Derec could hardly believe his ears. She was asking him to accept exactly what he had wanted all along. “Can I accept that? I love it. I love you!” He took her hand and pulled her up from the bed, put his arms around her, and kissed her passionately.
Behind him, the door chimed softly and Mandelbrot’s voice said, “Dinner is ready.”
“Damn.”
One of the nice things about a cellular ship, Derec discovered, was that the common room was much more than just a place with a table in it. As dinner wound down and the mood shifted toward the pleasant lethargy that comes after a good meal, the table enclosed over the dirty dishes, dropped into the floor, and the chairs widened and softened from dining chairs to evening couches, simultaneously moving back to give the room a less-crowded atmosphere. The lighting dimmed and soft music began to play.
Derec merged his chair with Ariel’s and put his arm around her. She leaned her head over to rest on his shoulder, closing her eyes. His hand automatically went to her upper back and began rubbing softly, kneading the muscles at the base of her neck and shoulders.
“Oh, yeah,” she murmured, bending forward so he could reach the rest of her back.
The robots had not eaten dinner, so they were not sitting in chairs, but instead stood unobtrusively beside and behind the four who were seated. Avery was leaning back with eyes closed, off in his own universe somewhere, but Wolruf watched Derec and Ariel with open interest. At last she sighed and said, “That looks ‘onderful.” Turning to Eve, she asked,” ‘ow about it? You scratch mine; I’ll scratch yours.”
“I have no need to have my back scratched,” Eve replied without moving.
Somewhat taken aback, Wolruf said, “Do mine anyway, please,” and turned to give Eve an easy reach.
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to ‘ave my back scratched,” Wolruf said, a hint of a growl to her voice now.
“Perhaps you are not aware that I am engaged in conversation with Adam and Lucius.”
Derec had stopped scratching as well, and was looking at Eve with an astonished expression. Hadn’t they been ordered not to use their comlinks when humans were present? No, he remembered now. That had been just a suggestion, and from another robot at that. They could ignore it if they wanted. But this business with Wolruf-this was different.
“What does your conversation have to do with anything?” he asked. “She wants you to scratch her back. That’s as good as an order.”
“Wolruf is not human. Therefore I need not be concerned with her wishes.”
“You wha-? That’s absurd. I order you to-”
“Wait a minute.” It was Avery, evidently not so far away as he had appeared. “This is intriguing. Let’s check it out. Wolruf, order her to scratch your back.”
It was hard to read expression on the alien’s scrunched-in canine face, but Derec was sure he was seeing exasperation now. Wolruf took a deep breath, shook her head once, then said, “All ri’. Eve, I order you to scratch my back.”
Eve stood her ground. “I refuse.”
“Order Lucius to do it,” Avery said.
“Lucius, scratch my-”
“I refuse also,” Lucius interrupted.
“Adam,” Wolruf said, taking Avery’s nod in Adam’s direction as her cue, “you scratch my back. Please.”
The small politeness made a difference, but not the one Wolruf had hoped for. Adam said, “I do not wish to offend, but I find that I must refuse as well.”
“Why?”Wolruf asked, slumping back into her chair, resigned to having an unscratched back.
“Wait. Wolruf, there’s one more robot here.”
Wolruf looked to Mandelbrot, standing directly behind Derec and Ariel’s chair. Mandelbrot didn’t wait for her order, but moved silently over to Wolruf and reached out to scratch the alien’s furry back.
“Thank you,” Wolruf said with a sigh.
“You are quite welcome, Master Wolruf,” Mandelbrot said, and Derec would have sworn he heard a slight twist to the word “master.” Could Mandelbrot disapprove of another robot’s conduct? Evidently so.
“Interesting,” Avery said. “Eve, turn around to face the wall.”
Silently, Eve obeyed.
“Hold your right hand out to the side and wiggle your fingers.”
Eve obeyed again.
“Adam and Lucius, follow the same orders I just gave Eve.”
The two other robots also turned to face the wall, held their right hands out, and wiggled their fingers.
“That’s a relief,” Avery said. “For a second there I thought they’d quit obeying altogether.”
“Relief to you, maybe,” said Wolruf, shifting so Mandelbrot could reach her entire back.
“It looks like they’ve independently decided what makes a human and what doesn’t. Am I right?”
Silence. Three robots stood facing the wall, their right hands fluttering like tethered butterflies.
“Lucius, am I right?”
“You are correct, Dr. Avery,” the robot answered.
“So what’s your definition?”
“We presently define ‘human’ as a sentient being possessing a genetic code similar to that which I found in the Robot City library under the label ‘human.’”
“A sentient being,” Avery echoed. “So those rats of yours still don’t qualify?”
“That is correct.”
“How do you know Avery has the proper code’?” asked Derec.
“He has medical records on file. We accessed them when the question first arose. We also examined yours and Ariel’s.”
“But not Wolruf’s.”
“There was no need. Her physical appearance rules out the possibility that she might be human.”
“Even though she’s obviously sentient.”
“That is correct. A being must be both sentient and carry the proper genetic code to be human.”
“What about the baby I’m carrying?” Ariel asked. “Isn’t my baby human?”
Lucius was silent for a moment, then he said, “Not at present. The embryo cannot formulate an order, nor does it require protection beyond that which we would normally provide you; therefore we need not be concerned with it.”
“That sounds kind of heartless.”
“We possess microfusion power generators. What do you expect?”
Adam spoke up. “May we stop wiggling our fingers? It serves no useful purpose.”
“No, you may not,” Avery said. “It pleases me to see you following orders.”
“Enough,” Wolruf growled, whether to Mandelbrot or to the humans neither knew. Mandelbrot stopped scratching her back as Wolruf stood up and said, “This is depressing. I thinkI’ll go check on our jump schedule.” She favored the three hand-fluttering robots with a sour look, then moved off toward the control room.
“Listen here,” Derec said when she was gone. “I order all of you to-”
“Wait,” Avery interrupted. “You were about to order them to follow her orders, weren’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“Let’s wait on that. Let’s see if-just a minute. You three, stop moving your hands.”
The robots stopped moving their hands. On their own, they dropped those hands back to their sides. Avery frowned at that, but said simply, “When I tell you to give me privacy, I want you to stop listening to our conversation. Filter out everything but the words ‘return to service,’ upon which you will begin listening again. Do not use your comlink in the meantime. In fact, this is a general order: Do not use your comlink for conversation between yourselves. Do you understand that?”