Mike Donovan looked at his empty beer mug, felt bored, and decided he had listened long enough. He said, loudly, "If we're going to talk about unusual robots, I once knew a robot that disobeyed the First Law."
And since that was completely impossible, everyone stopped talking and turned to look at Donovan.
Donovan regretted his big mouth at once and changed the subject. "I heard a good one yesterday," he said, conversationally, "about--"
MacFarlane in the chair next to Donovan's said, "You mean you knew a robot that harmed a human being?" That was what disobedience to First Law meant, of course.
"In a way," said Donovan. "I say I heard one about--"
"Tell us about it," ordered MacFarlane. Some of the others banged their beer mugs on the table.
Donovan made the best of it. "It happened on Titan about ten years ago," he said, thinking rapidly. "Yes, it was in twenty-five. We had just recently received a shipment of three new-model robots, specially designed for Titan. They were the first of the MA models. We called them Emma One, Two and Three." He snapped his fingers for another beer and stared earnestly after the waiter. "Let's see, what came next?"
)
Short-short tale recounting a singular exception to the First Law of Robotics.
