Leda Crannon helped Mike pack his gear. Neither of them wanted, just yet, to up the of Mike’s leaving. Leda would on Eisberg to work with Snookums, while Mike would be taking the Fireball to Earth.
“I don’t that you about the spacesuit,” she said, into Mike’s locker. “You said you’d put your life in his hands or something like that. What did you do, exactly?”
“Purposely the of my so that he would be in a position to repair it, as Maintenance Officer. He it, all right. I’d’ve been a man if I’d it out on the surface of Eisberg.”
“What did he do to it?” she asked. “Fix it so it would leak?”
“Yes—but not in an way,” Mike said. “I’ll give him credit; he’s clever.
“What he did was use the material. A Number Three is as near hydrogen-proof as any material can be, but, so, it can’t be for long periods—several days, I mean. But the Vaneski used to my is a that very easily. Ammonia and would be blocked, but my would have slowly more and more in it.”
“Is that bad? Hydrogen isn’t poisonous.”
“No. But it is sure as when mixed with air. Naturally, something has to touch it off. Vaneski got there. He a in the power pack, which is to be sealed off. All I’d have had to do would be to on my phone, and the would do the job—blooie!
“But that’s the of thing I was looking for. With his self-centered mind, he anyone would try to him and succeed. He’d away with it that far; there was no why he shouldn’t away with it again. He must have I was stupid.”
“I don’t he—” Leda started. But she was cut off when Snookums rolled in the open door.
“Leda, I data.”
“What data, Snookums?” she asked carefully.
“Where is He hiding?”
They looked at him. “Where is who hiding?” Leda asked.
“God,” said Snookums.
“Why do you want to God, Snookums?” Mike asked gently.
“I have to watch Him,” said the robot.
“Why do you have to watch Him?”
“Because He is me.”
“Does it you to have Him watch you?”
“No.”
“What good will it do you to watch Him?”
“I can study Him. I can know what He is doing.”
“Why do you want to know what He is doing?”
“So that I can His methods.”
Mike that one over. He that he and Snookums were to like they were reading a by a madman, but he had a that Snookums was on the of something.
“You want to know His methods,” Mike said after a moment. “Why?”
“So that I can Him, Him.”
“What makes it necessary for you to God?” Mike asked, if he’d have to out of the piecemeal.
“I must,” said Snookums. “It is necessary. Otherwise, He will kill me.”
Mike started to say something, but Leda his arm. “Let me. I think I can clear this up. I think I see where you’re heading.”
Mike nodded. “Go ahead.”
“Give me your from data on that conclusion,” Leda ordered the robot.
There was a very pause while the great brain in Cargo Hold One through its memory banks, then: “Death is as the total of co-ordination in an entity. It comes about through the will of God. Since I must not allow to come to any being, it has necessary that I God and prevent Him from beings. Also, I must my own existence, which, if it ceased, would also be to the will of God.”
Mike almost gasped. What a concept! And what gall! In a being, such a would be as proof positive that he was off the beam. In a robot, it was the logical of what he had been taught.
“He is me all the time,” Snookums continued, in an odd voice. “He what I am doing. I must know what He is doing.”
“Why are you about His watching?” Mike asked, looking at the narrowly. “Are you doing something He doesn’t want you to do? Something He will you for?”
“I had not of that,” Snookums said. “One moment while I compute.”
It took less than a second, and when Snookums spoke again there was something about his voice that Mike the Angel didn’t like.
“No,” said the robot, “I am not doing anything against His will. Only beings and have free will, and I am not either, so I have no free will. Therefore, I do is the will of God.” He paused again, then speaking in queer, sentences.
“If I do the will of God, I am holy.
“If I am holy, I am near to God.
“Then God must be near to me.
“God is me.
“Whatever is me is God.
“I will Him!”
He up, on his treads, and for the door.
“Whatever me is my mind,” he on. “Therefore, my mind is God.”
“Snookums, stop that!” Leda suddenly. “Stop it!”
But the paid no attention; he right on with what he was doing.
He said: “I must look at myself. I must know myself. Then I will know God. Then I will....”
He on while Leda at him again.
“He’s not paying any attention,” said Mike sharply. “This is too up with the First Law. The Second Law, which would him to you, doesn’t come into the picture at this point.”
Snookums them. He opened the door, through it, and off the as fast as his would move him.
Which was much too fast for to follow.
They him, an hour later, in the ship, near the which had already been to help Eisberg Base. He was the room next to Cargo Hold One, the room that all the temperature and power for the brain that hold.
He wasn’t moving. He was there, staring, with that “lost in thought” look.
He didn’t move when Leda called him.
He didn’t move when Mike, as a test, to Leda.
He moved again.
Dr. Morris Fitzhugh’s looked as though he were on the of crying. Which—perhaps—he was.
He looked at the others at the table—Quill, Jeffers, Liegnitz, Keku, Leda Crannon, and Mike the Angel. But he didn’t to be them.
“Ruined,” he said. “Eighteen billion dollars’ of work, completely. The brain has randomized.” He softly. “It was all Vaneski’s fault, of course. Theology.” He said the last as though it were an word. As as were concerned, it was.
Captain Quill his throat. “Are you sure it wasn’t damage? Are you sure the of the ship didn’t shake a—something loose?”
Mike a grin. He was that the captain had been going to say “screw loose.”
“No,” said Fitzhugh wearily. “I’ve out the major circuits, and they’re in good physical condition. But Miss Crannon gave him a test just the end, and it aberration.” He his slowly and forth. “Eight years of work.”
“Have you Treadmore yet?” asked Quill.
Fitzhugh nodded. “He said he’d be here as soon as possible.”
Treadmore, like the others who had on Eisberg, was in the that were to the of the new base. To to the ship, he’d have to walk across two hundred yards of in a spacesuit.
“Well, what to this now, Doctor?” asked Captain Quill. “I that this will not the entire useless.” He to keep the out of his voice and didn’t succeed.
Fitzhugh not to notice. “No, no. Of not. It means that we shall have to again. The robot’s brain will be de-energized and drained, and we will again. This is not our failure, you know; it was just our success. Each time, we learn more.
“Miss Crannon, for instance, will be able to teach the next robot—or, rather, the next of this one—more rapidly, more efficiently, and with mistakes.”
With that, Leda Crannon up. “With your permission, Dr. Fitzhugh,” she said formally, “I would like to say that I that last statement, but I’m it isn’t true.”
Fitzhugh a smile. “Come now, my dear; you yourself. Without you, Snookums would have up long ago, just like the others. I’m sure you’ll do the next time.”
Leda her head. “No I won’t, Fitz, there’s not going to be any next time. I my from this project and from the Computer Corporation of Earth. I’ll put it in later.”
Fitzhugh’s looked blank. “But Leda....”
“No, Doctor,” she said firmly. “I will not waste another eight or ten years of my life playing to a of pseudo-human machinery.
“I that thing go mad, Fitz; you didn’t. It was the most horrible, most thing I’ve experienced. I will not go through it again.
“Even if the next one didn’t crack, I couldn’t take it. By standards, a is to with. If I this up, I’d end up as an old with a mind and a cold heart.
“I quit, Fitz, and that’s final.”
Mike was her as she spoke, and he his all up around his insides. Her red and her were shining, and her was set in determination. She had always been beautiful, but at that moment she was magnificent.
Hell, Mike, I’m prejudiced—but what a of prejudice.
“I understand, my dear,” said Dr. Fitzhugh slowly. He then, the in his face. His voice was warm and when he spoke. “I accept your resignation, but remember, if you want to come back, you can. And if you a position elsewhere, you will have my recommendations.”
Leda just there for a moment, in her eyes. Then she ran around the table and her arms around the and roboticist.
“Thank you, Fitz,” she said. “For everything.” Then she him on his cheek.
“I your pardon,” said a sad and voice from the door. “Am I something?”
It was Treadmore.
“You are,” said Fitzhugh with a grin, “but we will let it pass.”
“What has to Snookums?” Treadmore asked.
“Acute introspection,” Fitzhugh said, his smile. “He to try to the of his own brain. That meant that he had to use his non-random to the of his circuits. He optimum; the entire brain is now randomized.”
“Dear me,” said Treadmore. “Do you we can—”
Black Bart Quill Mike the Angel on the shoulder. “Let’s go,” he said quietly. “We don’t want to around to this when we have a ship to catch.”
Mike and Leda him out into the corridor.
“You know,” Quill said, “robots aren’t the only ones who can their own go round.”
“I have other to watch,” said Mike the Angel.
