Chapter 18

612 words

18

THE ROBOTS OF VISION

Daneel and Giskard also owned a three-and-three-eighths-of-a-mile island on Aurora, off the coastline of Eos province, that they called Robot City  (har har-okay) where they built and trained all their robot staff.  Aurora is the only planet where robots are legally allowed to build other robots and so Giskard and Daneel had had built a picturesque sprawl of terracotta adobe-look low-rise factory buildings amongst the semitropical vegetation and woods, just clearing the parts that they actually needed so it all looked very sympathetic. They reached this by the usual gravitonic seaplane commonly used over water on Aurora and many other planets.  It looked like a wonderland to the formerly-City-bred Elijah.  There was even an amazing saffron, black-and-coral-streaked flowered creeper which Daneel had had the idea of training to grow over the building entrance, and there were a lot of palmate and bromeliad type plants around for the offing.

It was this that had naturally given the robots the idea of re-creating a huge half-mile ‘al fresco’ jungle setting aboard the Spacecruiser, with wonderful hardwood structures on stilts to house restaurants and an entertainment ‘happenings’ centre.  At ‘night’ this would be lit by hundreds of lanterns and one could utterly believe that one was in a balmy outdoor setting high up in the trees – complete with intermittent recorded sounds of tropical birds!

After this these robots of vision had then gone on to re-create another half-mile of a tented oasis desert setting, with gorgeous carpets, divans and huge cushions for post-prandial lolling.  This always had a permanent setting sun going onto night, so that one could eat or loll (or even make love) bathed in glorious western light as the ‘sun’ set over the sanddunes and the palm trees, again with intermittent recorded sounds of cicadas and bullfrogs.

Daneel, Giskard and Elijah had decided against bringing the boys down to Robot City as they were afraid the boys, inadvertently, wouldn’t be able to resist blabbing about it back on Earth  – it would make wonderful boasting material after all. (Get ones over on their mingy-minded bullying adversaries!) But starting up a rumour like that with the Medievalists would be most undesirable.  It was bad enough with the feelings against any robot – even the clunky old Earthish ones!

When a robot got built and was ‘brought to life’ and had gone through the elaborate initial programming and data-input it was sent off to live, work and ultimately play with chosen human families on Aurora so that it could be humanized as much as possible.  Giskard and Daneel had both benefited greatly from this bottom-up (arse-up) learning: being allowed to ‘bump into reality’. Gain a bit of streetwisdom. Aquire common-sense. Develop a sense of humour and some good oldfashioned cynicism.  Naturalize one’s speech.  And sharpen one’s wit (and all those bad jokes!).  Oh – and attain rational-emotionalism.

A more positively humanized pair of robots than Daneel and Giskard would be hard to find anywhere. Giskard and Daneel were mavericks in that they’d surpassed all the expected goals –and, what’s more, had the nous not to let on about this as it could engender fear and reprisals amongst humans, particularly Earthish ones.  So ‘not letting on’ was rigorously programmed into the immergent mavericks who came out of the Robot City factory.

  Elijah and Daneel feasted on the picnic that Elijah had brought along, complete with wine and sweatmeats and things curried and strawberries-and-cream and both white and dark chocolates, whilst Giskard sucked on the finest metallo snacks.  Afterwards they all lay on and made love on the tarten picnic rug to the sound of birdsong and the waves lapping on the shore.

 THE END  (For this Era at any rate)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LINK to Editing & Viewing Posts

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Chapter 18

NOTE:  Sorry this damn thing always starts at Chapter 18 - I'm still trying to work out how to rectify this so that it starts at where it ought to start; namely Chapter 1
However I might be trying this forever so - for the time being - see Links below:

Link back to Introductory Post of this Blog: 
 http://nanowrimo2011ataleoftworobots.blogspot.com/2011/08/nanowrimo-2011-edited-version-of-long.html

Or if you fancy diving straight in....here's Link to Chapter 1:
 http://nanowrimo2011ataleoftworobots.blogspot.com/2011/08/1-learning-to-drive-spaceship.html

Link back to Dashboard:  http://www.blogger.com/home?pli=1

612 words

18

THE ROBOTS OF VISION

Daneel and Giskard also owned a three-and-three-eighths-of-a-mile island on Aurora, off the coastline of Eos province, that they called Robot City  (har har-okay) where they built and trained all their robot staff.  Aurora is the only planet where robots are legally allowed to build other robots and so Giskard and Daneel had had built a picturesque sprawl of terracotta adobe-look low-rise factory buildings amongst the semitropical vegetation and woods, just clearing the parts that they actually needed so it all looked very sympathetic. They reached this by the usual gravitonic seaplane commonly used over water on Aurora and many other planets.  It looked like a wonderland to the formerly-City-bred Elijah.  There was even an amazing saffron, black-and-coral-streaked flowered creeper which Daneel had had the idea of training to grow over the building entrance, and there were a lot of palmate and bromeliad type plants around for the offing.

It was this that had naturally given the robots the idea of re-creating a huge half-mile ‘al fresco’ jungle setting aboard the Spacecruiser, with wonderful hardwood structures on stilts to house restaurants and an entertainment ‘happenings’ centre.  At ‘night’ this would be lit by hundreds of lanterns and one could utterly believe that one was in a balmy outdoor setting high up in the trees – complete with intermittent recorded sounds of tropical birds!

After this these robots of vision had then gone on to re-create another half-mile of a tented oasis desert setting, with gorgeous carpets, divans and huge cushions for post-prandial lolling.  This always had a permanent setting sun going onto night, so that one could eat or loll (or even make love) bathed in glorious western light as the ‘sun’ set over the sanddunes and the palm trees, again with intermittent recorded sounds of cicadas and bullfrogs.

Daneel, Giskard and Elijah had decided against bringing the boys down to Robot City as they were afraid the boys, inadvertently, wouldn’t be able to resist blabbing about it back on Earth  – it would make wonderful boasting material after all. (Get ones over on their mingy-minded bullying adversaries!) But starting up a rumour like that with the Medievalists would be most undesirable.  It was bad enough with the feelings against any robot – even the clunky old Earthish ones!

When a robot got built and was ‘brought to life’ and had gone through the elaborate initial programming and data-input it was sent off to live, work and ultimately play with chosen human families on Aurora so that it could be humanized as much as possible.  Giskard and Daneel had both benefited greatly from this bottom-up (arse-up) learning: being allowed to ‘bump into reality’. Gain a bit of streetwisdom. Aquire common-sense. Develop a sense of humour and some good oldfashioned cynicism.  Naturalize one’s speech.  And sharpen one’s wit (and all those bad jokes!).  Oh – and attain rational-emotionalism.

A more positively humanized pair of robots than Daneel and Giskard would be hard to find anywhere. Giskard and Daneel were mavericks in that they’d surpassed all the expected goals –and, what’s more, had the nous not to let on about this as it could engender fear and reprisals amongst humans, particularly Earthish ones.  So ‘not letting on’ was rigorously programmed into the immergent mavericks who came out of the Robot City factory.

  Elijah and Daneel feasted on the picnic that Elijah had brought along, complete with wine and sweatmeats and things curried and strawberries-and-cream and both white and dark chocolates, whilst Giskard sucked on the finest metallo snacks.  Afterwards they all lay on and made love on the tarten picnic rug to the sound of birdsong and the waves lapping on the shore.

 THE END  (For this Era at any rate)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LINK back to Introductory Post in this Blog: 

http://nanowrimo2011ataleoftworobots.blogspot.com/2011/08/nanowrimo-2011-edited-version-of-long.html

Chapter 17

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3997 words

17

A CURVE OF LEARNING

On the shuttle there were nice things like lots of comics and good kid-friendly (but healthy) food and computers to play amusing yet challenging games on (no war or aggression stuff just for the sake of it) and playground equipment catering to both children and adults: huge trampolines so they didn’t jump on the beds and a great tall helter-skelter and a push-me pull-you on which several people could ride at once (safer than individual swings).

Daneel and Giskard from their own love of playing on such things had opened up a whole new world to Elijah, who at first had been very suspicious and like who ever heard of a grown man playing in playgrounds!   But the luxuriant Aurorans are very fun-loving and don’t see why they should have to be grown-up all the time and why should kids have all the fun and so on, and so in this culture had Giskard and Daneel been reared.  Every self-respecting Auroran household had their own playground as a matter of course, and so it was entirely normal for Daneel and Giskard to have these built in the shuttle schools. 

Up in the cruiser there was full-scale fairgrounds and cresta runs, rollerblade parks and water recreation; Aurorans adore a good whirl and these lacked for nothing.  And the design was superb as Aurorans are far too sensible and un-macho to want to get themselves unnecessarily injured (so testosterone hetty alpha!) and so the floors were always gorgeously resiliant and smooth.

The Earth Cities had their children’s playgrounds but these were what they were:  for children only and of utilitarian design. Elijah came to love playing in the Auroran-designed playgrounds and fairgrounds and riding such beautifully weighted, glossy and ample equipment such as he’d never experienced before. The push-me pull-you felt as if it swung on ball bearings.  And all this pure unadulterated fun could also be good exercise!  Most of the boys began to feel they’d come into Paradise as their inhibitions and insecurities fell away and they learned to have fun in its truest sense. And there was also a body-building gym which the older ones liked.  Oh, and karaoke, adored by all robots who used it to practice their moves and sense of rhythm.

Everyone could approach things, or not, at entirely their own pace.  There was no, absolutely no, herding or funneling – and absolutely no jollying along!  One created one’s own schedule and learned by example. They would see the robots (and Elijah) enjoying themselves on things (and even going Outside) and would get to want to do these too.  Some of the shyer boys liked a one-to-one of doing these with an older person or a robot who showed them that one could enjoy these things with gentle high-spirits instead of unfun boisterous mindlessness as had been their unfortunate lot at City schools.  Each boy was helped to feel that his own peculier sensitivities or proclivities were (almost mundanely)  normal instead of boring or freakish.  Just ‘not wanting to’ or ‘not liking’ was entirely good enough!

 “One thing I cannot stand,” Elijah pronounced, “is what I call ‘angry pleasure’ – which isn’t really pleasure at all and which some humans have to indulge in. Pathetic!”.

“I think that’s called ‘having-a-good-time’”, Daneel, with his understanding of humans, said dryly. “Euphemism for ‘lets kick anyone who doesn’t want to join in’”.

So if a boy wanted to press flowers or play guitar or create patterns and colours or dance to music or dress up in his spare time, hey he could!  These ‘misfits’ fitted in without even realizing it. 

That first time the little flock of boys consisting of Ben, Frankie, Lucian and a few others poached along the way had entered the cruise shuttle and saw all this was mesmerizing.  Instead of a lot of whooping and swooping and macho-boy stuff these special boys simply stood awed and spoke in hushed tones if they spoke at all. One or two looked frightened as they thought they’d now be forced to go and do things in a horrible way like back at school with a lot of hectoring and come-along-now and get-a-move-on-boy.  Instead it was very peaceful and Elijah and Daneel just stood and let them slowly absorb things.

“Just Be”, Daneel said and when they looked puzzled said, “Nobody’s going to hassle you or order you to do things, okay”, and then,”This isn't school as you know it”. He had an arm round Lucian who leaned comfortably against him like it was the most natural thing ever; Lucian was an easily affectionate boy who, once nobody was calling him Lucy, responded well. Frankie at first acted like he wasn’t allowed to respond in this way; well he didn’t know how to respond as nobody in his family, being all boys, had been like this.  One or two others looked askance, even affronted, at first, fearing ridicule of course.  Mostly, once these taboos got overcome, all that was feminine and fun in these boys opened out.  To set the trend Daneel was being all-male now, being openly affectionate with Elijah who responded like it was entirely natural and very nice too.  Some of the boys looked aghast when they first saw them with arms round each other, Elijah’s head on Daneel’s shoulder.

“My Mum and Dad won’t like that”, one rather primly said, and Ben was cross, crying out, “Well go home then if you don’t like it!”.

Another asked tentatively, “Are – are you queerdos?” Daneel and Elijah did not flinch or look the slightest bit embarrassed or frightened.  Daneel gave his easy smile.

“We’re good friends and we love each other”.

And Elijah said, gently, “Does it matter if we are…. We certainly don’t mind if that’s how people want to see us as”.

“It – it’s not allowed though”, the boy ventured, round eyed. “I mean, you get beat up if you’re – you’re like that”.

“Not here you won’t be.  That’s only in Earth Cities”. Daneel firmly said.

Ben was often to get incensed at what he saw as any slur on his beloved ‘grandpa’ and his beautiful calm gentle partner.  He would tell boys off for being prissy or hetty, and too stupid to see that things were different here, and that they were just copying their fathers or school teachers instead of thinking for themselves, and they were just really really boring. Several times Daneel or Elijah would have to restrain him.

“S’okay Ben.  It doesn't hurt us. Some boys still have to learn to accept us as we are. They just don't know any better right now”.

“That’s ‘cause they’re stupid!”

“No. They’re probably afraid, Ben. Many of them have been bullied and teased and frightened into thinking such behaviour is bad”.

“Shucks! I never thought that”, Ben grumbled, “Not of you anyway”. And he put his arms round Elijah’s waist and leaned against him and Elijah stroked his hair.  Ben loved doing this in front of the other boys just to show them, both as an example and also because he wanted to feel good.

Frankie was one of the boys who found all this more difficult.  He wasn’t accustomed to all this open affection and being demonstrative.  But here in the Shuttle was far more preferable than City school of course; the staff were always firm but kind and nobody was allowed to bully or rough you up and there weren’t horrid classes. Just learning at ones own pace, peacefully, with these kind of exciting Education  holovids.  And the food was, once you got used to it, pretty good, especially things like chips and burghers and dairy ice-cream! 

Even the weird leafy things called ‘greens’ and various edible coloured spheres (such as oranges, tomatoes and apples) weren’t completely awful either once you got used to their taste and texture. (Daneel and Elijah would eat all these with every enjoyment). Yet, again nobody forced you into doing things you didn’t want, not even cuddling and showing affection.  When not doing schoolwork Frankie was happiest immersing himself on the computer writing fantasy stories and was glad just to feel safe. And that was entirely good enough.

So it’s not Happy Clappy and it’s not Boot Camp. There’s never any come-along-everybody-play-the-game(or else!) and isn’t-this-all-lovely and cheer-up-it-may-never-happen (gawd had Elijah had a earful of that in his time!).  Boys argued and got annoyed with each other (and everything!) and learned to cry and talk it all out instead of suffering in silence or hitting each other (as they’d been taught that that’s what boys did). If Daneel and Elijah were tough on anything it was the slightest sign of bullying or tormenting or what Elijah called ‘angry pleasure’. Or machismo. And there was zero-tolerance for any sexism or any distainful that’s-what-girls-do attitude.  If the boys were going to have anything knocked out of them it was that!

“Time you started taking on some feminine values”, Elijah said firmly.  “As I have”, and then, “And has it made me into such an awful being…?  Well – if it has, I’m OK with that!”  A lot of the boys admired that so-what attitude, some immediately, others with time.  Such confidence was awesome, even scary at first. Daneel and Elijah could seem quite scary sometimes but in a different way to anyone the boys had grown up with in the City.

Learning to go Outside was a major hurdle.  The Medievalists seemed to have lost sight of their goal, which was ostensibly to ‘go back to basics’:  one of which had been learning to go Outside again and becoming reaquainted with nature.  Only the splinter group witheringly referred to as ‘flower children’ ever got to properly doing this. The fundies stayed behind and forgot about Outside, instead turning back the clock to make the world a homophobic sexist’s paradise with firm emphasis on both men and boys being men. Whilst the woman and the child within us all was, in the case of males, firmly stamped out!  And so there were boys like all the ones who came out to the cruise shuttle that day and were shown how things could be done differently.

“Just think” Daneel said, “how you can become superior to all those City fogeys because you will have gone Outside – whilst they’re too scared to!  Huh, and they call themselves men whilst people like you are discarded as sissies”. He was to reiterate homilies of this ilk over and over in the next decade or so. “It’s they who are the cowards, which is why they’re bullies”.

It was great having Ben there.  The way he cottoned on so quickly was amazing and made a good example.  “They might end up being jealous of us, mightn't they”.

“They could well end up so”, Daneel agreed with a grin.  “Feel flattered if they are. Jealousy can be a form of flattery”. Another little homily that would be oft repeated as well in the coming years. Oh Daneel now understood humans so-o well. “Trust a robot to come out with this”, Elijah pretended to carp. “Too clever by half”.

Daneel did not broadcast his roboticity. This just came about gradualy, neither denying nor confirming.  As with the school’s humaniform staff. Okay it initially freaked some of the boys but it was few who didn’t come round to it. The humanforms (as were the metallos) were just so consistantly  decent, honourable and completely lacking in any malice or prejudice. Provided one wasn’t doing anything bad or hurtful one was completely accepted as one was.  These advanced robots were wise beyond belief - and certainly far more so than many humans. Most of the boys soon learned that a robot was often to be trusted over some humans.

Not that Daneel or any robot ever used mind-fiddling as propaganda to promote robots: a good human should arrive at their conclusions unmanipulated.  When Elijah learned of this he felt ashamed to be human, with all their sly deceitful tendancies and their ignorant arrogance and their arrogant ignorance.  He hoped that ones such as himself and Ben and some of the other boys might be a cut above this – or try to be. Most times.

And yet Daneel – as had Giskard - had well-developed some of the better human traits.  He had learned that a holier-than-thou attitude and obvious goodliness did not go down well with flawed humans.  Nothing a human hates more than being shown up. And so clever robots like Giskard and Daneel had developed self-parody and acrid irony and found they had sophisticated enough semanticry to learn wit and banter and – yes – jokes.  Se-eriously bad ones!  Of the what-did-the-robot-say-to-the-vicar line. And deadpan drollery:  “When a robot says har har it’s told a joke. Geddit?”  “Well don’t all laugh at once”.”Robots aren’t supposed to get jokes, don’cha know”. And most importantly Daneel and Giskard had learned how to call a spade a spade and all the right idioms for there’s nothing, but nothing, more off-putting – or more risible - to humans than stilted toffish speech patterns. And amongst themselves and close friends robots love to speak humanese. In other words: swear.

And so did Giskard and Daneel learn.  And so did the boys who came to the cruise shuttle that day that was to change their lives. Elijah knew he’d never stopped learning. And they all just went on learning. And left those old Medievalists far far behind.

Some of the boys didn’t want to go home after that day. One or two of them went and hid so reluctant were they.  Another cried a bit. And another bawled!

“I mean”, Daneel said, after they’d managed to comfort the boy into a few hiccoughy sobs, “Why?  What are these miserable Medievalists trying to gain? Is there actually a good reason for this making-men-out-of-boys and all this gung-ho crap.  It’s not as if they go anywhere or have to defend themselves against anyone. They just huddle in their stinking City making rules and having meetings”.

“It’s simply sick”, Elijah sighed. “It’s not as if they even want to go Outside.  Only a breakaway group they denigrate as ‘flower children’ have actually done this.  Even the Outside reconstituted twen-cen towns are better than that. At least they just leave one alone”.

“Even if they are full of yobs, it‘s more the gormless oik variety. Nothing politicized about those. Even the skinheads there are mostly just a lot of hot farting” Daneel said. “Not like on Beeneper planet”. 

Both recalled the time they’d stopped off at Beeneper and the famous fracas they’d had with the more politicized ruling skinheads.  “Gizza and I broke a few fingers there”.

“Hey yeah” Elijah said fondly. “When those brutes tried to attack poor old Robbie. And me”.

So what to do about boys who didn’t want to go home?  The only thing left to do was to go with them and see their parents.  Elijah and Daneel dressed with care: as dour and gloomy, as shapeless and uniform as possible: dark beige, muddy khaki, navy, dusty brown, slate grey, oh the joy of it all!  Daneel went as female because of his long hair.  “It’s enough to make grown robots and persons weep!”

THE ‘GOVERNMENT-BACKED REMEDIAL TEACHERS’

So along went Daneel and Elijah to see various parents and school teachers.  They portrayed themselves ostensibly as government-backed remedial teachers who would help ‘lick problem pupils into shape’. (“’Give us your problem and we’ll give back an exemplary Cityzen’”.  (Josaphat, what a load of cripe!)). And here Daneel hesitated not in applying subtle mind-bending propaganda to the full.

 The Earth City classrooms were like something out of ancient soviet days, full of posters of Youth Movements and cadet corps and other gung-ho propaganda; with rows and rows of desks with their hard backless benches crammed close together. Even the lighting looked sulpherous and dire. Elijah felt his heart plummet with horrid memories and Daneel’s pozzies zanged with negativism indicating severe wrongness all round. The wrongness of humans being made unnecessarily unhappy.  Such unreasonable wrongness.

Their little ruse mostly worked – aided by a lot of pre-emptive mind fiddling. If one can get this going before the other mind has a chance to bring up its predictably negative thoughts….yes it’s cheating; Daneel knew this and had to ‘reassure’ his 3 Laws circuits that it was for a human’s good and was not just a robot trying to gain superiority.  Mostly by now this was a doddle and the reassurances just fell into place - Daneel had put this into practice often enough!  And now he and Elijah made a nice little double-act: Elijah doing most of the talking while Daneel got on with fiddling.

Then there was hacking into the computer networks to send surreptitious disinformation into the appropriate government departments. Oh Daneel was a dab hand at this by now.  And yes it was for the benefit of humans, though not all humans. But the humans it was going to benefit were unhappy ones who damn well needed that benefit!  And the humans being ‘cheated’ weren’t actually being physically harmed or even seriously inconvenienced.  Just more a case of hurt pride maybe, but that was peanuts to robots such as Daneel and Giskard.

So there was how the shuttle schools for boys who didn’t fit in were started up.  And the vast improving and increasing of public transport. Heavily taxing any owner of a old-style car.  Rapid phasing-out of the manufacture of such vehicles. Heavily investing into designing new-style vehicles.  And rigourous  toughening up of building regs so that developers were forced to improve their standards (ei built decently sound-proofed buildings for a change!).  Enabling anyone to have their own room in hospital.  Forcing governments into strongly subsidising payment of salaries so that places like Care Homes were adequately staffed, and giving out generous grants to support essential small shops and businesses.  It’s amazing how some things had never changed until Giskard and Daneel got started on them, and a thousand years on there were the same old greed-and-laziness-driven politicians and government ministers and business leaders and sundry top-brass – or the plain ego-driven ruthless - who, before robots had developed so much intelligence, had been able to proceed unchecked and unhindered.

Even the so-called ‘soviet’ style government of the Earth Cities had its gross inequalities where some people were more equal than others.  The most ardent and gung-ho Medievalists, not surprisingly, were also the most well-off, living in the bigger ‘rabbit hutches’ and somehow managing to get better fare in the canteens. In Elijah’s old life things had been slightly more democratic and he’d been able occasionally to experience relatively tastier food (with actual bits of real food in them).  Now he probably wouldn’t be allowed a chance of this at all.

“And now let’s get out of here”, Daneel said. “With our first pupils”. And then, sighing, “Gizza tells me there’s been a drunken brawl on the Cruiser and some human people have had to be detained”.

“Oh wow,” Elijah groaned. “Humanity at its best worst.”. He gave a dry chuckle. “Better keep our little brood locked up as well”.  Sheltering the boys would be easily done on the Cruiseship; Elijah had his own spacious quarters next to the Captain’s stateroom ones – in other words Daneel’s and Giskard’s, which was also next to their offices where they dealt with the business of overseeing the Cruise. Plenty of space to comfortably accommodate a handful of ‘pupils’ and keep them apart from the worse excesses of the hoi polloi and all their shenanigans.  And of course Daneel and Giskard had also had their own elaborate playground equipment and gym installed, open only to the staff, whose own quarters were on the other side of the offices and staff recreational facilities, canteen and common room – so any staff shenanigans could also be safely kept away from the young innocents!  (Yes, and that included the robot staff too).

A GOOD LIFESTYLE

It was a gorgeous great big safe yet exciting world aboard the 2 x 5-mile long Good Ship Gaya.  The boys were not forbidden to roam as the kind intelligent robot staff would always keep an eye out for them and could actively protect them from any trouble.  For treats, they, with Daneel, Giskard or Elijah, could go to the vast half-mile Fairground just beyond the park, where there was thrilling funky twen-cen pop music always playing, far superior to the current synthesized stuff on Earth which owed nowt to any real musical instrument and one could have traditional candy-floss as well as the usual excellently-fried chips, and dairy ice-cream with flaky-chocolate sticks in them, and fizzy drinks.   

And then there were the gravitonic scooters that anyone could use to transport them along the main throughways that both encircled the body of and ran lengthways along the ship.  The scooters, with their inbuilt magnetorepulsers, were quite safe enough for any older child to use but still thrillingly nippy, so this was just another great extracurricular activity.   For more boisterous or older males (and females so-inclined) to let off steam there were self-contained race-tracks with faster streamlined gravitonic vehicles where they could speed to their silly heart’s content – though these too had the same clever Auroran-designed magnetorepulsers so people just harmlessly (but still quite excitingly) ‘dodgemed’ off each other without actually impacting. “No-one’s allowed to get hurt on our ship,” Giskard and Daneel, who went on these  race-tracks themselves at times, declared.  “What they do dirtside is another matter and not one our Laws are going to start crapping up about!”.  Elijah tried the tracks with them once or twice but they made him feel giddy. “Getting old!” he’d laugh. “Or I’m too much a groundhog Earthling”.

But when the ship arrived to orbit a planet for a few days and people went down in the shuttles groundside it was exiting, if scary, to actually go Outside and feel real fresh air.  Elijah found it intoxicating and most of the boys learned to find it so too – especially as it meant time-off from ‘school’, like at a weekend.  There were larger shuttles that could double as groundside hotels for ten people each and these would be parked in an exclusive, often picturesque, field owned by the Spaceport but a little distance away.  These shuttles now carried their own large cushy ground vehicles to convey anyone who wanted to go into town or out into the country or the desert or the mountains or whatever. These too could double as charabancs or as glorified ‘campervans’ for the most adventurous. 

Good Ship Gaya was principally a pleasure cruiseship with (Auroran type) relaxed rules about sex and sexuality, dress and drugs.  Basically if you didn't like this, then don't go booking passage on it.   “We do carry a government health warning”, Giskard and Daneel quipped.  There were heinously strict rules though against any gratuitous violence, rioting or brawling; Daneel and Giskard had no qualms about going along and reading out riot acts to the manner born!  They could be quite scary about this too and quite a few might-be toughies had wilted.  Robots of Giskard and Daneel calibre were quite ‘mentally’capable – as a last resort – of some pretty efficient and humiliating manhandling.  After one warning the mal-doers would next be first detained in Security and then shuttled groundside at the next planet and summarily extradited back to their own planet!  Good Ship Gaya gained a reputation for zero-leniency on such behaviour as well as for its superb food. And its Sex Change clinic.

People mostly happily paid through the nose for these privileges but the robots ran a charity so that needy less-well-off people could also benefit from a good secure humane but fun holiday for a much reduced (and in a few cases free) fee.  “We run a scholarSHIP”, Daneel and Giskard famously deadpanned.  “Har har”.  “Just in case you didn’t get that a robot has made a joke”. And so on. 

Link to Next Chapter 18:
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Chapter 16

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3981 words



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

Chapter 15

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3438 words

15

IN THE LADIES PERSONALS

Nearly two hours later Elijah was wearily going for a pee in the Personal nearest to the phony castle.  Ever the detective he didn’t miss an opportunity to search every nook and cranny so he’d checked every cubicle and noted anyone who came out. Stupid really, where on planet could anyone be concealed in a Personal cubicle; it was all streamlined seamless fittings. He even looked in the cleanerbot’s niche; even stupider, the bot pretty much fitted it glove-like, but when one’s desperate one does the stupidest things just to feel one’s doing something.   Elijah’s soft old heart under those layers of dour crust couldn’t bear to think of that poor little desolate boy on the run from all that horridness.

He went out and there was Daneel leaning against the wall and boredly facing some over-attentive youths who had been trying to make out what he was.   Naturally when they caught sight of the ‘assets’ their attitude of hostility had changed to leery adulation.

“Shit”, said one, “here’s her old man”, as Elijah approached to stand possessively next to Daneel. None of the youths had tried to touch up Daneel; ‘her’ height and general air of strength and composure was just a little daunting, so they sort of jostled about, keeping their distance. Again Elijah and Daneel just walked through them and they stumbled back.

“Well!” Elijah said, in wonder, “the case of a hot knife through butter.  Men here are scared of what they see as a strong woman.  It works wonders doesn't it – just a couple of assets”.

“It does ‘get the job done quicker’ so to speak.”, Daneel said. Elijah knew what the humaniform meant: mind-fiddling was all very well but it was fiddly: time-consuming and requiring agile concentration.  Whereas a pair of C-cups did it all for one, instanteously, whilst one got on with other things!

They walked on a bit just to get rid of the youths, and then Daneel said, “Yunno, I should check out the Women’s Personal…well, I can, can’t I, with these”, indicating his front.

 “Josaphat!”, Elijah said, “I guess you could….doesn’t the Women’s have an extra sort of restroom…? “

“It does”, Daneel said. “Speaking as an old hand who can go regularly into Women’s bogs.  Quite cushy too, some of them, with armchairs and extra mirrors and real inset washbasins and done out in nice colours too. Talk about unfairness!  Plus their cleanerbot is far more elaborate and elegant - and usually coloured pink”.

A thought came to Elijah. “And presumably the Women’s cleanerbot lives in some sort of niche….”

“Well, actually – would you believe it! – it has its own room. Like a big walk-in cubhoard.  Where all the cleaning stuff and spare bog paper is stored. Cushy almost, you could say”.

“Daneel”, Elijah said, “go in and, if necessary, have a pee like a good human or comb your hair in front of the mirror like a good woman, and then stick your nose into the cleanerbot’s room…that is, have a look round there”.

Daneel went in, presumably did whatever was necessary, came out and said, “I've found him”.  And Elijah said,  “You what…?”

He couldn’t believe it at first; that would be too good to be true, so he continued to blink at Daneel who stood there saying that he’d found Ben in the Women’s cleanerbot’s room.

Elijah swayed, overcome, and naturally Daneel caught him in his arms and held him.  Elijah allowed himself the luxury of just one moment to lean his head against Daneel’s shoulder and close his eyes and give a great sigh. He felt Daneel’s warm arms momentarily tighten round him and then he straightened up and said, “Right, let’s get him!”

“Um, well I’d better go in.” Daneel said, “Or you’ll have outraged women stabbing the alarm button because there’s a man in their hallowed bogs”. And Elijah came to and managed to chuckle and said, “Josaphat yes!” and then “well – there is a man in their hallowed bogs already, sort of – even if he is only eleven years old”.

Daneel went in again and had to kill a minute or so by fussing with and combing his hair in front of the large mirrors until a couple of  women had finished and gone out. The cleanerbot – which really was pink, albeit a rather unappetizing putty rather than rose -  was busily cleaning out any unused cubicles and replacing loo paper – Earth was not exactly go-ahead when it came to equipping wash rooms with the latest technology.  So the cleanerbot ‘lived’ in something like a large walk-in cupboard with shelving.  And enough floorspace to easily house a sleeping eleven-year-old boy.   And thankfully the ‘bot had not been equipped with the latest security ‘intelligence’ either, so it had not seen fit to raise any alarms at this extra and human object that it sensed in its space.

Daneel slipped in, knelt down and gently touched the boy’s shoulder.  He knew that humans could be frightened if suddenly wakened and this human would likely be particularly so.  So Daneel in a warm gentle tone said, “Ben…”, and then he heard someone come in.  Now to deploy some mind-fiddling – well, not exactly fiddling but just pre-emptively ‘helping’ whoever had come in to ‘forget’ that they had seen what appeared to be a woman kneeling down in the Cleanerbot’s room and talking to herself.  Easily done as the memory wouldn’t be crucial to the onlooker nor would they have been expecting to see someone behaving like that so all Daneel had to do was gently nudge.

Whilst he caressed Ben’s shoulder until the boy gradualy came awake. “S’OK Ben friend ….” as Ben looked momentarily terrified.  “It’s me, Daneel – that crazy old fagbot who loves your grandpa Elijah…we've come to rescue you, friend—“

“No!” Ben sat up suddenly and now looked really panicked. “Don’t take me back – ‘cause I won’t go. I’ll kill myself instead!” He struggled to his feet and tried to push past Daneel.

Who gently but firmly caught him in his arms and held him close. “Hey, hey, friend. Not so fast…there.  You called us, remember – on an Eva, and you got Lijey…  Listen - Ben, we are not taking you back – okay….?” Daneel paused for a few seconds in order to ‘nudge’away another mind that had come in from remembering anything.  Then softly he went about applying a calming note to the small terrified mind at his side whilst stroking the boy’s dark hair and soon felt the struggles grow less.

Outside Elijah waited and fretted, every time he saw a woman go in to use the Personals - or loos (or bogs) as the Aurorans called them.  He hoped Daneel would have the savvy and humanicity to know how to cope with a possibly frightened boy.  And when Daneel finally came out holding Ben close to his side under his coat Elijah knew he need not have worried.

“Ben”, Elijah said softly, “Hey, Ben…going to say hello to old four-times-removed-grandpa?”

They spent some time quieting and soothing him, all this time slowly walking along the wood-chip path.  Soon Ben felt confident enough to open up and sensed that they weren’t going to ‘turn him in’ by taking him home.  Cautiously he emerged from under Daneel’s coat.  Elijah opened his arms and gave him a huge warm hug. They saw the café in the distance and it was Daneel who said, “You hungry, Ben?”.

Ben was but he looked scared again. “I don’t want to—“, and then as if remembering his manners, he said, “I mean – I’d rather not go there. People will see me”.

“Of course”, Elijah gently and understandingly said.  “Why don’t we find somewhere to sit and Daneel or I will go and buy some food to take away.  What would you like?”.

So they found a bench a short distance away and Daneel returned with some rather ersatz ‘curry pasties’ and ‘sausage rolls’ which were of course nothing more than  elaborate flavoured yeast constructions and ‘ginger beer’ drinks, again more of the same in liquid form.  He’d got three of each;  when with humans one eats.  Ben wolfed his down with every enjoyment but Elijah wrinkled up his nose. “Ugh, Josephat, I’d forgotten how weary Earth City food is!  Being on your ship has spoilt me for good”.  So Ben had Elijah’s ‘sausage roll’ and the rest of his ‘ginger beer’ too, and Daneel pulled a face and impishly said, “I won’t go in to how many chemicals are in these”, and Elijah growled, “You better not!” and Daneel chuckled.   The adults sat close on either side of Ben, making him feel warm and safe by their proximity.

Elijah knew he ought to be deciding what to do next.  Ben was a minor so really they should be returning him to his family, but Elijah knew full well what that would do to Ben’s state of mind.  He didn’t blame Ben in the slightest for not wanting to go home or back to school; he knew in Ben’s place he wouldn’t want to.  And Daneel would react very strongly to a (good) human being in distress and would feel he must alleviate it which might amount to him simply running off with Ben – in effect, kidnapping him.  Daneel would see Ben as the better human being, even above his parents. He had experienced the positive free-flow-y effect that Ben, as a good – and even victimized - human being, had had on his positronics and had rated it higher than the more ‘lukewarm’ effect that Ben’s parents had had.  So any distress felt by Ben’s parents would be ‘lukewarm’ in comparison with Ben’s and so not regarded as such a high priority.  Plus he would've sensed that Elijah too was basically much more in sympathy with Ben than with his parents.  Daneel’s sophisticated robot computations could sometimes end up very emotionally!

So Elijah wasn’t even sure he could totally rely on Daneel either.  A rationally emotional robot with true likes and dislikes would you believe it!  One who automatically sympathized with the victim simply because the victim had had a good effect on his positronics.  Really, how – human!  Really.

Elijah had decided that in all honesty he ought to at least go and see Mr and Mrs Baley and talk things out a bit. It was difficult discussing anything with Daneel in front of Ben.  Rather typically and meanly the parks were all closed down for ‘the night’ and so they had to leave what was relatively a pleasant place. “In case there’s anyone hatching plots and planning to overthrow the City government or some such crap”, Elijah witheringly said. 

“Which”, Daneel wryly said, “there probably would be”. He grinned. “We robots for a start”.

Ben did not like having to leave what seemed like the comparative security and peace of the park for the jostly walkways and then the clackery old Expressway full of people.  Sour judgemental people. Who would look at them with opprobrium. Even walking too closely together let alone holding hands could result in outright denigration, and Daneel in particular was obviously ‘foreign’.  Even Elijah, now so much better dressed with his hair a bit longer, didn’t immediately belong here any more.  But, bugger it, who’d want to belong in such a dim dismal place anyway? With its fuggy air ‘full of human excretions’.  And not just biological.

PLAIN DAMN QUEERDO

The City was dismal at night.  Most people went home and stayed home and shops and most cafés closed down. Only the less-desirable roamed the walkways, spiralways and the Ex, and roistered in the public squares, so any ‘nightlife’ was decidely low-grade.  “Let’s just return to the ship”, Daneel firmly said. “This is no place for a youngster”. Ben panicked. “What – what are you going to do with me…!”.   Daneel caressed him as discreetly as he could. “S'okay, Ben, okay…” he gentled. “We’ll just go back to the ship, all of us”.

That was quite a sensible idea really; there was nowhere they could comfortably just sit here in the City once the parks had closed. Any café that was open would be a grotty (and most likely noisy) dive.   And no doubt some most unpleasant people would start approaching them and demand to know their business before going on to hassle them.  Even to start abusing them physically; making no concessions to a young boy and probably even less to one such as Ben with his longer curly hair.  And whereas Daneel could undoubtedly fob them all off (and Elijah could put up a good fight if he really had to) they didn’t want to start a fracas and attract more attention – and, even get arrested which, as outsiders, they probably would, whilst their attackers would be viewed as ‘doing their duty’ and even exercising their rights to do their citizen’s arrest. (Smug self-righteous bastards!).

Well, returning to the ship would've been a sensible idea but for one slight problem…?  “Errh!” Elijah suddenly groaned as they reached the Spaceport Approachway.  He looked round quickly to check who might be nearby.  “And just how are we going to get Ben through the check-in without his passport card…”  Ben looked up wide-eyed, unsure whether to be alarmed or enthralled but then Daneel just said, most airily, “Hey, that’s when a robot comes into use”. He tapped his forehead and said in a low voice. “This noddle has more than just a dumb positronic brain inside. Now get Ben in between us with me going first…”

Elijah sort of guessed what might happen.  Daneel had got a whole load of miraculous circuitry inside that gorgeous head of his and by now knew how to use it too. It was the other side of the coin from his cerebroanalytic mind-fiddler: a nano empulse precise enough to fry the minutest crucial memorychip inside an Immigration and Customs checkpoint swiper. Most of Earth’s technology was still so clunky it was easy game to pick out the right chip to deactivate.  On other more advanced planets it was nice to have a helping ‘hand’ in the shape of a fellow robot similarly equipped.  Not that this didn’t stop Elijah feeling pretty panicky as he followed Ben through the revolving electronic barrier. But blessedly no screaming bleepers or klaxons sounded and the human official seemed not to be looking their way.  All three of them passed unhindered and managed to walk sedately enough towards the entrance of the flexi tunnel that led to their ship. Once inside this Elijah let out a “Phew!” and Ben looked round dazed and said, “Hey, did we do it?” and Daneel laughed and said, “Ben you are just the cleverest person ever”, and then, “Oh man am I tired!”.  And he was. The focussed empulsing was actually quite draining on the old pozzies and Daneel was feeling the robotic equivalent of plain old tired.  Elijah’s legs felt like jelly. Once inside the ship with the hatchway up they made straight for the living area to sink down into its deep comfortable seating.  Picking up some self-service snacks from the kitchen dispenser on the way, which after the mingy fare of Earth City seemed gourmet in comparison.  A bit too gourmet inititally for Ben though: the rich flavours of relatively honest real food was almost indecent to one born and raised in an Earth City and he gagged.

“Just like I did at first”, Elijah chuckled, “At least you didn’t bring it all up again”.

Ben was further fascinated by how Daneel appeared to eat his food with every sign of enjoyment. Daneel caught the boy’s look. “They programmed me properly, yunno.  To enjoy things! From food to clothes, to sunsets and scenery,  to – other things.” He briefly caught Elijah’s eye and a look passed between them and Ben could never be sure if he’d imagined it or not.  The sensitive Ben had sensed the very close friendship between the two, with its openly demonstrative affection – which on Earth would be termed plain damn queerdo!  Or just plain blatent.  It was rare to see even a man and a woman holding hands along the City’s walkways or lingeringly kissing.  Even between women any public demonstrativeness was brief and got over with as soon as possible. “Done and dusted”, as Elijah would say. Well any interaction between he and Daneel would never be so;  they just seemed to fall more and more in love with each other, and Ben was to find it completely normal that this should be so between a man and an androgynous humaniform who seemed to embody the best aspects of both genders, both physically and in manner and outlook. Both were affectionate towards Ben as well which was to do wonders for his confidence.   Even when Ben saw them kissing he felt a nice warm feeling inside him instead of embarrassment, almost like, hey even if I am a queerdo what the heck!  He liked their complete lack of fuss over anything; even Elijah as a human, whilst at times appearing ascerbic and dour, seemed to lack any sort of pettishness or spite.  Whereas Daneel was like the best sort of human. Both could dole out tough-love when necessary but their love was die-straight and cut any crap. Ben felt entirely safe with them both.

Shortly after this Ben, exhausted from his ‘adventures’ of hiding out for two nights in the Ladies Personals and from a full stomach after having half-starved for two days, fell asleep on the comfortable seating, and Elijah picked him up in his arms and carried him over to one of the other deep sofa seats and gently laid him down.  He returned to lie back beside Daneel and said in a low voice, “Now, like good parents, we need to talk about Ben’s immediate future and what’s to be done about him”.

To start with there was the not-so-small matter of Ben’s schooling.  There did exist these interactive home-education holovids – though, under the soviet-style Medievalist regime, these weren’t terribly approved of on Earth, being seen as ‘antisocial’ and even subversive.  Boys were supposed to go to school to have corners knocked off and a healthy sense of manliness knocked into them!  Sitting cosily at home would make them effete , and worse still, so the attitude went, would turn-them-into-homosxuals.  One had to have a diagnosed dire physical health-problem or disability in order to qualify for this privilege.  Naturally it was easier for girls as it was not seen as so essential for them to have to go through all this rigmarole.

“Jehosaphat shat!” swore Elijah. “It’s even worse than in my day – which I thought bad enough then”. He recalled raging against the system whilst his two sisters seemed to have it all easy. His father had died young and Elijah had been brought up in a house of women which he’d found wasn’t the cushy experience he’d thought it might be.  A lot was expected of boys and he’d ended up feeling completely alienated from his (depressed) mother and his indifferent sisters (not to mention almost jealous!).  He’d known of boys who’d committed suicide rather than live though such a life and now, having come through as a feisty adult, he wasn’t prepared to let Ben become another casualty.

Daneel too was fizzing because what he saw as a good human being was unnecessarily suffering for no logical reason. Now he turned his head and said, in an equally low voice, “Reckon a bit of mind bending is in order here,” and when Elijah looked askance at him, continued, “I mean, with those local educational authority bigots”. Elijah knew these were the powers to whom one applied for the privilege of home-education (and, after the interview, usually got turned down, even with a doctor’s certificate!).

Now he looked fully at Daneel again. “You mean…you mean a bit of what you and Gizza have been doing to the bigwigs in this neck of the Galaxy…well, of course! If you can pull that off again that’d be something”.
He didn’t go on to ask just what exactly Daneel was going to do to get these holovids. Daneel and Giskard had managed to successfully slide their way into the most tightly-secured government strongholds and, equally successfully in many cases, ‘coerce’the bigwigs into thinking things a little differently or helping them to forget certain things.  And now Daneel had managed to get them past Spaceport customs and immigration unhindered despite Ben lacking a passport card. So it was decidedly worth a try.

Link to next Chapter 16:  http://nanowrimo2011ataleoftworobots.blogspot.com/2011/08/chapter-16.html