then, if life had so many sweetnesses to it, why had she found so few for herself?
She had nothing really to do on board this ship but to ponder and reponder such questions. This D.G., this Elijah descended barbarian, had put it into her head, with his calm assumption that the Spacer worlds were dying, even though he could see all about him even during the shortest stay on Aurora (surely, he would have to) that it was deeply embedded in wealth and security.
She had tried to escape her own thoughts by staring at the holofilms she had been supplied with and watching, with moderate curiosity, the images flickering and capering on the projection surface, as the adventure story (all were adventure stories) hastened from - event to event with little time left for conversation and none for thought - or enjoyment, either. Very like their furniture.
D.G. stepped in when she was in the middle of one of the films, but had stopped really paying attention. She was not caught by surprise. Her robots, who guarded her doorway, signaled his coming in ample time and would not have allowed him to enter if she were not in a position to receive him. Daneel entered with him.
D.G. said, "How are you doing?" Then, as her hand touched a contact and the images faded, shriveled, and were gone. He said, "You don't have to turn it off. I'll watch it with you."
"That's not necessary," she said. "I've had enough."
"Are you - comfortable?"
"Not entirely. I am - isolated."
"Sorry! But then, I was isolated on Aurora. They would allow none of my men to come with me."
"Are you having your revenge?"
"Not at all. For one thing, I allowed you two robots of your choice to accompany you. For another, it is not I but my crew who enforce this. They don't like either Spacers or robots. But why do you mind? Doesn't this isolation lessen your fear of infection?"
Gladia's eyes were haughty, but her voice sounded weary. "I wonder if I haven't grown too old to fear infection. In many ways, I think I have lived long enough. Then, too, I have my gloves, my nose filters, and - if necessary - my mask. And besides, I doubt that you will trouble to touch me."
"Nor will anyone else," said D.G. with a sudden edge of grimness to his voice, as his hand wandered to the object at the right side of his hip.
Her eyes followed the motion. "What is that?" she asked.
D.G. smiled and his beard seemed to glitter in the light. There were occasional reddish hairs among the brown. "A weapon," he said and drew it. He held it by a molded hilt that bulged above his hand as though the force of his grip were squeezing it upward. In front, facing Gladia, a thin cylinder stretched some fifteen centimeters forward. There was no opening visible.
"Does that kill people?" Gladia extended her hand toward it.
D.G. moved it quickly away. "Never reach for someone's weapon, my lady. That is worse than bad manners, for any Settler is trained to react violently to such a move and you may be hurt."
Gladia, eyes wide, withdrew her hand and placed both behind her back. She said, "Don't threaten harm. Daneel has no sense of humor in that respect. On Aurora, no one is barbarous enough to carry weapons."
"Well," said D.G., unmoved by the adjective, "we don't have robots to protect us. - And this is not a killing device. It is, in some ways, worse. It emits a kind of vibration that stimulates those nerve endings responsible for the sensation of pain. It hurts a good deal worse than anything you can imagine. No one would willingly endure it twice and someone carrying this weapon rarely has to use it. We call it a neuronic whip."
Gladia frowned. "Disgusting! We have our robots, but they never hurt anyone except in unavoidable emergency and then minimally."
D.G. shrugged. "That sounds very civilized, but a bit of pain - a bit of killing, even - is better than the decay of spirit brought about by robots. Besides, a neuronic whip is not intended to kill and your people have weapons on their spaceships that can bring about wholesale death and destruction.
"That's because we've fought wars early in our history, when our Earth heritage was still strong, but we've learned better."
"You used those weapons on Earth even after you supposedly learned better."
"That's - " she began and closed her mouth as though