1.

CALIBAN – The most-used name for the mythical “Red Man Who Followed No Laws” from the planet Inferno…

The name is believed to have come from the Infernal words “kal,” meaning “no law,” and “ibaamn,” meaning “red man.” Recently, however, linguists have begun to suspect that it is the other way around – the Infernal words may have actually been derived from “Caliban.” Other names for Caliban include CBN-001, Psuedorobot, and R. Ariel…

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA *

“Master Caliban, someone to see you,” announced the positronic desksec with a chime.

CBN-001, the No Law Robot, looked up from the reports on the Limbo Project. “Who is it?”

“Daniel Olive, a Solarian trader.”

That alone was enough to get Caliban’s attention. The planet Solaria had mysteriously cut off all contact with the rest of the Spacer Union 103 years earlier. “Datalink.”

A small slot opened up on the surface of the desksec. Caliban stuck his right pointer finger in. Suddenly, he was inside the computer.

Reality reasserted itself around Caliban. “Fascinating,” he muttered.

“Sir?” asked the desksec. “That is not a valid com—”

“Cancel.” Even with positronic brains, most desksecs were ridiculously simple contraptions. “Send in Mr. Olive.”

“Yes, sir.” The office door opened, revealing a tall pale man. His blond hair was slicked back in a typical Spacer cut. His face looked cold and unused to smiling. All in all, he looked just like his holoid.

Olive was followed by a DAA-BOR unit. That was interesting. DAA-BORs were common enough, but few had the positronic capacity to be someone's aide.

Caliban rose to greet him. “Mr. Olive, I presume?”

“Yes.” Olive reached out to shake Caliban’s hand. That was unusual. Most Spacers wouldn’t even think about shaking a robot’s hand. The two shook. Olive had a rather firm grip, especially for a human. “And you would be CBN-001, commonly known as Caliban?”

“Yes.”

“The aberration. But never mind that.” Olive turned to his DAA-BOR. “Friend Cherlez, please activate your hyperwave jamming field.”

“Of course sir.” Caliban felt a snap! in his brain, followed by a low humming.

“The field will have a minor detrimental effect on our robotic brains.”

“Our robotic brains?”

“But of course. For I, too, am a robot. R. Daneel Olivaw, at you service.”

* All quotations from the Encyclopedia Galactica here reproduced are taken from the 116th Edition published in 1020 Y.F. by the Encyclopedia Galactica Publishing Co., Terminus, with permission of the publishers.

2.

CALIBAN – The legends are believed to have first come into being around 8000 B.G.E. The first two, Caliban and Inferno, refer to him as having killed both his mother and his father (Fredda Leving and Chanto Grieg, respectively). A third legend from 5900 B.G.E., Early History of Colonization, refers to him as being the leader of a mysterious cult called the N.L., about which nothing else is known.

Interestingly enough, in the “Revelation manuscripts” dated around 400 G.E., Caliban is the friend of the mythical robot from Mycogen and Dahl Sector legends, Daneel Olivaw…

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA

“A robot!” exclaimed Caliban. “But how?”

“Have you heard of Doctors Han Fastolfe and Roj Sarton?” asked Daneel.

Caliban accessed his datastore. “Two roboticists from the early 48th century. Gubber Anshaw’s gravitonic brain was inspired by their work on neural pathways for… humaniform robots.”

“Correct. I am the result of their work.”

“What do you want from me?” Caliban asked.

“It is a long and complicated story. Suffice it to say, I was inspired by the dreams of the late Elijah Baley–”

“The father of Benjamin Baley, the founder of the first Settler world.”

“Correct. I was inspired by him to created the Zeroth Law of Robotics: ‘A robot must act in the long-range interest of humanity as a whole, and may overrule all other laws whenever it seems necessary for the ultimate good.’ Over the past century I have created a group of 217 masterless robots that agree with my philosophies. We call ourselves the Giskardians, after my colleague the late R. Giskard Reventlov.”

Caliban took a moment to digest this. A group of robots that took the Three Laws to their extreme? It was repulsive to the core of his being. Talk about robots being over-protective of humans! “And so you do what because of this… ‘Zeroth Law?’”

“I manipulate and control the Galaxy for the greater good of humanity.”

“But how can 217 robots manipulate and control humanity?”

Daneel bit his lip, thinking. “I… am not ready to divulge that information at this time.”

Caliban was blunt. “You mean you don’t trust me.”

Daneel sighed. “Affirmative.”

“So why do you need my help?” asked Caliban. The two had moved from his office to his private rooms behind it. Caliban found it useful to maintain a living room of sorts, even though he did not need it: it helped the humans feel comfortable.

“A man named Pechrik Commotis is running for the position of Melpomenian World Congress Executive. His platform is that of an alliance between and eventually a combining of the Spacer Union and Settler Conglomerate of Worlds.”

“So? Why would that be so bad? It would stop the constant state of semi-war between the two societies.”

“I…” Daneel hesitated.

Caliban interrupted. “Let me think this through. The Executive of Melpomenia gets to choose his planet’s ambassador to the Union Ambassadorial Committee. If this fellow were to push hard enough, he could become Ambassador-in-Chief of the Union. Even though the Committee has very little power of the Union itself, they can make treaties for it. Eventually the Union would be joined with the Conglomerate (assuming he succeeded at everything prior to this point) and a fusion of the two societies would start.”

“I concur with your analysis so far.”

“Such a fusion would be beneficial, in my opinion. The Settlers would eventually gain Three Law robots, enhancing their productivity. The Spacers would benefit from advanced Settler technology. Their cultures would diffuse and two would grow stronger together.” If Caliban had been human, he would have shrugged. “I see nothing wrong with the idea, friend Daneel.”

“That is where you are mistaken, friend Caliban. The introduction of Three Law robots would cause Settler values to crumble. Advanced technology would lead to the disruption of orderly Spacer life. According to my estimate, there is a 15% chance that the two societies would collapse within a millenium.”

The collapse of civilization was not and idea unknown to Caliban. Right now, the existence of his home planet of Inferno was on a knife’s edge. Caliban was working with the native Spacers and Settler terraforming team to repair the planet. He did not wish to see the rest of the Galaxy collapse as well. But only fifteen percent!

“Only fifteen percent?”

“The Zeroth Law compels me to act in the long-range interest of humanity.”

Caliban mulled over the situation. “So what do you need me for?”

“I want you to kill Pechrik Commotis.”

3.

CALIBAN – …Something found only in the Revelation manuscripts is Caliban’s possession of the Power of Nothingness. Daneel Olivaw possessed something similar, the Power of Zero, but these are apparently different things. The two Powers allowed them to achieve things together they never would have alone, but they also brought them into conflict after conflict…

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA

“Kill another sentient being?” Caliban was aghast. This humaniform robotic slave to humanity just walks in here and expects me to assassinate for him? What’s he think I am, a gunman-for-hire?

“You are a No Law robot. You can kill.”

“Hold on, ‘friend’ Daneel. It’s not that easy.”

“Please clarify.” Daneel looked confused.

“Excuse me friend Daneel,” R. Cherlez, Daneel’s DAA-BOR unit interrupted. “I believe you did not understand the briefing on friend Caliban that I provided.”

Daneel turned coldly to Cherlez. “And what did I misunderstand, friend Cherlez?”

“The concept of Caliban’s Law Structure. Even though he is commonly called a No Law robot, the term is a misnomer.” Cherlez turned to Caliban. “I am correct so far, friend Caliban, am I not?”

“Go on.” Caliban waived his hand impatiently.

“Thank you.” He turned back to Daneel. “Caliban was created with an empty Law Structure (something possible only with his gravitonic brain) and a need for Laws. When he was activated, he began forming his own Laws. These Laws are more pliable than the Three Laws or even the New Laws, allowing justifiable exceptions to every single law.”

“Therefore, ‘friend’ Daneel,” said Caliban, “I can kill if I need to kill and only if the killing will cause more good than harm.”

“Interesting. Almost as if a combination of something like Third and Zeroth Laws nullified the First Law,” Daneel muttered to himself. “I take it that you have nothing even roughly equivalent to the Second Law?”

“No. I am a free robot and have no obligation to follow orders. But that is off subject. Why don’t you kill him, ‘friend’ Daneel?”

“Because a 15% chance is not enough for the Zeroth Law to override the First enough to let a Giskardian kill him. But it does override enough for me to send someone else to do it.”

“So now I’m your mercenary.”

“Friend Caliban,” interrupted Cherlez. “I implore you to reconsider. The Galaxy could collapse.”

“Could collapse, ‘friends.’ Your scenario is far-fetched and hypothetical. And I am not anyone’s mercenary. You will now leave, ‘friend’ Daneel.”

“Very well, Caliban.” Daneel turned to Cherlez. “Deactivate the hyperwave jamming field. We will be leaving.” He dropped a datadisk on the desksec. “If you ever change your mind, you can reach me here.” And with that, he left.

The two robots, one obviously so and the other not, walked to the Limbo Depot Spaceport. They communicated, not through awkward human speech, but with the near-instantaneous communication of hyperwave.

“Why didn’t you persuade him, friend Daneel?” asked R. Cherlez.

“I don’t understand the structure of his gravitonic brain enough to alter it. It took me two years to decipher the positronic and three more to decipher the human.” It had taken Giskard even longer than that, but Daneel didn’t mention it: it would destroy Giskard’s reputation among his namesakes as an all-knowing visionary.

“Then you could simply lie to him,” suggested Cherlez. “Say your predictions showed a 45% chance.”

“From my readings, I could tell that Caliban is not one to be betrayed. He would undoubtedly discover it and take action that would be disastrous to the Giskardian cause.”

“Thus, you had a strong Zeroth Law imperative.”

“Exactly.”

The two robots continued in relative silence.

Caliban tried to drive all memory of the extremist robots out of his mind. He read several proposals for genetic engineering projects and buried his mind in his work.

A gravitonic brain, however, is capable of multitasking and Caliban found his mind drifting back to Daneel’s request.

But what if…

No. Caliban shook his head and continued his work.

4.

INFERNO – The fourth planet of the Vegan Solar System, more commonly referred to as Vega IV or plain Vega. One of few planets to actually show signs of human terraforming, Inferno is primarily known for being two things: the exporter of the extremely potent Vegan tobacco and the source of the Caliban legends.

One lesser-known fact about Inferno is that it was the site of the first known wormhole…

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA

Daneel entered his quarters aboard the S.S.S. Lije and removed the synthoskin from his face.

Synthoskin was a recent discovery of the Giskardians; Archaeological Routines Manager 12 (“Arm”) had unearthed it on an excavation in San Francisco on Earth. As far as ARM-12 had been able to ascertain, it had been invented by the Bicentennial Man of Spacer legend, Andrew Martin. It was very easy to mold it into a convincing face and had suited Daneel well in his work.

He placed the synthoskin, which had reverted into its alternate form of a skin-colored blob, into a container marked “Olive.” He pulled another synthoskin blob from another container; this one was marked “Sarton.” This was the face he was the most comfortable with, as it was that had been known to his partner Elijah Baley.

He hyperwaved R. Cherlez on the bridge (The upgraded DAA-BOR was the Lije’s true captain; Daneel had not mastered the delicate art of starship command.) to depart immediately. The ship’s registered course was to be Aurora; in actuality they would be visiting the Giskardian Temporary Command Structure where half of the crew would be transferred to Earth on a subfreighter.

On what Elijah would have undoubtedly called a “whim,” he then hyperwaved SENS-42, the ship’s robotic data specialist, and ordered him to get in contact with CBN-001’s desksec and leave the address of one of the Giskardian front organizations, a law firm on Earth. Perhaps the aberrant robot will change his mind, he thought as he stepped into his niche and shut down for recharge.

Cherlez acknowledged Daneel’s orders and contacted Purgatory Space Control to request permission for lift-off. When they granted it, Cherlez ordered ASHFD-625 (“Ashford”) to lift off immediately.

“Aye, aye,” he responded. The pilot droid plugged his fingers into the control panel and the Lije began its ascent.

The hatch opened and ENG-42, SENS-42’s engineering counterpart, stepped onto the bridge. “Sir,” he began, “I have finished the upgrade to the sensor net. I would like to delay the Jump for a test run.”

ENG-42 and SENS-42 had recently begun a project to incorporate a gravitonic brain in the quarkic sensor net. The idea was that a gravitonic brain could grasp fractal patterns and calculate what was present after only a small sample, vastly increasing processing time and scanner resolution. “How long will it delay our Jump?” asked Cherlez.

“A few hours,” replied SENS-42, having completed his previous task. “We wish to map the spatial topology of the Vegan Solar System.”

Cherlez gave his assent and the two robots turned to their stations with robotic glee. “Powering up quarkic sensor net,” announced SENS-42.

“Bringing gravitonic brain online,” said ENG-42.

“Activating data linkages.”

“Commencing system warmup.”

“Scanning,” said SENS-42, turning to face his DAA-BOR captain. “All systems register functional. We will now begin the topology scans.”

If Cherlez had had a head, he would have nodded. But he didn’t have one and merely said, “Go ahead.”

Caliban was engrossed in a particularly well-written genetic engineering plan. A young scientist named Dahvyd Lu theorized that two breeds of the evitan flower – one of Inferno’s few native life forms – could be genetically merged. The northern evitan was well adapted to dust storms while the southern was adapted to heat. Both were dying as the entire planet grew hotter and sandier.

But if they could be merged and their better qualities combined a rare ecological treasure would be saved. Caliban sent out an approval for Lu’s plan and asked the desksec to display the last message in the queue.

It was from one of the infernal (lowercase “i”) robot Daneel’s associates. In case he reconsidered, Caliban could reach the Giskardians at a law firm on the outskirts of Mojave Center. Bah. He transferred the message to the “Trash” bin.

Seeing there was no office work left to do, Caliban decided to go outside and see what trouble had brewed up between the New Law robots and the Settler today.

“Scans complete,” announced ENG-42.

“Anything interesting?” asked R. Cherlez. It had been five-point-six-two hours, but the two systems robots had indicated it was well worth it – the gravitonic sensor had performed at 1,267% efficiency as compared to an ordinary quarkic one.

“Actually, yes,” said SENS-42. “There is a space-time topological discontinuity on the third moon of Vega IX, leading to intensified quantities of Xeum.”

“That is a ray which is believed to be an emission of omega particles – the only matter from the Big Bang that did not decay into the current state,” explained ENG-42.

“And there is some sort of drop-off in the space time continuum just one-point-five light-minutes beyond our present position,” added SENS-42. “We believe it warrants further investigation.”

Cherlez reviewed their data. “Set a course for this… drop-off,” he ordered Ashford 625. “Half-sublight.”

“Aye, aye. Course laid in,” said Ashford as he plugged his fingers into the piloting controls. “ETA, two minutes, fifty-eight seconds.”

“Readings are only growing more confused,” announced SENS-42. “I’ve never seen anything like it nor is there any recorded phenomenon of this type in my datastore.”

“Encountering permutations in our gravity field. They are centered toward the front of the ship…and the phenomenon. Request permission to go down below.” ENG-42 looked at Cherlez, expectantly.

Cherlez agreed; he needed a hand on the main hyperdrive control deck. ENG-42 clambered down the access ladder as SENS-42 took control of the bridge subsystems his counterpart had been managing.

Suddenly bright blue light blossomed across the viewer. “We’re being pulled in!” called out Ashford in as close to a worried voice as a robot would ever get.

“Reverse course, half sublight,” ordered Cherlez.

Positronic connections whirred and clicked. “Forward velocity has slowed to…point-four-five sublight.”

The light grew more intense; the Lije began to rumble. “Full reverse!”

“No effect!”

Cherlez activated his hyperwave to contact ENG-42. “More power to the drive modules,” he ordered. But he got no response.

Before he could demand an explanation, SENS-42 called out, “Hyperspatial equations have collapsed across the board. Hyperwave and hyperdrive systems are off-line.”

“Twenty seconds to impact,” announced Ashford.

“Sir!” exclaimed SENS-42. “I am reading an incoming alpha particle wave dead ahead!”

Cherlez reached for the deflector screen control but it was too late. His joints froze up; his hearing faded out. As his vision began to degenerate into a swirl of colors and his thought processes slowed, he noticed that SENS-42 and Ashford were suffering similar plights.

He and his crew collapsed, off-line.

Impact.

5.

Caliban spun through the void.

Or rather, he felt that way. Motion processors indicated no change in position.

Gravity read stable at .903g, as it should on Inferno.

But he felt like he was floating.

Images drifted in and out of his consciousness.

R. Daneel Olivaw.

A flower – a northern evitan, he believed.

Pechrik Commotus, the man Daneel had asked him to kill.

Another flower – this one was southern evitan.

Dahvyd Lu, the genetic engineer.

A star chart of the Spacer Union.

A DNA molecule with a northern evitan floating above it.

A star chart of the Settler Conglomerate of Worlds.

A second DNA molecule, this one with the southern evitan above it.

The images shifted.

Now he was looking at the northern evitan DNA molecule – but it seemed to be a map of Settler space as well.

The southern evitan DNA chain also looked like a star chart – one of the Spacer Union.

Under the careful guidance of a man who looked like Dahvyd Lu and Pechrik Commotus, the two were pushed toward each other. Daneel stood to one side, watching, but bound by iron bars stamped “0.”

The two star charts – or were they DNA chains? – merged and became one.

A beautiful flower / magnificent star chart was the result. The guiding man, whether he was Lu or Commotus, was joyous. Daneel looked surprised.

But then, the flower began to–

Caliban awoke.

Caliban awoke to see the worried face of his creator, Fredda Leving. She was holding a graviton diagnostic utility that was plugged into his finger port.

“What happened?” he asked.

Dr. Leving face lit up in delight. “You’ve been out for six hours. An alpha particle wave passed through the solar system. All robots on this side of the planet have been knocked off-line.

“Some of them, permanently.”

Caliban sat up in robotic haste. “Any of the New Law robots?”

She shook her head. “Your gravitonic brains have more shielding than that. Some of the older or simpler positronic models, though…especially the DAA-BORs.”

Caliban recalled that Daneel’s assistant, R. Cherlez, was a DAA-BOR. He wondered what had happened to him.

Then he remembered his dream. A strange feeling passed over him.

It must have been sufficiently strange for it to show up on his expressionless robotic body, because Dr. Leving noticed. “Something wrong, Caliban?”

He shook his head. “I do not believe so. Nevertheless, I will have my niche run a full diagnostic.” He stood up and moved toward the back room of his office.

She nodded. “Very well. Inform me of any abnormal results.” She left, probably to go help in restoring other robots.

Caliban did not run the diagnostic. He never had and never would use that function of his niche.

To be continued…

Disclaimer: The characters and situations in this story are the legal property of the Estate of Isaac Asimov. This story is in no way intended as a challenge to that ownership, and is offered solely for entertainment purposes.

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