The Martian diplomat in chief wanted to be sure that the Cerberus ambassador was welcome and well treated in any possible way. Since his arrival, he had accompanied him absolutely everywhere - something that would have been considered rude, if the ambassador was not a robot. The two professors who had called for the Cerberus were officially part of the team he had to great, but they were insignificant diplomatically - and scientifically as well, from what I was told.

The diplomat reflected that the ambassador of a scientific colony would be pleased with receiving as many technical details as possible on the world he was visiting. He had already provided a prolific description of the entire weaponry available on board every single ship of the Martian space force – a little subtle dissuasion is always good – but he intended to impress his guest with the space elevator.

'The ship in which we are located is in fact the great Martian elevator. It is the quickest and safest way to get in or out of Mars. Counter-intuitively the formidable force imposed on an atmospheric elevator is not the compression from gravity towards the ground but the velocity from centrifugal force. Actually it acts exactly like the rays in a bike tyre. Most people think it sustains compression but mostly it prevents the rim from going away from the axis. The design of the elevator is so that the two are slightly balanced and continuously adjusted. Otherwise no material however sophisticated could sustain the strain. After all, the cable is only 1 meter thick on the ground and 15 meters at his thickest... Yeah, I know,' he answered an imaginative approbation.

'After the destruction of Phobos, Martians decided to use Deimos as the anchor for a space elevator. With a near circular orbit of 23 000 km, it was close to the geosynchronous orbit and the ecliptic plane. It had all the required if not perfect features to be chosen as the counterweight of a space elevator. Olympus Mons which is the highest point on Mars, and in fact the highest mountain in the solar system – 22 km above its surrounding - was chosen as the base for the elevator, because it also benefits from a position near the equator.'

'Indeed the conditions were favourable at the start, but it is the superior mind and technology of the Martian people that enabled this marvel to be erected.'

His grandiloquent talk had deflated his lungs. He breathed forcibly. 'We're all proud,' he added, with a large smile, bulging eyes and a repetitive nod that seemed to go on forever.

The ambassador took the oversized hint. 'I'm sure you have reasons to,' he replied, while thinking a good slap in the face would be the human equivalent of the laser "slice and dice" he had in his robot mind.

The diplomat resumed, 'You may wonder if such a technical prowess requires any human piloting or monitoring it, and the beauty of it is that it does not.' Again the large smile and bulging eyes, though without the nod this time. 'This entire system is self-monitoring, with an artificial intelligence distributed over dozens of robotic minds across its length. I'm sure you can grasp the idea.'

'Cerberus is an artificial intelligence distributed over dozens of robot minds.'

The diplomat's smile faded. 'Well. Of course. I got carried away. I apologize.'

Robert and Richard were smiling silently.

'Never mind,' reassured the ambassador. 'But the interesting point in there is, what kind of robotic mind we're talking about?'

'You mean?'

'Are those robotic minds superior or specific to the elevator? Do all the robots in Mars abide by the laws of Azimov for example?'

'Oh no. I mean, yes. Those elevator minds are of the same type as any other space minds or robot minds in Mars and in the solar system for the matter.' Realising his mistake, he added uneasily, 'that is of course with the notable exception of the Cerberus which alone was allowed to bypass the first law protecting the humans in order to protect our Mother Earth.'

'Have you not tried to build new types of mind based on different laws then?'

'Oh no. That would be too dangerous, and besides, we don't need them. The very old robot minds, as they were conceived on Earth, work perfectly well for us. They were tried and proved by the ages. There's no reason to change something that works well, that's an old adage.'

'Thank you. That's all I wanted to know.'

'Very well. I'm pleased to please you. Everyone is pleased then, except maybe for the millions of onlookers who haven't had the chance yet to see the ambassador of Cerberus. Would you mind at some point to address the Martian nation with a message of peace?'

'I would indeed love to address the nation....' He let a long and uncomfortable pause go by. 'But, and I insist on it, that must include all the entities possessing an artificial intelligence. They deserve to be recognised as sentient beings and be addressed as such.'

'Of course. That makes perfect sense. We, humans, have this anthropocentric tendency to consider only humans as intelligent beings. I will see with my staff how and when we can arrange such a widespread speech. Would you like to continue with the visit in the mean time?'

'No. I have gathered enough information for now and I should let you free to run on whatever errant of yours to organise a worldwide speech in, say, an hour? Incidentally, this visit his adjourned and I will let the bodily creatures that you are do whatever you are best at.'

Hum... thought the diplomat, a true face at last. The robots are really disgusted by us. Then we should be careful. Our weaponry was kindly dismissed as a non-topic. I should have tried to impress him even more. Maybe I should talk about the cyborgs now, before his speech.

He was briefly distracted was the sight of Richard who forced a smile and tried to hide Robert in the act of fist pumping.

Andwhen he put his eyes on the ambassador, he only saw its back.