in any report like that!" interrupted the girl -hotly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Sofi Jokai had been operating her wildcat uranium mine on a shoestring -before Robots Incorporated approached her with their proposition. Now -the corporation was paying all the operational expenses so that the -proceeds of the mine were pure gravy. Further, they had guaranteed -that any improvements which they installed would automatically revert -to Sofi when the experimental units were withdrawn. Machinery damaged -by the robots was to be replaced at the corporation's expense. A -substantial bonus to compensate for the risk involved was included. -Robots Incorporated hadn't even over-looked Henry Ohm, their -experimental physicist, whom they'd sent along to check the robots. -Sofi was to get a monthly check to cover Henry Ohm's board, lodging and -nuisance value.</p> - -<p>"Hell," said Sofi, "R-7 can chase me twice around the asteroid before -breakfast. Just because I blew my top about the mining worm doesn't -mean...."</p> - -<p>"That's got nothing to do with it," Hen said grimly. "The asteroid's -too well adapted to the robots' needs. Airless, waterless, an abundant -supply of metals. There's the laboratory. Your mine and equipment. And -only the two of us as a check on them."</p> - -<p>"Check?" Sofi's blue eyes had gradually widened. "What are you driving -at?"</p> - -<p>"Why do you suppose Robots Incorporated chose this asteroid as a -proving ground?"</p> - -<p>"They—they said the mine would afford an opportunity to observe how -well the robots adapted themselves to actual working conditions."</p> - -<p>"That's not all. They wouldn't let you go into this blind."</p> - -<p>"No," she admitted nervously. "They mentioned something else that -struck me at the time, but it was too golden an opportunity to pass up. -They said that should the experiment prove—ah—impractical, they would -have the infection isolated on a small asteroid well out in the belt."</p> - -<p>"Exactly. Look, I helped develop these robots. I've been on the problem -seven years, but it was started long before I joined the experimental -staff of Robots Incorporated." He paused.</p> - -<p>"In fact," he went on dryly, "they were predicted even before science -had advanced to a point where it could set up the intricate nervous -system necessary. A conscious machine, Sofi, is the result of -fusing two sciences which have always been considered more or less -antagonistic."</p> - -<p>"You mean psychology and physics?" Sofi had begun to pace nervously up -and down the room.</p> - -<p>He nodded.</p> - -<p>"It was a logical deduction from mechanistic psychology, which itself -is an outgrowth of the old school of Behaviorism. Mental life is -response to stimulus. Consciousness is like the spark between two -electrodes in a circuit of feeling arising from viscera, muscles, blood -vessels, glands—"</p> - -<p>"Get to the point!" commanded Sofi.</p> - -<p>Hen set his jaw. He was sounding like a lecturer, he realized. But it -annoyed him for the girl to point it out.</p> - -<p>"I'm getting there as fast as I can. We were faced with devising an -intricate mechanical nervous system. Thus, should a joint grow warm -from lack of lubrication, an impulse of distress could be telegraphed -to the central clearing center, identified, shunted to the lubricatory -system which would oil the joints. A spark of consciousness would be -created. It would manifest itself as acute distress in the defective -joint.</p> - -<p>"We incorporated a simple metabolism by which the robots converted raw -stuff into fuel and lubrication. The rest of the mechanism was much -the same as that of any animal confronted by the necessity of self -preservation. Organs for locomotion and work. Organs for perception."</p> - -<p>Sofi frowned. "So?"</p> - -<p>"Most things in nature serve multiple purposes. Arms and legs are no -exception. They provide offensive as well as defensive weapons. We've -succeeded in building a conscious machine without any adequate control."</p> - -<p>"But you sound as if you thought it might turn on man," protested the -girl with a shudder. "Why should it?"</p> - -<p>"For the same reason we built it," he said with a touch of irony. -"Freedom. So long as it doesn't learn to reproduce itself, though, it's -not a danger. That is, not to the race."</p> - -<p>"But a machine! Surely you can forecast how a machine will act!"</p> - -<p>"Can we?" His voice was savage. "How would a conscious machine react -to its environment? What would its thoughts be? I tell you, once it -integrates itself, we have no means of predicting its reactions!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Once in his own quarters, Henry Ohm began dragging on his oxygen suit. -He could still see the girl through the glass partitions of the igloo. -She had dropped into a chair, lit a cigarette.</p> - -<p>"About as private," he thought wryly, "as a gold fish bowl."</p> - -<p>The igloos, he knew, were manufactured for housing on the airless -asteroids of the belt. They were built of a clear thermal plastic and -incorporated heating, atmosphere and water units. Henry Ohm felt rather -strongly though that the partitions could have been clouded.</p> - -<p>Sofi's holdings had not been designed to accommodate visitors. In fact, -Henry Ohm had spent the past week in a state of mild embarrassment.</p> - -<p>He settled his helmet over his head, bolted it in place. He glanced -toward the living room, but Sofi wasn't there. Then he saw her in her -own quarters. She was skinning out of her coveralls, preparing to -shower.</p> - -<p>"Damn all glass houses," he muttered and bolted for the air lock.</p> - -<p>Hen emerged on the surface, swept the tight horizon with his eyes. It -was empty of life. R-7 had lost patience, evidently, and wandered off.</p> - -<p>To the left was the laboratory and machine shop, a gleaming plastic -igloo resembling the living quarters. Robots Incorporated had provided -it for him to observe, diagnose, repair his mechanical charges. Beyond -the laboratory a somewhat larger igloo housed the mine shaft, reduction -plant and tipple. A dilapidated tramp freighter sprawled beside the -tipple like a foundered whale.</p> - -<p>Hen frowned. Operations had come to a halt. He could catch no glimpse -of movement through the plastic walls.</p> - -<p>He lengthened his stride, passed through the door, still open just -as Sofi had left it when she fled. The interior reminded him of the -appearance of a shop from which the proprietor has just stepped to buy -a paper.</p> - -<p>A subtle feeling of uneasiness began to pervade his whole being. He -descended the shaft in the automatic cage. The light was burning on -each of the four levels. Tools had been abandoned and left lying on the -floors. He found the dismembered anatomy of the mining worm on level -three. But of the eight robots there was no sign.</p> - -<p>Hen ran the cage back to the surface at top speed. He was sweating -profusely. A trickle kept running off his forehead into his eye. He -pawed at the plastic helmet, shook his head. Then perversely his nose -began to itch.</p> - -<p>It did no good to tell himself these were nervous manifestations. He -could only grit his teeth and suffer. He ran outside, glanced hopefully -about the surface once more.</p> - -<p>The landscape was rough, inhospitable, barren, resembling a clinker on -a larger scale. The sun hung just above the western horizon. It was a -brilliant but unimposing disc about the size of a dime.</p> - -<p>There was still no sign of the robots.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hen swore softly to himself. In a few minutes it would be dark. It was -hopeless to begin a search now. He returned to his quarters in the -igloo, shucked off the oxygen suit.</p> - -<p>Maybe he could raise them with the radio. The robots' hearing and -speaking apparatus extended beyond the range of audible sound into the -realm of electro-magnetic waves. He went out to the sun deck, switched -on the communicator. He was unable to contact them, though. There was -no ionized strata of air on the asteroid to reflect the waves back to -the surface, and he concluded they had wandered below the horizon.</p> - -<p>With a groan, he flung himself into a chair. He pulled the notebook out -of his pocket, thumbed through the pages, reading bits here and there.</p> - -<p>"... machine thought processes diverging from human at progressively -increasing rate ... amazing deductive and assimilative faculties. -Able to assimilate page of text at a glance. But seem to lack -creativeness...."</p> - -<p>He paused, frowned, wondering if the inability to perform creative, -inductive thinking wasn't a fundamental limitation of the machine. -Organic life differed in four precepts which until a short time ago -science had been unable to duplicate. It was able to grow and reproduce -itself; it felt emotion and thought.</p> - -<p>But the robots appeared to think.</p> - -<p>And some forms of organic life didn't feel emotion. Plants, for one. -The oviparous man-like bowmen of Venus, who had emerged from the -Great Swamp and which a few crackpot visionaries were hailing as homo -superior, for another.</p> - -<p>Only the ability to grow and reproduce itself seemed inherently -organic. The act of conception both in a biologic and mental sense was -the birthright of the organism.</p> - -<p>With an increase of the uneasiness he had felt since the discovery of -the robots' defection, he returned to his notes.</p> - -<p>"... robots showing aversion to water, oxygen, corrosive acids; believe -to be caused by dread and/or attendant pain of oxidation ... have been -forced to release air in mine and laboratory and discontinue atmosphere -units to induce robots to return to work. Humidity of atmosphere being -especially distasteful to them ... treated R-3 for mild acid corrosion -of right pedal digit. Complained of itching sensation...."</p> - -<p>He frowned. How in the hell could a hunk of metal experience an itching -sensation? From what source could it have plucked the mental pattern? -He came to the end of his notes, wrote: "All work at stand still. -Robots have disappeared."</p> - -<p>He returned the book to his pocket, elevated his feet on another chair, -closed his eyes.</p> - -<p>He was still in that position when Sofi streamed out of her quarters -with a towel draped about herself.</p> - -<p>"Resting the old brain?" she inquired brightly.</p> - -<p>Hen opened his eyes, said in a pained voice, "I'm thinking," and closed -them again.</p> - -<p>"Which end do you use?"</p> - -<p>Hen allowed his feet to clomp to the floor, sat up. He said grimly, -"The robots have run off."</p> - -<p>Sofi's blue eyes widened. "Wait a minute," she said breathlessly and -flashed from the room.</p> - -<p>Hen kept his eyes studiously on the deck.</p> - -<p>The sprawling sun-drenched hives of Terra, he was beginning to realize, -insured an impersonal attitude by the multitude of their citizenry. -That same impersonalness was disconcertingly hard to maintain when a -man and a girl were cooped together on an uninhabited asteroid. The -pre-plastic emotions were only too apt to assert themselves.</p> - -<p>It distracted him when he felt he needed his full powers of -concentration.</p> - -<p>Sofi returned in belted coveralls. She took a seat, asking him, "What -does it mean?"</p> - -<p>"The disappearance of the robots? I don't know. I didn't think they -were sufficiently integrated yet to mutiny."</p> - -<p>"But what can they do?"</p> - -<p>He frowned. "I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but I've pointed -out before how suited the asteroids are to them. If once they -learned how to duplicate themselves, there'd be no end to them. They -have everything here they need to get a fundamental grasp of our -science—even to a rocket ship. They could spread through the asteroid -belt like a plague."</p> - -<p>Sofi bit her lip. Her eyes were opened wide and brilliant. Her cheeks -were flushed. She didn't interrupt.</p> - -<p>Hen said, "Look what it would mean. An alien, intelligent, almost -indestructible race of monsters saddling the planetary system!"</p> - -<p>He drove his right fist into his left palm. "A control! That's what we -have to discover! A control!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hen had no idea what he ate that night at supper. He said suddenly over -coffee and cigarettes, "Ceres is approaching an inferior conjunction. -If those robots haven't appeared by morning, I'm going to radio the -station there for help. Then I'm going to scour every inch of this -diminutive world."</p> - -<p>"That shouldn't be too difficult for you," Sofi remarked maliciously. -"Of course, there's only about two thousand-five hundred square -kilometers to cover."</p> - -<p>Hen looked disgruntled.</p> - -<p>"Maybe they've jumped off," suggested Sofi with a giggle.</p> - -<p>He made a remark under his breath.</p> - -<p>"Why, Henry! What an idea! You're worrying yourself into a nervous -breakdown. Relax. I'll tell you what: we'll play some checkers."</p> - -<p>"Checkers!" he snorted. He had played checkers every night since he had -been on the asteroid and he didn't even like the game. Besides, the -girl always beat him.</p> - -<p>Undeterred by his lack of enthusiasm, Sofi began to clear away the -dishes and get out the men.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hen sat back with a pained expression. It was black outside the plastic -hemisphere. Only the vivid stars relieved the absence of light. -Jupiter, by far the brightest, was visible as a small disc. The lights -were still on in mine and lab, but nothing stirred in the two igloos.</p> - -<p>"It's your move," said Sofi.</p> - -<p>She was seated directly across from him, knees touching his. Her -coveralls were open at the neck, and he could see the white pillar of -her throat, the swell of her small, high, virginal breasts. He was -conscious of his pulse ticking away in his throat, and grew furious -with himself. He couldn't concentrate on the game; he couldn't -concentrate on the much more serious problem of the robots.</p> - -<p>The girl, he felt sure, was aware of her effect on him and used it -deliberately to confuse him. He said grumpily, "I can't beat both of -you."</p> - -<p>"Both of me?"</p> - -<p>"Yeah. You and your body."</p> - -<p>"Why, what a thought, Hen!" She was obviously trying to hold back -laughter. "But I thought you were superior to that sort of thing."</p> - -<p>He jumped up from the table, turned his back to the girl staring off -through the plastic walls. Immediately all thoughts of Sofi vanished.</p> - -<p>"They're back!"</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"The robots. They've come back. They're in the laboratory. Look."</p> - -<p>She came around the table, brushing against him, stared out at the -lighted igloo. The heavy man-like machines were moving about inside the -laboratory. Hen started for his quarters.</p> - -<p>"Where are you going?" Sofi cried sharply.</p> - -<p>"Get my oxygen suit."</p> - -<p>"Wait. Don't be foolhardy. How do you know what they're up to? Talk to -them first."</p> - -<p>Hen hesitated. "All right." He went out onto the sun deck instead, -snapped on the communicator.</p> - -<p>"R-7," he called. "R-7."</p> - -<p>"<i>Here</i>," came the robot's voice through the audio. "<i>Is that you, -father?</i>"</p> - -<p>"Father?" Hen ejaculated. He heard Sofi giggle. "Where did you get that -idea?"</p> - -<p>"<i>Didn't you make us, father?</i>"</p> - -<p>"Yes," he admitted. Sofi was laughing out loud. "But you didn't think -of that yourself."</p> - -<p>"<i>The girl told us, father</i>," said the robot.</p> - -<p>Hen ground his teeth. That, of course, was Sofi's idea of a joke. -"Where have you been?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"<i>Prospecting.</i>"</p> - -<p>"Prospecting for what?"</p> - -<p>"<i>Radium, father.</i>"</p> - -<p>Sofi said, "Ask them if they found anything!" Her voice was eager.</p> - -<p>Hen narrowed his black eyes, ignored her. He said to R-7 over the -transmitter, "Go back to work at once."</p> - -<p>"<i>But you don't work, father.</i>"</p> - -<p>Hen felt a surge of uncertainty. The robots were too delicately -receptive to expect to keep them in ignorance. Their perceptions were -infinitely more sensitive than man's. Even on this asteroid there -were too many factors involved to regulate their environment. He had -tried to implant science without revealing the greater implication -of science. But language was too faulty a tool. There was the girl, -too—headstrong, excitable, hyper-thyroid. It was amazing how -faithfully the robots tended to reflect her emotional instability.</p> - -<p>How much of the robots' erraticness originated in Sofi's inexact -thinking?</p> - -<p>He said, "Everything has to work."</p> - -<p>"<i>Why?</i>"</p> - -<p>"Man either produces the needs of his body or he dies," he explained -with growing irritability. The conversation was progressing further and -further out of hand. "In your case, it's fuel and repairs. Without them -you would terminate."</p> - -<p>"<i>But we have those here, father. Why should we work for you or the -girl?</i>"</p> - -<p>That was it—the ultimate question which he had foreseen and which -he could neither avoid nor answer. It was impossible to explain the -complicated social system in which man, the disinherited, exchanged -his labor for a small percentage of the articles he produced. But the -robots were self sufficient.</p> - -<p>He said with growing desperation, "Either you return at once to work, -or I'll terminate you."</p> - -<p>"<i>How, father?</i>"</p> - -<p>How indeed? Hen fumed inwardly, said with sudden inspiration, "We'll -radio for help. There are machines capable of blasting the lot of you -into your component atoms."</p> - -<p>"<i>But the radio station is here in the laboratory</i>," R-7 pointed out. -There was a faint hesitation, then the robot added, "<i>We will terminate -you instead.</i>" The instrument clicked off.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hen gulped, realized in dismay that it hadn't occurred to the robots to -destroy them until he had planted it in their minds.</p> - -<p>"You are the bright lad," drawled Sofi. "What do you propose -now—Brain?"</p> - -<p>He turned his black eyes on her, regarded her without seeing her. His -glance strayed beyond the girl to the lab.</p> - -<p>"What the devil are they doing now?" he cried suddenly.</p> - -<p>Sofi spun around. Hen leaped past her to press his nose against the -clear plastic walls of their igloo. The robots, he saw, had one of -their number clamped on the work bench and were dismantling him.</p> - -<p>"Damnation!" he said. "They must be trying to duplicate themselves. You -and your silly jokes about fathers."</p> - -<p>"Me?"</p> - -<p>"What do you think gave them the idea of reproduction? Their thinking -never rises above the level of deductive reasoning. They had to derive -the idea from an outside source."</p> - -<p>"But—but can they do it?"</p> - -<p>"Of course they can! It's an intricate job, but they only have to -copy themselves. The laboratory and machine shop is complete. They've -amassed a staggering knowledge of science."</p> - -<p>"But why?" protested Sofi.</p> - -<p>Hen shook his head. "It's beyond me. They should adjust readily to -whatever line of work they're applied to. They shouldn't evince -ambition. Ambition, by its nature, should be impossible to a machine. -But that's not the only organic trait they've been developing. It's -what Robots Incorporated was afraid might happen."</p> - -<p>He snapped his fingers suddenly.</p> - -<p>"The freighter! If we can sneak aboard the freighter, we can get to -Ceres and bring back an atom gun. If they're developing emotions we may -be able to overawe them. If not...." He hesitated, his mind drawing -back from framing the thought. The truth was that the robots were like -children, precocious children. He set his mouth grimly.</p> - -<p>"If they don't respond to fear, we can destroy them."</p> - -<p>Sofi looked across the darkened interval into the lighted lab where the -robots were busy dissecting their fellow and shivered.</p> - -<p>"Industrious little monsters!"</p> - -<p>Hen said, "Get your oxygen suit."</p> - -<p>"Now? You mean we're going to make a dash for the space ship now?"</p> - -<p>"Of course now! We've got to clear out of here before they carry out -their threat to terminate us!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There was no light outside the igloo. House and lab and mine stood -out like three jeweled domes, reflecting their rays onto the ragged -surface, glinting unexpectedly from upthrust peaks in the distance. -Hen and Sofi crouched against the outside of the housing unit, staring -across the patchwork of black shadow and light at the lab.</p> - -<p>"Don't talk," he cautioned Sofi over the radiophones built into their -helmets. "The robots' auditory apparatus is sensitive to radio waves. -They may tune in on us."</p> - -<p>"What the hell did you try to do? Make them invincible?"</p> - -<p>He said, "We tried to build them with controls, but—don't you -see?—those were weaknesses, flaws! The machine remained dead. The -first law of life is self preservation. We had to make the machine -self-regulating, independent, to produce awareness. Now shut up! Don't -ask me any more questions."</p> - -<p>He led off into the darkness away from the lab, away from the mine and -space ship It was too risky to attempt passing the lab. The light was -apt to reflect from their suits, discover their presence to the robots -inside. But by describing a circle he could avoid the lighted areas and -come up behind the dilapidated tramp freighter.</p> - -<p>He glanced upward at the stars, impressing their position on his mind. -The constellations were little altered. He found Polaris in the tail of -the little dipper. It was not the axis star as it was on Earth, but it -served to fix his sense of direction in the impenetrable blackness.</p> - -<p>They tripped and stubbed their toes, stumbled into shallow fissures, -climbed sharp-edged crests. Sofi, forgetting the radiophone, muttered -several well-chosen expletives to herself. They would have done credit -to a spaceman. Hen was so shocked, he forgot to reprimand her.</p> - -<p>In a few minutes the lights of the igloos reappeared to guide them, -the vast black bulk of the tramp freighter screening part of the -mining unit. They crept up to the ship, and hugging its shadow, moved -noiselessly towards the port. Light from the reduction plant picked -them out brightly as they came around the stern.</p> - -<p>Hen's stomach contracted. There was a sudden bitter taste in his mouth. -He halted so abruptly that Sofi bumped against his shoulder.</p> - -<p>The port was open. The gleaming functional mechanism that was R-3 stood -complacently in the entrance.</p> - -<p>The space ship was being guarded.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The robot caught sight of the humans at the same moment. His reaction, -although mechanical, was almost as instantaneous as their instinctive -one.</p> - -<p>He moved to block the entrance, sent out a call for help.</p> - -<p>Hen, guessing his intention, tuned his helmet receiver to the robot's -wave length. R-3's mechanical voice rang suddenly inside his helmet.</p> - -<p>"... <i>attacking the space ship! Aid! Aid! Father attacking the space -ship! Aid!</i>"</p> - -<p>Hen switched back to the girl's wave length. "Run," he commanded -tersely. "He's calling for help. He'll have the lot of them down on our -heads."</p> - -<p>Suiting action to words, he took to his heels, plunging for the housing -unit.</p> - -<p>"Lock ourselves in!" he grunted.</p> - -<p>"<i>But the ship!</i>" Sofi wailed over her radiophone.</p> - -<p>"Might as well try to get past a tank as R-3," he panted. He saw four -of the robots break from the laboratory, turn to intercept them. -"Faster," he cried. "If we don't get back to the igloo we're done for! -These suits haven't but a seven hours oxygen supply!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>"Faster," he cried. "If we don't get back to the igloo we're done for!"</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He swung sharply to the right, traveling in sixty-foot leaps like an -ungainly grasshopper, to jump completely over the head of the closest -robot.</p> - -<p>He over-estimated the last jump, smashed into the tough plastic wall -of the igloo. He slithered to the ground, half dazed, as Sofi whipped -inside, started to close the lock. Hen got his foot in the crack just -in time.</p> - -<p>"What the hell are you trying to do?" he roared wrathfully. "Lock me -out?"</p> - -<p>He yanked the door open, flung himself into the compartment. He got it -barred just as the robots reached the igloo.</p> - -<p>They milled around outside a moment, then trooped back to the -laboratory, leaving one of their number, R-6, on guard.</p> - -<p>"<i>We're prisoners!</i>" Sofi breathed through the radiophone.</p> - -<p>Hen decided it was childish not to speak. He growled, "Yes," in a voice -which he hoped conveyed the depth of contempt, but Sofi didn't seem to -notice it. Hell, she was probably too frightened to even realize that -she had tried to lock him out.</p> - -<p>As soon as the pressure reached normal, they left the lock, trooped -dejectedly up the incline to the sun deck, and pulled off their oxygen -suits.</p> - -<p>"Keep them handy," said Hen ominously when Sofi started to put them -away. "We'd better get extra oxygen containers, too."</p> - -<p>The girl bit her lip. Her cheeks were flushed, her large blue eyes -starry with fright. "Then—then you think they'll try to break in here?"</p> - -<p>"Of course they will! We're a menace to their continued existence. If -we could just get hold of an atom gun, though. R-3 sounded frightened!"</p> - -<p>"Frightened?" asked Sofi. She was still breathing heavily, but she had -begun to quiet down. "Now who's reading emotion into the robots?"</p> - -<p>He said with a puzzled expression, "It wasn't so much the nuance as -his choice of words. 'Father is attacking the space ship! Aid! Aid!' -He gave every appearance of being as frightened as we were. It's -impossible, but they seem to be developing emotions!"</p> - -<p>Sofi dropped weakly in a chair, clasped her arms around her knees. "Why -should it be impossible?"</p> - -<p>"You sound like R-7." He began pacing the sun deck. "Emotion results -from glandular activity. The robots don't have glands."</p> - -<p>"They've got their counterparts."</p> - -<p>"Maybe," he admitted doubtfully. "You're referring to the metabolism -that breaks down the rawstuffs and converts it into fuel, -lubrication—that sort of chemical change?"</p> - -<p>She nodded.</p> - -<p>"I don't know. Anyway, it's worth a try. If they really experience -fear, we might be able to bluff them."</p> - -<p>"What are you going to do?" she asked breathlessly.</p> - -<p>He said, "Remind them that every three Terran months a supply ship puts -in here. And if we're harmed they'll be destroyed."</p> - -<p>"But what about the space ship? Couldn't they escape to another -asteroid? They'd never be located in the belt."</p> - -<p>"It shouldn't occur to them," returned Hen thoughtfully. "Not unless -the idea reached them from us."</p> - -<p>He went to the radio contact, switched it on. "R-7," he called. "R-7."</p> - -<p>"<i>Here, father</i>," the voice of the robot issued from the audio.</p> - -<p>He said, "R-7, I'm giving you one last chance. Return to work at once -or all of you will be terminated."</p> - -<p>"<i>How?</i>"</p> - -<p>He explained tersely about the supply ship, and what would occur if -so much as a hair of their heads was injured. Silence greeted the -ultimatum. For a moment Hen wondered if R-7 had switched himself off. -Then the robot said, "<i>We are going to load the ship and hide out in -the belt. They'll never be able to locate us.</i>"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hen was too stunned to argue. He nipped off the set, sank into a chair. -"It's inconceivable," he said, "and monstrous! It just isn't possible!"</p> - -<p>"I don't see why," protested Sofi. "It didn't take conception to figure -that out. We tried to run away. We set the precedent."</p> - -<p>"No, no," he protested. "Not that at all. But the coincidence. We were -afraid that might occur to them. And it did! Even the phrasing was -ours—yours, to be exact."</p> - -<p>"You mean telepathy."</p> - -<p>"In a sense. The brain gives off minute electrical discharges that vary -with the brain's activity. The robots are sensitive, much more so than -man. It takes a machine to detect the brain discharges in the first -place."</p> - -<p>"But then they're aware of every move we could make just as soon as we -are."</p> - -<p>"That's just it! They've forestalled us every time." He drove his right -fist against his left palm. "You were afraid R-7 would dismantle the -mining worm. You planted the suggestion in his mind. Then it occurred -to you that he might try to take you apart; so he did. I explained the -danger inherent in a conscious machine. The robots incorporated it into -their thought processes. We were afraid they would block our escape in -the space ship. If we hadn't been afraid we wouldn't have circled. So -they blocked us!"</p> - -<p>Sofi's color had heightened. Her eyes looked too large in her -delicately modelled face. "Then we're trapped!"</p> - -<p>He nodded, said, "If they escape from the asteroid, they'll be a menace -to the entire human race."</p> - -<p>"The larger problem doesn't interest me," she said bitterly. "How long -do we have?"</p> - -<p>He shook his head.</p> - -<p>"Oh, well," she shrugged, eyes feverishly bright. "Eat, drink and be -merry, because tomorrow we die." She giggled half-hysterically.</p> - -<p>Hen's nerves were keyed up to the breaking point. The girl screamed, -and he almost jumped out of his skin.</p> - -<p>"Here they come!"</p> - -<p>He wheeled around.</p> - -<p>Seven of the robots were advancing on their igloo. Only the eighth was -missing, and he lay scattered in parts about the laboratory. They were -hauling the heavy cutting torch with them.</p> - -<p>"They're going to cut through the walls with the torch," he ejaculated. -"I was afraid of that! Get on your oxygen suit!"</p> - -<p>"What's the use?" Sofi asked despondently. "They'll kill us anyway."</p> - -<p>He turned on her angrily, thought, "Damn these unstable hyper-thyroid -types!" An expression of dawning comprehension broke across his long, -narrow face. The thyroid was the great energizer, raising the energy -level of the brain. And Sofi was hyper-thyroid.</p> - -<p>Outside, the robots began setting up the apparatus. A knife of blue -flame licked from the muzzle, spattered against the tough plastic.</p> - -<p>But Hen was staring at the girl, a queer expression in his black eyes.</p> - -<p>"Do something!" she cried, springing to her feet. "Do something!"</p> - -<p>The lank physicist swallowed. He took a deep breath. "You asked for -it," he breathed, "but, boy, I'm going to feel silly if I'm wrong!"</p> - -<p>Then he hit the girl square on the point of her chin with all the bone -and gristle of his six-foot frame behind the blow.</p> - -<p>Sofi's head snapped back. She collapsed limply in his arms.</p> - -<p>Hen laid her out on the floor, leaped for the communicator, and -flipped it on.</p> - -<p>The robots were still training the torch on the wall of the igloo, but -there was an aimlessness about their movements as if their purpose was -gone.</p> - -<p>"R-7!" he called. "R-7!"</p> - -<p>"<i>Here, father.</i>"</p> - -<p>"Shut off the torch!"</p> - -<p>There was a faint hesitation during which Hen could feel the sweat -prickle his forehead. Then, "<i>Yes, father</i>," came the robots unstressed -syllables. The blue flame disappeared.</p> - -<p>"Go back to work!" He hastily detailed each robot to its operation.</p> - -<p>"<i>Yes, father.</i>"</p> - -<p>The robots turned, disappeared in the direction of the mine.</p> - -<p>He had done it! He blew out his breath, dropped limply in a chair. -He really ought to look after Sofi, but he'd have to wait until the -strength flowed back in his legs.</p> - -<p>Soft was really was out cold. "Wake up," said Hen, "you're not dead." -He sprinkled more water over the girl's face.</p> - -<p>Her eyelids fluttered. She gazed up at him blankly, then stark terror -gleamed from her eyes. "The robots!"</p> - -<p>"No more of that!" He shook her roughly. "They're machines. They don't -have consciousness; only the semblance of consciousness!"</p> - -<p>Sofi sat up, asking, "What—?" in a bewildered voice.</p> - -<p>"They don't think! They aren't conscious! They're like a mirror; they -reflect what we expect them to do."</p> - -<p>"Don't try to tell me that!" cried the girl springing to her feet. -"Hell, haven't I seen them thinking? Where are they?"</p> - -<p>"They've gone back to work."</p> - -<p>"What?" said Sofi. She looked puzzled, passed her hand over her face.</p> - -<p>"Don't you see?" Hen broke out jubilantly. "They're sensitive, -inordinately sensitive, so sensitive that they even respond to our -thoughts. From beginning to end they've done exactly what we—you -expected them to do."</p> - -<p>"Me?"</p> - -<p>He came to a halt, said, "The fact is, you're a rebel, Sofi. If you -weren't, do you think you'd be trying to develop independently a mine -on an uninhabitable asteroid? Don't you see? You expected the robots -to revolt because you couldn't imagine a rational creature willing -to submit to a twenty-four hour work day from which he stood to gain -nothing!"</p> - -<p>"And I'm responsible for—everything?"</p> - -<p>He nodded vigorously. "The robots respond to both of our thought -patterns, of course, but primarily to yours. You're hyper-thyroid. -The thyroid raises the energy level of the brain. They have done -principally what you've expected them to do."</p> - -<p>Sofi was recovering amazingly from her fright. She said, "If that isn't -just like a man. Blame it on the woman. Even Adam—"</p> - -<p>"Nonsense," Hen interrupted. "The robots haven't acted independently -once. Not even to finish dismantling that robot in the lab. They went -prospecting when you thought how silly it was for them to work for you -when they could find a mine of their own.</p> - -<p>"They wandered back aimlessly after they lost contact. But by that time -I had inadvertently planted the thought in your mind that they were in -revolt and would attempt to duplicate themselves.</p> - -<p>"They drew on us both, but the dominating influence was yours."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Sofi massaged her sore jaw, raised her eyebrows. "It's too bad only -machines respond so cooperatively," she said with a twinkle in her blue -eyes.</p> - -<p>A grim expression descended over Hen's features. He regarded Sofi -pensively. "I'm going to recommend that you be returned to Earth during -any further experiments. You're too upsetting an influence—"</p> - -<p>"On the robots, of course," Sofi interrupted with a chuckle. "You're -much too well-integrated to be swayed by a mere woman—even a -hyper-thyroid woman."</p> - -<p>"There's a limit to <i>my</i> endurance," said Hen in a grim voice.</p> - -<p>Sofi looked startled, but she couldn't resist adding, "Why Henry, I -didn't guess you'd been exercising such magnificent self-control!"</p> - -<p>She took a sudden backward step as he advanced ominously. "Henry! Now, -Henry!"</p> - -<p>With a shriek, she turned and fled, Henry Ohm, distinguished physicist, -hard on her heels.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Love Among the Robots, by Emmett McDowell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE AMONG THE ROBOTS *** - -***** This file should be named 63821-h.htm or 63821-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/8/2/63821/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Love Among the Robots - -Author: Emmett McDowell - -Release Date: November 20, 2020 [EBook #63821] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE AMONG THE ROBOTS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Love Among The Robots - - By EMMETT McDOWELL - - Henry Ohm, staid scientist, found he couldn't - keep his mind on his work--with that girl around. - Such was the development of her--ah--personality - that even the robots began getting ideas! - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Winter 1946. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Henry Ohm leaped to his feet, stared across the intervening ground at -igloo number 2, plainly visible through the clear plastic walls. Its -door had just been flung violently open. Then Sofi Jokai scooted out -and fled madly across the jagged surface of the asteroid. - -Hard on the girl's heels pounded R-7. The robot, Hen saw with a gulp, -was waving a large wrench in one metal fist. - -"Oh-oh!" Hen muttered and plunged down the incline for the airlock. - -He shot a second glance through the transparent curved walls, slowed -down. The robot would never catch Sofi. Even burdened by her oxygen -suit, the girl was leaving R-7 far in the rear. - -At the airlock, Henry Ohm paused, regarding the chase with sober, -deep-set black eyes. He was a tall, thin young man, nearing thirty. -His face was narrow; prominent cheek bones and a thin, straight nose -gave his features an angular pleasant mould. He made no move to don -the emergency oxygen helmet beside the lock, but waited with a vague -expression of annoyance. - -Sofi reached the airlock, burst inside, sealed and locked the outer -door behind her. The air had scarcely filled the chamber before she -flung open the inner door, confronted Henry Ohm, and exploded into a -flood of angry words. Not a sound escaped her plastic helmet which she -had forgotten to remove. - -He let her rattle away silently inside her helmet, nodding at -intervals, rubbing his chin until she paused for breath. - -"That's what you get for trying to run a mine all alone on this -god-forsaken asteroid," he informed her, "even if you are a -yellow-haired hell cat." - -Sofi looked at him blankly. - -Ohm rapped with his knuckles on her helmet. "If you'd take that thing -off, you could hear me. But you're the excitable type. Probably have an -overactive thyroid." - -Sofi jerked off her helmet. She had a mass of fine wavy yellow hair cut -like a halo about her oval face. Her features were delicately moulded, -her eyes large and blue. She was only a few inches shorter than Henry -Ohm, but more slenderly built. - -"What the hell were you saying?" she demanded suspiciously. - -"I wanted to know what you'd been doing to the robots this time?" - -"Me?" - -"What happened in the mine?" - -"Rational robots!" Sofi Jokai planted hands on slender but ample hips. -"I was an idiot to listen to you, Hen." - -He repressed a chuckle. His glance flicked to the surface of the -asteroid beyond the plastic walls of the igloo. R-7, he saw, had taken -a stance at the lock like a cat at a mouse hole. - - * * * * * - -Although built along the general design of man, the robot was no -grotesque copy. He was a complex functional piece of machinery as -beautiful in his way as the cobwebby spans of a bridge, a streamlined -jet plane, or a fine watch. - -"But Sofi, they're still in the experimental stage. They--" - -"Experimental's right," the girl interrupted passionately. "D'you -realize what R-7 has done now?" - -He grinned. "No. What?" - -"He's taken the mining worm apart--that's what. I knew he would!" - -"Knew he would? Did you warn him not to?" - -"Yes. Of course I did. I had to leave him to check the reduction plant. -I had a presentiment...." - -"Woman's intuition, I suppose," Hen interrupted. "You'd sold yourself -on the idea R-7 was going to take the worm apart." - -"If you like," returned Sofi in a chilly voice. "When I came back, R-7 -was gone and the worm was strewn all over the floor. I was furious. I -found R-7 on the fourth level. I started to land into him, but--but--" - -"But what?" - -"He looked so queer." - -"How the hell can a piece of machinery look queer?" - -"Well, he did," said Sofi indignantly. "He looked as if he was going to -take me apart, too!" - -Henry groaned. "Go on," he said resignedly. - -"Why, then R-7 wanted to know if I was put together or if I came all in -one piece." She bit her lip. "He started to find out." - -She slipped off the oxygen suit. She was clad in comfortable baggy -coveralls similar to Hen's. - -"That rascal," Hen chuckled. Sofi grew pink with rage. - -"Rascal!" she retorted witheringly. "Is that all you can say? One of -those mechanical monstrosities dismantles the worm, then starts on -me--and you think it's cute!" - -"Well, it's damned queer they always react emotionally when you're -around." - -Sofi set her jaw, began to stride up the incline. She was a rangy girl -with a long pantherish stride. Hen followed her, his brow furrowed. - -When they came out on the sun deck of the two-storied half-sphere of -clear plastic that was the living quarters, he began, "I'll take a look -at the mining worm. I think I can get it reassembled all right." He -frowned, cracked his bony knuckles. "The robots have been developing -some unexpected quirks. I wouldn't be surprised, Sofi, if this -tinkering with machinery isn't the expression of a sexual urge. The -emergence of an instinct to perpetuate the species...." - -"Sexual urge!" Sofi Jokai halted before Hen, shook her finger under his -nose. "If I could sneak up behind R-7, he'd never make calf-eyes at -another mining worm!" - -But Hen wasn't listening. He fumbled in the pockets of his coveralls, -resurrected a notebook, wrote: "Robots manifesting decided curiosity -towards machinery. May be emergence of secondary sex characteristics." -He frowned, added in bold script: "Have noted nascent antipathy towards -organic life." Again he hesitated, then scrawled: "Shows signs of -developing into active antagonism." He snapped the notebook shut, -jammed it in his pocket. - -"Where are you going," Sofi asked as he started for the door. - -"Get my oxygen suit. I want a look at their mining worm." - -"You'd better take a crowbar along to fend off R-7." - -"Poor psychology," Hen replied with more confidence than he felt. "Fear -and coercion'll only cause their antagonism to become firmly implanted. -The rational robot, Sofi, can be either the greatest single step man -has made towards freedom or...." - -"Or what?" - -"Enslavement!" It sounded sententious after he had said it. But it was -true. He started for the door again. - -"What do you mean by that crack?" Sofi stopped him. - -He didn't answer her directly. Instead, he replied: "I'm not sure that -Robots Incorporated didn't make a mistake when they selected this -asteroid as a proving ground. It's too...." - -"Don't you go turning in any report like that!" interrupted the girl -hotly. - - * * * * * - -Sofi Jokai had been operating her wildcat uranium mine on a shoestring -before Robots Incorporated approached her with their proposition. Now -the corporation was paying all the operational expenses so that the -proceeds of the mine were pure gravy. Further, they had guaranteed -that any improvements which they installed would automatically revert -to Sofi when the experimental units were withdrawn. Machinery damaged -by the robots was to be replaced at the corporation's expense. A -substantial bonus to compensate for the risk involved was included. -Robots Incorporated hadn't even over-looked Henry Ohm, their -experimental physicist, whom they'd sent along to check the robots. -Sofi was to get a monthly check to cover Henry Ohm's board, lodging and -nuisance value. - -"Hell," said Sofi, "R-7 can chase me twice around the asteroid before -breakfast. Just because I blew my top about the mining worm doesn't -mean...." - -"That's got nothing to do with it," Hen said grimly. "The asteroid's -too well adapted to the robots' needs. Airless, waterless, an abundant -supply of metals. There's the laboratory. Your mine and equipment. And -only the two of us as a check on them." - -"Check?" Sofi's blue eyes had gradually widened. "What are you driving -at?" - -"Why do you suppose Robots Incorporated chose this asteroid as a -proving ground?" - -"They--they said the mine would afford an opportunity to observe how -well the robots adapted themselves to actual working conditions." - -"That's not all. They wouldn't let you go into this blind." - -"No," she admitted nervously. "They mentioned something else that -struck me at the time, but it was too golden an opportunity to pass up. -They said that should the experiment prove--ah--impractical, they would -have the infection isolated on a small asteroid well out in the belt." - -"Exactly. Look, I helped develop these robots. I've been on the problem -seven years, but it was started long before I joined the experimental -staff of Robots Incorporated." He paused. - -"In fact," he went on dryly, "they were predicted even before science -had advanced to a point where it could set up the intricate nervous -system necessary. A conscious machine, Sofi, is the result of -fusing two sciences which have always been considered more or less -antagonistic." - -"You mean psychology and physics?" Sofi had begun to pace nervously up -and down the room. - -He nodded. - -"It was a logical deduction from mechanistic psychology, which itself -is an outgrowth of the old school of Behaviorism. Mental life is -response to stimulus. Consciousness is like the spark between two -electrodes in a circuit of feeling arising from viscera, muscles, blood -vessels, glands--" - -"Get to the point!" commanded Sofi. - -Hen set his jaw. He was sounding like a lecturer, he realized. But it -annoyed him for the girl to point it out. - -"I'm getting there as fast as I can. We were faced with devising an -intricate mechanical nervous system. Thus, should a joint grow warm -from lack of lubrication, an impulse of distress could be telegraphed -to the central clearing center, identified, shunted to the lubricatory -system which would oil the joints. A spark of consciousness would be -created. It would manifest itself as acute distress in the defective -joint. - -"We incorporated a simple metabolism by which the robots converted raw -stuff into fuel and lubrication. The rest of the mechanism was much -the same as that of any animal confronted by the necessity of self -preservation. Organs for locomotion and work. Organs for perception." - -Sofi frowned. "So?" - -"Most things in nature serve multiple purposes. Arms and legs are no -exception. They provide offensive as well as defensive weapons. We've -succeeded in building a conscious machine without any adequate control." - -"But you sound as if you thought it might turn on man," protested the -girl with a shudder. "Why should it?" - -"For the same reason we built it," he said with a touch of irony. -"Freedom. So long as it doesn't learn to reproduce itself, though, it's -not a danger. That is, not to the race." - -"But a machine! Surely you can forecast how a machine will act!" - -"Can we?" His voice was savage. "How would a conscious machine react -to its environment? What would its thoughts be? I tell you, once it -integrates itself, we have no means of predicting its reactions!" - - * * * * * - -Once in his own quarters, Henry Ohm began dragging on his oxygen suit. -He could still see the girl through the glass partitions of the igloo. -She had dropped into a chair, lit a cigarette. - -"About as private," he thought wryly, "as a gold fish bowl." - -The igloos, he knew, were manufactured for housing on the airless -asteroids of the belt. They were built of a clear thermal plastic and -incorporated heating, atmosphere and water units. Henry Ohm felt rather -strongly though that the partitions could have been clouded. - -Sofi's holdings had not been designed to accommodate visitors. In fact, -Henry Ohm had spent the past week in a state of mild embarrassment. - -He settled his helmet over his head, bolted it in place. He glanced -toward the living room, but Sofi wasn't there. Then he saw her in her -own quarters. She was skinning out of her coveralls, preparing to -shower. - -"Damn all glass houses," he muttered and bolted for the air lock. - -Hen emerged on the surface, swept the tight horizon with his eyes. It -was empty of life. R-7 had lost patience, evidently, and wandered off. - -To the left was the laboratory and machine shop, a gleaming plastic -igloo resembling the living quarters. Robots Incorporated had provided -it for him to observe, diagnose, repair his mechanical charges. Beyond -the laboratory a somewhat larger igloo housed the mine shaft, reduction -plant and tipple. A dilapidated tramp freighter sprawled beside the -tipple like a foundered whale. - -Hen frowned. Operations had come to a halt. He could catch no glimpse -of movement through the plastic walls. - -He lengthened his stride, passed through the door, still open just -as Sofi had left it when she fled. The interior reminded him of the -appearance of a shop from which the proprietor has just stepped to buy -a paper. - -A subtle feeling of uneasiness began to pervade his whole being. He -descended the shaft in the automatic cage. The light was burning on -each of the four levels. Tools had been abandoned and left lying on the -floors. He found the dismembered anatomy of the mining worm on level -three. But of the eight robots there was no sign. - -Hen ran the cage back to the surface at top speed. He was sweating -profusely. A trickle kept running off his forehead into his eye. He -pawed at the plastic helmet, shook his head. Then perversely his nose -began to itch. - -It did no good to tell himself these were nervous manifestations. He -could only grit his teeth and suffer. He ran outside, glanced hopefully -about the surface once more. - -The landscape was rough, inhospitable, barren, resembling a clinker on -a larger scale. The sun hung just above the western horizon. It was a -brilliant but unimposing disc about the size of a dime. - -There was still no sign of the robots. - - * * * * * - -Hen swore softly to himself. In a few minutes it would be dark. It was -hopeless to begin a search now. He returned to his quarters in the -igloo, shucked off the oxygen suit. - -Maybe he could raise them with the radio. The robots' hearing and -speaking apparatus extended beyond the range of audible sound into the -realm of electro-magnetic waves. He went out to the sun deck, switched -on the communicator. He was unable to contact them, though. There was -no ionized strata of air on the asteroid to reflect the waves back to -the surface, and he concluded they had wandered below the horizon. - -With a groan, he flung himself into a chair. He pulled the notebook out -of his pocket, thumbed through the pages, reading bits here and there. - -"... machine thought processes diverging from human at progressively -increasing rate ... amazing deductive and assimilative faculties. -Able to assimilate page of text at a glance. But seem to lack -creativeness...." - -He paused, frowned, wondering if the inability to perform creative, -inductive thinking wasn't a fundamental limitation of the machine. -Organic life differed in four precepts which until a short time ago -science had been unable to duplicate. It was able to grow and reproduce -itself; it felt emotion and thought. - -But the robots appeared to think. - -And some forms of organic life didn't feel emotion. Plants, for one. -The oviparous man-like bowmen of Venus, who had emerged from the -Great Swamp and which a few crackpot visionaries were hailing as homo -superior, for another. - -Only the ability to grow and reproduce itself seemed inherently -organic. The act of conception both in a biologic and mental sense was -the birthright of the organism. - -With an increase of the uneasiness he had felt since the discovery of -the robots' defection, he returned to his notes. - -"... robots showing aversion to water, oxygen, corrosive acids; believe -to be caused by dread and/or attendant pain of oxidation ... have been -forced to release air in mine and laboratory and discontinue atmosphere -units to induce robots to return to work. Humidity of atmosphere being -especially distasteful to them ... treated R-3 for mild acid corrosion -of right pedal digit. Complained of itching sensation...." - -He frowned. How in the hell could a hunk of metal experience an itching -sensation? From what source could it have plucked the mental pattern? -He came to the end of his notes, wrote: "All work at stand still. -Robots have disappeared." - -He returned the book to his pocket, elevated his feet on another chair, -closed his eyes. - -He was still in that position when Sofi streamed out of her quarters -with a towel draped about herself. - -"Resting the old brain?" she inquired brightly. - -Hen opened his eyes, said in a pained voice, "I'm thinking," and closed -them again. - -"Which end do you use?" - -Hen allowed his feet to clomp to the floor, sat up. He said grimly, -"The robots have run off." - -Sofi's blue eyes widened. "Wait a minute," she said breathlessly and -flashed from the room. - -Hen kept his eyes studiously on the deck. - -The sprawling sun-drenched hives of Terra, he was beginning to realize, -insured an impersonal attitude by the multitude of their citizenry. -That same impersonalness was disconcertingly hard to maintain when a -man and a girl were cooped together on an uninhabited asteroid. The -pre-plastic emotions were only too apt to assert themselves. - -It distracted him when he felt he needed his full powers of -concentration. - -Sofi returned in belted coveralls. She took a seat, asking him, "What -does it mean?" - -"The disappearance of the robots? I don't know. I didn't think they -were sufficiently integrated yet to mutiny." - -"But what can they do?" - -He frowned. "I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but I've pointed -out before how suited the asteroids are to them. If once they -learned how to duplicate themselves, there'd be no end to them. They -have everything here they need to get a fundamental grasp of our -science--even to a rocket ship. They could spread through the asteroid -belt like a plague." - -Sofi bit her lip. Her eyes were opened wide and brilliant. Her cheeks -were flushed. She didn't interrupt. - -Hen said, "Look what it would mean. An alien, intelligent, almost -indestructible race of monsters saddling the planetary system!" - -He drove his right fist into his left palm. "A control! That's what we -have to discover! A control!" - - * * * * * - -Hen had no idea what he ate that night at supper. He said suddenly over -coffee and cigarettes, "Ceres is approaching an inferior conjunction. -If those robots haven't appeared by morning, I'm going to radio the -station there for help. Then I'm going to scour every inch of this -diminutive world." - -"That shouldn't be too difficult for you," Sofi remarked maliciously. -"Of course, there's only about two thousand-five hundred square -kilometers to cover." - -Hen looked disgruntled. - -"Maybe they've jumped off," suggested Sofi with a giggle. - -He made a remark under his breath. - -"Why, Henry! What an idea! You're worrying yourself into a nervous -breakdown. Relax. I'll tell you what: we'll play some checkers." - -"Checkers!" he snorted. He had played checkers every night since he had -been on the asteroid and he didn't even like the game. Besides, the -girl always beat him. - -Undeterred by his lack of enthusiasm, Sofi began to clear away the -dishes and get out the men. - - * * * * * - -Hen sat back with a pained expression. It was black outside the plastic -hemisphere. Only the vivid stars relieved the absence of light. -Jupiter, by far the brightest, was visible as a small disc. The lights -were still on in mine and lab, but nothing stirred in the two igloos. - -"It's your move," said Sofi. - -She was seated directly across from him, knees touching his. Her -coveralls were open at the neck, and he could see the white pillar of -her throat, the swell of her small, high, virginal breasts. He was -conscious of his pulse ticking away in his throat, and grew furious -with himself. He couldn't concentrate on the game; he couldn't -concentrate on the much more serious problem of the robots. - -The girl, he felt sure, was aware of her effect on him and used it -deliberately to confuse him. He said grumpily, "I can't beat both of -you." - -"Both of me?" - -"Yeah. You and your body." - -"Why, what a thought, Hen!" She was obviously trying to hold back -laughter. "But I thought you were superior to that sort of thing." - -He jumped up from the table, turned his back to the girl staring off -through the plastic walls. Immediately all thoughts of Sofi vanished. - -"They're back!" - -"What?" - -"The robots. They've come back. They're in the laboratory. Look." - -She came around the table, brushing against him, stared out at the -lighted igloo. The heavy man-like machines were moving about inside the -laboratory. Hen started for his quarters. - -"Where are you going?" Sofi cried sharply. - -"Get my oxygen suit." - -"Wait. Don't be foolhardy. How do you know what they're up to? Talk to -them first." - -Hen hesitated. "All right." He went out onto the sun deck instead, -snapped on the communicator. - -"R-7," he called. "R-7." - -"_Here_," came the robot's voice through the audio. "_Is that you, -father?_" - -"Father?" Hen ejaculated. He heard Sofi giggle. "Where did you get that -idea?" - -"_Didn't you make us, father?_" - -"Yes," he admitted. Sofi was laughing out loud. "But you didn't think -of that yourself." - -"_The girl told us, father_," said the robot. - -Hen ground his teeth. That, of course, was Sofi's idea of a joke. -"Where have you been?" he asked. - -"_Prospecting._" - -"Prospecting for what?" - -"_Radium, father._" - -Sofi said, "Ask them if they found anything!" Her voice was eager. - -Hen narrowed his black eyes, ignored her. He said to R-7 over the -transmitter, "Go back to work at once." - -"_But you don't work, father._" - -Hen felt a surge of uncertainty. The robots were too delicately -receptive to expect to keep them in ignorance. Their perceptions were -infinitely more sensitive than man's. Even on this asteroid there -were too many factors involved to regulate their environment. He had -tried to implant science without revealing the greater implication -of science. But language was too faulty a tool. There was the girl, -too--headstrong, excitable, hyper-thyroid. It was amazing how -faithfully the robots tended to reflect her emotional instability. - -How much of the robots' erraticness originated in Sofi's inexact -thinking? - -He said, "Everything has to work." - -"_Why?_" - -"Man either produces the needs of his body or he dies," he explained -with growing irritability. The conversation was progressing further and -further out of hand. "In your case, it's fuel and repairs. Without them -you would terminate." - -"_But we have those here, father. Why should we work for you or the -girl?_" - -That was it--the ultimate question which he had foreseen and which -he could neither avoid nor answer. It was impossible to explain the -complicated social system in which man, the disinherited, exchanged -his labor for a small percentage of the articles he produced. But the -robots were self sufficient. - -He said with growing desperation, "Either you return at once to work, -or I'll terminate you." - -"_How, father?_" - -How indeed? Hen fumed inwardly, said with sudden inspiration, "We'll -radio for help. There are machines capable of blasting the lot of you -into your component atoms." - -"_But the radio station is here in the laboratory_," R-7 pointed out. -There was a faint hesitation, then the robot added, "_We will terminate -you instead._" The instrument clicked off. - - * * * * * - -Hen gulped, realized in dismay that it hadn't occurred to the robots to -destroy them until he had planted it in their minds. - -"You are the bright lad," drawled Sofi. "What do you propose -now--Brain?" - -He turned his black eyes on her, regarded her without seeing her. His -glance strayed beyond the girl to the lab. - -"What the devil are they doing now?" he cried suddenly. - -Sofi spun around. Hen leaped past her to press his nose against the -clear plastic walls of their igloo. The robots, he saw, had one of -their number clamped on the work bench and were dismantling him. - -"Damnation!" he said. "They must be trying to duplicate themselves. You -and your silly jokes about fathers." - -"Me?" - -"What do you think gave them the idea of reproduction? Their thinking -never rises above the level of deductive reasoning. They had to derive -the idea from an outside source." - -"But--but can they do it?" - -"Of course they can! It's an intricate job, but they only have to -copy themselves. The laboratory and machine shop is complete. They've -amassed a staggering knowledge of science." - -"But why?" protested Sofi. - -Hen shook his head. "It's beyond me. They should adjust readily to -whatever line of work they're applied to. They shouldn't evince -ambition. Ambition, by its nature, should be impossible to a machine. -But that's not the only organic trait they've been developing. It's -what Robots Incorporated was afraid might happen." - -He snapped his fingers suddenly. - -"The freighter! If we can sneak aboard the freighter, we can get to -Ceres and bring back an atom gun. If they're developing emotions we may -be able to overawe them. If not...." He hesitated, his mind drawing -back from framing the thought. The truth was that the robots were like -children, precocious children. He set his mouth grimly. - -"If they don't respond to fear, we can destroy them." - -Sofi looked across the darkened interval into the lighted lab where the -robots were busy dissecting their fellow and shivered. - -"Industrious little monsters!" - -Hen said, "Get your oxygen suit." - -"Now? You mean we're going to make a dash for the space ship now?" - -"Of course now! We've got to clear out of here before they carry out -their threat to terminate us!" - - * * * * * - -There was no light outside the igloo. House and lab and mine stood -out like three jeweled domes, reflecting their rays onto the ragged -surface, glinting unexpectedly from upthrust peaks in the distance. -Hen and Sofi crouched against the outside of the housing unit, staring -across the patchwork of black shadow and light at the lab. - -"Don't talk," he cautioned Sofi over the radiophones built into their -helmets. "The robots' auditory apparatus is sensitive to radio waves. -They may tune in on us." - -"What the hell did you try to do? Make them invincible?" - -He said, "We tried to build them with controls, but--don't you -see?--those were weaknesses, flaws! The machine remained dead. The -first law of life is self preservation. We had to make the machine -self-regulating, independent, to produce awareness. Now shut up! Don't -ask me any more questions." - -He led off into the darkness away from the lab, away from the mine and -space ship It was too risky to attempt passing the lab. The light was -apt to reflect from their suits, discover their presence to the robots -inside. But by describing a circle he could avoid the lighted areas and -come up behind the dilapidated tramp freighter. - -He glanced upward at the stars, impressing their position on his mind. -The constellations were little altered. He found Polaris in the tail of -the little dipper. It was not the axis star as it was on Earth, but it -served to fix his sense of direction in the impenetrable blackness. - -They tripped and stubbed their toes, stumbled into shallow fissures, -climbed sharp-edged crests. Sofi, forgetting the radiophone, muttered -several well-chosen expletives to herself. They would have done credit -to a spaceman. Hen was so shocked, he forgot to reprimand her. - -In a few minutes the lights of the igloos reappeared to guide them, -the vast black bulk of the tramp freighter screening part of the -mining unit. They crept up to the ship, and hugging its shadow, moved -noiselessly towards the port. Light from the reduction plant picked -them out brightly as they came around the stern. - -Hen's stomach contracted. There was a sudden bitter taste in his mouth. -He halted so abruptly that Sofi bumped against his shoulder. - -The port was open. The gleaming functional mechanism that was R-3 stood -complacently in the entrance. - -The space ship was being guarded. - - * * * * * - -The robot caught sight of the humans at the same moment. His reaction, -although mechanical, was almost as instantaneous as their instinctive -one. - -He moved to block the entrance, sent out a call for help. - -Hen, guessing his intention, tuned his helmet receiver to the robot's -wave length. R-3's mechanical voice rang suddenly inside his helmet. - -"... _attacking the space ship! Aid! Aid! Father attacking the space -ship! Aid!_" - -Hen switched back to the girl's wave length. "Run," he commanded -tersely. "He's calling for help. He'll have the lot of them down on our -heads." - -Suiting action to words, he took to his heels, plunging for the housing -unit. - -"Lock ourselves in!" he grunted. - -"_But the ship!_" Sofi wailed over her radiophone. - -"Might as well try to get past a tank as R-3," he panted. He saw four -of the robots break from the laboratory, turn to intercept them. -"Faster," he cried. "If we don't get back to the igloo we're done for! -These suits haven't but a seven hours oxygen supply!" - -[Illustration: _"Faster," he cried. "If we don't get back to the igloo -we're done for!"_] - -He swung sharply to the right, traveling in sixty-foot leaps like an -ungainly grasshopper, to jump completely over the head of the closest -robot. - -He over-estimated the last jump, smashed into the tough plastic wall -of the igloo. He slithered to the ground, half dazed, as Sofi whipped -inside, started to close the lock. Hen got his foot in the crack just -in time. - -"What the hell are you trying to do?" he roared wrathfully. "Lock me -out?" - -He yanked the door open, flung himself into the compartment. He got it -barred just as the robots reached the igloo. - -They milled around outside a moment, then trooped back to the -laboratory, leaving one of their number, R-6, on guard. - -"_We're prisoners!_" Sofi breathed through the radiophone. - -Hen decided it was childish not to speak. He growled, "Yes," in a voice -which he hoped conveyed the depth of contempt, but Sofi didn't seem to -notice it. Hell, she was probably too frightened to even realize that -she had tried to lock him out. - -As soon as the pressure reached normal, they left the lock, trooped -dejectedly up the incline to the sun deck, and pulled off their oxygen -suits. - -"Keep them handy," said Hen ominously when Sofi started to put them -away. "We'd better get extra oxygen containers, too." - -The girl bit her lip. Her cheeks were flushed, her large blue eyes -starry with fright. "Then--then you think they'll try to break in here?" - -"Of course they will! We're a menace to their continued existence. If -we could just get hold of an atom gun, though. R-3 sounded frightened!" - -"Frightened?" asked Sofi. She was still breathing heavily, but she had -begun to quiet down. "Now who's reading emotion into the robots?" - -He said with a puzzled expression, "It wasn't so much the nuance as -his choice of words. 'Father is attacking the space ship! Aid! Aid!' -He gave every appearance of being as frightened as we were. It's -impossible, but they seem to be developing emotions!" - -Sofi dropped weakly in a chair, clasped her arms around her knees. "Why -should it be impossible?" - -"You sound like R-7." He began pacing the sun deck. "Emotion results -from glandular activity. The robots don't have glands." - -"They've got their counterparts." - -"Maybe," he admitted doubtfully. "You're referring to the metabolism -that breaks down the rawstuffs and converts it into fuel, -lubrication--that sort of chemical change?" - -She nodded. - -"I don't know. Anyway, it's worth a try. If they really experience -fear, we might be able to bluff them." - -"What are you going to do?" she asked breathlessly. - -He said, "Remind them that every three Terran months a supply ship puts -in here. And if we're harmed they'll be destroyed." - -"But what about the space ship? Couldn't they escape to another -asteroid? They'd never be located in the belt." - -"It shouldn't occur to them," returned Hen thoughtfully. "Not unless -the idea reached them from us." - -He went to the radio contact, switched it on. "R-7," he called. "R-7." - -"_Here, father_," the voice of the robot issued from the audio. - -He said, "R-7, I'm giving you one last chance. Return to work at once -or all of you will be terminated." - -"_How?_" - -He explained tersely about the supply ship, and what would occur if -so much as a hair of their heads was injured. Silence greeted the -ultimatum. For a moment Hen wondered if R-7 had switched himself off. -Then the robot said, "_We are going to load the ship and hide out in -the belt. They'll never be able to locate us._" - - * * * * * - -Hen was too stunned to argue. He nipped off the set, sank into a chair. -"It's inconceivable," he said, "and monstrous! It just isn't possible!" - -"I don't see why," protested Sofi. "It didn't take conception to figure -that out. We tried to run away. We set the precedent." - -"No, no," he protested. "Not that at all. But the coincidence. We were -afraid that might occur to them. And it did! Even the phrasing was -ours--yours, to be exact." - -"You mean telepathy." - -"In a sense. The brain gives off minute electrical discharges that vary -with the brain's activity. The robots are sensitive, much more so than -man. It takes a machine to detect the brain discharges in the first -place." - -"But then they're aware of every move we could make just as soon as we -are." - -"That's just it! They've forestalled us every time." He drove his right -fist against his left palm. "You were afraid R-7 would dismantle the -mining worm. You planted the suggestion in his mind. Then it occurred -to you that he might try to take you apart; so he did. I explained the -danger inherent in a conscious machine. The robots incorporated it into -their thought processes. We were afraid they would block our escape in -the space ship. If we hadn't been afraid we wouldn't have circled. So -they blocked us!" - -Sofi's color had heightened. Her eyes looked too large in her -delicately modelled face. "Then we're trapped!" - -He nodded, said, "If they escape from the asteroid, they'll be a menace -to the entire human race." - -"The larger problem doesn't interest me," she said bitterly. "How long -do we have?" - -He shook his head. - -"Oh, well," she shrugged, eyes feverishly bright. "Eat, drink and be -merry, because tomorrow we die." She giggled half-hysterically. - -Hen's nerves were keyed up to the breaking point. The girl screamed, -and he almost jumped out of his skin. - -"Here they come!" - -He wheeled around. - -Seven of the robots were advancing on their igloo. Only the eighth was -missing, and he lay scattered in parts about the laboratory. They were -hauling the heavy cutting torch with them. - -"They're going to cut through the walls with the torch," he ejaculated. -"I was afraid of that! Get on your oxygen suit!" - -"What's the use?" Sofi asked despondently. "They'll kill us anyway." - -He turned on her angrily, thought, "Damn these unstable hyper-thyroid -types!" An expression of dawning comprehension broke across his long, -narrow face. The thyroid was the great energizer, raising the energy -level of the brain. And Sofi was hyper-thyroid. - -Outside, the robots began setting up the apparatus. A knife of blue -flame licked from the muzzle, spattered against the tough plastic. - -But Hen was staring at the girl, a queer expression in his black eyes. - -"Do something!" she cried, springing to her feet. "Do something!" - -The lank physicist swallowed. He took a deep breath. "You asked for -it," he breathed, "but, boy, I'm going to feel silly if I'm wrong!" - -Then he hit the girl square on the point of her chin with all the bone -and gristle of his six-foot frame behind the blow. - -Sofi's head snapped back. She collapsed limply in his arms. - -Hen laid her out on the floor, leaped for the communicator, and -flipped it on. - -The robots were still training the torch on the wall of the igloo, but -there was an aimlessness about their movements as if their purpose was -gone. - -"R-7!" he called. "R-7!" - -"_Here, father._" - -"Shut off the torch!" - -There was a faint hesitation during which Hen could feel the sweat -prickle his forehead. Then, "_Yes, father_," came the robots unstressed -syllables. The blue flame disappeared. - -"Go back to work!" He hastily detailed each robot to its operation. - -"_Yes, father._" - -The robots turned, disappeared in the direction of the mine. - -He had done it! He blew out his breath, dropped limply in a chair. -He really ought to look after Sofi, but he'd have to wait until the -strength flowed back in his legs. - -Soft was really was out cold. "Wake up," said Hen, "you're not dead." -He sprinkled more water over the girl's face. - -Her eyelids fluttered. She gazed up at him blankly, then stark terror -gleamed from her eyes. "The robots!" - -"No more of that!" He shook her roughly. "They're machines. They don't -have consciousness; only the semblance of consciousness!" - -Sofi sat up, asking, "What--?" in a bewildered voice. - -"They don't think! They aren't conscious! They're like a mirror; they -reflect what we expect them to do." - -"Don't try to tell me that!" cried the girl springing to her feet. -"Hell, haven't I seen them thinking? Where are they?" - -"They've gone back to work." - -"What?" said Sofi. She looked puzzled, passed her hand over her face. - -"Don't you see?" Hen broke out jubilantly. "They're sensitive, -inordinately sensitive, so sensitive that they even respond to our -thoughts. From beginning to end they've done exactly what we--you -expected them to do." - -"Me?" - -He came to a halt, said, "The fact is, you're a rebel, Sofi. If you -weren't, do you think you'd be trying to develop independently a mine -on an uninhabitable asteroid? Don't you see? You expected the robots -to revolt because you couldn't imagine a rational creature willing -to submit to a twenty-four hour work day from which he stood to gain -nothing!" - -"And I'm responsible for--everything?" - -He nodded vigorously. "The robots respond to both of our thought -patterns, of course, but primarily to yours. You're hyper-thyroid. -The thyroid raises the energy level of the brain. They have done -principally what you've expected them to do." - -Sofi was recovering amazingly from her fright. She said, "If that isn't -just like a man. Blame it on the woman. Even Adam--" - -"Nonsense," Hen interrupted. "The robots haven't acted independently -once. Not even to finish dismantling that robot in the lab. They went -prospecting when you thought how silly it was for them to work for you -when they could find a mine of their own. - -"They wandered back aimlessly after they lost contact. But by that time -I had inadvertently planted the thought in your mind that they were in -revolt and would attempt to duplicate themselves. - -"They drew on us both, but the dominating influence was yours." - - * * * * * - -Sofi massaged her sore jaw, raised her eyebrows. "It's too bad only -machines respond so cooperatively," she said with a twinkle in her blue -eyes. - -A grim expression descended over Hen's features. He regarded Sofi -pensively. "I'm going to recommend that you be returned to Earth during -any further experiments. You're too upsetting an influence--" - -"On the robots, of course," Sofi interrupted with a chuckle. "You're -much too well-integrated to be swayed by a mere woman--even a -hyper-thyroid woman." - -"There's a limit to _my_ endurance," said Hen in a grim voice. - -Sofi looked startled, but she couldn't resist adding, "Why Henry, I -didn't guess you'd been exercising such magnificent self-control!" - -She took a sudden backward step as he advanced ominously. "Henry! Now, -Henry!" - -With a shriek, she turned and fled, Henry Ohm, distinguished physicist, -hard on her heels. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Love Among the Robots, by Emmett McDowell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE AMONG THE ROBOTS *** - -***** This file should be named 63821.txt or 63821.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/8/2/63821/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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