Chapter 16

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16
THE ROBOTS WHO SUFFERED NO WRONGS 

They'd parked Ben with some old robot friends of Daneel’s who were lovely, all with titanium gold hearts and rational-emotionalism, who lived in a Robots Hostel in a rough part of town but hey nobody dared mess with them; even many of the worst thugs learned to be frightened of them and, even when drunk, usually left them alone.  Any stupid enough to try (and thugs can be awfully stupid sometimes) and, worse still, despite repeated warnings, to keep on trying could often end up with a neatly broken arm or knee or fingers or something. Just one tidy little chop! and hey’s your presto. No punching or kicking or blood or weapons.  One moment there a charging – and usually armed - thug was: persisting, and menacingly intact, the next second, in a blur of movement, a limb or fingers would be cleanly snapped and of course completely useless for any more fighting that day. Or sometimes for ever. So economical. And a robot ‘prides’ itself on being economical. 

These very advanced robots were really nice amicable gentle creatues all other times and wouldn’t dream of starting any trouble.  But, just don’t go starting it with them, okay.  (But when was a thug ever going to learn).  Once Ben watched with gleeful admiration as some horrible great big lout  ran off howling, clutching his bruised hands, the baseball bat he’d tried to use as a weapon now discarded and broken.  And that was the robots only defending themselves.   If anyone actively tried to pick on Ben (or any good human) then a few more fingers or toes got not just bruised but  busted.  Okay.   Like Daneel and Giskard these robots had developed real senses of humour too and had learned to use mocking laughter as a weapon.  Sometimes just the sight of these robots lining up for potential action was sufficent to stop a thug in his tracks.

So these increasingly humanicized robots lived in their little community in the crap end of town as they had for hundreds of years and would help anyone out who deserved it. 

So there Ben was, sitting openly outside the Robots Hostel, eating a yeastacurry puff and swigging a yeastacoke when Elijah and Daneel turned up.  Of course Daneel and Elijah came under a good deal of nasty verbal abuse when they first entered the area; louts jostled them, and one flicked out a knife and Daneel, in a blur of action, almost nonchalantly kicked this out of the bloke’s hand, clipping his fingers painfully. When another picked it up, Daneel simply did the same thing harder and the bloke yelled a bit.  From then on did they pass, unmolested.  “I think I probably broke his finger”, Daneel said understatedly and Elijah let out a great bellow of laughter.  “Never mind” Daneel continued. “It would've been a clean break so it would heal.  And really, even if it wasn't, well no contrapotentials are building up in my pozzies so I can’t have contravened any laws I don't think. If I hadn’t broken it no doubt he and his dear little friends would've given us some nasty striping and you could've got badly hurt – and that would've built up bad contrapotentials in my pozzies”.

Elijah shuddered. He knew what striping meant and it was nasty; he’d seen enough results in the course of his police detectiving and it had built up many violent thoughts and fantasies of thumping the striper into a bruised bleeding mass so that he knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end for a change. In his younger early days it hadn’t been just fantasy. A striper had had to be carted off to have stitches after the plastering he got from the feisty Elijah! Oh Elijah was no naïve peacenik and any resemblance to Robin Hood is more coincidental than deliberate.

Many of the gentler more law-abiding people who had to live in this poor area really got to liking the robots and saw them as saviours.  The robots acted as an unofficial vigilante group and would police the area especially at night.

Ben was naturally overjoyed that his parents had finally agreed to allowing him to go off with Daneel and Elijah for the duration. He wasn’t initially quite so thrilled when it transpired that he must still do his schoolwork - though the Home Educational holovid that Daneel had managed to ‘pursuade’ the City LEA to give up was the best and latest edition, complete with sound and animation.  “When we finally showed your folks that we’d got this, well it helped them to quite quickly agree to your coming away with us old queerdo Space fogeys”, Elijah told him. He didn’t mention that this agreement had been even more quickly reached with a little bit of Daneel’s ‘mind-fiddling’.  The HE-VR holovid had greased this little palm with consumate ease.

Mr and Mrs Baley were actually secretly quite grateful:  Ben and his refusal to go to school and running off and threatening to kill himself had become a real worry.  But aquiring one of these HE-VRs from the bigoted Medievalist City LEA was like trying to get gold for free: an able-bodied boy simply not wanting to go to school because of bullies and discriminatory teachers, regretfully just wasn’t a good enough reason.

It was rather a kick for Ben that his sister Jess was emerald-green with envy that he was going off on a Space cruiser.  She had resented Ben getting such favouritism from ‘grandpa’ Lijey and his incredible more-human-than-human robot partner; by rights it ought to be her getting the kudos as she was accustomed to with most of their other male relatives. Plus she’d actually quite miss Ben; he was amenable and good company and they would do their homework together. And he’d usually been a sympathetic ear to all her grouses, real or imaginary – although more recently, since ‘grandpa’ Lijey had come into their lives, he’d been a bit less so and had even spouted stuff about how girls had it all and easier and it wasn’t fair, and then the ‘well Lijey says’ which had been quite a good deal on sex discrimination and things which hadn’t entirely favoured females for once. 

Jess was a bit afraid of the sombre tart-tongued Elijah and couldn’t understand why he seemed to especially like Ben so much.  Even Daneel wasn’t the malleable humaniform that she’d presumed he would be; really, at times he was more like a coolly liberated feminist – let alone humanist!  And one who, like Elijah, did not suffer what he saw as wrongs gladly either, and what’s more, could say so in a disconcertingly blunt and no-nonsense manner. (Really what were robots coming to these days).  Giskard could be positivaly scary too when he raised his cokey voice and came out with dreadful language that he’d picked up from the tough Earthish human roadies he’d once worked with (with, not for as he’d put it in no uncertain terms!). Yet with Ben all three of these fire-tongued dragons, human, metallo and humaniform, were tenderness itself and Ben clearly adored them all. And they could be so funny too, with that deadpan robot-y comic timing and perfect mimicry.

THE HEAD-HUNT

As they all sat in the Baley’s living area in the dreary little steel-cave hutch they called home Ben said, “I wish you could take Frankie with you too”, and when Daneel and Elijah looked questioningly at him he explained.  “Frankie’s in my class at school and he’s miserable too and gets bullied ‘cause they think he’s fat and he hates games too…he’s not really that fat, yunno. He just eats 'cause he’s miserable”.

Um.  Was this going to turn into a ‘headhunting’ crusade for unhappy boys who didn’t fit in?  Space knows there were enough of these, quite a horrifying number in fact.  Elijah, during his police detectiving work in the City, knew too that a few had taken their own lives or run away or disappeared. 

“You know something”, Ben went on, “poor Frankie’s the great-great-great-great grandson of some horrible man who helped start up Medievalism in this City – he was also called Frankie and—“

“Ohmegawd!”, Elijah and, a microsecond later Daneel, both groaned.  “Not Frankie Clousarr!”

“I think that’s what he was called.  Why -, hey did you meet him in – in your old life?”

Daneel sighed. “I’m afraid so Ben.  Yeah, we met him OK. Bigtime!”

“Was he really horrible?” Ben asked.

“I’m afraid so”, Elijah told him. “It was us who got him arrested the first time.”

“Was he fat?”

“Sort of.  Well, stocky. Blocky.  A real alpha type male”. Elijah did a mimic of an imaginary stereotype, complete with grunts.

“And hairy!” Daneel grimaced.  “What we robots call a meatbag”.

Ben laughed for the first time. “Hey, that’s cool!  Meatbag!”.

“He calls me that too”, Elijah said, “When I've annoyed him”.

“Which is all the time” Daneel joked. But such a look of love passed between them that couldn’t just be imaginary.

Elijah and Daneel were interested by Frankie.  Daneel said,  “How about inviting him along to the ship?  Well, it’d give him an afternoon out or whatever. Think he’d like that?”

Ben thought. “He might.  Nobody else seems to invite him out anywhere. He’s also got curly hair like mine, so we both get teased about that”.

“Agh!” Daneel grimaced again in that most humanlike way. “The illogicality of meatbags! ‘Because-you've-got-curly-hair-you-get-teased’. Oh man, get me out of here!”

“It would be nice” Ben said cunningly, “if you could help get Frankie out as well…”

“Subtle hint”, Elijah dryly chuckled, his dour face looking quite animated by now.

Mr and Mrs Baley began to look a bit worried here.  They probably pictured Daneel and Elijah doing a sort of SAS swoop-in to the Clousarr’s home and terrorizing poor Mr and Mrs Clousarr into handing over their son on the spot.  Elijah and Daneel had actually acted pretty responsibly so far and seemed able to consider all sides to a story even if they didn’t agree with it.  Which they mostly didn’t.  And there was nothing weird or creepy about them; a more down-to-planet, open and forthrightly honest pair would be hard to find. And Daneel could have a beautiful gracious manner and, as a robot, should be beyond corruption. Nor, like it or not, could one deny such eye-stopping beauty either, which was as much due to strength and intelligence as to wonderful bone-structure and colouring.

“Well we could go and ask him first if he’d like to come out”, Ben ventured.

“Of course it would mean coming Outside though”, Daneel said. “Warn him of that too”.

“Yeah, he might be scared”, Ben said. “I mean, I am a bit too. But you’re with us, and you’d be kind to him if he was, wouldn’t you”.

“Of course”, Daneel endorsed and Elijah nodded.

“Hope the Cloussars haven’t been told stories of us arresting their illustrious ancestor”, Elijah said.

“Or worse still having been shown pictures of us”, Daneel added wryly. “I mean, with my Spacer mug”. He imagined his mind-fiddling abilities would be called into play. At least he could be pre-emptive on this occasion.  First, make it seem like a positive thing for Mr and Mrs Clousarr to have somebody inviting their friendless son out for a change. Two, nudge their minds off too much aversion to having a Spacer on their doorstep – oh and possibly more nudging away of aversion towards a boy like Ben who so clearly was not a Medievalist’s ideal of the perfect master-race alpha hetty male.

“I hope Mr Clousarr doesn’t look like his delightful great-great-great grandfather”, Elijah said.

“Or act like him”, Daneel said, recalling the time they, as police detectives, had interviewed the original Frankie on suspicion of stirring up hate-crimes against those who might dare to be anti-Medievalist.

Mr Clousarr it turned out didn’t look particularly like his great-great-great grandfather but one of his sons did. Quite eerily so. That stocky build and decidedly hirsute potential and the one long eyebrow.  Elijah winced and Daneel felt a zing in his pozzies which he translated as strong aversion.   But they didn’t put up much resistance to their youngest son Frankie going along to look at a Spaceship.  They didn’t seem to particularly care much either way.

Frankie, a somewhat stocky boy but quite tall for his age, had brightened at the prospect of seeing a real Spaceship.  Like most Earth City dwellers he’d not been anywhere off-world. With his slightly lugubrious expression he reminded Elijah of himself sometimes. He visibly jumped when he caught sight of Daneel; he’d never seen anyone so striking looking before, nor so stylishly dressed or with such long bright hair that swished about like a shampoo ad. Somehow it never occurred to him to wonder what gender this vision was; it seemed to have  all the best aspects of either sex really.  Cool in a way.  He noticed most of his family also gawping a bit. Ben appeared to get on very well with it/him and also with the somewhat stern looking man who, when he did smile, looked quite different.

Outside in the accessway again Ben said, “I say, would you mind awfully if – if well another boy I know who hates school came along too. He doesn’t live far away from here and is good at art and music, only he’s not allowed to show this. He’s called Lucian but stupid mean people call him Lucy”. He rolled his eyes.  Both Daneel and Elijah got the picture.

“This is turning into the Pied Piper indeed”, Elijah chuckled.  “Just how many more of you are there!”

“Oh lots! Well -  quite a few really. Sorry, p'raps I shouldn't have asked that…” He looked crestfallen now. 

Daneel smiled his lovely warm smile.  “’Course you can Ben. Come on, take us to him. I reckon there’s a bit of sorting out to do here, hey Lije?”

“Guess so”, Elijah said as if coming to a decision. Frankie looked a bit alarmed here at the words ‘sorting out’; they sounded ominous, like something nasty kids said to frighten you when they were going to do some bullying.  Daneel, ever perceptive, caught his worried expression as they walked along.  Frankie hung back not meeting his eye.

“What is it, Frankie….?”

Frankie looked as if he were going to run off. Ben said, “Hey it’s OK, Frankie. Elijah and Daneel are really kind and won’t ever bully you if you’re afraid”.

“They said they were going to sort me out”, Frankie muttered, not moving.

When it was explained Frankie looked embarrassed. He didn’t want to be rude but men could frighten him with their masculinity; it always felt like they were going to bully you. He wasn’t sure if he liked girls any better; they could be scornful and despising.  He looked at Daneel. Really he wasn’t like any man Frankie had come across before; in fact he could look more like a powerful and magnificent female and so far had behaved more like one too: calm and gentle and seeming to accept one exactly as one was and not inciting  any bullying or trying to ‘make a man of one’ as they did at school.

It turned into a trawl round all the City’s schools picking out all the unhappy boys who didn’t want to be men – or not typical men as of today.  It took the best part of two days and they ended up with quite a lot of them.  “Strewth and Jehosaphat!” Elijah said, “We’ll have to start up a school now. A school for unhappy boys”.

START OF THE GAYA SCHOOL

“Yep” said Daneel calmly, “and we’ll do it in one of our old shuttles.  Gizza and I have got a couple of large decommissioned ones knocking round in our yards”. Of course he would have this.  Daneel and Giskard’s Spacecruise business was doing well; the wonderful gourmet organic food and every sort of drink was one of its main attractions, along with the permitted transvestism and sex, including freefall, done anywhere at any time, and the showing of illicit censored holovids, and the legal dope and the zany classic-rock concerts with dancing, and so on.  Pole-dancing had been re-introduced and there was even a sex change clinic and a few brothels catering to every orientation including robo.  Humans had to have their naughty stuff and paid willingly to get it.  The robots picked up the human’s habits and staged their own entertainment.  It was a pretty happy ship, all being told. But it had always been adults only.

 So now they had to set up a school in an old grounded space shuttle that had been decommissioned from service.  Only thing was it would have to be sited Outside and most of the boys had never been Outside and would have several sorts of panic attack so there would be all that to go through as well.  Daneel might well have to go and ‘lift’ a few more HE-VR’s from the LEA but hey that’s a doddle. There’s quite a few around because the Medievalist-run councils are so bloody mean about issuing these out these days, what with all this ‘making men out of boys’ at the top of the agenda.

They would set it up on the Interplanetary Free Zone Territory around the Spacer enclaves that were permitted outside the Cities. In that way they would be outside Terran Law; meaning, in other words, an Earth Cityzen would have no legal right to kick up a stink about it all!

It would be more than simply a school where one got enough education to pass the right exams – it would be an entire therapeutic world of its own, where a sensitive boy could at least be free to be himself.  Yeah, if he so wanted, grow his hair, dress up to the nines, indulge in a bit of trannying – or ladyboying as it was sometimes called - even forge a meaningful relationship with another boy, and just about do any sort of thing that boys weren't supposed to do in-case-it-turned-them-into-homosexuals-or-cissies.

“Well”, the boy called Lucian said, “we’re that already. So we can’t become even more so”. And got a huge congratulatory smile from Elijah, and Daneel saying, “That’s some of the best logic I've ever heard from a human!”  High praise indeed from the dour visaged Elijah and the logic-loving humaniform.

The grounded shuttles they were using for this venture were in fact in perfectly good working order.  If it ever came to it, like the Medievalists staging a coup d’etat and throwing out the Spacers, well then the entire school could simply take off into the skies!

One not so small kick against the pricks.

The schools ended up being boarding as some of the boys just did not want to go back into the City.  Some had indulged so heavily in growing their hair and wearing what they liked that they dared not walk the City streets any longer for fear of getting attacked.  Many of the older ones went instead to the Spacer Pleasure Domes, the most famous being the inaugural Sunset Boulvard.  

The schools came to be ‘staffed’ by sympathetic robots and humaniforms, who would also act as protectors if necessary – even walking a boy home in the City and collecting him from home the next morning. These robots, like the ones in the Hostels, were advanced enough to know when to use force on, and even to disable, an attacker.

For the most agoraphobic boys there were shuttle-buses to convey them from City exit to school entrance. All the space shuttles had been fitted with flexitunnels so nobody had to experience too much Outside to start with.  But there was encouragement to try to get used to Outside as much as possible, like there was encouragement to exercise in general.  Most of these types of boys grew looks-conscious enough to not want to get fat and to be fit so the well-equipped gyms in the space shuttles came to be popular as well. As did the playground equipment.

Some though got to liking to go Outside and when the weather was fine would go running or for walks or even to commune with nature, fresh air and naked sunshine for the first time in their lives.  Naturally they were to a boy all terrified of thunderstorms and had to learn which clouds in the sky were ones to worry about or not, just as Elijah had had to do.   Elijah still hated thunderstorms but now he didn’t need to run and find the deepest darkest place to hide in.  He didn’t deny himself the pleasure though of being tightly held by Daneel under the bedcovers!   

Then there was food.  Of course these Earth Cityzens had been raised on a diet of yeastameals and most of them, like Ben, had initially gagged at the freshly-prepared real-tasting real food and real fruit juice on offer for school dinners. Many of them would start off bringing in their own yeastameals and drinks but nearly all of them got used to, and even to preferring, the real food and drinks. Curry of course came to be a sublime treat for many, as was the pizzas, burghers, fishcakes, chips (healthily roasted in olive oil) and dairy yoghurt-and-cream chocolate icecream. Actual fresh fruit and veg were eye-openers, most wondering at first what the hell they were!  Strawberries – real strawberries, not yeast imitations – were unsurprisingly the most popular. With loads of yogcream!   Oh a lot of learning got done, far more than they’d ever learned inside the City. And with this came confidence and a belief in their own individuality.

Naturally, as well as learning to accept Spacers (and their robots), some of these boys were, in their tastes and values, becoming more like Spacers.  A lot of them grew to love the colourful Spacer-made artefacts and the often superior high-tech gadgets.  And yes these new confident boys with their opened-up minds and broadened outlook coped when their parents disapproved or tried to punish them or others made fun of them.

One had to be a special boy to gain entry to these miraculous schools.  With a latent femininity (which, no, did not mean effeminate, as Daneel and Elijah and Giskard were to tiredly explain and re-explain over and over in the next decade or so). The schools had a cardinal and fundamental rule and motto: No machismo ever!  And of course bullying was OUT, as was sadistic physical aggression; at the very utmost this could result in the mal-doer being expelled. However this rarely came about as of course the boys were strongly encouraged to talk their feelings out and to show emotions, with no fear of ridicule, and to do all the things boys weren’t supposed to do (in-case-it-turned-them-into-homosexuals-or-cissies).

From the moment they got onto the space shuttle some of these poor little sods were so exhausted from stress that after a meal they would fell fast asleep. Others had depression and at first just sat there staring at nothing.  This was known to be a natural cycle (the robots and Elijah had read from old history books): once the pressure was off then anti-climax set in and all one could do was slump before gradualy acclimatizing to the new relaxed regime and finding oneself, often for the first time ever.  Realizing one was able to relax brought on extreme tiredness and they could only take in a scant one thing at a time. Gradualy though most of the boys began to blossom and to want to do things.  Elijah and the robots let them come to in their own time; in these New Gaya schools nobody was ever once pressurized or put down.

Link to Next Chapter 17:
 http://nanowrimo2011ataleoftworobots.blogspot.com/2011/08/chapter-17.html