Work Text:
The ride from Aurora back to Earth was one that Elijah anticipated with dread. Not for the process itself; he was not 'disinfected,' as he had been on the way to Aurora - the Spacers would have found the idea of him bringing anything infectious back to Earth hilarious. Unless you mentioned the infectious drive to colonize space that he had brought back with him the last time - but no amount of high-tech bodily scrubbing could have removed that.
No, it was what he would have to leave behind, not what he would have to endure physically, that made the Auroran gravity feel excessive. Just a few hours ago, he had said goodbye to Gladia for the last time. And to be completely honest with himself, he was now saying goodbye to a foreign world for the last time. He would not be traveling in space again, he was sure. Ben was right - space travel was a young man's game. If there was one thing his experiences had taught him, it was that endless delicate diplomacy would characterize any interaction of importance between Earthmen and Spacers; providing colonization spaceships would certainly involve proposals, counter-proposals, treaties, votes, funding issues, and maddening politics. Ben might well be middle-aged by the time the first ship left Earth. Elijah, certainly, would be too old to leave Earth by then. He hoped he wouldn't be too old to leave his bed. Yes, he was saying his final goodbye to space this time; when the atmosphere of Earth closed over his head, it would not open again for him.
Worst of all - when he arrived at Earth, he would have to say goodbye to Daneel.
The time he had spent on this investigation had been shockingly brief - a whirlwind trip, three days. Three days was not enough time to reasonably take in a new Earth city, homogeneous though they all were; it was a ridiculous time to adapt to immersion in a Spacer world, with Spacer culture and the Spacer... outdoors. With all that had gone on, he was surprised he had found any time to spend with Daneel that was not purely professional.
Yet he felt closer to Daneel than ever. He had even used the word 'love' to describe their bond, to Dr. Vasilia - a woman who, he was sure, had no concept of the term. Yet Daneel, too, would exit his life at the end of this trip. Elijah would be anathema to Spacers politically after this gambit, and Daneel had no reason to come to Earth. Their paths would not cross.
Daneel, of course, betrayed no such emotions - and why would he feel them? He greeted Elijah with the calm equanimity that must guide every one of his positronic thoughts. His "Good afternoon, Partner Elijah," was delivered in as smooth a manner as he might have used to order a viewer from Giskard.
And yet - when he had greeted Elijah on the way to Aurora, he had described a feeling evoked by seeing Elijah that he had given the name of 'pleasure' to. Was he anticipating their last separation with an opposite feeling? Elijah did not ask - to do so would be cruel to Daneel if he were, and cruel to Elijah if he were not.
Three days nonetheless passed so swiftly that Elijah was startled to note how close they were to Earth. He had not even noticed the slight physical inversion of the Jump. Without the pressures of anticipating and preparing for a case, Elijah could appreciate how delightful Daneel was to converse with on any topic that came to his mind - detective work, Aurorans, Earth cities, the quality of sunsets (Daneel had seen far more of them than Elijah had, and described them in exquisite, if dry, detail).
It was after a morning of such pleasurable conversation, as Elijah was anticipating the noon meal, that Daneel said, "Partner Elijah, I have a request to make."
The question was asked after a pregnant pause, and Elijah wondered if he had transgressed some sort of Spacer conversational taboo impressed into Daneel. He hastily assured his friend, "You have done so much for me - if there is anything I can do for you, I certainly owe it to you."
A slight smile on Daneel's lips reassured Elijah. "Thank you, Partner Elijah; although you cannot have any monetary debt to me, I appreciate your meaning." He paused. "I have been considering the situation of Friend Jander and Gladia. The use to which she put him..."
"Marriage?" Elijah interrupted.
"Although the legal defenition would likely not hold, that word was the one Gladia used to describe the relationship; it is accurate enough for our use here, I believe. This 'marriage' of human to robot is unique - due, of course, to the rarity of humaniform robots. However, now that Dr. Fastolfe has agreed to cooperate with the Robotics Institute, more like I and Friend Jander will be built. I believe that the use to which Gladia put Friend Jander will be repeated, in various permutations, in the future - with other humaniform robots, and other Spacers. I consider there to be a reasonable likelihood that I may be called on to provide such services."
Elijah felt a strange sense of unease at hearing Daneel put the matter forth so plainly. The possibility of such a future use certainly made sense, given the Auroran's casual attitude towards sex; indeed, it was probable that the only difference between Gladia's use of Jander and the use to which a typical Auroran might put a humaniform robot would be the emotional attachment that Glaida had formed. "Does this prospect disturb you?" Elijah asked, carefully.
"Why should it disturb me? As a robot, serving humans satisfies the Second Law and gives me - as well as I could relate to your use of the word - pleasure."
The logic was impeccable, but it was something beyond logic that left Elijah still uncomfortable. The ideas of prostitution and sex slavery had no place in the discussion of robots; they had no emotional bonds or weaknesses or needs around sex. It was just another function to them, another delicate traversal of Second and First Law. Yet Elijah could not help thinking of his examination of Jander, lying as dead as a robot can be, naked; Daneel's body would be identical, human in exquisite (and functional) detail, as if Dr. Fastolfe had this use in mind for these prototypes.
Or had he merely striven for humaniform perfection in every way, and this sexual functionality was merely part of the whole?
"You seem uncomfortable, Partner Elijah. Have I said something taboo in Earth culture? I am far less familiar with it than with Spacer culture."
"No! Well, perhaps... No, you see, this is... unprecedented." Elijah stumbled over the words. "If you were human, I would consider this use of you to be coercion, and even though you are a robot, you are..." This was where the rub lay, Elijah realized. "You are too human to me." He simply could not think of Daneel as a robot. Perhaps not fully human, but no, not a robot. He was something more - and that thought hit Elijah with the cold immediacy of the Auroran storm.
Daneel was Daneel, and Elijah realized what he had known, in the back of his mind, for some time - he was the one being in the universe that Elijah felt closest to. Closer than his estranged wife, closer than his boisterous son. And they would soon part, never to meet again.
Daneel was continuing to speak, and Elijah pulled himself out of his thoughts to listen. "I do not wish to make you uncomfortable. I will change the subject..."
"No, no." Elijah gestured, a small wave of assent. "You said you had something to ask of me - please, ask."
"I wish to be able to serve with competence, if called upon. I did not meet with Jander after he was sent to be Gladia's companion, and so I was not able to learn from his experience."
"You want to know about sex." Elijah had to smile. Well, this was doable; he had just given Ben the 'Birds and Bees' talk a few years ago - he could take it out again and polish it up...
"Sexual intercourse is written about extensively in Auroran literature - the literature is most mechanistic in character. I am told this is characteristic of Aurorans. I do not have any questions about the act of intercourse itself. However, the act of kissing is one that appears, from my research, to be of as great consequence as the intercourse itself to some humans, and often facilitates human enjoyment of intercourse. The literature is not mechanistic concerning that act."
Somehow, this request chilled Elijah even more than the request to discuss sex. "You want me to show you how to kiss." Sex was, as Daneel said, mechanistic - or could be, at least. Kissing, however, could not be; it was an act of love. Hadn't he said he loved Daneel?
"If you are willing, Partner Elijah. I have no desire to make you uncomfortable. Indeed, to do so would invoke a degree of positronic distress."
Elijah's mind circled the request warily. If it had come from another Earthman, he would not even have considered it. As he had mentioned to Gladia, Earth culture in its current state required very different sexual norms from ones it had enjoyed in other periods of its history, and a blanket condemnation of homosexual activity was ingrained in that culture. Not that such activity did not occur - just as infidelity still occurred - but it was not condoned, and was properly kept under wraps.
Yet Daneel was neither Earth nor man. He was a Spacer, and a robot - but again, not quite a robot. To compare him to an appliance like Geronimo, or even to the slightly more sophisticated Spacer robots, was absurd. He was so much more than them. He was almost human - no, Elijah corrected himself, he was Daneel - in many ways more than human. Daneel had no ego, no secret thoughts, no malice; just the positronic equivalent of affection, and the desire to serve.
Was there a more perfect description of unconditional love? Did Elijah not owe him, at the very least, his more flawed human love?
And on a spaceship, between the stars, grounded on no planet - how could the shockwave of acts committed here possibly travel through the dead vacuum to impact anyone on Earth?
Elijah stood, his mind reeling, and walked to Daneel. "I am willing," he heard himself say. Yes, he was willing - this was not some crude act of Earthmen that he would hear second-hand Personal gossip about from Jesse. His love was less perfect than Daneel's, but motivated as this was by his desire to do right by his friend, how could this not be sinless?
Elijah placed his lips on Daneel's, shivering despite himself at the act. Just a kiss, he reminded himself, a kiss for a friend. The robot's lips were cool and smooth, no chapping, almost inhumanly perfect - but they moved as a human's lips would, in reflection of his own lips' movements. Daneel opened his mouth in response to Elijah opening his own. Daneel's tongue was, like his lips, perfectly smooth - and dry, of course. What need had a robot for saliva? As Elijah stroked it with his own tongue, it became slick with Elijah's own saliva, feeling yet more human. As did the kiss; Daneel moved his lips and stroked Elijah's tongue with his own, learning, experimenting, and affecting Elijah more than the Earthman had expected. All of his good intentions had fled, and all that was left was visceral reaction. His heart beat faster, and his hand came up to twist in Daneel's impossibly neat hair, kissing Daneel desperately, now.
His sexual encounters with Jessie in recent years had been few; after Ben, and the stresses of his job, and a certain emotional distance that was not at all helped by that blasted hyperwave drama, he had thought his libido permanently chilled. And yet Gladia had stimulated him over, and over, to exhaustion, just one night ago, and now, again, he was monstrously, fearsomely aroused. He broke off the kiss, panting, his erection straining against the strange Spacer clothing. This had gone too far...
"Partner Elijah," Daneel said - and was that a hitch in his perfect robotic voice? No, Elijah must have imagined it - "It would give me pleasure to service you."
"First Law..." Elijah said, startled at the sullenness in his own voice. Was he resentful that Daneel was not as fallible as he was?
"No," Daneel replied. "The First Law pleasure, I would have from servicing any human. As I told Fastolfe, you stimulate my positronic pathways in a way no other human does. You spoke of love, on Aurora - if I could give a name to what I experience with you, I believe it would be love."
Elijah had no words, and none were necessary; Daneel's arm was around him, and their lips were on each other, and once again their tongues danced. Daneel's hand gently opened Elijah's trousers and grasped his erection with gentle firmness. Daneel stroked, slowly, then faster, reacting to the noises and movements Elijah made, until the Earthman climaxed. A wave of dizzying pleasure washed over Elijah, the strangeness of the situation intensifying it; he grasped the robot's arm, holding on as hard as he could, gasping the only word his soul could say.
"Daneel..."
The Auroran spaceship, a smooth marvel of engineering, sped relentlessly towards Earth.