Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Meeting is not the same as meeting

Bailey felt as if he were a resident of a small city like Helsinki visiting New York for the first time, looking at the city with awe.He had originally thought that what Daniel called a "house" was like an apartment unit on Earth, but it was not at all.He went through room after room, seemingly endlessly.The windows in the room were all tightly hung with curtains, not a single ray of sunlight could penetrate.Whenever he and Daniel walked into a room, the light source would light up quietly from a hidden corner, and turn off silently after they left. "There are so many rooms," said Bailey in amazement, "that it's like a little city, Daniel."

"It does seem to be so, partner Ilya," said Daniel calmly. For Bailey, a native of Earth, this is really a strange thing.Does he have to live in this room with a lot of outsiders staring at him? "How many people live here with me?" he asked. "Besides me, there are some robots." Daniel replied. Bailey thought to himself: Daniel should say that there are some "other" robots.He found again that even in the presence of himself, who fully understood that Daniel was a robot, Daniel deliberately played the role of "human" thoroughly. But before he had time to think about this question, he thought of another question and blurted out: "Robots?" He asked in surprise, "How many humans are there?"

"Not one, partner Ilya." While talking, they walked into a room.The film books in the room are stacked from the floor to the ceiling, and there is a fixed reading mirror in each corner, and a large 24-inch reading board on top.There is also an animated display fluorescent screen attached to the reading mirror in one corner. Bailey looked around, a little angry: "They drove everyone away, leaving me alone in this big tomb?" "This house is for your own use only. According to the customs of Solari World, this house is for one person only." "Everybody lives like this?"

"yes." "Why do they need so many rooms?" "Solali people are used to a room with only one purpose. This room is a library, and there are also a music room, a gym room, a kitchen, a bakery, a dining room, a machine room, various robot maintenance rooms and testing rooms, and two bedrooms. -" "Wait, how do you know?" "This is part of my data program," Daniel answered smoothly, "before I left the world of Aurora." "My God! Then who's going to run the house?" Bailey waved his hand. "There are a few housekeeping robots here. They've been brought in for you to keep you comfortable."

"I don't want it," Bailey said, refusing to budge.He really wanted to sit down and didn't want to look at the room any more. "Partner Ilya, if you like, we can stay in just one room. Actually, they thought you might ask for that from the beginning. However, in accordance with the customs of the Solari world, they think that the house is best built as- —” "Build?" Bailey's eyes widened. "You mean, this house was built for me to live in? These rooms were built especially for me?" "In a fully robotized economy—" "I know what you're going to say," Belley interrupted. "What are they going to do with the house when the mission is over?"

"I think they're going to tear it down." Bailey pursed his lips.Of course, tear it down!Build a huge house exclusively for the use of a certain earthling, and then destroy all the things he touched, disinfect the land, and fumigate the air he breathed!Although the outsiders look strong, they also have their irrational fears inside. Daniel seemed to read his mind, or read his expression.He said: "Partner Ilya, if you think they are tearing down houses to avoid infectious diseases, I suggest you don't think so, and don't feel uncomfortable. People in the outside world are not afraid of diseases to that extent. For them In other words, it is easy to build a house, and it is not a waste in their custom to build it and then tear it down.

"Besides, according to the law, this house cannot continue to exist in the future, partner Ilya. It is built on Hannis Grue's property, and there can only be one legal dwelling on any site, which is the owner's property. Residential. At present, this house is specially arranged for a specific purpose. Therefore, it is just a house for us to stay for a specific period of time until the end of our mission." "And who is Hannes Gruehl?" asked Baley. "He's the director of the Solari World Security Agency, and we'll see him shortly." "Oh? Jesus, when the hell am I going to start to understand what's going on, Daniel? It's like I'm working in a vacuum. I don't like it. I think I'll just go back to Earth, I..."

Bailey found himself on the verge of incoherent anger, and stopped immediately.Daniel remained expressionless, just waiting for his words to come to an end. "I'm sorry to make you angry," Daniel said. "I do seem to have a little more general knowledge of the Solari world than you do, but my knowledge of this murder case is as limited as yours. What we want to know Agent Gruul will tell us. The government of Solariworld has arranged." "Then let's go find this Grue! How long will it take to get to him?" Bailey couldn't help but feel a little scared when he thought about going on the road again.The familiar twitching sensation in his chest returned.

"You don't need to go out, partner Ilya." Daniel said, "Agent Guruer will be waiting for us in the chat room." "Is there a dedicated room for conversation?" Bailey murmured sarcastically, and then raised his voice, "Waiting for us now?" "I think so." "Then let's go, Daniel." Hannes Grue is 100% bald, even the edges of his head are smooth, and he has no hair at all. Bailey swallowed.Out of politeness, he tried not to look at the bald head, but he couldn't.For a long time, the understanding of the people of the outside world by the people on earth comes from the image created by the people of the outside world.The outsiders are the undisputed masters of the galaxy. They have bronze skin and hair, are tall and burly, handsome and straight, with calm personalities, like nobles.This is often the case with the aliens who are sent to Earth, they may have been specially selected to show the superiority of the masters of the galaxy.In short, they were just like R. Daniel Oliva, only more human.

However, the appearance of the outsider in front of him is very similar to the earthling.His head is bald and his nose is crooked.Although his nose wasn't very crooked, anything wrong with an outsider would be noticeable. Bailey said, "Good afternoon, sir. I'm sorry if it took you so long." It's always better to be polite, he has to work with these people. As he spoke, Bailey had a sudden urge to reach across the large (ridiculously large) room to greet him, but he quickly dismissed the idea.Of course, people from outside the world will not like this way of greeting - a hand full of earth bacteria, forget it!

Grue sat dignified, as far away from Bale as possible.His hands were tucked inside long sleeves, and he probably had filters in his nostrils, though Baley couldn't see them. Bai Lai even felt that Grue looked at Daniel with dissatisfaction, as if saying: You weird outsider, you are standing so close to the earthlings! It seems that Guruer has no idea of ​​the truth.Then Bailey suddenly noticed that Daniel was standing a little closer, a little further away from him than usual. Of course, if Daniel stood too close to him, Grue might be suspicious, because it is really impossible for people from outside the world to stand so close to people on Earth.He understood that Daniel wanted Grue to treat him as a human being. "I didn't have long to wait. Welcome to Solari World, gentlemen. Is everything all right?" said Grueur. His tone was pleasant and friendly, but his eyes were darting furtively at Daniel again and again. Then quickly look away. "Yes, sir, all is well," said Bailey.He didn't know whether it was polite for Daniel "outsider" to speak on behalf of the two, but he immediately angrily dismissed the thought.God, he was the one who was invited to investigate the case, Daniel only joined later.In this case, Bailey didn't think he had to play the role of the outsider's squire, and besides, the "outerworlder" is a robot-even if it is a robot like Daniel-he can't and won't play the squire. Role. Maybe he was thinking too much, Daniel didn't rush to speak.Grue didn't seem surprised or upset, instead, he turned his attention to Bailey and ignored Daniel. Grue said: "Police Bailey, so far, no one has told you anything about the case you were invited to investigate. I think you must be very curious about this." He shook his head He flicked his sleeves, and put his hands lightly on his knees, "Please sit down, both of you." The two of them sat down. "We're really curious," Bailey said.He found that Guruer was not wearing protective gloves. Grueur continued: "This is intentional, Detective. We want you to come here undisturbed, with no preconceived patterns. You will soon have a copy of the details of the murder and the details of what we did. A full report of which investigations. Detective, I think from your experience, I am afraid you will find that our investigations are extremely imperfect, and we do not have a police organization in Solariworld." "Not a single policeman?" Bailey asked. Gruer smiled and shrugged. "You know, because we have zero crime. We're sparsely populated and spread out. People don't have the opportunity to commit crimes, so the police don't have a role to play." "I see. But you've just had a murder right now, haven't you?" "Yes. In two centuries, this is the first violent crime in our history." "It's unfortunate that it begins with a murder." "Unfortunate indeed. It is even more unfortunate that the victim is someone we cannot afford to lose. He did not deserve to be a victim and the methods of this murder were brutal." Bailey said: "I don't think you have any idea who the murderer is (otherwise why go to earth to get a detective)." Grue squinted at Daniel a little uncomfortably.Daniel sat there motionless, engrossed and silent.Bailey knew that Daniel could repeat what he had heard, no matter how long it was, no matter when or where.He is a copy machine that walks and talks like a human. But, does Guruer know?Judging from the way he looked at Daniel, maybe he was suspicious of something in his heart. "No, it's not like we don't know who the killer is at all. In fact, there could have been only one person," Guruer said. "You mean, there is a person who might be involved?" Bailey had always distrusted words that were too sure, and he didn't like people who sat in an easy chair and speculated instead of finding clues through logic. Guruer nodded his bald head: "I'm sure. Only one person is likely to commit the crime, and the others are impossible, absolutely impossible." "absolute?" "I can assure you." "Then you are all right." "On the contrary, our problem is that the person who is likely to do the crime is also unlikely to do it." Bailey said quietly, "That's why nobody does it." "But it has happened. Rachael Dahlman is dead." At last, Bailey thought, God, I finally know something about the case, at least I know the name of the victim. He took out his notebook and recorded it carefully.He did this, on the one hand, deliberately to show that he finally got a little information, and on the other hand, to prevent the other party from seeing that he was sitting next to a tape recorder. "How do you spell the victim's name?" Bailey asked. Grue told him. "Occupation, sir?" "Embryo expert." Bailey didn't understand what the "so-and-so" expert was, so he wrote down the pronunciation of these two words without asking.Then he said: "So, who can explain to me the situation at the scene of the crime? I hope that it is an eyewitness statement as much as possible." Grue smiled ferociously: "His wife, the detective." He glanced at Daniel again, then moved away. "His wife...?" "Yes. Her name is Gnadia." Grue put the emphasis on the word "Na". "Do they have kids?" Bailey asked, taking notes. Grue didn't answer.Bailey looked up and asked again, "Do they have any children?" Grue pursed his lips, as if he had eaten something sour, looking like he was about to vomit.Finally, he said, "I don't know about that." "what?" Grue said anxiously: "Anyway, I think you'd better wait until tomorrow to investigate on the spot. I know that your journey was very hard, Mr. Bailey, and I also know that you are tired and maybe hungry." Bailey was about to say that he was neither tired nor hungry, but suddenly found that food was particularly attractive to him at this time: "Then shall we have a light meal together?" Wouldn't have promised to eat with him, but he did (at least, it's a good sign that Grueur has started calling him "Mr. Bailey" instead of "College Bailey"). Sure enough, as he expected, Grue said: "I have other business affairs and I have no time to accompany you. I have to leave immediately, sorry." Bailey stood up.As a matter of courtesy, he should accompany Grue to the door.However, he didn't want to get close to the door and the open space outside the door, and besides, he didn't know where the door was. Bailey stood there hesitantly. Grue smiled, nodded at him and said, "We will meet again. If you want to find me, your robot knows my number." He disappeared after speaking. Belle exclaimed. Both Grue and the chair he was sitting on were gone.In an instant, the wall behind Guruer and the floor under his feet all changed. Daniel calmly explained: "He himself is not here. What you saw was just a stereoscopic image transmission. I thought you knew it. Isn't there such a thing on Earth?" "It's not like this," Bailey murmured. The three-dimensional image communication on the earth is surrounded by a three-dimensional force field, which shines against the background, and the image itself has a faint flash.On Earth, images and real people can be distinguished at a glance, but here... No wonder Grue didn't wear gloves and didn't need a nostril filter. Daniel said, "Would you like something to eat now, partner Elijah?" For Bailey, the dinner was yet another test.The food is prepared by robots, the tables are set and the food is served by robots. "Daniel, how many robots are there?" Bailey asked. "About fifty, partner Ilya." "Will they stay here while we eat?" (At this moment, a robot retreats to a corner, its smooth face turned to Bailey, eyes gleaming.) "Usually only one robot stays here," Daniel said, "so that you can serve you when you need it. If you don't like it, you can tell them to leave." Bailey shrugged. "Let him stay." Normally, Bailey would have thought the dinner was delicious, but now he was eating mechanically.Bailey noticed that Daniel was eating, too, just too efficiently and expressionlessly.Of course, Daniel will clean up the food "eaten" into his fluorocarbon stomach bag later, but at this moment, he is still pretending to be a human being eating. "Is it night now?" Bailey asked. "Yes." Daniel replied. Bailey looked gloomily at the bed.The bed was too big and so was the bedroom.There was no blanket on the bed, only sheets, and a sheet alone could not wrap him up thickly, nor could it satisfy Bailey's requirement for a sense of privacy. There is trouble everywhere!Baley had been terrified of showering in the bedroom bathroom earlier.The experience might have been a luxury, but on the other hand it seemed unhygienic. "How do I turn off the light source?" Bayley asked suddenly. A soft light was shining on the headboard of the bed.It might be for someone to read before bed, but Bailey was in no mood for reading. "When you go to bed and get ready for bed, someone will come and turn off the light." "The robot is looking at me, isn't it?" "It's their job." "My God! Why do people here need to do it themselves?" Bailey murmured, "Now I don't quite understand, why don't there be robots to help me wipe my back when I shower?" Daniel has no sense of humor.He said: "If you ask a robot to wipe your back for you, he will wipe your back. A Solari can do whatever he wants. A robot must improve human health and happiness. Based on this principle, if you tell him not to If he does something, he won't do anything." "Well, good night, Daniel." "I'm in the other bedroom, partner Ilya. No matter how late, as long as you need" "I know, the robots will come." "There is a touch button on the bedside table, you just need to press it, and I will come too." Bailey tossed and turned. He kept thinking that this house was tremblingly built on the earth's crust, while the boundless void was guarding outside like a demon. On Earth, his apartment—his cozy, cramped apartment—was beneath many apartments, with dozens of floors of buildings and thousands of people between him and the crust. He tried to tell himself that in fact, on the earth, there are people living on the crust, and those people are connected to the open space.good!But these top floors also have the cheapest rents. Then he thought of Jessie, who was a thousand light-years away. Bailey wanted to get out of bed, get dressed, and go back to Jessie.His consciousness gradually blurred.If there was a safe and beautiful tunnel between Solari's world and the earth, through safe and hard rock and metal, he would keep walking and walking... He'd walk back to Earth, back to Jessie, back to comfort and safety...safe...safe! Bailey opened his eyes, feeling his arms go stiff.He propped himself up on his elbows, not knowing why. Safety!He thought of that man, Hannes Grue, the head of the Solari World Security Agency. What does "safe" mean?If the word meant what it meant on Earth, then Gruul was the one responsible for protecting Solari's world from foreign aggression and internal subversion. Why was he so interested in this murder?Is it just because there is no police in Solariworld that the Security Service is the one that knows best how to deal with murder cases? Bailey remembered that Grue seemed comfortable talking to him, but the guy had sneaked a few glances at Daniel. Could it be that Guruer became suspicious of Daniel's motives for assisting with the case?Bailey's own motives are not pure, he was ordered to come here to observe everything with his eyes wide open, perhaps Daniel also shouldered the same task. It was natural for Gruer to suspect spies had infiltrated him, and it was his duty to suspect in every conceivable situation.However, he was obviously not too afraid of Bale, the representative of the weakest planet in the galaxy. Daniel was different. He was an Aurora, from the oldest, largest, and most powerful outer world.Of course it's different. Now that Bailey remembered, Grue hadn't said a word to Daniel. So why does Daniel pretend to be human so thoroughly?Bailey's original explanation to himself was: the Aurora who designed Daniel was for showing off.But this explanation seems too trivial.The situation is already very obvious, and Daniel's motive for pretending is not so simple. An outsider might gain diplomatic immunity and be treated more politely and softly than a robot would.So, why doesn't Aurora World send a real person?Why bet on a dummy?Thinking of this, Bailey immediately found the answer: a real person from the world of Aurora, a real outsider, is absolutely impossible to have too close a relationship with an earthling, and he would not be willing to work with an earthling for a long time. If all his inferences above are correct, then why does Solari World regard this murder case as so important?Important enough to let a person from Earth and an Aurora come here to investigate? Bailey felt he was trapped. He is trapped in the world of Solari because of the demands of his duties, he is trapped in a situation he cannot bear because of the crisis of the earth, he is trapped by a responsibility that cannot be escaped.Additionally, he's inexplicably caught up in an Outerworlder struggle of an unknown nature to him. At last Bailey fell asleep, and he could not remember when he fell into a hazy dream, except that there was a period before sleep when his thoughts faltered.Then, the head of the bed gradually lit up, and the ceiling shone with cool sunlight.