Let's Get Together (short story)
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"Let's Get Together" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in the February 1957 issue of Infinity Science Fiction. It appears in the collections The Rest of the Robots (1964) and The Complete Robot (1982). The story is notable for depicting robots as war machines, a departure from Asimov's usual portrayal, and for its Cold War setting rather than the peaceful unified world of most robot stories.
Plot summary
The Cold War has lasted a century, with an uneasy peace between "Us" and "Them." A secret agent arrives from Moscow, reporting that "they" have developed humanoid robots and that ten have already infiltrated America. When these robots gather, they will trigger a nuclear-level explosion, as each is a component of a total conversion bomb. A conference of "our" top scientists is hastily convened to devise detection methods and catch up on the technology.
The head of the Bureau of Robotics realizes the enemy anticipated this response: the infiltrator robots have replaced scientists invited to the conference. The explosion would kill a relatively small number of people but precisely eliminate "our" leading scientists. All arriving scientists must pass a security check before gathering. Ten scientists en route explode via self-destruct charges.
The bureau chief then wonders how "they" could have acted so quickly. He draws a blaster and shoots the secret agent, whose body leaks high-grade machine oil instead of blood.
More in Robot Series Short Stories by Isaac Asimov
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Let's Get Together (short story) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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