< previous page page_208 next page >

Page 208
to accompany him to Solaria, since she is the only native Solarian available, even though she left there two centuries before.
After some reluctance, Gladia agrees to go, accompanied by Daneel and Giskard. On Solaria, they find no Solarians (where they have gone is a mystery unresolved by the end of the novel, although an answer may be available in Foundation and Earth) but plenty of robots, including a humaniform robot who thinks none of them is human except Gladia, since only those who speak with a Solarian accent seem to be defined as human. Gladia helps save the party and D.G. confiscates the weapon prepared for their destruction, a nuclear intensifier, which intensifies the weak nuclear reaction and causes a violent explosion in fusion reactors.
D.G.'s party returns to Baleyworld with the valuable nuclear intensifier, the first one made portable enough to be used aboard a spaceship. On the relatively primitive Baleyworld, Gladia is treated as a heroine and expected to give a speech. To her surprise, she responds in a way that startles her and electrifies her audience, both the Baleyworld legislature and the widespread hyperwave viewers, as she pleads for human brotherhood and understanding.
Meanwhile on Aurora, Mandamus has won preferment from Amadiro with a plan to destroy Earth and thus win the Galaxy for the Spacers (and revenge for Amadiro). And Vasilia, returning to Aurora after Fastolfe's death, figures out that Giskard can detect and influence human emotions and persuades Amadiro to demand Gladia's return from the Settlers in order to get back Giskard.
Gladia, on Aurora, reports to Auroran authorities by holovision from Amadiro's office, and then falls asleep on the couch before Vasilia enters to take control of Giskard. Daneel helps Giskard fight off Vasilia's expert orders by citing the "Zeroth Law of Robotics," which he has just deduced from Baley's deathbed speech. The Zeroth Law places humanity as a whole above any single human, and would restate the First Law as "A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless this would violate the Zeroth Law of Robotics." In the end Giskard acts against Vasilia and her robots, and eliminates their memories.
Gladia and her robots flee with D.G. to Earth, which Settlers consider holy. Daneel suspects that Amadiro and Mandamus have plans against Earth that may soon come to fruition, perhaps using a version of the nuclear intensifier. He cannot understand how it can be used on a planet without fusion plants until he learns that Earth, because of its uniquely oversized moon, has large deposits of uranium and thorium

 
< previous page page_208 next page >