Bicentennial Man & Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-05-22T00:25:23.525000+00:00

Virtually the entire body of personnel of the Mercury Project was on hand for the crucial moment. Anthony, who had no tasks to perform, remained well to the rear, his eyes on the monitors. The robot had been activated and there were visual messages being returned. At least they came out as the equivalent of visual--and they showed as yet nothing but a dim glow of light which was, presumably, Mercury's surface. Shadows flitted across the screen, probably irregularities on that surface. Anthony couldn't tell by eye alone, but those at the controls, who were analyzing the data by methods more subtle than could be disposed of by unaided eye, seemed calm. None of the little red lights that might have betokened emergency were lighting. Anthony was watching the key observers rather than the screen. He should be down with William and the others at the Computer. It was going to be thrown in only when the soft landing was made. He should be. He couldn't be. The shadows flitted across the screen more rapidly. The robot was descending-- too quickly? Surely, too quickly! There was a last blur and a steadiness, a shift of focus in which the blur grew darker, then fainter. A sound was heard and there were perceptible seconds before Anthony realized what it was the sound was saying--„Soft landing achieved! Soft landing achieved!“ Then a murmur arose and became an excited hum of self-congratulation until one more change took place on the screen and the sound of human words and laughter was stopped as though there had been a smash collision against a wall of silence. For the screen changed; changed and grew sharp. In the brilliant, brilliant sunlight, blazing through the carefully filtered screen, they could now see a boulder clear, burning white on one side, ink-on-ink on the other. It shifted right, then back to left, as though a pair of eyes were looking left, then right. A metal hand appeared on the screen as though the eyes were looking at part of itself. It was Anthony's voice that cried out at last, „The Computer's been thrown in.“ He heard the words as though someone else had shouted them and he raced out and down the stairs and through a Corridor, leaving the babble of voices to rise behind him. „William,“ he cried as he burst into the Computer room, „it's perfect, it's--“ But William's hand was upraised. „Shh. Please. I don't want any violent sensations entering except those from the robot.“ „You mean we can be heard?“ whispered Anthony. „Maybe not, but I don't know.“ There was another screen, a smaller one, in the room with the Mercury Computer. The scene on it was different, and changing; the robot was moving. William said, „The robot is feeling its way. Those steps have got to be clumsy. There's a seven-minute delay between stimulus and response and that has to be allowed for.“ „But already he's walking more surely than he ever did in Arizona.

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