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and the problem at hand.
When they had finished their tale, he sat silently puffing on his pipe for several
minutes before respond-ing.
"You know, Hosato," he said at last, "if yon hadn't brought along a brace of
witnesses for your yarn, I'dd think this was all an elaborate excuse for losing one
of the best robots I've ever built."
"I know it sounds impossible-" Sasha began.
The Hungarian waved a hand of dismissal at her.
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"When you've worked with machines as long as I have," he declared, "you learn
nothing is impossible -highly improbable, perhaps, but not impossible."
"Can you read these?" Rick asked, eagerly produc-ing his sheaf of papers"It's a
copy of the last entries to the central Computer-Monitor file," the mechanic
announced proudly"We were hoping you might be able to tell from these what
went wrong."
"Not so fast." The Hungarian exhaled a long stream of pipe smoke"It's too soon
for detailLet's approach this problem one step at a timeFirst of all, what is the
basic problem?"
"Come on, Tinker," Hosato groaned"The problem is that robots are killing
people."
"Wrong." The Hungarian pointed his pipe stem at Hosato"The problem is that the
McCrae complex is producing robots that are killing peopleThat makes it a
problem with the computer, and not a malfunc-tioning of the robots themselves."
"That's right," Rick asserted"We think something went wrong with the
programming when Turner, James's father, was trying to design a new security-
robot systemProbably something that bypassed the 'no-kill' base programming."
The Hungarian shook his head"It's not that sim-pleWe're talking about an
'activity program.' That means, in addition to capacity, it needs motivation."
It was clear that the Hungarian had risen to the bait and was rapidly becoming
enmeshed in what to him was a puzzle of electronics and computer logicHosato
was glad to see him involved, though the con-versation rapidly became too
complex and technical for laymen such as himself to follow.
When James got up and wandered off into the small kitchen and no one noticed,
Hosato decided to follow suitThe other three were huddled over the monitor log
copies and didn't even look up as he left.
James was pouring himself a glass of pop and looked up as Hosato joined himHe
brightened no-ticeably.
"Could you pour two more of those while you're at it?" Hosato asked.
"SureNo problem."
As the boy hurried about his errand, Hosato pon-dered the best way to approach
the subject on his mind.
"Say, James," he said at last"We haven't had much time to talk since the blowup
at McCrae."
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"Talk about what?" James asked, passing his friend the glass of soft drink and
perching on the counter.
"About your future, mostly," Hosato responded pointedly.
"I thought that was all settled," James replied inno-cently"I'm going with you."
"It's not that simple, and you know itLook,
James," Hosato began"You don't know anything about me or how I liveNow, I
don't know what kind of romantic notion you have in your head about the kind of
person I am, but it's not a life-style you enter into casually."
"I'm not doing this casually," James protested"I asked you to take me along with
you before things went bad at the complex before Dad was killed, tooBesides, I
don't have anywhere else to go."
"That's what I mean!" Hosato pounced on the phrase.
Without realizing it, he began to pace back and forth in the cramped kitchen.
"James, there are lots of things you could doYou're brightYou're energeticYou've
got gutsAnd you've got a whole lot of options before youDon't be stampeded into
any one life just because you feel there's no other choiceParticularly my kind of
lifeNow I don't mean to sound negative on all this, but I've been traveling the star
lanes most of my life and I've seen this time and time againMen and women
working at jobs they hate, their whole lives just a drone existence, all with the
same story, 'I didn't have any other choice.' Well, by God, you do have choicesLife
should be a series of choicesSome lock you in, a few lock you out, and then there
are others that open more doorsMaking good choices demands brains, some luck,
and a whole lot of gutsAnd most of all, it takes that something that makes us
human the will to make ourselves betterJames, don't lock yourself into the first
chance that you getAnd that's what this life will doDon't be looking back ten or
fifteen years past the star lanes wishing you hadn't committed to something you
can't get out ofJames, don't make choices like a programmed robot!"
Hosato stopped, realizing how emotional he was becoming.
"Is that why you said no the first time I asked you?" the boy prompted.
"That's rightI'll tell you now, I was tempted to go along with it even thenMy work
is lonelyTo give you an idea how lonely, Suzi was my best friend until she was
destroyed, covering our retreatDo you un-derstand what I'm sayingMy best friend
was a robotThat should give you an idea of how low things can get."
"I liked Suzi," James protested.
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Hosato ignored him"You've got a dozen ways you could go with your lifeI'm only
one of themAt this moment, I just happen to be the closest option to youI can't let
you make your decision on that basis." Then with a quick wink, an attempt to
lighten the conversation, he added, "Listen kid, I've got my own dubious concept
of honor, you know."
"How did you get into this business?" James asked pointedly.
Hosato was silent for a few moments, then leaned against the counter as he
answered.
"That's a good question, James, and it deserves an honest answerWith me, I
really didn't have a choice, or rather, the choice was made for meIt's a family
business, and I was raised into itFor me, it's as nat-ural as breathingFor many
reasons, I couldn't leave it now if I wanted toBut I'll tell you this much, James, I'm
not particularly happy with what I doSometimes I wonder, if I were starting all
over again and given a choice, and I knew what I know now, if I wouldn't walk
away from it all without looking backYou've got that choice, and I want you to
"think it through before commiting yourself."
James bit his lip thoughtfully"All right, Hosato," he said"Tell me about this
terrible lifeWhat do you do?"
Now it was Hosato's turn to lapse into silenceWaves of bitter memories held in
check by sheer force of will now flooded over himHe had set himself up for this
question; now he had to answer it, both for the boy and for himself.
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