The Rod of Light (Soul of the Robot)

As it happened, he was not forced to take the risk. He could disconnect his conscious awareness for predetermined periods: he could ‘sleep’.

It involved suspending some of his higher brain functions. But he had also learned the trick of letting the rest of his brain run on automatic, and even carry out foreordained instructions. This converted him into a ‘normal’ robot. He could ‘sleep’ and to those around him still seem awake and active.

Obey Gargan, he ordered himself. Awaken in five minutes.

And went blank.

When he came to, he was walking deeper into the shed with Gargan. He consulted his memory and reviewed the past few minutes.

On his emerging from the session, Gargan had asked: ‘So what did you experience?’

Jasperodus had replied: ‘Nothing in particular. The speed of the show was somewhat confusing. Are you sure this has an effect on the psyche of humans?’

Gargan had assured him that it did, and had told him to accompany him to the mental testing machine.

Jasperodus wondered if consciousness was not after all no more than an epiphenomenon, as some human philosophers claimed, seeing that he could act normally when to all intents and purposes his mind was switched off … but now he felt nervous. His big fear was that the consciousness detector would at some stage be applied to him, perhaps inadvertently. His freedom of action would then be totally gone. Gargan and his cohorts would glean the whole story. And they would take him apart, dismantling his brain down to the last neuristor, to find out how consciousness had been infused into him.

It would do him no good to render himself asleep as he had just now. The cosmic fire, as Jasper Hobartus called it, the superior light, as Gargan called it, did not quit the brain until death.

Death. Had Gargan yet explored this possibility? Kill the subject and harvest the light as it was released….

They came to a standing console. Gargan placed a hand upon his shoulder.

‘This will not take long.’

He beckoned a servitor. On his orders the inspection plate at the back of Jasperodus’ cranium was opened. Pins, reeled out from spools on the back of the console, were inserted into the testing jacks there.

Jasperodus presumed that by some unknown means the machine was able to perform a more revealing scan than similar but smaller equipment a robotician might use. Gargan placed another pin into an orifice somewhere in his chest. Jasperodus fought to stifle his fear. How deeply was Gargan about to survey him? Would he acquaint himself with his thoughts? With the contents of his memory? That superbrain could no doubt absorb the totality of his memory data in seconds.

The panel of the machine was not in Jasperodus’ line of sight. Gargan made settings there. After only a brief pause, his fingers moved over the panel again. Another pause, and then a third reading.

Pulling the pin from his chest, he gestured to the servitor to disconnect Jasperodus. This done, and the inspection plate closed up, he turned formally to him.

‘Though fairly high, your abstract intelligence is not of the standard required for our research work,’ he told him in a neutral tone. ‘But you do have other qualities: namely, a robust approach to practical affairs and a capacity for planning successful actions; a degree of initiative and determination that, to be frank, is extremely rare in constructs of any kind, including those of us here. You would be wasted as a mere proselytizer. Yet with these qualities, you may find unusual opportunities to be of service to the Work.’

‘Perhaps I already have found one,’ Jasperodus said immediately.

He collected his thoughts, reflecting on how to make the story he had concocted believable. He was relieved that so far Gargan suspected nothing. But he felt he must leave the research station as soon as possible, before he was discovered.

‘Some years ago I was in a small easterly kingdom called Gordona,’ he continued. ‘Perhaps you know of it.’

‘I have seen its name on a map, that is all.’

‘The region is a patchwork of small states,’ Jasperodus conceded. ‘While there I learned of some experiments that now strike me as being germane to our purpose. The persons involved were desirous of immortality. On reaching old age, they planned to transfer their personalities—and consciousness—into the brains of children of tender years. In this way they could grow old, steal the bodies of children, grow old again, and repeat the process indefinitely.’

Briefly Gargan laughed. ‘And was this marvel to be accomplished by sorcery? I have read of the practice many times. It is a perennial legend among gullible humans. There is nothing in this nonsense to interest us.’

‘But these people were not using magic,’ Jasperodus insisted. They were using science. And they believed they were succeeding.’

‘Describe your relationship with these people.’