The Wrong Direction

[Tabor Nansk 0]

Tabor left Anna's office with a renewed sense of purpose. Her revelation of the alien drone (ok, maybe not alien but for sure not Federation) was astonishing. The object clearly implied, in Tabor's mind, that a large piece of the puzzle was missing. That Star Fleet had swooped in and confiscated everything associated with the drone, immediately placing it under a classified status, spoke volumes about its importance and exposed a possible clandestine operation. The scope of this operation, its objectives and motives were still unclear, and certainly, as with any venture of this type, how much it was permeated with a "the ends justify the means" mentality left a cold feeling in his bones. It would explain a lot about how the Proxima affair was conducted and the callous attitude the Reaent had experienced upon returning to Starbase 1123.

 

 

Also astonishing was Anna's willingness to share her bootleg copy of the drone's schematic. It showed her to be a remarkable woman – first, someone curious enough to investigate an unknown and potentially dangerous object on her own; second, someone willing to go against authority in keeping copies of her work in light of Star Fleet's seizure of the drone; and third, her trusting instinct to give Tabor a copy of her findings, increasing the risk of her duplicity being discovered. Tabor scoured the schematic, not really sure what he was looking at. He wasn't a scientist or an engineer. He was a pilot with a background in history. But he'd always prided himself on having a rational, logical mind – though recent events had pushed the definitions of rationality and logic right through the envelope. In any case, he was over his head with this diagram. By Anna's own account, no one actually knew what the device did, only that it worked as a trigger to the wormhole. Tabor thought that given those circumstances, it took incredible fortitude to even turn the thing on. Hats off to Cpt. Michaels and the entire Science and Engineering teams.

 

 

With a sigh of frustration, he knew he'd have to risk going somewhere for help. He didn't want to expand Anna's risk – or breach her trust of confidentiality – by going to someone else in the crew. He nodded to himself as an idea formed in his mind: the holodeck. He'd gone to this well before, although this time it would be different. This time his instructions to the holodeck wouldn't specify his advisors, only the parameters of the situation. In his impatience to get started, the trip to the holodeck seemed to take forever. When he arrived, he entered his code and program instructions. When the doors swooshed open, Tabor stood rooted at the entrance: the difference was immediate and obvious. Gone was the warm, inviting fireside room of past meetings. What lay before Tabor was a cold, barren room of stainless steel and glass. A solitary figure stood at one end of the room, his back turned to the entrance.

 

 

"Please come in, Lt. Nansk," he said in a voice non-pitched, neither inviting nor menacing. Tabor stepped into the room and walked a few paces to the center. As the holodeck doors swooshed closed, the figure turned around to face him. Tabor was frozen in place. It was R. Daneel Olivaw.

 

 

"You have a problem," Daneel said, again in that non-inflected voice. His features showed the millennia of his existence but it was his stare that cut Tabor to the bone. The humaniform robot made no movement whatsoever and Tabor wasn't sure how to proceed. As the silence dragged on, he decided the statement was just that – a statement, not a question.

 

 

Tabor shook himself out of his awe of this…man(?) and asked, "Do you know about the wormhole?"

 

 

Daneel never moved, but the stare seemed to soften. "Yes," he answered.

 

 

Tabor waited for more, but Olivaw was silent. He tried again, "Do you know about the drone?"

 

 

"Yes."

 

 

"Can you tell me about them?"

 

 

The robot again was silent for a long time. "No," was his eventual reply.

 

 

Tabor was dumbstruck. Daneel had the answers he and his shipmates needed. The holodeck had fulfilled the requirements of his request perfectly, a situation that was a puzzle in and of itself. The holodeck worked in conjunction with the ship's computer, which itself communicated with any number of Star Fleet computers to "create" what the user programmed or requested. If the entire Proxima affair was classified, how was the holodeck able to gain access to the information necessary not only to animate R. Daneel Olivaw but to give him knowledge of the situation? Or were the robot's "no's" the computer's way of saying, "sorry, it's classified"?

 

 

"Are you unable to tell me because the information is restricted by Star Fleet?"

 

 

Finally the robot moved. Daneel turned his head slightly as if gazing off into space. "Are you familiar with the Three Laws of Robotics? The First says 'A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm'."

 

 

Tabor thought a moment, "I don't believe you're here to harm me, so are you saying that harm from another source will come to me if I know this information?"

 

 

Daneel turned back to face Tabor. "A very few of my kind have postulated a "Zeroth Law" that states 'A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm'." It was the first time Daneel had used any emphasis in his speech. "I am one of those few who accept that Law. Yet I find it places me in a delicate position. How does one balance the two laws? Which takes precedence over the other?"

 

 

Tabor was confused. "How does the possibility of my personal harm conflict with not harming humanity as a whole?"

 

 

"In some situations, the conflict is between the Laws, Tabor, and it causes incredible stress on a robot's brain. The number of calculations involved in attempting to resolve the conflict is unimaginable. Indeed, I had a dear friend, a robot very similar to myself, suffer a catastrophic positronic failure because of the conflict. No doubt you've noticed how little I move."

 

 

Tabor was shocked. He suddenly realized Daneel's coldness was borderline paralysis. "What can I do to help? What if I guess the answer? Will that free you from the conflict?"

 

 

"The conflict, Tabor, is that by telling you, I risk allowing harm to come to you. However, by not telling you, in essence 'through inaction', I risk allowing harm to come to all humanity. Confirming or not confirming your 'guesses' is the same as telling. The conflict remains."

 

 

"Can I order you to tell me?"

 

 

Daneel shook his head slightly, "the Second Law."

 

 

Tabor felt helpless. Watching this poor creature's discomfort was more than he could bear. "Daneel, I release you from this task! Computer, end program, NOW!"

 

 

He stood in the middle of the empty holodeck shaking with growing fear and anger. He could guess now. The wormhole was alien and it somehow posed a threat to humanity. The drone did play a part in controlling the conduit. And Star Fleet knew of – or at least highly suspected - the threat. And they would stop at nothing to try to prevent it. 'The ends justify the means' surfaced again in his mind. Suddenly, finding the precise machinations of the Proxima affair was irrelevant. Whatever the decision process and/or circumstances that existed that sent the Reaent into Romulan space paled when compared with discovering what the wormhole linked our galaxy to. And with that revelation, all of his torments fell away. Nothing seemed more important than returning to the Neutral Zone, to the last known position of the wormhole, and continuing the investigation. There was not a moment to lose. And then he remembered: they were heading for the Cestus System – completely the wrong direction.