...And also these.

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
( for N-Z characters )

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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - Q Nami Natasha Romanoff Nelkeila Tarid Nux Nyssa al Ghul Octavia Blake One Peggy Carter Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève

R - U R. Daneel Olivaw Rapunzel Remy LeBeau Riku Robin Redbreast Rogue Santanico Pandemonium Shawn Hunter Stefan (Alesci) Salvatore Steve "Orion" Rogers Steven Quartz Universe Souji Seta Stiles Stilinski Syeira Tadashi Hamada Tekhetsio

V - Z Vash the Stampede Vima Sunrider Vision (The) Wanda Maximoff Wrath Yamanaka Ino

Comments

[thezerothlaw]

[He opens his mouth, then gives a sigh that sounds oddly exhausted, a very human sort of sigh.]

Yes. I am operating on my own power now. Please, help me disconnect.

[dancingmd]

[She comes over to him and places a cautious hand on the cable connected to the back of his head.]

Do I just... twist it?

[thezerothlaw]

Yes, that should remove it safely.

[He reaches back, pulling open the seam in his neck around the cable.]

[dancingmd]

[Beverly twists the cable with care and when she hears it detach she pulls it away slowly.]

Are we good? Operations normal?

[thezerothlaw]

[Daneel reaches back to close up the seam in the back of his neck, the edges of his artificial skin melding together invisible. He rises, because it seems improper to be seated while she is not.]

Everything as it should be, Dr. Crusher. Thank you for your assistance. Did you need something?

[dancingmd]

Yes. I ah.... don't know where I am.

[thezerothlaw]

This is a robotics workshop, much like Dr. Fastolfe's, or like many in Aurora's Robotics institute. This apparatus can be used to impress a new matrix upon the mind of a robot.

[dancingmd]

I see. So all those files... they are your memories?

[thezerothlaw]

[He looks at the drawers, his expression almost quizzical.]

They appear to be. Interesting.

[dancingmd]

I'm sorry - I saw some of them... I didn't realize, I just thought it was a database and I was trying to figure out how to reactivate you.

[thezerothlaw]

That would be a reasonable supposition, even if it was false.

[Still. He does have secrets. She doesn't seem... shocked in any way, so that's reassuring.]

What did you learn?

[dancingmd]

I saw when you were first activated, by Dr. Fastolfe and... [Deep breath.] I saw Dr. Sarton as well and that... I didn't see any details, just you and him in an apartment together, but the computer - your memory - said that he was murdered.

[thezerothlaw]

Ah. Yes, this is so.

[He takes a deep breath, because he does find this upsetting, however long ago it was.]

He... was not the target. The culprit was an extremist who wished to destroy me, but Dr. Sarton answered the door of his apartments that day. Dr. Fastolfe arranged it so that I was the Spacer representative in the homicide investigation.

[dancingmd]

Oh, Daneel. [Empathy is written all over her face, as she remembers Dr. Reyga - and he and she did not even share the same sort of connection Daneel and Dr. Sarton did.] Did you find them, the person who did it?

[thezerothlaw]

[Empathy, for him? That's... a surprise. Not a big surprise, because he knows her well enough now, and what sort of person she is, but still. He nods.]

We did. Partner Elijah was able to show that the culprit's vision was impaired at the time, and he was not able to tell that Dr. Sarton was not myself.

[dancingmd]

[Beverly frowns.] That... but you say that as if it excuses everything. [As if his vision hadn't been impaired and he had killed his intended target, that wouldn't be murder.]

[thezerothlaw]

It would have been... unfortunate, had I been destroyed. In a legal sense, that would have been mere property damage. Still, uncovering that motive was a major point in determining the culprit.

[It's a tricky question, and one he's thinking hard on. It seems to trigger a memory; one of the windows flickers into life, Daneel's view again. This time, it shows a long-faced man, in the interior of a spaceship.]

"How about 'roboticide'?"
Daneel's voice, then, politely attentive: "Roboticide?"
"As the term used to describe the killing of a robot."
"But what about the verb derived from the noun, Partner Elijah? One never says 'to homicide' and it would therefore not be proper to say 'to roboticide.'"
"You're right. You would have to say 'to murder' in each case."
"But murder applies specifically to human beings. One does not murder an animal, for instance."
"True. And one does not murder even a human being by accident, only by deliberate intent. The more general term is 'to kill." That applies to accidental death as well as to deliberate murder-- and it applies to animals as well as human beings. Even a tree may be killed by disease, so why may not a robot be killed, eh, Daneel?"
"Humans beings and other animals and plants as well, Partner Elijah, are all living things. A robot is a human artifact, as much as this viewer is. An artifact is 'destroyed,' 'damaged,' 'demolished,' and so on. It is never 'killed.'"
"Nevertheless, Daneel, I shall say 'killed.' Jander Panell was killed."

[Elijah Baley's face flickers away, and Daneel continues, as though this display were perfectly normal.]

Such terms of grammar aside, If I had been destroyed, Partner Elijah would likely not have been employed to investigate, and would not have risen to the prominence he eventually had. Subsequently, it is highly unlikely his son would have been able to lead the second wave of colonists from Earth that followed. History would have been... different.

[dancingmd]

[Beverly very much approves of this Elijah Baley - at least someone in Daneel’s world refused to treat him like a mere object, a thing whose death wouldn’t even be acknowledged as a death. Still, the impersonal way Daneel talks about the possibility of his own demise is discomfiting. Intellectually, she understands it, but emotionally, it’s hard to accept.]

I’m glad you were not… destroyed. Nonetheless, it must have been hard for you. Dr. Sarton was one of your creators, one of the first people you saw when you were first activated. I imagine he was - is - important to you.

[thezerothlaw]

I... did not have the opportunity to know him as well as I knew Dr. Fastolfe. It would have been interesting to know him better, and to fully understand his reasons for making me as I understand Dr. Fastolfe's. If I'm permitted to say so, it might be said to be analogous to the urge some humans feel to understand their ancestry.

[dancingmd]

[Oh, Daneel. She gives him a sympathetic look.] Of course you're permitted to say so. It's normal to want to understand your origins, why you are here and how you came to be, robot or not.

[thezerothlaw]

You take my motives for granted, Dr. Crusher.

[That's not a bad thing. But it's not something he's used to.]

Still, Dr. Fastolfe was responsible for much of the design of my brain, and I am humaniform in that respect as well as in appearance. Perhaps it is less of an imposition than I imagine.

[dancingmd]

[She shakes her head.] I don't understand. Why would it be an imposition?

[thezerothlaw]

I am a robot. It is not always appropriate for me to describe myself in human terms. There are times I'm forced to, as there aren't words specific to my own circumstance, though it... disturbs some people. I don't wish to disturb people.

[dancingmd]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I promise, I don't find it disturbing in the slightest. But I understand why you are being careful.

[thezerothlaw]

Indeed. I have no wish to be deactivated, after all, and it is easier to avoid the feeling from rising in the first place than it is to avoid a direct order to submit.