Sol #3 seemed to be a remote and backwards planet. Nothing ever happened there that would be dangerous for Zorcon’s space traveling civilization. Then anomalies started appearing including things that resembled fairy tales. Zorcon’s computing and power grids crashed, and an android went rogue. Oversight, Zorcon’s powerful security agency, became alarmed. It sent an expedition to investigate. When its starship emerged from a wormhole, it collided with asteroids that should not be there. Meanwhile on Sol #3, Cinderwan was just completing her Elder training in the Water Element when Moriah the Ancient decided to test her. Handling the asteroid crisis would be a worthy challenge. Never mind that succeeding would require skills beyond those of any living Elder.

Chapter 1. Breakfast at the North Pole

“Why study physics? That’s what the computers are for!” Transcript of testimony of Marie Gottmothercus from the Inquiry into the Ski Mountain Incident. Declassified Archives of the Zorcon Empire.

i there, Fairy Godmother!” Marie Gottmothercus looked up from her table outside Borrones Inn in Santa’s Village. Goldilocks, James, and Luke walked towards her.

The Fairy Godmother nodded to the young Turner elves. “Hello again, James and Goldilocks. Good morning, Luke.”

James and Luke made toys in Nick’s workshop. James had flown Mary Ellen and the Fairy Godmother to the North Pole in Santa’s sleigh.

Unlike Zorcon, Sol #3 had no long-distance public transportation. Although Sol #3 natives sometimes rode astride their dragon friends, Marie was not interested in riding on a dragon. For her, Santa’s sleigh was the only way to fly. It was much more exhilarating than the trains and sky capsules of Zorcon.

At the start of her mission to Sol #3, Marie had flown her landing craft down from her starship. She could have reassembled the landing craft for this trip to the North Pole. But buzzing around Sol #3 in a “bubble” would attract attention. The Department of Planetary Anthropology on Zorcon was fussy about showing natives any advanced technology. The rule of the three L’s required that planetary anthropologists “Listen, Learn, and Leave it alone.”

Even creating Santa’s flying sleigh had caused problems for Marie with Zorcon University. It wasn’t fair. The flying sleigh was Cinderella’s idea. Marie had helped to keep it reasonable. For some reason, a supersonic sled pulled by flying reindeer was not seen as reasonable by the powers that be. She smiled at her mischievous thinking. The sleigh was pretty cool, though.

Her professors also did not like that Cinderella was using her Glass Slippers to control Zorcon technology. Again, that wasn’t Marie’s fault. Cyber safeguards were supposed to prevent such things. Fixing faulty cybernetic technology was not her job. That had not been included in her training.

If anthropology courses didn’t cover something important, that also wasn’t Marie’s fault. She sighed. Professor Grimmicus was the chairman of the Department of Planetary Anthropology.  Curriculum design was his responsibility.

“How are the new toys coming along?” Marie asked James, Luke and Goldilocks as they approached.

“The new designs and toys are coming along fine,” answered James.

“But the elves are getting restless,” added Luke.

Goldilocks looked to her brothers. “The toymakers have been living and working at the North Pole for a long time,” she explained to the Fairy Godmother. “Toy making is great, but there is nothing else for them to do here.”

Goldilocks pointed at the sun resting low in the sky. “The sun has been ‘rising’ now for several weeks. The bizarre daylight cycle at the North Pole does not help with morale.”

“Summer is coming,” observed James. “Then there will be 180 days of daylight!”

“And then six more months of pure darkness,” moaned Luke.

The Fairy Godmother nodded. “Nature can be so inconvenient,” she mused.

When the Zorconians decided to build a city at their planet’s North Pole, they adjusted the daylight cycle and the polar climate. Space-based reflectors redirected sunlight and provided a more familiar 24-hour cycle of daytime and nighttime at the poles. They also installed heating pipes to warm the neighborhoods in their polar city.

“Any word on the Ski Mountain?” asked James.

“I will have something to show you in a few days,” answered the Fairy Godmother. Marie thought about the commands she had given her wand to bring an asteroid to Sol #3. She smiled as she sipped her cinnamon tea and munched on a morning bun. She continued, “Good cooking takes time!”

Goldilocks laughed quietly to herself as the Fairy Godmother talked about good cooking. No one had ever seen the Fairy Godmother cook anything. Now she had a girl to cook for her and help around the cottage. Goldilocks had seen the new girl at the cottage window when they left for the North Pole. She had not met her yet.

Goldilocks sold real estate. She was interested in the business opportunities of a Ski Mountain in Oberland Kingdom. Looking to the Fairy Godmother, she said, “If you put a ski mountain in Oberland Kingdom, I have an idea for its name.”

Marie raised an eyebrow and waited.

“The Matterhorn,” smiled Goldilocks.

The Fairy Godmother beamed. “Matterhorn” sounded like “Mother Mountain” in the old language. It was almost “Godmother Mountain.” Goldilocks felt that this name would increase the Fairy Godmother’s enthusiasm for the project. Goldilocks might later suggest “GottMatterhorn” to name the mountain exactly after its creator.

In a few days, the asteroid would come close to Sol #3. It had been tricky moving the asteroid from the asteroid belt and staying within her energy budget. Marie had not yet told the computers about the final destinations for her asteroid “mountains”. She did not want to alert the Department of Planetary Anthropology about her next Good Deed. The Department would just remind her to “Listen, Learn, and Leave it alone!”

Zorcon was far away and Marie enjoyed her independence. When the asteroid got close enough, she would instruct the computers to carve it up and land the “mountains” for the ski resorts. She had not reallized that landing the asteroid safely would be a lot easier if the computers had known its exact destination earlier when they planned its trajectory.

Chapter 2. The First Law

ive young people hiked along the river path. Hansel led. BC and Gretel followed him. Charley and Emma came last. Things had been exciting lately. Hansel was recounting their recent adventure at Alpine Lake.

“Emma – Do you remember the day when we first met you?” Hansel asked.

“I have an excellent memory,” replied Emma.

BC snorted. He was amused when Emma talked funny. Her language was sometimes odd, but she was starting to sound more like a normal girl.

A couple of weeks earlier they had met Emma and had hiked to Alpine Lake with Geppetto, Hansel and Gretel’s father. What an adventure!

“Baby Red was so cute!” remembered Gretel. Baby Red was a baby sea beast.

“Well, she’ll still grow up and be scary like her mother,” commented BC.

“Nessie was only scary when she thought we might hurt Red,” protested Gretel.

Emma looked on as the others recounted their adventure.

“It’s a good thing that Queen Cinderella showed up,” added Hansel. “Nessie was mad. She was pushing her way into the cave and she was not stopping to ask questions.”

“It was awesome when Emma turned her arm into a sword,” observed BC.

Everyone stopped. Much had happened in a short time. They hadn’t asked Emma about her sword arm.

“Can you do that too?” Hansel asked Charley.

Charley thought for a moment. “Yes, I can,” he answered. “I can reshape my body within certain limits. Also, protecting humans is the First Law of Robotics,” he explained.

“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”

“What about protecting bears?” asked BC.

“Interesting question,” Charley smiled, pretending to think it over. He turned to Emma. “Are we supposed to protect bears? They are kind of furry.”

BC’s eyes got big. Hansel snorted, again.

Emma’s red eye blinked and her blue eye blinked. Now that she had been with her friends for a while, she realized that Charley was teasing BC. Still, a question had been asked and she would try to answer it. Emma consulted the Zorcon University Library.

“As Charley said, protecting humans is the First Law,” she replied. “The meaning of ‘human’ has been debated since the beginning of robotics. It is generally accepted that ‘human’ refers to all sentient beings.” There was more to say, but Gretel interrupted her.

 Gretel asked, “What about other androids? Would you protect Charley?”

Now Charley’s red eye blinked and his blue eye blinked. The conversation was getting interesting now.

Emma consulted the library again. “This may be difficult to understand. We need to classify Charley,” replied Emma.

“That figures,” said Hansel. “My dad says that men don’t understand women either.”

“It’s not that,” replied Emma. “Charley was an appliance designed to make cookies. Android appliances have many limitations. They need to be connected to our computer network in order to access information and to be more sentient. But they are not as valuable as human beings. They are replaceable. Not much is lost if an android is damaged.”

Charley pretended to be hurt, but he was listening closely.

Emma continued. “But Charley is no longer a simple appliance. If he were hurt or destroyed, much experience would be lost. He makes judgements. He qualifies as sentient and independent. So, I would probably protect him.”

“Probably,” smirked BC.

“I probably feel better already,” chuckled Charley.

Emma noticed that she had not fully answered the questions. “According to Zorconian history, there is no such thing as a talking bear. That discrepancy is problematic for establishing precedent. Still, people can be furry or at least have hair. So, having fur has nothing to do with whether androids should protect BC.”

“Ahem,” commented BC.

“I have observed BC, Mama Bear and Papa Bear,” Emma continued. “They are not androids, and they appear to be sentient.”

“Appearances aren’t everything,” joked Hansel.

Gretel poked him.

“I would protect BC because he is my friend,” interrupted Charley, “not because of the First Law. It would be the right thing to do.”

Emma’s red eye blinked and her blue eye blinked.

“Thank you, Charley,” said BC. “And I would protect you too.”

“In fact, you already did,” remembered Gretel.

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