Lucky Starr The And The Moons of Jupiter ls-5 Read online

  "The little Venusian creature," said Lucky, "had peculiar abilities. It could detect emotion. It could transmit emotion. It could even impose emotion."

  The commander's eyes opened wide, but Panner said in a husky voice, "I once heard a rumor to that effect, Councilman. I laughed."

  "You needn't have. It is true. In fact, Commander Donahue, my purpose in asking for this interview was to make arrangements to have every man on the project interviewed by me in the presence of the V-frog. I wanted an emotional analysis."

  The commander still seemed half stunned. "What would that prove?"

  "Perhaps nothing. Still, I meant to try it."

  Panner intervened. "Meant to try it? You use the past tense, Councilman Starr."

  Lucky stared solemnly at the two project officials. "My V-frog is dead."

  Bigman said furiously, "Killed this morning."

  The commander said, "Who killed it?"

  "We don't know, Commander."

  The commander sat back in his chair. "Then your little investigation is over, I suppose, till the animal can be replaced."

  Lucky said, "There will be no waiting. The mere fact of the V-frog's death has told me a great deal, and the matter becomes much more serious."

  "What do you mean?"

  All stared. Even Bigman looked up at Lucky in profound surprise.

  Lucky said, "I told you that the V-frog has the capacity to impose emotion. You yourself, Commander Donahue, experienced that. Do you recall your feelings when you saw the V-frog on my ship yesterday? You were under considerable strain, yet when you saw the V-frog- Do you remember your feelings, sir?"

  "I was rather taken with the creature," the commander faltered.

  "Can you think why, as you look back at the moment now?"

  "No, come to think of it. Ugly creature."

  "Yet you liked it. You couldn't help yourself. Could you have harmed it?"

  "I suppose not."

  "I'm certain you couldn't. No one with emotions could have. Yet someone did. Someone killed it."

  Panner said, "Do you intend to explain the paradox?"

  "Easily explained. No one with emotions, A robot, however, does not have emotions. Suppose that somewhere on Jupiter Nine there is a robot, a mechanical man, in the perfect form of a human being?"

  "You mean a humanoid?" exploded Commander Donahue. "Impossible. Such things exist only in fairy tales."

  Lucky said, "I think, Commander, you are not aware of how skillful the Sirians are in the manufacture of robots. I think they might be able to use some man on Jupiter Nine, some thoroughly loyal man, as model; build a robot in his shape and substitute it for him. Such a humanoid robot could have special senses that would enable it to be the perfect spy. It might, for instance, be able to see in the dark or sense things through thicknesses of matter. It would certainly be able to transmit information through the subether by some built-in device."

  The commander shook his head. "Ridiculous. A man could easily have killed the V-frog. A desperate man frightened to an extreme might have overcome this- this mental influence the animal exerted. Have you thought of that?"

  "Yes, I have," said Lucky. "But why should a man be so desperate, why so wild to kill a harmless V-frog? The most obvious reason is that the V-frog represented a desperate danger, that it was not harmless at all. The only danger a V-frog might have to the killer would involve the animal's capacity to detect and transmit the killer's emotions. Suppose those emotions would be an immediate giveaway to the fact that the killer was a spy?"

  "How could it be?" Panner asked.

  Lucky turned to look at him. "What if our killer had no emotions at all? Wouldn't a man without emotions be revealed at once as a robot?… Or take it another way altogether. Why kill only the V-frog? Having gotten into our rooms, having risked so much, having found one of us in the shower and one at the intercom and both unsuspecting and unready, why did not the killer kill us instead of the V-frog? For that matter, why not kill us and the V-frog?"

  "No time, probably," said the commander.

  "There's another and more plausible reason," said Lucky. "Do you know the Three Laws of Robotics, the rules of behavior that all robots are built to follow?"

  "I know them generally," the commander said. "I can't quote them."

  "I can," said Lucky, "and with your permission I will, so that I may make a point. The First Law is this: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. The Second Law is: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. The Third Law is: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."

  Panner nodded. "All right, Councilman, what does that prove?"

  "A robot can be ordered to kill the V-frog, which is an animal. It will risk its existence, since self-preservation is only Third Law, to obey orders, which is Second Law. But it cannot be ordered to kill Bigman or myself, since we are humans, and First Law takes precedence over all. A human spy would have killed us and the V-frog; a robot spy would have killed only the V-frog. It all points to the same thing, Commander."

  The commander considered that for long minutes, sitting motionless, the lines on his tired face grooving deeper. Then he said, "What do you propose to do? X-ray every man on the project?"

  "No," said Lucky at once. "It's not that simple. Successful espionage is going on elsewhere than here. If there is a humanoid robot here, there are probably others elsewhere. It would be well to catch as many of the humanoids as possible; all of them if we can. If we act too eagerly and openly to catch the one under our hands, the others may be snatched away for use at another time."

  "Then what do you propose doing?"

  "To work slowly. Once you suspect a robot, there are ways of making it give itself away without its being aware of it. And I don't start completely from scratch. For instance, Commander, I know you are not a robot, since I detected emotion in you yesterday. In fact, I deliberately induced anger in you to test my V-frog, and for that I ask your pardon."

  Donahue's face had gone mauve. "I, a robot?"

  "As I said, I used you only to test my V-frog."

  Panner said dryly, "You have no reason to feel sure about me, Councilman. I never faced your V-frog."

  "That is right," said Lucky. "You are not cleared yet. Remove your shirt."

  "What!" cried Panner indignantly. "Why?"

  Lucky said mildly, "You have just been cleared. A robot would have had to obey that order."

  The commander's fist banged down on his desk. "Stop it! This ends right here. I will not have you testing or annoying my men in any way. I have a job to do on this satellite, Councilman Starr; I have an Agrav ship to get into space, and I'm getting it into space. My men have been investigated and they're clear. Your story about a robot is flimsy, and I'm not going along with it.

  "I told you yesterday, Starr, that I didn't want you on this satellite disturbing my men and wrecking their morale. You saw fit yesterday to address me in insulting fashion. You say now it was just to test your animal, which makes it no less insulting. For that reason, I feel no need to co-operate with you and I am not doing so. Let me tell you exactly what I have done.

  "I've cut off all communication with Earth. I've put Jupiter Nine under emergency orders. I have the powers of a military dictator now. Do you understand?"

  Lucky's eyes narrowed a trifle. "As councilman of the Council of Science, I outrank you."

  "How do you intend to enforce your rank? My men will obey me and they have their orders. You will be restrained forcibly if you try in any way, by word or deed, to interfere with my orders."

  "And what are your orders?"

  "Tomorrow," said Commander Donahue, "at 6 p.m., Solar Standard Time, the first functioning Agrav ship in existence will make its first flight from Jupiter Nine to Jupiter One, the satellite lo. After we're back- after we're back, Councilman Starr
, and not one hour sooner-you may conduct your investigation. And if you then want to get in touch with Earth and arrange court-martial proceedings, I will be ready for you."

  Commander Donahue stared firmly at Lucky Starr.

  Lucky said to Panner, "Is the ship ready?"

  PFanner said, "I think so."

  Donahue said scornfully. "We leave tomorrow. Well, Councilman Starr, do you go along with me or will I have to have you arrested?"

  The silence that followed was a tense one. Bigman virtually held his breath. The commander's hands were clenching and unclenching, and his nose was white and pinched. Panner slowly fumbled a stick of gum out of his shirt pocket, stripped it of its plastofoil coating with one hand, and crumpled it into his mouth.

  And then Lucky clasped his hands loosely, sat back in his chair, and said, "I'll be glad to co-operate with you, Commander."

  8. Blindness

  Bigman was at once outraged. "Lucky! Are you going to let him stop the investigation just like that?"

  Lucky said, "Not exactly, Bigman. We'll be on board the Agrav ship and we'll continue it there."

  "No sir," the commander said flatly, "You will not be on board. Don't think that for an instant."

  Lucky said, "Who will be on board, Commander? Yourself, I presume?"

  "Myself. Also Panner, as chief engineer. Two of my officers, five other engineers, and five ordinary crewmen. All these were chosen some time ago. Myself and Panner, as responsible heads of the project; the five engineers to handle the ship itself; the remainder in return for their services to the project."

  Lucky said thoughtfully, "What type of service?"

  Panner interrupted to say, "The best example of what the commander is talking about is Harry Norrich, who-"

  Bigman stiffened in surprise. "You mean the blind fellow?"

  Panner said, "You know him then?"

  "We met him last evening," said Lucky.

  "Well," said Panner, "Norrich was here at the very beginning of the project. He lost his sight when he threw himself between two contacts to keep a force field from buckling. He was in the hospital five months and his eyes were the one part of him that couldn't be restored. By his act of bravery, he kept the satellite from having a chunk the size of a mountain blown out of it. He saved the lives of two hundred people and he saved the project, since a major accident at the beginning might have made it impossible to get further appropriations out of Congress. That sort of thing is what earns one the honor of a place on the maiden voyage of the Agrav ship."

  "It's a shame he won't be able to see Jupiter up close," said Bigman. Then, his eyes narrowing, "How'll he get around on board ship?"

  Panner said, "We'll be taking Mutt, Fm sure. He's a well-behaved dog."

  "That's all I want to know then," said Bigman heatedly. "If you cobbers can take a dog, you can take Lucky and me."

  Commander Donahue was looking at his wristwatch impatiently. Now he put the palms of his hands flat on the table; and made as though to rise. "We have finished our business then, gentlemen."

  "Not quite," Lucky said. "There's one little point to be cleared up. Bigman puts it crudely, but he's quite right. He and I will be on the Agrav ship when it leaves."

  "No," said Commander Donahue. "Impossible."

  "Is the added mass of two individuals too great for the ship to handle?"

  Panner laughed. "We could move a mountain."

  "Do you lack room then?"

  The commander stared at Lucky in hard displeasure. "I will not give any reason. You are not being taken only because it is my decision that you not be taken. Is that clear?"

  There was a glint of satisfaction in his eyes, and Lucky did not find it hard to guess that he was squaring accounts for the tongue-lashing Lucky had given him aboard the Lucky Starr.

  Lucky said quietly, "You had better take us, Commander."

  Donahue smiled sardonically. "Why? Am I to be relieved of duty at the orders of the Council of Science? You won't be able to communicate with Earth till I return, and after that they can relieve me of duty if they wish."

  "I don't think you've thought it through, Commander," said Lucky. "They might relieve you of duty retroactive to this moment. In fact, I assure you they will do so. As far as the government records are concerned, then, it will appear that Agrav ship made its first flight not under your command but under the command, officially, of your successor, whoever he might be. The records of the trip might even be adjusted to show, officially, that you were not on board."

  Commander Donahue went white. He rose and for a moment seemed on the point of throwing himself bodily at Lucky.

  Lucky said, "Your decision, Commander?"

  Donahue's voice was most unnatural when it finally came. "You may come."

  Lucky spent the remainder of the day in the record rooms, studying the files on various men employed on the project, while Bigman, under Panner's guidance, was taken from laboratory to laboratory and through tremendous testing rooms.

  It was only after the evening meal when they returned to quarters that they had a chance to be alone together. Lucky's silence then was not extraordinary, since the young councilman was never talkative at the best of times, but there was a small crease between his eyes that Bigman recognized as a sure sign of concern.

  Bigman said, "We aren't making any progress, are we, Lucky?"

  Lucky shook his head, "Nothing startling, I'll admit:"

  He had brought a book-film with him from the project's library, and Bigman caught a flash of its title: Advanced Robotics. Methodically Lucky threaded the beginnings of the film through the viewer.

  Bigman stirred restlessly. "Are you going to be all tied up with that film, Lucky?"

  "I'm afraid so, Bigman."

  "Do you mind then if I visit Norrich next door for company?"

  "Go ahead." Lucky had the viewer over his eyes and he was leaning back, his arms crossed loosely across his chest.

  Bigman closed the door and remained standing just outside for a moment, a little nervous. He should discuss this with Lucky first, he knew he should, and yet the temptation…

  He told himself: I'm not going to do anything. I'll just check something. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong and why bother Lucky? But if it checks out, then I'll really have something to tell him.

  The door opened at once when he rang, and there was Norrich, blind eyes fixed in the direction of the doorway, seated before a desk on which a checkerboard design carried odd figures.

  He said, "Yes?"

  "This is Bigman," said the little Martian.

  "Bigman! Come in. Sit down. Is Councilman Starr with you?"

  The door closed again, and Bigman looked about in the brightly lit room. His mouth tightened. "He's busy. But as for me, I'm filled up on Agrav today. Dr. Panner took me all over, only I don't understand a thing of it hardly."

  Norrich smiled. "You're not exactly in a minority, but if you ignore the mathematics, some of it isn't too hard to understand."

  "No? Mind explaining it then?" Bigman sat down in a large chair and bent to look under Norrich's workbench. Mutt lay there with his head between his fore-paws and one eye brightly fixed on Bigman.

  (Keep him talking, thought Bigman. Keep him talking till I find a hole, or make one.)

  "Look here," Norrich said. He held up one of the round counters he had been holding. "Gravity is a form of energy. An object- such as this piece I'm holding which is under the influence of a gravitational field but is not allowed to move is said to have potential energy. If I were to release the piece, that potential energy would be converted to motion-or kinetic energy, as it is called. Since it continues under the influence of the gravitational field as it falls, it falls faster and faster and faster." He dropped the counter at this point, and it fell.

  "Until, splash," said Bigman. The counter hit the floor and rolled.

  Norrich bent as though to retrieve it and then said, "Would you get it for me, Bigman? I'm not sure where it rolled."

 
Bigman suppressed his disappointment. He picked it up and returned it.

  Norrich said, "Now until recently that was the only thing that could be done with potential energy: it could be converted into kinetic energy. Of course the kinetic energy could be used further. For instance, the falling water of Niagara Falls could be used to form electricity, but that's a different thing. In space, gravity results in motion and that ends it.

  "Consider the Jovian system of moons. We're at Jupiter Nine, way out. Fifteen million miles out. With respect to Jupiter, we've got a tremendous quantity of potential energy. If we try to travel to Jupiter One, the satellite Io, which is only 285,000 miles from Jupiter, we are in a way, falling all those millions of miles. We pick up tremendous speeds which we must continually counteract by pushing in the opposite direction with a hyperatomic motor. It takes enormous energy. Then, if we miss our mark by a bit, we're in constant danger of continuing to fall, in which case there's only one place to go, and that's Jupiter-and Jupiter is instant death. Then, even if we land safely on lo, there's the problem of getting back to Jupiter Nine, which means lifting ourselves all those millions of miles against Jupiter's gravity. The amount of energy required to maneuver among Jupiter's moons is just prohibitive."

  "And Agrav?" asked Bigman.

  "Ah! Now that's a different thing. Once you use an Agrav converter, potential energy can be converted into forms of energy other than kinetic energy. In the Agrav corridor, for instance, the force of gravity in one direction is used to charge the gravitational field in the other direction as you fall. People falling in one direction provide the energy for people falling in the other. By bleeding off the energy that way, you yourself, while falling, need never speed up. You can fall at any velocity less than the natural falling velocity. You see?"

  Bigman wasn't quite sure he did but he said, "Go on."

  "In space it's different. There's no second gravitational field to shift the energy to. Instead, it is con-, verted to hyperatomic field energy and stored so. By doing this, a space ship can drop from Jupiter Nine to Io at any speed less than the natural falling speed without having to use any energy to decelerate. Virtually no energy is expended except in the final adjustment to Io's orbital speed. And safety is complete, since the ship is always under perfect control. Jupiter's gravity could be completely blanketed, if necessary.