"I think you mean brushing up.”
“If you say so."
"You're not very comfortable with human idioms, are you, Mandelbrot?"
"I can be neither comfortable nor uncomfortable conversing with them. But I take you to mean it is sometimes difficult for me to translate their peculiar surface meanings in practical terms. For instance, how do you brush up someone who is ancient history? In that respect, I do sometimes have problems communicating. But about this project…"
"All right, I'll tell you. But wait-where's Wolruf?”
“With Miss Ariel. I think Wolruf is performing some task. Forgive me if I am again misphrasing it, but she is being Miss Ariel's line coach."
"Ssh. Quiet. Listen."
And Derec heard, very softly, through the closed door, Ariel speaking the words, "Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword; the expectancy and rose of the fair state, the glass of fashion and the mould of form, the observed of all observers, is, er, ah-"
"Kwei-it," said Wolruf in a low volume that wasn't hushed enough to be called a whisper, but was probably as close to one as she could manage.
"Quite, quite down!" Ariel finished enthusiastically.
"Hmm, it seems my second bit of casting is almost complete," said Derec.
"Casting, master?" said Mandelbrot. "You are having a cast made? Have you injured yourself?"
"No, not at all," Derec replied, laughing.
"I must say, it seemed you were hiding your suffering awfully well."
"It's my hobby. Listen, tell me what you would do with the robot that dismantled Lucius." The sudden shock of the image of the robot lying there, behind the closed door to his office, sent a tremor of loss and grief through Derec's veins. And of terror, too. He'd never before thought robots were things that could die. He'd always assumed they were immortal in a way that life could never be.
"Forgive me, master, but I would think nothing of it. I would merely follow your instructions."
"And what if I wasn't around to give you instructions? What if you had to decide when you were on your own?"
"First, I would solicit the robot's explanation, and learn of any justifications for its actions, if any, it may have had, particularly as they involved its interpretation of the Three Laws."
"But there is no law against a robot harming another robot."
"Of course, and the robot in question may have been operating on instructions from a human. But I gather such is not the case here.”
“Well, yes…”
“So after having received the explanation, I would take the safest course and have the robot closed down until the proper repairs could be administered, or until instructions could be received from human sources."
"That could take a long time, particularly here on Robot City."
"No harm would be done. Upon reactivation, if that is what is decided upon, the robot would behave as if it had just been shut down for a tune-up the day before."
"Hmm. But what if there was something you needed from the robot?"
"Then that would depend on what you needed, and how badly you needed it."
"I'm glad you feel that way, not that you can feel, I know, but it makes me feel better to know your logic circuits concur with some of this…" And he explained to Mandelbrot his theory that a creative robot with a scientific bent might be able to make a diagnostic breakthrough to help Ariel.
"But how do you know that Canute possesses scientific talents?"
"I don't. But I may be able to use its mind to help me learn more about what's happening to the robots in this place. And I need to do it-to get Canute to admit to its error without drifting out in the process. That's one reason why I'm putting on this play."
"This play?"
"Hamlet.by William Shakespeare. Quiet; listen."
Ariel's voice came through the door, muffled but quite clear as she repeated and then continued the speech she had rehearsed earlier, this time in louder, more confident cadences. "And I of ladies most deject and wretched, that suck'd the honey of his music vows, now see that noble and most sovereign reason, like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh."
"Isn't that beautiful?" Derec gushed.
"The words, master, or Miss Ariel saying them?”
“Have you been talking to Harry?"
"Master, I do not understand your implication."
"Never mind. Anyway, I'm going to use this playas a lightning rod, to draw every robot with creative tendencies to the same place, working on a group project, and then see what develops. I don't know what's going on here, but whatever it is, I'm going to bust it wide open!"
Someone knocked on the door. "Get that, will you?" Derec asked as he turned toward Ariel's office. "Ariel? This is your director speaking! Come out here, will your'
Ariel came out in a flash, followed by a bounding Wolruf. "Director?" she said. "Then who's going to be my leading man?"
"Oh? When you found out about this production, how did you know you were going to be Ophelia?"
"Because clearly I possess all the mental and physical qualifications. Who better to playa girl who's going insane than one who really is? Of course, I don't know who's going to play Hamlet's mother, but that's not my problem, is it?"
At least she's keeping her sense of humor about things,Derec thought. "No-it's your director's-and your leading man's."
Ariel grinned and bowed. "At your service, Mr. Director."
"Master-"
"Yes, Mandelbrot."
"Forgive the intrusion, Master Derec and Mistress Ariel, but Harry, Benny, and M334 are at the door. They said they had vibes to present to you."
"Vibess?" said Wolruf. "Not ni-ice word on my would."
"Yes, but who knows what it means here," said Ariel. "Send them in, Mandelbrot."
"Yes, I suppose we have to begin interviewing for our cast and crew sooner than later," said Derec.
In walked the three robots, each carrying brass objects. Each object struck Derec as being rather strange. M334 held a tube with two dozen keys, with what appeared to be a mouthpiece on one end. It was evidently a wind instrument, though what sort of sound it was supposed to make, Derec had no way of imagining.
Nor did he know what sort of sounds he might expect from the other two instruments held by the other two robots. Benny's was smaller than M334's, and could be easily held in one hand; there were three taps on the top, presumably to modulate the sonic textures. Harry's was the straightest and the longest of the three; it had a sliding device that evidently would lengthen or shorten the tubing to match the player's will, again presumably to modulate the sound.
"Good day, sir," said Benny. "We can only presume we are interrupting your preparations-"
"Good grief, word travels fast around here!" Ariel exclaimed.
" Youfound out, didn't you?" said Derec. Ariel shrugged. "I heard it from Wolruf."
"And how did you hear about it, Wolruf?" Derec asked.
Wolruf merely shrugged. The effort made her entire body quiver.
"-and so we thought you might want to see for yourself the results of a project we have been devoting ourselves to instead of closing down in our spare time," finished Benny, as if no one else had spoken.
"Ah, and what is the nature of this project?" Derec asked suspiciously.
"Originally it was purely musical," said Benny.
"But when we heard you were planning to engage us in a recreation of human art forms, we performed research and discovered that music was often a significant part of such functions," said Harry.
"That struck us as being particularly fortuitous," said M334. "We thought-perhaps presumptuously, but how could we tell if we refrained from inquiring?-that our music might make a significant contribution to the enterprise."
"Uh, what kind of music are we attempting here, with those things?" Ariel asked. " Auroran nouveau fugues? Tantorian ecto-variations?"
"Something close to period, Terran-style," said Harry.