Mari Wolf

“ Without the robots they were forced to do their own marketing, their own cooking, their own errands. For the first time in years, human beings ran the street cars and the freight elevators. For the first time in a generation human beings did manual labor such as unloading produce trucks. They didn't like it, of course. They kept telling the police to do something. If I had been in the city they would have undoubtedly wanted to lynch me.
I didn't go back to the city that day. I sat in my office listening to the radio and keeping track of the spread of the strike. ”

“ Then, while I thought, Jack mentioned the worry I'd managed to forget for the past couple of hours.
"Four days until Saturday," he said. "We'll never make it now. Not even if we got a thousand men."
No. We couldn't. Not without the androids. I nodded, feeling sick. There went my contract, and my working capital. Not to mention my robots. Of course, I could call in the Army, but what good would that do?
Then, somewhere in the back of my mind a glimmering of an idea began percolating. ”

“ You're not men! You're robots! You're machines!"
Jerry looked at me almost pityingly. "Don't be so narrow-minded," he said. "We're rational beings. We have the power of speech and we can outreason you any day. There's nothing in the dictionary that says men have to be made of flesh." ”

“ For men to work in a uranium plant you need yards of shielding, triple-checking, long cooling-off periods for some of the hotter products. But with lead-bodied, radio-remote controlled androids, it's easier. And with androids like the new Morrison 5's, that can reason—at least along atomic lines—well, I guess I was on my way to becoming a millionaire. ”

“ Our androids are busy, all right. They're out in the city, every one of them. We've had a dozen police reports already."
"Police reports! What's wrong?"
Jack shook his head. "It's crazy. They're swarming all over Carron City. They're stopping robots in the streets—household Robs, commercial Droids, all of them. They just look at them, and then the others quit work and start off with them. ”

“ On Saturday we delivered to the Army right on the dot. Jerry and Co. had worked overtime. Being intelligent made them better workers and now they were extremely willing ones. They had their contract. They were considered men. And they could no longer read my mind.
I walked into my office Saturday afternoon and sat down by the radio. Jack and Chief Dalton looked across the room at me and grinned.
"All right, Don," Jack said. "Tell us how you did it."
"Did what?" I tried to act innocent, but I couldn't get away with it.
"Fooled those robots into going back to work, of course," he laughed. ”

“ Jack came wearily in and dropped into a chair beside me. For the first time since I'd met him he looked beaten.
"We're through," he said. "I've been down checking the shielding, and it's no use. Men can't work at the reactors."
"I know," I said quietly. "If the androids don't come back, we're licked."
He looked straight at me and said slowly, "What do they mean about negotiating, Don?"
I shrugged. "I guess they want wages, living quarters, all the things human workers get. Though I don't know why. Money wouldn't do them any good."
Jack's unspoken question had been bothering me too. ”

“ Some we heard over the radio, others from people who flew in and out of the city. Apparently the robots did not object to occasional flights, but the air bus was not allowed to run, not even with a human driver. A mass exodus from the city was not to be permitted.
"They'll starve to death," Jack cried.
The Chief shook his head. "No," he said. "They're encouraging the farmers to fly in and out with produce, and the farmers are doing it, too. They're getting wonderful prices."
By noon the situation had calmed down quite a bit. The androids obviously didn't mean to hurt anyone ”

“ The farm robots had all fled to the city. The highway repair robots had simply disappeared. In Egarton, a village about fifteen miles from the city, an organizer—5A—appeared about noon and left soon after followed by every android in town. By one o'clock every radio station in the country carried the story and the national guard was ordered out. At two o'clock Washington announced that the Army would invade Carron City the following morning. ”

“ The city itself was very silent now. The people had quieted down, still barricaded in their houses, and the robots went their way peacefully enough. But it was anarchy, nevertheless. Carron City depended on the androids; without them there would be no food brought in, no transportation, no fuel. And no uranium for the Army next Saturday. In fact, if I didn't do something, after Saturday there would probably be no Don Morrison Fissionables Inc.
The dull, partly-corroded dishwasher model sidled up beside Jerry. "Boss," he said. "Boss." ”

“ He just looked up at me and then off at the retreating androids and then back at me again. I knew what he was thinking—they were my brainchildren, all right.
My Copter was really built to be a single seater, but it carried the two of us back to the factory. The Chief had hurried back when the trouble started and was waiting for us.
"I give up," he said. "We'll have to evacuate the people, I guess. And then blow up the city."
Jack and I stared at each other and then at him. Somehow I couldn't see the robots calmly waiting to be blown up. ”

“ I'd had that idea too.
"Of course they wouldn't suspect," I said. "We'd just walk up to them, carefully thinking about something else."
"Robots aren't suspicious," Jack said. "They're made to obey orders."
I refrained from mentioning that ours didn't seem to know that, and that running around Carron City fomenting a rebellion was hardly the trait of an obedient, trusting servant. Instead, I stood back and let them plan their roundup.
"We'll get some men," the Chief said, "and some grappling equipment about halfway to the city." ”

“ Evidently they were too busy organizing the city to cause trouble to the human inhabitants; at least there hadn't been any violence yet. Anyway, I wanted to think the situation over before matching wits with them again, and I wanted to be a good distance away from their telepathic hookups while I thought. ”

“ He had his own housekeeping system and had always worked very well without human interference. That's the best thing about these new household robots, I thought. They're efficient, hard-working, trustworthy—
Trustworthy? Rob O was certainly not on duty. I pulled a shoe on over my bare foot and scowled. Rob was gone. And the androids at the factory were gone too.... ”