Farewell to the Master

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"Farewell to the Master" is a science fiction short story written by Harry Bates. It was first published in the October 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.^[1] It provided the basis of the noted 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still.

[edit] Plot summary

The story is told from the viewpoint of Cliff Sutherland, a free-lance picture reporter, who is present when a mysterious "curving ovoid" ship instantaneously appears on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. Two days later, "visitors from the Unknown" emerge: a "god-like" person in human form and an eight-foot robot made of green metal. The former is shot and killed by a lunatic after only managing to say in English, "I am Klaatu and this is Gnut." Klaatu is buried nearby. Gnut remains motionless, while laboratories and a museum are built around it and the ship. Both prove impervious to the investigations of frustrated scientists.

Sutherland discovers that the robot enters the ship at night when no one is watching, emerging to resume his position for the day. Gnut is aware of the reporter, but ignores him. After several odd encounters, Sutherland informs the world what he has learned. Gnut is encased in "glasstex", finally forcing the robot's hand. It breaks out, unaffected by all attempts to destroy it, picks up Sutherland and travels to the mausoleum containing Klaatu's corpse. It opens the tomb and takes a recording of Klaatu's voice stored there. It then returns and goes inside the ship.

Sutherland daringly boards the ship before the entrance closes and learns the reasons behind Gnut's behavior. The robot has been working on a way to create a copy of Klaatu just from an audio recording of his greeting. However, the new Klaatu is flawed because the recording is imperfect, and he dies soon after speaking with the reporter. Sutherland then suggests retrieving the original recording device and, by studying it, figure out how to compensate for its imperfections; Gnut eagerly takes up this idea. Sutherland sees to it that the equipment is brought to it.

Then, somehow sensing that the robot is preparing to depart, Sutherland tries to impress upon it the necessity to tell its masters that Klaatu's death was an accident, leading to a surprise ending: "You misunderstand, I am the master." says Gnut.