Fred, Toad and Pietro looked at the viewers, while the robot in the conversation room looked on.
"What's this button for, yo?"Toad asked the robot.
"It is to help establish contact, Master."the robot answered.
"What's this one for, yo?"asked Toad.
"What about this one, yo?"he asked before the robot could answer.
Fred looked at the numbers.
"Do we need a password?"he asked. "Or is this for math class?"
The robot stared at Fred.
"Master?"it said, clearly not having understood the question.
Pietro began punching buttons on the machine. A robot appeared on the opposite screen.
"Contact will be established in a moment, Master."said the robot that appeared.
A few minutes later, half the room was gone, and a different room appeared, with a woman sitting in a chair.
"Contact has been accepted."said the robot.
"Hello."said the woman.
"Uh, hi."
She looked puzzled.
"What is the purpose of this viewing session?"she asked, smiling. "I don't believe I know any of you. Goodness! At my age one knows all adult Solarians."she laughed. "Well, apparently not."she smiled.
"We're the Brotherhood, yo."said Toad.
"I am Mrs.Gladia Delmarre."
"Aren't you the one Lance works for, yo?"
The woman looked puzzled.
"No, I don't think so."
A robot brought her a hot drink, and placed it on the table next to her chair. She sipped it.
"Can we have some?"asked Fred.
She looked puzzled.
"Whatever you're drinking."
She laughed.
"How could we share a drink?"
"Your giving us some."said Pietro.
The woman's face changed.
"You mean...personal presence? OH!"she exclaimed. "Such filthy...done viewing!"and she was gone.
"That was weird."
"How do we do it again, yo?"
The robot stood imobile.
"Hello?"
R.Daneel walked into the room.
"That is another robot that has been mentally frozen."he said, carrying it out of the room.
Later, as they sat, eating on the shaded porch, next to the pond, with the robots coming and replacing pitchers of water, and dishes of food, R.Daneel described the estate.
"You might find it pleasant, Masters, to walk around the estate."
They finished their meal, and R.Daneel led them away from the house towards the grounds, describing every aspect of them.
"How nice!"said Lance.
He noticed the robots testing the pH of the water in the stream.
"What types of fish do we have here?"he asked.
"A variety of cichlids, Master."said the robot.
"And what are you doing?"he asked. "It's a controlled environment?"
"Yes, Master."said the robot.
Lance looked at the robot.
"You know what?"he said. "From now on, I'm going to be in charge of this."
He pushed the robot aside.
"I don't think that's recomendable, Master."said R.Daneel. "The fact that you are doing the robot's job is rather...unpleasant to the robot."
"Are you saying it hurts the robot to have me doing it's job? Well, listen, R., I don't care. I want to do it. Do I give the orders or don't I?"
"You do, Master."said R.Daneel.
"And one of those orders are to get rid of these robots! I'm sick of everywhere I look I see robots! I'm sick of robots doing what I want to do!"
"That would not be possible, Master. The robots on other estate would inform their masters and they would grow suspicious. Besides, there is work to be done. Walls, doors, ceilings, windows, and floors to be repaired, meals to be cooked, furniture and robots to be replaced, and finally the entire grounds to be taken care of. Plants to be watered and pruned, crops to be tended."said R.Daneel. "Half of the house has been torn down this morning."
"What for?"
"It was too boring, yo."