User:DoctorWho42/I Have My Vigil

"I Have My Vigil" is a short story by American author Harry Harrison. It was first published in the February 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Background
At the time, Harry Harrison mostly wrote novels. His last novel was The Technicolor Time Machine. He also edited the magazine Amazing Stories.

Publication history
"I Have My Vigil" was first published in the February 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. In 1969, it reappeared in the book The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Eighteenth Series edited by Edward L. Ferman. In 1974, "I Have My Vigil" was republished in Wondermakers 2 edited by Robert Hoskins. In 1976, The Best of Harry Harrison included the story.

Plot
The robot introduces itself. It was built on Earth and recognizes itself a machine without a soul. Its duty is to three men, but they are dead. The robot maintains its duty. It is on the first starship. It cares for the crew who are dead. It tells itself men were not made for no-space. Robots are. The robot sets the table. Hardesty looked at no-space then killed himself. He slit his wrists in his cabin. It knocks and opens the door. It finds him lifeless on his bunk. It closes his door. The robot goes to the table and turns the plate over. It understands Hardesty won't eat. The robot prepares meals for two others. It considers its metal fingers. Larson had human fingers. They were locked on Neal's throat. Larson looked on no-space. Neal stabbed Larson with a dinner knife. Neal never saw no-space. The robot removes Larson's fingers from Neal's throat. Dinner is served. The robot knocks on Neal's door but no one answers. It finds Neal's body is on his bunk. It detects an odor. The robot turns Neal's plate over. It knocks on Larson's door. It turns over Larson's plate. The robot clears the table. The ship functions. The robot looks on no-space. The robot functions. The men do not. This is an important thought. The robot will tell the men when it returns to Earth. Every ship-day it thinks this. The robot has little capacity for original thought. This might be the only original thought it will have. The robot considers itself. Perhaps it was designed better than intended. The robot was designed to serve the men and speak to them in English. Not in German nor Latin, although it knows of them. It can run to the control column and press buttons. It can rhyme but cannot write a poem. It knows there is a difference, but not what that difference is. The ship has been to Alpha Centauri. It knows nothing about Alpha Centauri. When the ship reached Alpha Centauri, the robot turns the ship around. Its original thought is more important. It has no soul. It wonders what a robot soul looks like. A metal can but with what inside? The robot must set the table. As it sets utensils down, it recalls when the men used the knife. It considers the red on its finger. It concludes it is ketchup.

Reception
In 1968, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Edward L. Ferman declared it a "short and surprising tale." In 1969, Science Fiction Review's Richard E. Geis praised "I Have My Vigil" with "hitting like a delayed-action bomb." In 1970, Analog Science Fiction and Fact's P. Schuyler Miller commended "a very short and very unorthodox story."