Donovan shone his flashlight up toward the ceiling. “Look!” he said. “There’s a week place, about fifty feet away. Maybe we should make a cave-in here.”
“Okay,” said Powell. He fixed some blasting explosive to the ceiling. “Okay, I’m ready.” Are all seven robots still nearby?”
Donovan counted the master Dave and the six sub-robots. “Yes,” he said. “All seven are here.”
When the blast happened, it was very powerful. Powell fell on top of Donovan.
“Greg, I didn’t see how the robots behaved!” Donovan shouted. “Did you see?”
“No,” said Powell. “Where are the robots now? Do you think that the ceiling fell on them?”
Powell started crawling along the tunnel. Bu, he suddenly, he stopped. He could go no further. Powell and Donovan were trapped. They could not go forward, because of the cave-in. And they could not go back, because the low ceiling behind them had fallen, too tunnel was completely blocked by rocks.
“This is bad Mike!” Powell said. “We’ve only got enough air in our spacesuits for six more hours! If we can’t get back inside the base, we’re going to die.”
“I’ve sent radio massager to Dave,” said Donovan. “But he’s not answering.”
The men could not move many of the rock, because they were too heavy. The engineers could only make a very small hole in the wall of rocks.
Donovan crawled to the hole and looked through it. “Greg! The robots are about fifty feet away,” he said. “We have to get Dave to come closer. When he’s near us, he’ll behave normally again. Then he can save us.”
Powell pushed his friend away from the hole, and looked though it himself.
“Our plan has certainly worked,” he said. “The robots know that this is an emergency. They’ve gone completely crazy.”
The robots were marching together. The six “fingers” were following Dave. Donovan looked through the hole again. Suddenly, he called to Powell. “They’re leaving!” Then he shouted through the hole. “Dave! Hay, Dave!”
“He can’t hear you,” said Powell. “Wait. I’ve got an idea.”
“What are you going to do?” said Donovan.
“I’m going to shoot one of the ‘fingers’,” Powell replied.
“Why?”
“I’ll explain later,” Powell replied. “Let’s see if my plan will work.”
Powell took his gun from his belt. He fired three times, and one of the sub-robots fell.
Then Powell called Dave’s name into his radio. There was silence for a few seconds, then Dave’s voice answered.
“We have an emergency,” said Powell. “There was a cave-in near where you were blasting. I’m trapped here with Donovan. We can’t get out, because the tunnel is blocked. Can you see my light?” Powell shone his flashlight through the hole.
“Yes,” Dave replied.
Powell sat back and smiled.
“Okay, Greg,” Donovan said quietly. “Now, explain every-thing to me.”
“Dave goes crazy when he has to make difficult choices. For example, during emergencies,” Powell said. “Did the words of Dave’s order make the sub-robots crazy? No. When the Fingers did simple work, they did not have to be supervised. They worked correctly and efficiently. Usually, Dave only gave orders to two fingers together. But if there was on emergency, all six fingers were given orders immediately and together. This is when Dave has a problem. So I destroyed one of the fingers. When Dave has only five Fingers, his brain works quickly and efficiently during and emergency.”
“Dave’s problem should be easy to correct,” Donovan said happily.
“Yes,” said Powell.
“But why did the robots march in that strange way?” asked Donovan
“The sub-robots were like Dave’s fingers,” Powell replied. “Sometimes people can’t make decisions when there’s an emergency. They can’t think clearly. They just sit and move their hands. Maybe Dave was playing with his fingers.
---
As she talked about Powell and Donovan, Susan Calvin’s voice was cold. But she spoke about robots, she was interested and excited.
“Has there ever been a problem with robots on earth?” I asked.
She frowned. “No, we don’t work with robots, here.”
“Have you ever had any problems with a robots yourself?” I asked
Susan’s face went red. “Yes,” she said. “I’ve had problem. I remember a case that happened almost forty years ago.” She was silent for a few minutes. I waited until she spoke again.
“I was young and foolish once,” she went on. “Do you believe that?”
“No,” I replied.
“Well, I was” she said “In 2021, I make a mistake. I believed the words of a robot named Herbie. He was a mind-reading robot.”
“What?” I said.
“He was the only mind-reading robot. He was a bad mistake…”