Disclaimer: Characters not mine.
ooOOOoo
The room was silent and dark – dark except for the numerous, tiny spots of light twinkling where the ceiling would have been visible in the daylight. An occasional, lazily drifting cloud partly veiled the pleasant, simulated display of the starry sky.
None of the robots present had said anything for more than three hours now. Clearly, everyone was busy with their own thoughts, or diagnostics, or power saving mode – that depended on the type of the robot. Daneel however, was fully awake, had finished his routine checks long ago and felt no specific need to slip into the robotic slumber. He found it much more useful to look up at the simulated sky and repeat to himself all information he could recall about each star he recognized. (Why else would Dr. Fastolfe leave the simulation running here?)
At first, his thoughts were dashing forward with the speed of the electrical impulses driving them. But then, when he got to a star for a second time, he decided to slow down to a level of human verbal communication. For a microsecond, he considered moving lips to accompany the words forming in his mind, but then decided not to disturb his friends around the room.
The Sun… A star around which the planet Earth revolves. The very home planet of all humanity. Images of the giant, overcrowded Cities sprang up before Daneel's inner sight. The masses of people streaming under the vast domes of steel, the never ending movement and tumult… the well-remembered apartment of his human partner, Elijah… the two of them meeting on the border between the New York City and the Spacetown; the two of them travelling with the Expressway, getting home and sitting at the table, discussing the details of their first case…
As many times before, Daneel felt surprised at the development. He had started out looking at the night sky simulation, and ended up going through all his memory records of a single, particular human, Elijah Baley. Was it because of the hyperwave drama they had watched that evening? Or can just any thought, through associations, eventually lead to Elijah? Well, with the chain of associations long enough, every thought could lead to any other. But what determines the direction? Is it the personal preference? Could this be true for a mind of a robot?
Perhaps.
A human being would have sighed here, but Daneel had no such need, and so he continued gazing at the stars, checking the information he had about them. But if anyone else could see into Daneel's mind at that moment, they would realize there was another, new layer to it all. The robot was not just repeating the information to himself now. Inside his thoughts, there was Elijah, too, and he was eagerly listening to what Daneel had to say.
And then, suddenly: "Friend Daneel?"
"Friend Jander?"
"May I ask you a question?" The younger robot spoke quietly.
"Of course you may." Daneel turned his head in his friend's direction. "What is it you wish to know?"
"I wish to ask about your human partner, the Earthman Elijah Baley."