It's a simple question, but it seems to lead straight to the root of the issue. What were his hesitations? What were his motives? Which carried the weight that he could live with it in spite of the other?
"If I kill someone, I don't know if I can go home and still be the good representative of robots or the helpful protector people have relied on me to be. I'll be one of the few robots who have committed the crime of killing. The people who love me would be upset. It... might make me a hypocrite too. Because I stood in the way of a robot rebellion turning violent. I even physically restrained their leader. I insisted robots and humans were meant to be friends, and that we had to push for the laws to change."
Recent events at home had only mixed up his feelings more about those events. Atom grimaces at the thought of the flip side, at the horrors he knew were happening in the present.
"But I can't just watch the Empire hurt people and treat them like property. Nobody can ban slavery here except the Emperor. And he'll never give up that power, will he?"
no subject
"If I kill someone, I don't know if I can go home and still be the good representative of robots or the helpful protector people have relied on me to be. I'll be one of the few robots who have committed the crime of killing. The people who love me would be upset. It... might make me a hypocrite too. Because I stood in the way of a robot rebellion turning violent. I even physically restrained their leader. I insisted robots and humans were meant to be friends, and that we had to push for the laws to change."
Recent events at home had only mixed up his feelings more about those events. Atom grimaces at the thought of the flip side, at the horrors he knew were happening in the present.
"But I can't just watch the Empire hurt people and treat them like property. Nobody can ban slavery here except the Emperor. And he'll never give up that power, will he?"