“We Maserds are permitted to discuss anything among ourselves,” Biron answered. He nodded toward the pale-haired cyborg. “Cloudia Duma-Hinriad is my great-great-grandmother. “
Daneel smiled. “Very clever, but the Zeroth Law won’t allow me to accept that attempt to evade our agreement. Not if it might imperil humanity’s long-term salvation.”
“And of courseyou are the one to determine what form that salvation shall take?” R. Gornon asked, in a voice that resonated, both desperate and sarcastic.
“That has been my burden ever since blessed Giskard and I discovered the Zeroth Law.”
“And look at what it has cost.” R. Gornon gestured toward the glowing radioactive ruins. “Your great Galactic Empire kept the peace and staved off chaos, by eliminating diversity! Humanity must shun whatever is alien or strange, whether it comes from within or from the outside.”
Daneel shook his head. “Now is not the time to resume our ancient argument-over your proposedMinus One Law. The transition boundary approaches. For Hari’s sake and for the sake of the Plan, I must insist that you lower this platform at once.”
“What is the harm in letting Seldon see the world five centuries from now?” asked Zorma. “His work in this period is done. You said so yourself. Why not let humans be involved in the decision, when yoursalvation is ready?”
Daneel glanced at the brightening glow within the sarcophagus. Already their reflections could be seen on an expanding mirrorlike bubble, approaching gradually but inexorably. He looked back at Zorma.
“Is that your chief concern? I am willing to make a vow, on the memory of Giskard, and by the Zeroth Law. When my solution is ready, humanity will be consulted. It will not be imposed on human beings without their sovereign decision.”
If this satisfied Zorma and Cloudia, R. Gornon still cried out.
“I know you and your tricks, Olivaw. You will stack the decks, somehow. I insist that Hari Seldon be allowed to go!” Daneel raised an eyebrow. “Youinsist?”
Apparently that word had some special meaning among robots. For at that moment, the world exploded around Hari in a sudden blur.
Beams of searing light shot forth from both of R. Gornon’s hands. Daneel Olivaw replied in kind. Nor were those the only combatants.
Abruptly, parts of the surrounding scaffolding detached themselves from the matrix of wooden planks, revealing themselves to be robots, camouflaged amid the latticework! These now leaped to support Daneel.
In response, searing rays were fired by Gornon’s supporters on the surrounding rubble piles. Horis Antic screamed, diving for cover. Gaal Dornick went pale and fainted. But no humans seemed to be involved in the melee-either as fighters or as victims!
Cutting lancets of force swept between Hari’s legs and under his arms, or lashed by his head, missing by centimeters…but nothing actually touched his flesh. It was meticulous combat, in which avoiding injury to human bystanders took utmost priority, and Hari’s biggest danger came from a rain of shattered and smoldering robot parts falling everywhere.
It didn’t last long. Surely, R. Gornon never expected to prevail. Yet, Hari’s first concern was for the one robot who remained standing when it was all over.
“You are wounded! Is it serious?” he asked his old friend and mentor.
Curls of smoke rose from several places along Daneel’s humaniform body, where clothes and fleshy outer coverings had burned away to reveal a gleaming surface-armor resistant to anything but sunlike force. To Hari it was a reminder of legends he had read inA Child’s Book of Knowledge, stories of gods and titans-immortal beings combating each other, beyond any power of human interference.
Daneel Olivaw stood amid the wreckage, gazing with apparently genuine sadness at the wastage of his kinfolk.
“I am well, old friend Hari.”
Daneel turned to glance at Zorma and Cloudia. “By your inaction, can I assume that my promise will satisfy you? For the next five centuries?”
The two “women” nodded as one. Zorma answered for them both.
“That’s not so long to wait. We hope you’ll keep us informed about your plans for human salvation, Daneel. Above all, we pray your Plan is a noble one forboth of our long-suffering races.”
Hari noted the implied message.
In your devotion to human posterity, don’t leave out something for the robots.
But he knew his lifelong friend too well. The servant race would not get even a minor priority. Only humanity mattered to Daneel.
“And now it is time for us to leave this dangerous place,” Olivaw said, reaching for the lever that would start the platform’s descent.
Just then Wanda Seldon uttered a cry.
“Maserd! I just realized…he’s gone!”
They peered in all directions, some of them using greatly enhanced positronic senses, but the nobleman from Rhodia wasn’t present. Either he had clambered swiftly down the scaffolding during the fight, or else
Or else Daneel will have two resilient humans to deal with, in a few centuries,Hari thought, as the platform started moving slowly downward.Daneel had better not forget to have someone waiting here, because if those two ever became allies….
There was no proof that Maserd had dived into the glowing ball, which now filled the entire volume of the sarcophagus, sending forth brilliant rays of light, whose colors Hari could not describe and could swear he had never seen before in his life.
Having watched omnipotent immortals battle it out, just moments before, Hari knew there was very little that even Mors Planch or Biron Maserd could accomplish if they were let loose in the galaxy’s future. He had a strong picture of what kinds of societies would be floundering, and sometimes flourishing, in that era-to-come. His Foundation would already dominate the opposite side of the galaxy, but the effects would hardly be visible here on the homeworld-long-forgotten Earth.
With a sigh, he wished the two men well…wherever and whenever they had gone.
The ground approached, tormented by ancient, barely remembered crimes. He glanced once more up at the glow emanating from the sarcophagus.
I admit I was sorely tempted. It would have been one hell of an adventure, especially if they made me young again.
Hari closed his eyes, feeling the strong but gentle clasp of his old comrade Daneel around his shoulders, steadying his frail body as the makeshift elevator bumped to its final rest. He let Daneel turn him around, guiding his footsteps back toward the Earthling camp-as he had let others guide his life from the very beginning, though for most of that span he never quite realized it.
9.
The next morning, while Earthling work gangs labored to clean up the battle debris, Daneel and Hari met with Zorma and Cloudia outside their swift starship, as they prepared to depart.
“Cloudia, I urge you. If your grandson ever contacts you, persuade him not to interfere. Great momentum is building toward a climax, five or six centuries from now. If Biron tries to deflect this juggernaut, I’m afraid he will only get hurt.”
The human cyborg nodded, and Hari noted-perhaps a little enviously-the youthful strength of her supple figure. Not counting replaced parts, she was much older than he. Her expression was patient, yet sardonic.
“That is, if he shows up. You may see him before I do, Daneel, if he dived through after Mors Planch, and if you are waiting here when he arrives in that future era. If so, be gentle with the boy. He means well.”
“I am nearly always gentle. But if he means well, why did he steal Hari Seldon’s copy of the psychohistorical Prime Radiant? I scanned Gornon’s ship, and found ample evidence that Maserd was the culprit.”
Cloudia offered a grim smile. “We Hinriads tend to be pack rats when it comes to acquiring knowledge. We can’t get enough. You should know that by now, after eighteen thousand years. We are the only human group that ever fought you to a standstill and forced you to agree to terms.”