"You don't really know, do you? This is just suspicion based on scraps of data here and there."
"Exactly right, but it's a fairly strong suspicion and it merits further investigation. - And a third point. I could swear they were working on telepathic communication. There was some equipment that I was incautiously allowed to see. And once when I had one of their roboticists on view the hyperwave screen showed a blackboard with a positronic pattern matrix that was like nothing I ever remember seeing, yet it seemed to me that pattern might fit a telepathic program."
"I suspect, Vasilia, that this item is woven of even airier gossamer than the bit about the humanoid robots."
A look of mild embarrassment crossed Vasilia's face. "I must admit you're probably right there."
"In fact, Vasilia, it sounds like mere fantasy. If the pattern matrix you saw was like nothing you remember ever having seen before, how could you think it would fit anything?"
Vasilia hesitated. "To tell you the truth, I've been wondering about that myself. Yet when I saw the pattern, the word 'telepathy' occurred to me at once."
"Even though telepathy is impossible, even in theory."
"It is thought to be impossible, even in theory. That is not quite the same thing."
"No one has ever been able to make any progress toward it."
"Yes, but why should I have looked at that pattern and thought 'telepathy'?"
"Ah well, Vasilia, there may be a personal psychoquirk there that is useless to try to analyze. I'd forget it."
"Anything else?"
"One more thing - and the most puzzling of all. I gathered the impression, Kelden, from one little indication or another, that the Solarians are planning to leave their planet.
"I don't know. Their population, small as it is, is declining further. Perhaps they want to make a new start elsewhere before they die out altogether."
"What kind of new start? Where would they go?"
Vasilia shook her head. "I have told you all I know."
Amadiro said slowly, "Well, then, I will take all this into account. Four things: nuclear intensifier, humanoid robots, telepathic robots, and abandoning the planet. Frankly, I have no faith in any of the four, but I'll persuade the Council to authorize talks with the Solarian regent. - And now, Vasilia, I believe you could use a rest, so why not take a few weeks off and grow accustomed to the Auroran sun and fine weather before getting back to work?"
"That is kind of you, Kelden," said Vasilia - remaining firmly seated, "but there remain two items I must bring up."
Involuntarily, Amadiro's eyes sought the time strip. "This won't take up very much time, will it, Vasilia?"
"However much time it takes, Kelden, is what it will take up."
"What is it you want then?"
"To begin with, who is this young know-it-all who seems to think he is running, the Institute, this what's-his-name, Mandamus?"
"You've met him, have you?" said Amadiro, his smile masking a certain uneasiness. "You see, things do change on Aurora."
"Certainly not for the better in this case," said Vasilia grimly. "Who is he?"
"He is exactly what you have described - a know-it-all. He is a brilliant young man, bright enough in robotics, but, just as knowledgeable in general physics, in chemistry, in planetology - "
"And how old is this monster of erudition?"
"Not quite five decades."
"And what will this child be when he grows up?"
"Wise as well as brilliant, perhaps."
"Don't pretend to mistake my meaning, Kelden. Are you thinking of grooming him as the next head of the Institute?"
"I intend to live for a good many decades yet."
"That is no answer."
"It is the only answer I have."
Vasilia shifted in her seat restlessly and her robot, standing behind her, sent his eyes from side to side as though preparing to ward off an attack - pushed into that mode of behavior, perhaps, by Vasilia's uneasiness.
Vasilia said, "Kelden, I am to be the next head. That is settled. You have told me so."
"I have, but in actual fact, Vasilia, once I die, the Board of Directors will make the choice. Even if I leave behind me a directive as to who the next head will be, the Board can reverse me. That much is clear in the terms of incorporation that founded the Institute."
"You just write your directive, Kelden, and I will take care of the Board of Directors."
And Amadiro, the space between his eyebrows furrowing said, "This is not something I will discuss any further at this moment. What is the other item you want to bring up? Please make it brief."
She stared at him in silent anger for a moment, then said, seeming to bite off the word, "Giskard!"
"The robot?"
"Of course the robot. Do you know any other Giskard that I am likely to be talking about?"
"Well, what of him?"
"He is mine."
Amadiro looked surprised. "He is - or was - the legal property of Fastolfe."
"Giskard was mine when I was a child."
"Fastolfe lent him to you and eventually took him back. There was no formal transfer of ownership, was there?"
"Morally, he was mine. But in any case, Fastolfe owns him no longer. He is dead."
"He made a will, too. And if I remember correctly, by that will, two robots - Giskard and Daneel - are now the property of the Solarian woman."
"But I don't want them to be. I am Fastolfe's daughter."
"Oi?"