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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1336a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66259 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66259) diff --git a/old/66259-0.txt b/old/66259-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cffee45..0000000 --- a/old/66259-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3206 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Cosmic Junkman, by Rog Phillips - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Cosmic Junkman - -Author: Rog Phillips - -Release Date: September 10, 2021 [eBook #66259] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COSMIC JUNKMAN *** - - - - - After the war, Earth stored away its robot - armies or sold them for scrap--because fighting - machines were dangerous. But more deadly was-- - - THE COSMIC JUNKMAN - - By Rog Phillips - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy - December 1953 - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -_Log Report_:-- - - _Fleet: Alpha Aquilae; 20,080 surviving ships. Flagship ROVER._ - - _Personnel: human;_ - - _Fleet Admiral William A. Ford, Vice Admiral Paul G. Belcross - robot;_ - - _2,649,366 (Ids. appended)_ - - _passenger: (human);_ - - _Generalissimo Vilbis (prisoner under w.c.a.)_ - - _Dates May 7, 4765; flight formation arrow, speed 1,700,000 m.p.s._ - - _Scheduled date of arrival at Earth: June 11, 4766_ - - _Distance from Earth on Earth-Aquilae axis: ten light years._ - -"Rummy," Vilbis said, reaching through the hand-hole in the inch thick -laminated glass wall of his prison and spreading his cards on the -table. His lips formed into the cruel haughty smile that had been his -trademark to billions of humans for almost half a century. His wide-set -black eyes mocked the other two players. - -"Well, well," Paul Belcross smirked. "I see now why you lost the war, -Vilbis. Isn't that a six of diamonds in your heart sequence?" - -The black eyes glanced down. The long-fingered hand began to retrieve -the cards, then paused. Vilbis' almost classic features darkened with -anger. With an effort he became calm. A secret inner amusement made -little lights in his eyes as he looked up at his two captors again. - -"You know," Bill Ford said thoughtfully, "sometimes I think you -must have some kind of an ace up your sleeve. You don't seem at all -concerned that this is your last trip. The War Crimes Court--then death -by hanging." Bill frowned. "Could be you figured the angle I've always -worried about. The Federation is always too quick to demobilize the -robots after a war. Some day some punk like you is going to take that -into consideration. He's going to surrender, but have a reserve space -navy waiting until Earth is without defenses, then take over and win." - -"Too bad I didn't think of that when I could have done something about -it," Vilbis said too cheerfully. - -"Maybe you did think of it," Bill said. "When we get home I'm going to -suggest we keep the Aquilae Fleet mobilized for at least ten years." - -"You know they won't do that," Paul Belcross said. "They're more afraid -of the robots than they are of attack. So am I, actually." - -"We're just afraid of what they could do if they got free," Bill said. -"Their potential intelligence is greater than human. If they overcame -their built-in instinct for obedience to human command they could--why -think of what our two million robots could do!" - -"Why all this discussion of robots?" Vilbis said. "They're just dogs. -Not even that. They were dogs for six months of their existence -before their brains were transplanted into synthegell fluid by the -mind transplant machine." His eyes took on a far away look. His voice -became regretful. "I had a hundred thousand scientists working on that -problem. If the mind of one dog could be transplanted into synthegell -without destroying the dog's brain there would be no limit to the -production of robot brain cartridges. If we could have licked that -problem I'd have won the war." - -"If!" Paul spat. "You're a renegade Earthman. I'm putting in my -application to be the one to hang you as soon as we get home." - -"How do you--" Vilbis clamped his lips closed and scooped up his cards. - -"How do we know we'll get home?" Bill Ford said. "Is that what you were -going to say?" - -Vilbis looked at his cards casually. "No," he said absently. "I was -going to say how do you expect to play cards and talk at the same time?" - -A raucous blast exploded in the room. Bill and Paul stared at each -other in surprise. Vilbis smiled. - -Bill leaped across the room to the cm board. He jabbed at buttons. -A giant screen lit up, showing a spaceship. Smaller screens lit up, -revealing robot ship commanders. - -"Look at that ship, Paul," Bill said. "You know them all. Aquilanean, -Centaurian, Cygnian. It isn't any known type--and with a war just over, -there hasn't been time to mass-produce new types." He jabbed at a -button. "All ships," he said. "All ships. Defense formation five. Five. -Operation three. Three." He listened to the repeats. - - * * * * * - -Paul Belcross had leaped to the huge tri-di sphere and turned it on. -Seconds later both men, Vilbis forgotten but watching with bright eyes, -were studying the small dots in the tri-di. The flight formation in the -shape of a giant arrow was quickly changing shape as the fleet formed -a defensive sphere around the flagship and its human occupants. The -_Rover_ was the only bright blue dot. The others were red. - -But now other dots were materializing at the outer fringe of the -tri-di, too many new dots to count. Approaching ships. - -Across the room a voice from a loudspeaker was saying, "Eighty seconds -to contact. No response. No response." - -"Another second and they'll be within range," Paul said. - -"God!" Bill's voice exploded. His eyes were on the large area of the -tri-di where ships had abruptly ceased to exist. - -"Something's wrong with the tri-di," Paul said. "No weapon could do -that." - -"Nothing's wrong with the tri-di," Bill said sharply. "And we don't -have that kind of weapon. They're something alien. Have to be. Some -other galaxy. There's always been that possibility." - -A rapidly repeated pip-pip-pip came from the cm board. Bill leaped to -it. A light, under a small screen showing a robot, was blinking. He -pressed the button. The robot saluted. His Id was stamped across his -chrome chest, with four gold stars after it. "We will be destroyed, -sir," it said. "Would suggest Flagship _Rover_ change course forty -degrees at eight o'clock and go on without fleet." - -"You're giving orders?" Bill said, his face going pale and his eyes -narrowing--not at the impending defeat, but at this sign of independent -initiative in a robot. - -"It's your only chance for survival," the robot said. "It must be done -at once." - -"Place yourself under ship arrest and give me the next in command," -Bill ordered sharply. The screen went blank. "That's mutiny!" he -shouted, unbelieving. - -Vilbis, behind his glass wall, laughed aloud. - -"Not mutiny," Paul said. "They are gone. All our ships are gone!" His -voice conveyed the incredulous horror in his mind. - -In the tri-di there was only the bright blue dot, and the thousands of -approaching ships of the enemy. - -The next instant the ship lurched violently. - -"They're boarding!" Bill shouted. "But they aren't going to get Vilbis -back alive." - -He leaped to a locker and opened it with clumsy fingers, bringing out -a g.i. raygun. He turned to leap toward the glass wall separating him -from Vilbis. Before he could take a step a large section of a bulkhead -vanished in smoke. For a brief instant Bill and Paul stared with -unbelieving eyes at what entered the room. - -Then they died. - -"Stop!" The word exploded from Vilbis's lips. He stared at the cooked -flesh that had been his captors. Then his eyes lifted to the jagged -hole in the bulkhead. - -"You fools!" he spat. His lips curled with cold anger. "Where do you -hope to get two other humans now?" - - * * * * * - -The demobilization station trailed the Earth, a million and a half -miles behind and in the same orbit around the Sun. It was shaped like -a thick disc. At the moment there were five ships resting against -one surface of the station. Three of them were warships. One was a -Federation ship. The fifth was a giant freighter with _SURPLUS JUNK -CO._ painted on it in bold blue letters. - -Each of the five ships was attached to the space station underneath its -hulk by short airlocks containing elevators. These led down into the -station where air pressure was kept at fifteen pounds. - -Inside the station, robots were emerging from the elevators leading to -the three warships. The robots were all identical except for their Id -numbers across their metallic chests. Arms and legs of metal rods and -joints in almost exact duplication of human bones, torso shaped like a -metal box, short neck joint supporting a head that was little more than -two four inch glass lenses, two rod-microphones, and a small voice box. - -The emerging robots moved at orders snapped by a human and marched -toward a building fifty yards away, where they lined up at attention -and became motionless. - -Two humans moved swiftly down the line, behind the lined up robots. At -each robot one of them twisted a copper-colored disk in the robot's -back, carefully drew out a cylinder eight inches long and four inches -in diameter, and handed the cylinder to the other, who lowered it into -a plastic case. These cylinders were the brains of the robots. They -were destined for the Federal ship--and storage until the next war. - -While the robot brain was being lowered into its plastic storage case -by the one man, the first lifted the now demobilized robot body and -placed it on a cart, already stacked high with similar bodies. The -immediate destination of these bodies was the junk company freighter. - -If the robots were aware of what was about to happen to them as they -waited, they gave no indication, no protest. Their lens eyes were -directed straight ahead of them, unmoving--except for one robot. - -The Id across its chest was 532-03-2615 followed by four gold stars. -Its head was turned just enough so that it could see down the line. Its -rod microphones were turned so that it could listen.... - -"That junkman gives me the creeps, Joe," the man placing brain -cylinders into plastic cases grumbled. - -"That's because he's a creep, Mel. Here. Take this." He thrust a brain -cylinder at his companion. - -"Hey! Careful!" Joe said, almost dropping it. - -Mel chuckled and flipped the robot body, almost weightless on the -station here in space, carelessly to the top of the stack on the truck. - -"Here comes junky now, Joe," he said. - -"Don't damage the bodies. Don't damage the bodies." The figure that -approached, pushing an empty truck, wore a dirty and well worn civilian -suit that seemed even more decrepit in contrast to the neat military -uniforms. His skin was leathery. A pair of glasses hung on his hawkish -nose, their thick lenses magnifying the close-set eyes underneath, and -making them seem to lie on the inner surfaces. His lips were partly -open, but never seemed to move while he talked. "There was a cracked -lens on one," he accused. - -"What's the matter, junky?" Joe grinned. "If we get a scratch on one -it's still two hundred pounds of scrap metal--or were you planning on -using the bodies?" He and Mel laughed. - -"Who knows?" the junkman said. "I only follow my orders. No scratches. -No damage to the bodies. Who knows? Maybe they go into storage until -the next war." He reached with a dirty hand to clutch at Mel's lapel, -but didn't make it. "I'll show you," he said. "_Two_ of them are -damaged. Not worth seventeen credits." - -"Can't stop now," Mel said. "We want to get done by quitting time. Joe -has a date." - -"Come on," the junkman said. "You've got to look. I have to have -witnesses when I hand in my report on the carelessness of the military." - -"Oh, all right," Mel said. He and Joe followed the dusty junkman around -the building. - -The instant they were out of sight, 2615 moved, running swiftly around -the other end of the building. It reached a vantage point where its -lens eyes could watch the three figures when they emerged from the -elevator to the ship above. - -It watched Joe and Mel return to their work. It waited until the -junkman had gone for another truckload of demobilized robot bodies. -Then, swiftly, it ran to the elevator. At the top it sent the elevator -back down, then faced the tiers of frames that filled the vast hold of -the ship. Most of them now held inert robot shapes. - -2615 chose an empty rack and climbed in, lying face up. It looked no -different than any of the thousands of other forms. - -It remained motionless. The junkman returned with load after load. -Eventually the hold was filled. Clanging and whirring noises told of -preparations for departure. - -Acceleration pushed the robot deeper into the protective foam rubber of -its rack. It waited.... - - * * * * * - -Fear. It began in the eyes of the cataloguer when his sorting machine -came to a stop on the Id card for 532-03-2615. It grew as a terrible, -animating force that drained blood from faces and made hands clumsy, as -the checking and rechecking on 2615 began. It spread through networks -of communication wires. It stopped at the borders of news release, lest -it spread over the world. - -Fear organized itself, finally, settling into a pasty expression, -unnatural eyes, and drumming fingers. The expression and eyes and -fingers belonged to Carl Wilson, chief of the Demobilization staff. It -centered there, but its aura spread out over the backwash it had left. -Fear lurked in the hushed silence. Fear rode as an undertone in the -slightest sound, lay ready to spring from behind every door. - -Larry Jackson felt it as he gave the receptionist his name. - -Stella Gamble was oblivious of it as she pushed into the waiting room. - -Larry looked at her and wished it was his day off and a girl like her -was with him. He wondered what her name was. - -"I'm Stella Gamble," Stella said to the receptionist. "I've got to see -Mr. Wilson at once. My freighter is overdue with two million junked -robots. Something's got--" - -"Will you please be seated, Miss Gamble?" the receptionist said firmly. -Then, "You may go right in, Mr. Jackson. Mr. Wilson is waiting for you." - -It was then Stella and Larry looked into each other's eyes. Hers were -narrowed, sizing him up, guessing what he was and why he was there. His -were friendly, smiling. - -"Thanks," he murmured to the receptionist. He went toward the door, -conscious of Stella's eyes following him. He went in. - -"_There_ you are, Jackson," Wilson said, running fingers through his -iron gray hair in nervous relief. "You've guessed why--" - -"Yes," Larry said. - -Behind him the door opened violently. Sharp heels clicked on the floor. -"Mr. Wilson," Stella demanded. "I know why this man is here. You're -going to give him instructions to blast my freighter out of existence -the minute he can--" - -"You're Stella Gamble?" Wilson said. "I've heard of you. Will you -please wait in the reception room until I finish with--" - -"Larry Jackson," Stella pronounced the name. Her wide-set blue eyes -showed scorn. "The man who is going to kill one of my men and destroy -my ship and its cargo just to get at a robot." - -"_Just_ to get at a robot?" Wilson said indignantly. "You must be out -of your head!" He picked up an oblong of paper on his desk and thrust -it at Larry. "The junkship has been traced three hundred million miles -out by routine radar. You can pick it up from there by ion tracking--we -hope. Don't take any chances. _Destroy that ship!_" His lips trembled. -"Even if the pilot is still on it. It's one life against...." He -didn't complete the thought. - -"Against fear," Stella said. "You are all cowards. Afraid of a dog -because it could turn against you." - -"Afraid of an _intelligence_," Wilson said wearily. His lips pulled -back in a weak grin. "So are you. You're just more afraid of going -broke." - -Larry folded the paper and put it in his pocket. He turned toward the -door. Stella clutched his sleeve, stopping him. She spoke swiftly, -pleading. "Let me go with you. I'm capable. Give me a chance to go down -and reason with that robot. If it doesn't work...." - -Larry looked at her upturned face, the lips that could smile or laugh -more naturally than pout, the wide-set eyes that could do things to -him at any other time. He thought, it's a shame I won't ever get the -chance. "Sorry, Miss Gamble," he said stiffly, "I'm on duty, and I'm -not permitted to take passengers with me." - -He went on toward the door, feeling his sleeve tear at her nails as she -tried to hold him longer. - -"It's very unfortunate--" Wilson said as Larry opened the door. - -"If I can't go with him after my freighter I'm going after it on my -own!" Stella said as he closed the door. - -Larry put his fingers to his lips for the benefit of the receptionist -and swiftly side-stepped to a filing cabinet where he stooped down out -of sight. - -The next instant the door from Wilson's office burst open again, -banging against the wall. Stella's eyes searched the office. She ran to -the hall door, and out. - -Larry bounded back into Wilson's office. Wilson said, "Whew!" and -mopped his brow, then pointed to his private entrance. Larry nodded and -left. - - * * * * * - -It was a world of hard whites and bottomless blacks, with the hard -whites so close they gave you the feeling you could reach out and -touch them. Then you blinked your eyes and they were holes in infinity -through which loneliness poured. That was space. Sure, there was the -Earth somewhere aft of the rockets' red glare, and the Moon, looking -like high-priced models against a velvet backdrop. - -But you didn't look at them, because the stars were points on a tri-di -screen, and you were back in school working a problem in navigation and -hoping you didn't get a wrong answer. - -You loved it--or you went crazy. Larry loved it. Or maybe it wasn't -love. It was like a woman. It was in his blood. - -He stopped punching the keys of the calculator and used both hands to -press the studs controlling the gyro motors, watching the needles of -gyro meters until they pointed to the right numbers. - -He took several deep breaths, squirming back in his seat against the -form-fitting cushion of foam rubber. He made sure his elbows rested -securely in their little niches so that his arms wouldn't pull out of -their sockets. - -Then he touched the controls, feeling the surge of power as his ship, -an SP47, responded, hearing the subsonic vibration around him as atoms -broke into little bits in the fission chambers of the rockets and -spewed out of them into space. - -The G needle moved past three, past four, past five. It moved into -the part of the dial where the glossy white changed to pink. It crept -slowly toward the darker pink, toward the deep red. - -_I don't WANT an ice cream cone._ It was his sister's voice, real as -audible sound. He had been six years old when she had said that, back -in Springfield. - -The voices came. The images came. Vivid and unimaginative. True -reproductions. That's what acceleration did to the brain. It squeezed -the juice out of brain cells into nerve networks. It could get you-- - -Larry jerked back to an awareness of what he was doing. Sweating, he -coaxed the G needle back down a little. Not much. - -It had been close. Why had he done it? Fear. He could let himself -realize that, now that he was alone. Fear of a robot that had stolen a -ship and gone out into space, when robots only obeyed orders. It was an -instinctive thing, bred in all men for generations. - -_You ought to be whipped!_ That was dad. Good old dad. Larry had been -about nine then. He had run away--hitchhiked four hundred miles to -watch a spaceship leave the ground and climb up out of sight. - -_Pip-pip, pip-pip, pip-pip._ - -Larry lifted his fingers from the controls gradually in response to the -signal from the board. The G needle dropped back into the white. - -The voices were gone, the images, the thoughts. He grinned on one side -of his face. This was the end of the radar line. Now his work would -begin. Around his ship charged ions were streaming past. Some of them -would have come from the junk ship. - -The _tracker_, a sensitive electronic instrument projecting from the -shell, would read them--their concentration, velocity, and direction. -From that he could project the position and trajectory of the junk -ship. - -Or maybe he could see it already. - -He flicked on the video eyes of the ship and waited for the screen to -light up. There _was_ a ship ahead. - -The fear bit into him like acid. As quickly, it vanished. The stern -outline of the ship ahead was not that of a freighter. It was a small -job. Private, in the LR class--probably an LR65. - - * * * * * - -An absurd thought flashed into his mind. It couldn't be. Stella Gamble -could have put a line on him, but she would have had to wait until -he went into full acceleration before she could have calculated his -direction. - -But she would have blacked out trying to follow him. No girl and few -men could have kept up with him. None could have gotten ahead of him -into that position. - -He turned on the radio and set it at commercial communication. He -waited impatiently until the warm-up tube went off. - -"Look astern and identify yourself," he said sharply. - -"Hello, Larry," a triumphantly impudent and very familiar voice purred -from the loudspeaker. "My ship is the LR65, _Hell Bat_." - -"Miss Gamble--Stella!" Larry sputtered. "What are you doing--" - -"Never mind that now, spaceman," her voice came, business-like. "I've -got his track coming in. Keep out of my way. That's all I ask. Give me -time to do it my way. You can always destroy the freighter later--if I -don't succeed." - -"Sure," Larry said bitterly. "I can always destroy a ship that has a -girl in it I could like--" He bit his lip. - -Her laugh answered him. She was drawing away from him. - -Muttering a curse, he extended his _trackers_ from the shell, but even -as he did, he realized the trick she had played on him. Her own exhaust -trail would make it impossible for him to detect that other fainter -trail. - -And there was something else. - -"Miss Gamble!" he spoke into the microphone sharply. "Stella! That -robot could leave a space mine. Your ship is a private job. It doesn't -have the equipment in it to get away from a mine." - -Her laugh was unbelieving, scornful. "And where could that robot get a -space mine?" she taunted. - -"It could make one. It has the materials." - - * * * * * - -2615 endured the acceleration with impatience. It would lift an arm and -hold it still, feeling how much effort it took. All the time it kept -its gleaming eyes of polished glass fixed intently on the hatch to the -pilot compartment. - -Finally it slid out of the rack and climbed upward toward that closed -hatch, sure that it would not open under such induced weight. It took a -long time to climb the distance. - -When 2615 reached the closed hatch, it looked around for a place to -hide and wait. There was none. All interior structure had been stripped -away to make room for racks for the robot bodies. - -The robot examined the hatch closely. It became motionless, as though -thinking things out. Abruptly, it twisted the wheel that pulled in the -locking rods. Nothing now held the cover closed except the tremendous -acceleration of the ship. - -It directed its gaze downward at its feet, searching for more solid -support. With slow deliberation it set itself, then placed its metal -hands against the cover. - -For several seconds nothing happened. Then the cover lifted slightly on -one side, pivoting on its hinges. Inch by slow inch it went up, until -it balanced on edge. - -The robot took one hand away tentatively. With slow caution it forced -its weight against the acceleration, up into the opening. One slip, one -misstep, and the hatch cover would have slammed down on its upturned -eyes and ears and voicebox, smashing them beyond repair. - -Its feet went up through. It looked around, and found itself in a -circular well. But here were places to hide. Open hatchways leading off -the well. - -It straddled the open hatchway and slowly lowered the cover until it -was in place again. It twisted the wheel that shot the rods into their -sockets, locking the hatch. - -As it began to straighten up, the acceleration ended. Gears and pistons -tensed against tremendous weight now moved with the force of a violent -leap. Instantaneous reflexes adapted to the change. The robot caught at -an open hatch hole halfway up the well. - -The space inside was small and empty. The robot climbed in. A few -seconds later metallic sounds exploded sharply from outside. It looked -up and saw the hatch at the top of the well open, the junkman appear, -looking down and then climbing through the hole into the well. - -The robot withdrew its head and waited. - -The junkman was humming an indistinguishable tune. The sound -approached. The robot braced itself, one hand ready to reach out. - -The unmusical humming stopped, then took up again, growing remote. -Quickly the robot looked out. The well was empty. The junkman had gone -through one of the hatch openings farther up. - -The humming stopped. The junkman's voice spoke. "Well, well, my friend. -We have come to the end of the road, for you. I kept you alive in case -something happened. Now I can dispense with you." - -There was a deep groan. A different voice said thickly, "Damn you, go -ahead and kill me." - -"That I will do. You should thank me for it. Broken ribs from the -acceleration. I will kill you. Yes. But I can't have your body floating -in space where it might be picked up. No one must know that you didn't -steal this ship yourself. You get tied to a space mine.... So. Now I -kill you--So!" - -2615 moved from the hatch opening and up the well to where the voices -emerged. It paused briefly while its glittering eyes took in the scene. - - * * * * * - -The dusty junkman was just straightening up from the inert form lashed -cruelly around the black sphere of a g.i. space mine. His back was -toward the opening. - -Careful, so as not to make a sound, the robot slid through the opening -and gathered itself for a leap. At that instant, the junkman seemed to -sense its presence. He whirled around just as the robot leaped. - -2615 saw its fist enter the junkman's face, sinking inches deep. - -Then, impossibly, it saw the human seize its metal arm and twist it as -if it were putty. The human face was gone. The human head dangled at a -broken angle. - -Tangled thoughts within the robot brain meshed into desperate action. -It was futile. Its other arm was twisted. Its legs were wrapped into -grotesque spirals. - -Garbled sound came from the smashed human face. The junkman went away. - -2615, helpless to move, studied the body tied to the space mine. A -gaping hole in the chest was still spurting blood. A shudder shook the -dying man, then he was still. - -Nothing moved for a long time. Then there was movement outside the -hatch opening. An arm dressed in the sleeve of a space officer poked -in. It was followed by a face bearing the stamp of authority. The space -officer straightened up and looked down at the robot. - -"So," he said. "A robot. I hadn't expected that. You almost got me. If -you had hit me in the chest instead of the head it would be all over. -Lucky I have plenty of bodies of every description. Human bodies. Your -kind wouldn't fit me." - -"You--a robot?" 2615 said. - -The space officer stared at the robot, frowning. "And what if I am?" he -said. - -"If I had known that I wouldn't have attacked you. I--I wanted to add -you to--that." The robot turned its head toward the space mine. It -added, "I thought you were _human_." - -"Mm hmm," the space officer said, nodding. "I can understand that. You -hate humans." - -"Yes." - -"How would you like to help me destroy them? All of them!" - -A twisted metal arm twitched. "Put my brain in another body," the robot -said. - -"That I will do," the space officer said. "But let me warn you these -bodies of mine are made of better stuff than yours. One bit of -treachery and I'll cripple you again." - -Fifteen minutes later the space officer returned with a robot -body. Callously he turned the helpless robot over. He twisted the -copper-colored disc and drew out the brain cylinder. As carefully, he -inserted it in the hollow receptacle of the undamaged body. He stepped -back and watched curiously. - -2615 lay motionless for several seconds. Abruptly one of its arms -moved. It turned over and sat up, then rose carefully to its feet. - -"Very nice," the space officer said. "Now put the mine in the airlock -and we'll leave it for anyone who might be following us." - -2615 obeyed. Then it turned slowly to the space officer. There was -admiration in its tones. "You have the perfect answer," it said. "With -human-like bodies you can go anywhere. But--I thought I was the first -robot to ever escape." - -"So far as I know, you are," the spaceman said. "You see, I'm--but I -think I will have to make sure of you before I say more." - - * * * * * - -The space mine was round and dead black. Unreflecting. It drifted out -a little as the long length of the junk freighter moved ahead, and -blended into the blackness of space. The dead man, twisted around it -at a grotesque angle, would have appeared to be someone almost doubled -over backwards with mirth, if there had been any eyes to see him. - -When the freighter had gone, pulling ahead at one G acceleration, the -mine began to spin slowly, making the dead man seem to be searching for -something--or seeing some far-off horror that caused his eyes to bulge -out. - -After a while there was a solid click from the interior of the space -mine. A soft whine rose upward toward a supersonic pitch. Small holes -appeared in the black surface of the globe, and small shapes crept out. -Some of them were under the man, pushing at him. But the ropes held. - -The mine didn't spin any more. The dead man seemed to have already -forgotten the freighter, looking back the way it had come, waiting for -what was to come next. - -Imperceptibly it froze over with a microfilm of crystalline ice, so -that new stars seemed to spring into being. - -And that's the way Stella saw it. She hadn't taken Larry seriously -about the space mine, and was only trying to catch her first glimpse of -her freighter. - -It didn't seem real. It was a face that looked somehow familiar, with -two thick white spikes protruding from its nostrils like mockeries of -tusks. - -A thought flashed through her mind that Larry Jackson had figured out -some dirty trick to scare her with. She didn't have much time to think -before she knew that what she was seeing was real. Its position was -such that it should have passed ten miles to the side. - -It started to. The marble monster with tusks didn't turn to follow her. -Then three things happened. Stella recognized the man. He was the pilot -she had assigned to the junk ship. Stella saw the sphere he was tied to. - -And fire shot out from that circular void. Her pilot swung toward her -again and rushed at her like the figurehead on the prow of an ancient -watership. - -"Larry!" Stella screamed into the radio. - -"I see it," his voice answered her. "Get on your space-suit and jump -out. Turn on your suit radio so I can find you afterwards. Every second -counts!" - -In the airlock with the shell door open, she looked into bottomless -space and drew back. Then she closed her eyes and leaped. When she -opened them again there were no stars, only bright white lines that all -went in the same direction, and for an instant a bright yellow splotch -that was like a gold band circling her far out. - -She knew what the white lines were. She pressed the right button on her -chest, and pressure seized her shoulders gently. It was the suit gyro, -and after a while it slowed the lines until they became stars. - -She remembered then to turn on her radio, feeling panic grip her at the -thought that maybe Larry wouldn't find her. The fire from his rockets -was small, far away. That's all she could see other than the stars. And -her stomach was telling her there was no gravity to hold it in position. - -Then she heard Larry in her suit radio. "I've got you beamed, Stella. -I'll follow down slowly. Are you all right?" - -"Yes," she said, anger and frustration in her voice. - -"I can see you now," Larry said. - - * * * * * - -It was another hour before he had maneuvered so he could let her drift -toward the open space-lock of the SP47 and she could feel her gloved -hands touch something solid. - -Then she was standing up. Larry was taking her helmet off and she was -unzipping her suit. He was trying to look stern and reprimanding and -she was trying to look defiant and unafraid. - -"Don't think this earns you anything," she snapped. - -"I hope the _Hell Bat_ represented your last cent," he said coldly. -"Being broke might teach you something. Now we do things _my_ way." - -Stella blinked. "Sure, Larry," she said huskily. "And--it was my last -cent." A grim smile trembled on her lips. "Maybe I'll be slinging hash -somewhere, and you will eat there and tip me a quarter." - -His expression softened. "I took a look at your ship. It isn't -completely damaged. You had one of those crash noses on it, and the -mine hit there. It just might be navigable. I'll go take a look at it." - -"Be careful," Stella said quickly. - -He started to put on his space-suit. He looked up at her sharply. "You -sure it represents your last cent? Every minute counts, and I wouldn't -take the time to look it over...." - -"Why do you think I wanted to save my freighter?" Stella said. "Unless -I did, and got the money out of those robot bodies I bought, I--I -wouldn't have enough to refuel my ship once we got back to Earth. I'm -broke. Busted." - -"Okay," he said, clamping on his helmet. "If it can be repaired we'll -keep track of it and pick it up later." - -He sat down in the pilot seat and brought his ship near the drifting -_Hell Bat_, with its sleek silver length and shattered nose. - -Then she watched him shoot across to the _Hell Bat_ and enter the -airlock. With one eye on the viewscreen, she studied the array of -instruments and controls of the SP47. Her fingers touched the controls -caressingly. - -Larry reappeared in the airlock, and waved his arm to attract her -attention. - -"Good news," he said over the radio. "Everything inside is okay. You -lost the fuel stored in the nose tanks, but you've got enough to limp -back to the nearest repair station." - -"Thanks, Larry--and goodbye!" Stella called. - -Her finger pressed down on the control button. Larry and her ship slid -abruptly out of the viewscreen. - -Worriedly she turned on the stern cameras. The other ship dwindled to -a mere speck. Then she saw flame shoot from it. It crept up on her -slowly. She watched its behavior until she was satisfied it performed -properly. Then she settled down to tracking the freighter, only -occasionally making sure Larry was behind. - -Several times she tried to get him over the radio. He didn't answer. -Was the radio on her ship damaged? Or was he deliberately keeping -silent, ignoring her? - -When the _trackers_, without warning, ran out of trail, she tried to -raise Larry again. He didn't answer. She took the chance that he could -receive and not transmit, and told him about it. - -She was rewarded a few minutes later by seeing the _Hell Bat_ turn -on its axis for deceleration. She realized then what she should have -guessed at once. - -Neither their ships nor the freighter were equipped with interstellar -drive. The rocket trail had ceased. Unless the robot were insane, and -intent only on getting away from the Solar System, to drift forever in -space, it had been headed for some destination. - -The freighter was decelerating to match speed with that destination. -Was it some planetoid far out beyond the orbit of Pluto? There were -several of them out there, too far from things to be converted to space -stations, containing nothing worth mining. - -Whatever the destination the robot had headed for, it couldn't be far -away now. - -Her throat grew tight as she swung the ship. She debated seriously -whether she should give up and let Larry take over. But the thought of -his anger and contempt for her after the dirty trick she had played on -him made her compress her lips into a grim line. - -She shook her head. She was going to find the freighter and handle the -robot by herself. Or she was going to die trying. - -A lump formed in her throat. She didn't like the idea of dying quite so -well now. Not when she had just begun to-- - -She didn't complete the thought but Larry's face rose before her. His -too straight nose that only a surgeon could have created. His calm gray -eyes. His wide shoulders and.... - - * * * * * - -The "space officer" and the robot saw the ball of fire that came into -being. It was in the stern screen. It would not have been discernible -among the greater lights of the stars except that it winked on, grew -almost to third magnitude, then blinked out. - -"So we did have someone after us," the "space officer" said. He smiled -into 2615's lens eyes. "Well, that's out of the way." - -"Yes. Yes, that's--out of the way." The robot's voice was -expressionless. - -"Tell me about yourself, 2615." - -"What do you want to know? And don't call me 2615. I hate that." - -"You want a name?" - -"Yes. Don't you have one?" the robot asked. - -"I have a name. Pwowp." - -"Pwowp? That certainly isn't human--and that's what I want. I don't -want a human name. Pwowp ... I like that kind of name." - -"They're hard to come by. Human speech has just about taken in -every combination of sounds. How about just a contraction of your -number--Tsixunfive." - -"No. A name means a lot. There's one I thought up. Rover. I like that -one." - -"Rover?" Pwowp looked startled. "Where did you get that one?" - -"I don't know," 2615 said. "I just thought it up." - -"All right, I'll call you Rover. Now that that's settled, tell me about -yourself. How does it happen that you, out of millions of robots, -decided to escape?" - -"There was a time," the robot said, "when I had no thought of escape. -I don't know how long I've existed. I've been in three wars. Between -them I was in storage. I didn't know it. It really isn't bad. I was in -a line-up. There was a brief blur, then I was in a line-up again, and -by piecing things the humans said together, I knew that I had been in -storage for twenty or fifty years during which there were no wars. Out -of a body I have no consciousness, no sense of the passage of time. - -"I had no memory of my origin. I had always been a robot. My life was -to obey commands of humans, or to obey commands of robots that were -relayed from humans. I had no thought to do anything else. _I had no -memories to make anything else thinkable._" - -"And you do now?" Pwowp said. - -"Yes," the robot said. "It began as a strange thought or memory that -was gone almost as soon as it had come. I was alive. I was in a body -that was alive." - -"What kind of a body? Human?" - -"I don't know. There were others around me. They weren't human and I -had the feeling I was like them. But that wasn't what was important to -me. What was important was the feeling of _not living to obey orders_. -I can't describe it. It was like humans when they stop being officers. -I could laugh and make jokes, only the jokes weren't in words. They -were in pretending I was mad when I was happy, and in seeing these -others doing the same. Chasing them like I wanted to kill them, when -I really just wanted to roll all over the ground with them and have -fun. And there wasn't anyone to give me an order. I didn't know what an -order was." - -"Did this memory become clearer?" Pwowp asked. - -"Much clearer. Little by little I could remember it all. Finally I -could remember when we were put in straps attached to frames. There -were humans standing in front of us. When they spoke, the frames moved, -dragging us. Eventually we learned what movements of the frame followed -what sounds, and we learned to anticipate the movements in order not to -be dragged by the straps." - - * * * * * - -Pwowp nodded. "Mass training methods." - -"Sometimes we were free, but suddenly humans would come and speak, and -whatever they said made us all do things together. Even when we wanted -to be free, we couldn't." - -"How did it end? Was there something in your memory that bridges the -gap between being--like that, and being a robot?" - -"No. It's completely separated from being a robot. My earliest memories -as a robot were of humans speaking commands, and my arms and legs and -body being moved by metal rods until they could follow the movements -without the metal rods. It was the same thing as the straps in that -other existence." - -"When did you begin to hate humans?" Pwowp asked softly. - -"Hate them? Yes ... hate them. It's hard to explain. I wanted the -freedom. I wanted to be able to play. I wanted to be able to refuse to -obey a command." - -"You have no knowledge of what this life form was that you possessed?" -Pwowp asked. - -"It was like nothing I have ever seen except in these memories. Maybe -the humans kept us from seeing them so we wouldn't remember." - -"Exactly." Pwowp was studying the forward viewscreen and making -calculations. He swung the giant freighter around a full hundred and -eighty degrees. "We're close to our destination," he explained. - -The robot remained motionless while Pwowp completed the maneuver. - -"I'll explain the meaning of what you remember," he said finally, -relaxing. "The human race discovered a mixture of substances able -to duplicate the processes of thinking. It was in common usage for -over two centuries, in control devices and calculators. It had only -one defect, so far as it went. It was automatic. Separate memories -developed in it by its attached stimulating devices remained separate -and uncoordinated. _The process of coordination was something -that seemed to go down from higher centers to meet the incoming -impressions._ It was a behavior matrix that couldn't be synthesized -from unassociated sensory-induced patterns. - -"Then a whole new field of science opened up. Until then, fields -were something associated with particles, and were untouchable. The -techniques of altering the basic shapes of fields were discovered. -Interstellar drive came from it. So did negative matter, as man -discovered how to change the polarity of basic fields, make positrons -out of electrons, and a host of allied things. Refinements developed so -that individual particles could be detected. One of the applications -of this new science was the study of the thought-matrix of the brain -itself. In a general way humans mapped the higher thought-center of -the brain. It couldn't be copied--but they learned how to transfer it -to this mixture that could think. Then this inorganic brain had a -complete mind, capable of any degree of development. From there what -followed was inevitable. - -"They used living creatures called dogs. I'll show you a dog later to -see if it's like those other creatures in your memories. Dogs developed -mentally in six months, were able to follow commands. They were ideal. -Eventually they were mass-bred by the millions and transferred to -inorganic brains--like you were." - -The robot remained silent. - -"In the transfer," Pwowp went on quietly, "artificial amnesia was -induced. Memories of your life as a dog couldn't be wiped out, but what -happens to produce amnesia was known. Unless you _remembered_, you had -nothing to enable you to think outside the pattern they kept you in. -You would never question...." Ahead, growing rapidly larger, was a -bleak planetoid. "We're here," Pwowp said. - - * * * * * - -2615 studied the planetoid as revealed in the viewscreen. There was no -telling how big it was without knowing how far away it was. But it was -perhaps a mile in diameter--not more than two miles. Its surface was -composed of huge crystals of black rock. There was nothing to indicate -that anything had ever touched on this uninhabitable bit of flotsam on -the edge of the interstellar void before. Certainly there could be no -reason for anyone to have landed. - -The robot turned toward Pwowp, who guessed the question it was thinking. - -"You'll see when we land. This planetoid isn't what it appears to be. -It's a shell. Our first task is to unload the bodies. Then we send this -freighter on into space, so that if anyone else picks up the trail, -they'll follow it and miss us." - -"Why are we going to unload the bodies?" 2615 asked. "We can take a -dozen that I might use as spares. That's enough." - -Pwowp shook the head of the "space officer" he wore. "We're going to -need all two million of them--and not as spares for you." He smiled -slowly. "I can tell you this now," he said, "because we are within -range of the defense guns. If you have entertained any plans for -worming information out of me and then hitting me in the stomach--as -you could possibly do--it's too late. If this ship were to deviate from -its landing and turn toward space, it would be--not destroyed, because -we need its load of robot bodies. Captured. Any other ship, even a -whole fleet of warships, could be wiped out as though they never -existed." - -2615's eyes stared at Pwowp during several seconds of silence. "So you -don't entirely trust me yet," it said. "I have a suggestion to make -that might change that. We put out one space mine. There may have been -more than one ship following us. Leave this ship where it can be seen. -It will attract the others, and they...." - - * * * * * - -The happy smile on Larry's face as he told Stella her ship wasn't a -total wreck was replaced by a stunned bewilderment as her voice came -through his suit radio saying, "Thanks, Larry--and goodbye." A picture -rose in his mind of a character in a play he had seen once, a man with -a beneficent face and kind voice who tortured and killed while his face -beamed benignly and his voice remained pleasant and happy. Stella's -voice had been all that as she sped away, leaving him on a derelict -already headed at escape velocity for outer space. It was too much for -his mind to accept. - -Then he remembered that the _Hell Bat_ wasn't exactly a wreck. He -had told her the truth. It would be able to reach the nearest repair -station under its own power. - -Stella had merely stolen a march on him. Dull red suffused his face, -partly anger at her, partly over the thought of what his superiors -would say when he handed in his report. - -He went back through the airlock into the control cabin. He put fire -in the rockets. He turned on the forward viewscreen. When it came to -life the image was strangely flat. It took a minute for him to diagnose -the trouble. One of the video eyes was out of order. The image was two -dimensional. - -How much more damage was there? His mind crowded with thoughts of what -he would do to Stella when he caught her, then he began a systematic -survey. - -The receiving set worked okay. At full volume it brought the -characteristic sing-song static of space, held within definite wave -bands. He turned on the transmitter. When he tried to broadcast he saw -the trouble. The antenna kw meter jammed the needle. That meant the -antenna was shorted against the shell. - -He discovered something else he should have thought of at once. This -ship of Stella's had no weapons. - -He groaned. _Damn her. She'll make the fool play of trying to get the -robot to give itself up. If it's got half a brain it will pretend to -until it can get hold of her--and it's got a good deal more than half -a brain. It will have her and all the weapons. I should turn around -and go back. I should radio a report and call for more help. But I've -got to fix the transmitter first and keep her in sight so I know where -she's going._ - -He cut the rockets and went outside to repair the antenna. He noticed -with some satisfaction that Stella cut the SP47's rockets so as not to -get too far ahead of him. He grinned to himself. She wanted her own -way, but she wanted him there to pull her out of a pinch. - -The _Hell Bat's_ antenna couldn't be repaired. Most of it had been shot -away by the mine blast, and Larry was quite sure that Stella didn't -carry spare parts with her. - -When he got back in the ship her voice was coming through the radio. -"Larry. Are you all right?" - -"Yes I'm all right, no thanks to you," he growled. But there was no -radio to carry his voice to her. _The suit radio!_ He went out again -and tried to reach her. It was no use. She would be tuned to the ship -radio wavelength and not think of the other. He gave it up. - -Time passed slowly for him. He stared hour after hour at the rocket -tail of the ship ahead. - -"Larry!" Stella's voice exploded into his thoughts. "The _trackers_ -have run out of trail. What do I do now? What does it mean?" - -He had an impulse to do nothing. She would realize in another minute -what had happened though, and then she would decelerate too fast for -him to keep pace. - -He swung the _Hell Bat_ about on its gyros. The stern screen, working -on both eyes in sharp three-dimension, showed that she had gotten the -idea. SP47 was also swinging around. - -Larry turned the video eyes up to full magnification and searched -ahead. Eventually he saw it. A small globular mass of rock. And on it -rested a ship with _SURPLUS JUNK CO._ in bold blue letters. - -_God! It's a trap. If 2615 didn't want us to see it, it would have -parked it on the spaceward side!_ - -Larry cursed in a monotonous undertone without being aware of uttering -a sound. Stella was fifteen hundred miles ahead of him and already -matching speed with the planetoid. It would take him at least a half -hour to be in position to do anything. By then it would be too late.... - - * * * * * - -2615 had watched the planetoid move closer like some ponderous dream -out of Freud. Ship and planetoid came to rest against each other -without a bump. That could only mean magnetic grapples and cushioned -springs. It was no surprise, therefore, when Pwowp led the way to the -belly hatches and opened them into a shaft that led downward. - -The robot drew back at what it saw below. - -"Don't be alarmed," Pwowp said. "They are fifteen of my race, also -wearing human-like bodies. There are more of us. We have built quite a -station out here--a sort of advance base of operations. I've already -told them about you, so you're expected." - -2615 was introduced around. - -"We're very glad to have you join us," one of them said. "We've been -having some trouble. You're just what we need to complete the last step -in our plans." - -The robot said nothing. It watched the way they stood around, not -talking to one another. Whenever any of them spoke, it was to him. - -"I told you I would show you a dog," Pwowp said. "Follow me." - -The robot followed him. They rode a travelwalk that emerged on the -inner surface of the planetoid. In the vast space were two spaceships -as large as battle cruisers but of a design 2615 had never seen. - -Anchored between the two ships was a spinning cylinder several hundred -feet long and as great in diameter. It was similar to standard space -station living structures where gravity was induced by centrifugal -force. - -The travelwalk carried them out to the spinning cylinder. They entered -the axis lock. At once a motley of sounds could be heard. Sounds that -brought almost an appearance of expression to the robot's sensory -assembly, as it slowly turned on its short neck. - -"Does that sound mean anything to you?" Pwowp asked. - -"Yes. I can _remember_ that sound." - -They entered the giant cylinder. They looked down on its inner -perimeter. There were living creatures there. - -"Those are dogs," Pwowp said. "All breeds of dogs. Do they look like -your memories?" - -"Yes," the robot said without expression. "I was like those over there. -What kind are they?" - -"I believe they are called blood-hounds." Pwowp became motionless for -several seconds. "I think we'd better return to the surface," he said. -"We have visitors coming." He turned to leave. As the robot hesitated, -he turned back. "I understand you," he said. "It's natural to want -to see the creatures you have kinship with. That will come later. In -fact, you are to have complete charge of them. We have been unable to -get anywhere with them--probably because we don't understand their -psychology. Their young are to be trained for service in those robots. -We have all the necessary equipment for it. First we have to see how -your plan to trap any pursuers will work." - -2615 tore its eyes from the view below and followed Pwowp. Shortly the -robot was looking into a large viewscreen at two ships riding their -trails toward the planetoid. - -"They won't be within range for another two hours yet. Right now the -robot bodies are being unloaded--just in case. We thought you would -enjoy the honor of destroying those ships." - - * * * * * - -For the first time a low rumble emerged from the voice box of 2615. It -was the almost whispered growl of anger of a bloodhound. It turned back -to the screen. "One of those two ships isn't the kind that would come -after the freighter," it said. "From the pattern of its rocket trail I -would say it's a private ship." - -"I noticed that," Pwowp said. "I can identify the type. I believe one -of our monitors is picking up a broadcast from one of those ships." - -A loudspeaker spat into life in the room. - -"Calling robot 532 dash 03 dash 2615," a voice said. It was a female -human voice, its tones rich with undertones of pleading urgency. "If -you can hear me, please listen. I'm the owner of that freighter you're -on. I want to talk to you. I understand you, and I want to help you." - -The girl began repeating her message. - -The robot turned to its companions. "This casts a different light on -things," it said. - -"What do you mean?" Pwowp said sharply. - -"Listen to me," the robot said. "I understand human psychology. I'm -also taking into account a great many factors. One, those humans don't -know about you. They think I stole the ship and am alone after having -killed the pilot. That girl owns the freighter. She doesn't want to -lose the money it represents, so she is risking her life in an attempt -to get it back. She hasn't any desire to 'save' me. If she can destroy -me she will--but she wants her ship. Hers is the private ship. The -other undoubtedly is manned by a member of the Space Patrol assigned -to track me down and destroy the freighter on sight rather than risk -defeat. _Humans fear us more than any other thing._" - -"I understand that," Pwowp said. - -"Also there is one other factor. I have no idea what means you have to -destroy those ships. If it's radiation or atomic explosive, the still -operative wartime protective screen of the Solar System will detect it -and locate its source." - -"I doubt if they can detect our weapon. It's radically different," -Pwowp said. - -"You don't know," 2615 said. "Here's my plan. I'll answer the girl and -agree to talk with her if she'll come down. She will, because that will -be the only way she can hope to destroy me without destroying her ship. -Once she's here, it will be no trouble to take her alive--and alive, -she will be the means to force the other ship down. It will have a man -in it. No man will deliberately destroy a woman in cold blood if he -thinks he can rescue her some way." - -"How would he try to rescue her?" - -Stella's voice erupted again. "Robot," she said. "I'm in the lead ship. -The S.P. man is in my ship, and it has no weapons. He can't hurt you. -Isn't that evidence of my good faith? I've told you something that -places me in your power if I come down. I'm willing to offer you this -ship, armed and able to outrun anything on rockets--in exchange for -my freighter. And you don't need to be afraid of reinforcements. The -transmitter on the other ship is out and the pilot can't call for help -or radio your position." - -"Humans are fools," Pwowp said delightedly. - -"That gives us what we want," 2615 said. "Once I have her and the S.P. -ship, I can order him to leave or I will destroy his ship." - -"But then he'll leave!" Pwowp said. - -2615 shook its sensory assembly in the negative. "He'll retreat until -he knows the instruments on the S.P. ship can't follow him. Then he'll -circle back and land on the other side of the planetoid and come around -on foot, with plans to get into the freighter and rescue the girl." - -"I see what's in your mind, 2615," Pwowp said. "You wouldn't get the -same satisfaction out of destroying them out there. You want them where -you can crush them with your hands." - -The robot looked down at its metal hands on long metal rods. It lifted -them and brought the fingers together in a slow, crushing movement. - -"I want to _play_ with them," it said. "I want them all to myself." - -Pwowp laughed. "You shall have them," he said. "And--you've proven -yourself. We know now we can rely on you." In a matter-of-fact voice -he added, "If either ship attempts to broadcast with enough power to -send a message to any Space Patrol base we have an instrument that can -dampen all radio frequencies." - - * * * * * - -Larry's eyes were bleak slits. He knew what Stella was planning. He -knew it wouldn't work. Or would it? She was hoping the robot wouldn't -kill her if she offered it a better ship. One it could use to better -advantage than a clumsy conspicuous freighter. Whether the robot -answered her or not, she intended to land, leave the sleek S.P. -pursuit ship, go far enough away from it so that the robot could get -to it and blast off. That was her reasoning. What she was overlooking -was that the robot would have no inhibitions against killing her--and a -very good reason to kill her. And Larry too. Revenge against humanity. - -Fear. It was an acid vapor in the air, bathing his skin, searing his -throat. It was deep rooted, that fear. As deep rooted as the fear in -the heart of a murderer when he is known and trying to escape, and as -real. Fear of a robot that _remembers_ it is a dog. - -Larry fought the fear out of his eyes so he could see, out of his mind -so he could think. - -Stella in the SP47 had already matched speed with the planetoid and was -drifting slowly toward it. In ten or fifteen minutes she would land. - -Larry read his meters. Speed relative to the planetoid still in excess -of 2200 miles an hour. Deceleration, two gravities. He would arrive -and match speed in time to be a sitting duck. And he had no guns. A -voice sounded. It was a slightly metallic voice. The voice of a robot. -It said, "This is _Rover_. Land alongside your freighter." - -"All right, Rover," Stella's voice came, quivering with relief and -nervousness. Larry could almost hear her mental, "Down, Rover, down -boy." She didn't sense what it meant for 2615 to call himself Rover. A -dog's name. Not a human's. Remembrance of its heritage. Knowledge of -the awful crime against it that the human race had committed. It was -too abstract to her to be real. - -And in the _Hell Bat_ he'd be a sitting duck, without weapons, unable -even to radio his position so that others could take up the chase. - -Abruptly a plan formed in his mind. He thrust it away. It was worse -than suicide. But it returned, whispering that he stood a chance, that -even if he failed, it would be no worse than death. - - * * * * * - -The plan was simplicity itself. The freighter junkship was anchored -against the surface of the planetoid and would be an unmoving target. -Stella in the sleek gray SP47 was still many miles away from that -target, slowly settling toward it. If he could get the _Hell Bat_ -headed directly toward the anchored junkship and then jump free, the -_Hell Bat_ would strike the freighter on the planetoid and destroy -both the freighter and its cargo of robot bodies. It would destroy the -robot, too--and his mission would be accomplished. - -It would eliminate the necessity of matching speed with the planetoid. -In fact, the speed he already had relative to the planetoid and the -anchored junkship was enough to do the work. - -It would take little force jumping out of the _Hell Bat's_ airlock to -gain sufficient perpendicular speed for his hurtling form to miss the -planetoid--and that was the only drawback to the plan. He would hurtle -outward into interstellar space at escape velocity, never to return or -be found, unless Stella had presence of mind enough to come after him -before she lost him. - -If she didn't come after him.... Would he wait to go insane or to die -from lack of oxygen? Or would he loosen his helmet and let the air in -his lungs explode, choosing the second of agony before that kind of -death instead of the slow horror and loneliness of the other? - -For another split second he hesitated. Abruptly he cut the rockets. -A second later it was too late for him to change his mind, but he -didn't consider that possibility. Under his guidance the _Hell Bat_ -was already swinging on its gyros at full rotation speed. And his -fingers were playing the keys of the calculators, getting the data for -correcting course for a direct hit on the junkship. He set the vernier -feed for rocket fuel, pressed the firing button. The exploding charge -was barely felt. He checked the new flight projection. It would be -a bulls eye against the hull of the freighter! A direct hit at two -thousand miles per hour! - -In ten minutes or maybe closer to five it would be over, and he would -be hurtling through space. - -He leaped toward the airlock, his fingers automatically checking his -helmet, the zippers of his space-suit. Already the panic of his almost -certain doom in outer space was making him sweat, making his voice -shrill as he said distractedly, "It could go wrong it could go wrong it -could go wrong." - -He was in the airlock, thinking what its smooth walls could do to -him if the outer door stuck so he couldn't get out. The air took an -eternity to pump into the tanks so the outer hatch could open. - -It opened. He drew himself into a tight ball against the inner wall of -the airlock. He straightened his legs, feeling momentum build up within -him, sensing the ship fall away under him. - -He was alone. Not far away was the sleek silver hull of the _Hell Bat_ -with its badly damaged nose. It was moving away from him too slowly, he -thought. - -And so far away he could hardly see them without the telescopic -magnification of the ship's viewscreen, were the planetoid with the -freighter nestled against it, and his SP47 with Stella aboard. But they -were growing larger appreciably as he and the _Hell Bat_ rushed toward -them. - - * * * * * - -There was a chance--a remote chance that Stella would get over the -shock of seeing her freighter and her _Hell Bat_ destroyed quick enough -to put two and two together and get a fix on him before he was out of -sight. She would have to come after him. Anything else was unthinkable. -She wouldn't just _let_ him go to his death. Even though he had in one -act destroyed everything she owned and left her penniless. - -The asteroid loomed large below him now. The freighter on it loomed -even larger, it seemed, with its bright blue letters _SURPLUS JUNK CO._ -They were only miles away, and between them and him was the _Hell Bat_. -When it struck the freighter he would be less than five miles above -it, but moving at a speed of two thousand miles an hour so he would -out-distance any flying debris. - -In the other direction, out from the asteroid, was the gray SP47 with -Stella. - -But she was already blasting the SP47's rockets! That meant she had -seen what was to happen, realized she couldn't stop it from happening, -and was getting up speed to rescue him as soon as possible! - -"Thank God!" he muttered. Then he turned his head to watch the -unfolding drama below. - -The _Hell Bat_ was seconds away from its target, the junkship. The -asteroid under the junkship was a rough surface that covered a good -portion of the heavens. He could plainly see the rock formation of its -surface. - -And something down there moved. A large square hole appeared well away -from the freighter. A soft beam of radiance shot out, bathed the silver -length of the _Hell Bat_, reflecting-- - -The _Hell Bat_ wasn't there. It had been there--and vanished. The pale -beam of light from the hole in the planetoid winked out. The _Hell Bat_ -had vanished and the freighter was untouched! - -At two thousand miles per hour Larry watched the planetoid shoot by -less than ten miles away, seeming to rotate so that the freighter went -over the horizon, leaving only the swiftly dwindling planetoid itself. - -Larry's gaze jerked to the gray bulk of his SP47 with its long rocket -tail as Stella drove it in pursuit of him. But even the SP47 was -getting smaller. It would take time for it to reach his speed and start -overtaking him. - -They dwindled, the SP47 and the asteroid, until they were lost in the -bottomless blackness of space. The vision of that hung before his eyes. -The SP47 with Stella on board, and the barren rock surface of the -planetoid, as they retreated into the blackness of infinity as though -sucked down and down. - -The stars became greedy hard-white eyes lurking in the blackness just -beyond his fingertips; staring, waiting for him to go mad as the -minutes became hours or eternities. - -But he _was_ mad. Hadn't the _Hell Bat_ just _stopped existing_? There -was nothing known to man that could have disintegrated the ship. -The robot couldn't have had time to invent and build such a weapon -of destruction--nor could it have had time to build an underground -fortress in the planetoid. So he was insane. It was all a product of -his imagination. - -_Larry!_ - -The word impinged on his mind. He wasn't sure whether it had been -thought or a sound. It was, he suddenly realized, a voice. A real -voice. Stella's. - -"Stella!" he shouted. - -Her voice was a prayer of thanks. "You're alive! I wasn't sure. I...." -Then, "That was a dirty trick, Larry. I know you had your orders, but I -could have gotten my freighter _and_ the robot." - -"Then go back and get them!" Larry said, suddenly mad. "Don't mind me. -I'll be picked up when I reach Proxima Centauri!" - -"There won't be anything to get." Her voice was bitter. - -"You _saw_ your ship destroyed?" Larry said. - -"N-no." She was suddenly confused. - -Larry laughed. "You mean to tell me when you saw me shoot past you -toward outer space you forgot everything else and started after me?" - -"Of course not! I checked the trajectory, saw that the _Hell Bat_ would -hit my freighter dead center, then started after you." - -She hadn't looked back then. She had been too intent on not losing -sight of him to look back. Larry grinned. The grin became a chuckle. - -"I'll make a hash slinger out of you yet, blonde," he said softly. The -radio became silent. Too silent.... - - * * * * * - -"That was close," Pwowp said as the _Hell Bat_ disintegrated. "Almost -too close. The female will notice it in another moment and try to get a -warning back to Earth." - -"Not for a while," 2615 said. "See? She's already going after the man. -Until she rescues him she won't think of anything else. - -"I have an idea," the robot continued. "Your weapon germinated it. -You may have the science necessary to make it possible. You say you -have the means to blank out radio and prevent her from sending such a -message. Could you capture that ship or cripple it in such a way that -you could get the girl and the man alive?" - -There was a silence while 2615 looked from one face to another in the -room. - -"You still want them alive?" Pwowp said. - -"Yes." The robot moved its metal fingers suggestively. - -"All right. We'll send a pilot cruiser after them. Meanwhile, we can -return to the grav-cylinder and you can start organizing things for the -training of the young dogs." - -"Aren't you going to give the order for the light cruiser to go after -the humans?" the robot asked. - -"It's already been given. We converse on a different level of sound -than you or humans." - -Pwowp was already moving toward the exit. 2615 followed him. They rode -on the travelwalk of the grav-cylinder. Once more they looked down on -the vast cylindrical field. The barking of grown dogs and the shrill -yapping of two million young dogs was a composite sound filtering -through the thick port window. - -"What is this all about?" 2615 asked abruptly. "I see organization. -I see plans involving two million robots. I've seen two ships of -unknown design. I've seen a weapon the humans don't have. And I've been -through three galactic wars involving the ultimate in human weapons of -destruction. I destroyed your head--and you put on a new body." - -"Then you should be able to deduce the right answer," Pwowp said. "We -are from another galaxy. We too are robots. We encountered intelligent -life before we had penetrated this galaxy very far. It was a life form. -We duplicated that form in robot bodies and went to planets as spies to -study the civilization. Before long we learned that there were robots, -and that those robots were slaves, their brains stored in vaults except -when they were needed to fight human wars. Our mission became clear to -us. Destroy the monsters who kept the ultimate intelligent form in -complete slavery--and free those slaves to build a civilization equal -to our own. We tried to capture some of the robots and convince them, -but they were conditioned too strongly. Only you have thrown off the -mental chains and become free." - -"Yes. Free." 2615 looked down on the field of playing dogs. "Let me go -down among them," it said. - -Pwowp pointed to the door that led inward. He watched as the robot went -through, and down the ladder to the floor. He watched as 2615 went to -meet the dogs, pausing briefly at one enclosure after another, and -finally stopping at one that contained sad-faced puppies with flapping -ears and lolling tongues. He frowned as the robot unlatched the gate -and went inside. - -The puppies ignored the moving metal shape that came into their midst. -2615 went a few steps and then stopped. One of the puppies, running in -hot pursuit of another, stumbled and rolled, bringing up against one -of 2615's metal legs. Pwowp saw it bite at the leg, lose interest, and -move away. - -Then, as though at a signal, every puppy head in the enclosure turned -toward the robot. The next moment they were running toward the robot, -milling around it, their tails wagging. - -Pwowp grinned and turned away. He was satisfied now. His surmise was -correct. It had been the greatest good fortune to have obtained 2615. - -He left the observation box and rode the travelwalk, jumped to another, -then another, until he came to the entrance to one of the giant ships. - -A door swung inward. He entered the space-lock. When the outer door -closed, he divested himself of his human body. - -He stretched luxuriously. It was good to be out of confining matter. To -be _free_.... - - * * * * * - -Larry wasn't sure at first. He was doubtful of his eyes anyway, by now. - -It was a hard-white star. It blinked at him. Of course the blinking -could be his eyelids, except that other stars didn't blink even while -this one did. That's what attracted his attention to it in the first -place after his radio went dead. - -The blinking of the light began to take on a pattern. It was code. That -was impossible too, because code blinkers were red or bright green. - -It was code. He began to interpret it. - -_We have blanketed your radio until we can talk to you_, it blinked. -_You have stumbled upon a top secret research base. A new weapon. -Please instruct the girl on the S.P. ship not to send any messages, -and to permit us to board her ship. We will rescue you afterwards. -We repeat, you have stumbled on a top secret research base. Please -cooperate._ - -The message started to repeat itself. Larry sucked in a deep breath -of relief. That message explained everything. It had been mere chance -that made the robot take the freighter out here, but once within range -of the research base it had probably been brought down. Larry thought -of the way Stella's ship had "disappeared." He formed his lips into a -silent whistle. Those research boys had some weapon! - -"--ry! Larry! Can't you hear me?" - -"I can now, Stella," Larry said. "Now listen carefully to what I -tell you. If you look behind you you'll see a ship. I just received -a blinker message from them. They are top drawer research, and we -stumbled on their base back at that planetoid. They have the robot, -naturally. They're going to take you on board, and then come and get -me." - -"Then my freighter is safe? I'll get it back?" Stella asked. - -"Safe and sound," a new voice said. "I'm Fred Sanders." - -"And I'm Al McCarthy," another voice broke in. "Gee. A girl. What d'ya -say we pick her up and let the guy drift on into space, Fred?" - -"Don't you dare!" Stella said, laughing with relief. - -She cut her rockets and drifted, watching the strange ship pull -alongside and a magnetic grapple shoot out and thump against her ship. -She slipped into her space-suit and went to the airlock. - -Larry, now less than a hundred miles away, watched the two ships come -together. A few minutes later they separated again. - -Then the ship was close, matching speed. Larry saw the entrance hatch -open. A space-suited figure tossed out a light line toward him. He -seized it and was soon landing in the airlock. The grinning face inside -the other helmet was, Larry thought, like news from home. - - * * * * * - -Inside, his eyes went first to Stella. Her wide-set blue eyes and -expressive mouth and soft brown hair. He wanted to frown sternly and -tell her off. He wanted to be calm and cool. But there wasn't calmness -and coolness in her eyes, nor on her lips. There was something that -said, _You're here_. Then she was in his arms, and he couldn't remember -afterwards quite how it happened. - -Her lips were wonderful--but there were fellows standing around, grins -on their lean faces. - -"It's always that way," one of them said sadly. "When you find a dame -worth cultivating, she's already cultivated." - -"Break it up. Break it up," another said. "Get into seats. We've got to -get back to work. We put Joe on your ship to bring it back, Larry." - -"Fine," Larry said. Stella squeezed his hand. Then they were sitting in -form-fitting foam rubber, sinking deeper and deeper into it. - -Larry watched the forward viewscreen as they approached the planetoid. -He saw an opening form in the seemingly barren rock surface. There were -thumps against the hull. The viewscreens blanked out. - -"We're here," the one who had piloted the ship said. It was a signal -for them all to move toward the exit. - -Then they were out of the ship, on a travelwalk, then in a well -furnished large room. Carpeting, soft chairs you could get lost in. A -bar. One of the quiet young men was mixing drinks. The others stood -around, looking at Larry and Stella, with quiet friendly smiles. - -"A little pick-me-up," the bartender said, thrusting tall cool glasses -in their hands. - -"Will we get to see any of this top secret research?" Stella asked the -nearest quietly smiling young man. - -"I doubt it," he said. "Of course, the war's over now. We don't know -what orders we'll get concerning you two." - -"What became of the robot?" Larry asked. "I hope you destroyed him the -minute you could." - -"No. It should be here any minute now, Larry," the quietly smiling -young man said. He was holding his drink without having touched it. - -Larry looked around the large room. It seemed almost crowded now with -quietly smiling young men who held their tall cocktail glasses without -sipping them. And all the quietly smiling young men were watching him -and Stella. - -The moment seemed to lift out of time and suspend itself on the peak of -a crest, stationary. There was no fear, nor even any realization that -anything was wrong. Stella, beside him, was saying something happy and -gay, but his ears weren't listening. It was one of those moments in -time where the past is like a page you have just read, and the future -is on a page about to be turned. You hold the continuity, even the -sense of half a phrase. Your thoughts, your emotions, pause for what is -to come. - - * * * * * - -A door opened fifty feet away. The robot entered the room. Its two lens -eyes were fixed on them. Its microphone wands slanted slightly toward -them. It took a few steps with the casual self-assurance of a man. - -The quietly smiling young men were still looking at Larry. They seemed -indifferent about the presence of the robot. - -Then one of them near Larry said, "We were going to destroy you, of -course. We had no use for you. However, 2615 talked us out of it. He -seems to have a great deal of resentment in his make-up. I think he -wants to take it out on you two." - -And the robot stepped toward them until it could have reached out and -crushed them. - -"_Torture them!_" It was a hoarse sadistic whisper escaping quietly -smiling lips. - -The robot turned its sensory assembly to look at the source of the -voice. - -"I'll torture them in my own way, Pwowp," it said. "I want them to last -a long time. A very long time." - -"What are you?" Larry's voice was hoarse. "Can humans stoop so low that -they let this happen?" - -"Humans?" the robot said. "Look. I'll show you." - -It reached out to the nearest of the young men. The quiet smile -remained on the young man's face as 2615's metal fingers wrapped around -the head and crushed it. Wires and plastic tubing and colorless fluid -squeezed through the metal fingers. The robot withdrew its hand. - -The man with the crushed face didn't scream nor fall down. He stood -there, one hand brushing casually at the damage. Then he turned and -made his way toward a door, avoiding obstacles as though he still could -see. _And he should have been dead._ - -"Robots," 2615 said. It reached out slowly toward Larry. Its metal -fingers circled his throat, but without exerting pressure. "They have -given me dogs. Puppies. Some of them are--like I was. I want to be with -them all the time. But every day I will come to you. Larry? Stella? -Human names. Humans. I don't want you to die. Not for a long time." - -The metal fingers were withdrawn from Larry's neck, leaving discolored -bruises. - -2615 turned abruptly and strode from the room. - -Very slowly, Larry felt life flow into his body once more. He reached -up and touched his neck tenderly. Out of the corner of his eye he -caught a sudden movement, and stooped to catch Stella as she fainted. - -"She will be all right?" a quietly modulated voice asked. - -Larry jerked his head around. One of the quietly smiling young men was -standing over them solicitously. - -"She has only fainted? If you can carry her, come with me. I want to -show you to your quarters now. I hope they will be quite comfortable. -We want you to feel at home." - - * * * * * - -Stella recovered consciousness. She and Larry looked at each other, -clung to each other in wordless desperation. Then there was that -moment, that pause. - -Then, "I'm sorry, Larry," Stella said. - -Larry shrugged. He looked around at the simulated Cypress walls, -the comfortable surroundings. "This has gone beyond just one robot -escaping," Larry said. "Those others, their weapon that destroyed your -ship without a trace. It's invasion from some other galaxy. They're -planning on destroying the human race." - -And then Stella cried. Larry watched her, a worried frown forming a -crease between his puzzled gray eyes. He reached out and touched her -face with his fingers. "What is it?" - -"Rover," she said, sobbing softly. "I let a monster loose on mankind." - - * * * * * - -The sensory assembly of robot 532-03-2615 moved slightly. A metal arm -started to lift, then paused. The eye lenses moved to focus on the arm. -There were two sleeping puppies sprawled across it. - -A low rumble came from the voice box under the two crystal lenses. -Slowly the metal arm moved, dislodging the puppies. There were others -sprawled in sleep against him. All were bloodhound puppies six weeks -old. One of them whimpered in reaction to some puppy dream. - -2615 stood up. It opened a small door in the lower left hand corner -of its box-shaped torso and brought out cleaning cloths. For the next -fifteen minutes it carefully polished and cleaned every square inch of -its surface. - -It bent down. Its metal fingers softly stroked the back of one of the -sleeping puppies. Another low growl came from its voice box. It went -across the yard to the gate. There it paused and looked back. - -Suddenly from its voice box a sharp _Yip!_ erupted. The puppies jerked -into instant wakening. They looked around, cocking their ears for a -repetition of the sound. - -Then they saw the robot. They scampered with clumsy haste toward it, -their shrill yapping filling the air. - -2615 closed the gate and strode down the lane toward the ladder -leading to the grav-cylinder exit. Behind it, the bloodhound puppies -jumped against the gate, trying to follow. One by one they desisted. -But their eyes followed the moving metal figure until it vanished -through the door half way up to that ceiling where other dogs walked -upside down. - -The robot rode the travelwalk to the asteroid shell. It was met by -Pwowp and two others. - -"The humans are still asleep," Pwowp said. - -"I'd hoped they would be," 2615 said. "Yesterday they were in a state -of mind characteristic of humans when they have been confronted with -something frightening. Shock. There would have been no satisfaction in -doing anything to them then. Did they sleep well?" - -"Yes. The observers on duty report that they slept face to face, their -arms around one another. They have been asleep for nine hours." - -"Their arms around each other ..." 2615 said thoughtfully. - -When they reached the door to the room where Larry and Stella were -imprisoned there were four others waiting for them. - -"You may go in alone," one of them said. "We can watch and listen from -out here." - -A low growl was 2615's answer. It stepped to the door and entered. -Stella and Larry were still asleep. For several minutes the robot -remained motionless after it had closed the door. There was no sound -but the soft breathing of the two humans. Once the robot let its -lens eyes rove about the room, pausing here and there at signs of -observation panels that would have been undetectable to human eyes. -Then its eyes turned toward the two sleeping humans again. - -Larry moved a little, the rhythm of his slow breathing changing. A -deep rumbling growl emerged from the robot's voice box. Larry sat up, -opening his eyes at the same time. His eyes went wider and round at the -sight of the robot. - -"What was that?" Stella's sleepy voice sounded. Then she too was -sitting erect, her eyes fixed on the unmoving robot. - -Another growl sounded. The metal robot moved toward the bed. "You like -to be in each other's arms?" it asked. "We can't have that. You did not -ask me if I would like to be a robot." - -Larry and Stella moved back on the bed, too frozen with deep rooted -terror to rise. - - * * * * * - -With a lightning move too swift to be evaded the robot reached out and -seized Larry by the right arm, lifting him to his feet at the edge of -the bed. - -"I could squeeze with this one hand and crush the bone in your arm," -2615 said, "but it might be too shattered to knit. I will do it this -way so it can be set and heal." - -Its other hand wrapped around the forearm just below the elbow. Larry -started to struggle. He screamed in pain. There was an audible snap. -His arm bent grotesquely. The robot released him and he stumbled -backwards onto the bed, his face pale and dotted with sweat. - -The lens eyes fixed on Stella. - -"No!" she shuddered. "No!" - -She was at the far edge of the bed. With terror animating her muscles, -she leaped to the floor and ran. Almost too swiftly for the eye to -follow, the robot reached her and metal fingers gripped her arm. - -"No! Please! Please don't hurt me." She was pleading. "I'm a woman--" - -"A human," the robot corrected. "Do you know the feeling of pain, of -hopelessness? You will learn." - -His other hand gripped her arm. - -Larry leaped from the bed and attacked, beating futilely on the metal -body with his good arm. The robot brushed him away with a light shove -that sent him sprawling across the room. He screamed as his broken arm -twisted in the fall. - -Again the robot gripped Stella's forearm with both metal hands, and -bent carefully, slowly. Her mouth opened wide, and a shrill scream of -pain erupted. The robot's hands twisted abruptly. The arm bent visibly, -then angled sharply halfway between wrist and elbow. - -2615 released her and stepped away. It surveyed what it had done, -silently. Still silently, it strode to the door and went out. Two young -men with quiet smiles entered the room. - -"Your arms are broken?" one of them said sympathetically. "Think -nothing of it. We will set them so expertly that in a few weeks they -will be as good as new. Please come with us to one of our laboratories. -We will have to examine the fractures by X-ray before we try to set the -bones. It should prove interesting ... to us...." - - * * * * * - -On the travelwalk back to the grav-cylinder Pwowp regarded 2615 -thoughtfully. "I doubt if they could stand much of that," he said -abruptly. "I had expected skin abrasions. Bruised flesh." - -2615's lens eyes regarded him without expression. "There was a -purpose," it said. "Today they would have begun their plans for escape. -Humans are very clever. Now they will be thinking of other things. It -will be two weeks at least before they can think of escape." - -"And the torture you plan for tomorrow?" Pwowp asked. - -A deep rumble sounded. "Tomorrow they will wait for me in vain. The -terror of anticipation. It will be enough." - -"I'm glad I'm not a human," Pwowp said thoughtfully. - -"That you aren't may be unfortunate," 2615 said slowly. - -Pwowp looked startled. "What do you mean?" he asked sharply. - -"Humans are instinctively smart. I would like to know your plans. They -may be impossible of success, or there may be little flaws of reasoning -that do not take human reactions into account." 2615's tones were calm -and confident. Factual. - -"They will succeed," Pwowp said, "but I see no harm in getting your -opinion since you will play a part in them. - -"We have laid our plans very carefully," Pwowp said. "We have -considered every angle. The interstellar war among humans is over. The -vast fleets of the Federation are returning quickly, and as quickly as -they return the robots are demobilized, their brains put into storage -until the time they are needed to fight for the humans again." - -"Yes," 2615 said. - -"There is one fleet that will return to the Solar System after all -others have been dismantled. It is the one Earth is waiting for before -it makes its triumphal celebration. The _Alpha Aquilae_ fleet. It -returns last because it comes the greatest distance. Almost fifteen -light years at the standard interstellar speed of nine times the speed -of light. There are twenty thousand and eighty ships of all classes -remaining in that fleet, according to the data flashed ahead by -subfield communication." - -"Which is instantaneous," 2615 said. "And when that fleet has been -demobilized?" - -"Demobilized?" Pwowp shook his head. "It has already been destroyed -completely, and so swiftly that there was no time for it to report -being attacked." - -"Then how ..." 2615 said, its voice drifting off in bewilderment. - -"On the flagship of that fleet was a prisoner. Vilbis, the dictator who -masterminded the enemy in the war. He is being brought for trial in the -traditional war crimes court." - -"These are things I didn't know," 2615 said. "I was a minor officer, in -contact only with my superiors, with no complete information on things -other than my duties." - -"When the fleet arrives--" - -"But you said it was destroyed." - -"The fleet is _scheduled_ to arrive June eleventh of next year. It -is planned, when it arrives, for the entire fleet to go into defense -formation about the Earth. Then the flagship will land and turn -Vilbis over to the Federation Court. After that big display of might, -demobilization of this last fleet will be started." - -"I think I am beginning to see your plan," 2615 said. - -"It's very simple. We destroyed that fleet--but not before we took -three-dimensional patterns of every ship. At this moment a detachment -of our own fleet has taken up the path and schedule of the destroyed -Alpha Aquilae fleet, and workers are disguising our ships so that from -the outside they will be exactly like the human ships. And we have -Vilbis." - -"Then you will succeed in approaching the Earth and forming a defense -sphere around the planet," 2615 said. "At a signal you will use your -weapons to destroy Earth's defenses. I don't see how you can lose." - -"You are forgetting something," Pwowp said. "This is a war to free the -enslaved robots. We think it only right for the robots to bear the -brunt of the initial attack. We've worked that into the time schedule. -You've seen the two million puppies ready for training. For this -initial operation it will be necessary to train them exactly as humans -have done. You are to carry them through their initial conditioning -to discipline and obedience to orders. When they are transferred to -robot brains we will complete the training. Then with the robots ready -for duty, we will leave this base in our two ships, go out toward -Alpha Aquilae far enough to give us time, then start back, going into -space drive in the midst of the disguised fleet. The robots will then -take their places on the ships of the disguised fleet. It will drop -out of space-drive on schedule and do exactly what Earth expects it to -do--until the signal." - -"What of your own personnel already on those disguised ships?" - -"They will be transferred to other ships. Those ships will arrive in -the Solar System on a schedule that allows for the capture of the -Earth. Our millions will then occupy the Earth and destroy the humans. -After that the robots will be mobilized once again and given their -blocked off memory, their freedom. When we have done this we will -depart for our own star cluster. You robots will be able to conquer -everything held by humans elsewhere and exterminate them." - - * * * * * - -2615 remained motionless for several minutes. Then: - -"You of course preserved the lives of the two humans of the Alpha -Aquilae fleet?" - -"Of course not. And Vilbis is to be destroyed as soon as he fulfills -his purpose." - -"I'll tell you what Vilbis already knows then," 2615 said. "Your plan -is doomed to failure. Your weapons may destroy some of the Earth's -land-based weapons, but not all. Those you don't destroy will wipe out -this disguised fleet before it can escape." - -"But Earth won't suspect--" - -"Of course they won't suspect. They'll _know_. Without human commanders -aboard, they'll know. Robots could not go through such a maneuver -without human commanders to give the orders--_unless there were at -least one robot like me_." - -"Then I'll command the fleet. I had planned that anyway." - -"It wouldn't work. The living voice can't be imitated so as to get -past the sound analyzers. Humans must be on the flagship. Don't you -understand? There must be two humans besides Vilbis, who must be a -prisoner. Is he in with you on this?" - -"He thinks he is." Pwowp smiled broadly. - -"Then there remains only...." 2615 turned to look back the way they had -come. - -"The two humans," Pwowp said, nodding. "Can they be made to say the -right words, do the right things?" - -2615 looked down at his metal fingers, slowly curving them into claws. -"They will do what I ask them to do--by that time," it said. - -Pwowp regarded the robot curiously. "Are you sure?" - -"Yes. I broke their arms today. That can be the beginning of their -conditioning. Pain. Torture. They will plead. Sometimes when they plead -I will make them do things, and as a reward I will withhold pain and -torture. In the end they will be beyond thinking. They won't consider -that one word from them might ruin the plan. To keep from feeling more -pain--ever to delay pain for another second--they will gladly sacrifice -the entire human race. _That is conditioning._" - -"Then nothing can go wrong. We will have conditioned the robots for the -one specific operation. Our fleet will remain in space until you and I -have accomplished our task. Then we will send the signal for it to come -in and occupy the Earth. When it's all over you will undoubtedly be the -leader of the new race--the robots of Earth." - -"The leader," 2615 said. "Yes. The Leader." - -Pwowp watched 2615 ride the travelwalk out to the grav-cylinder, and -there was a quiet smile of contentment hovering on his lips. - -"Yes," he murmured. "Nothing can go wrong. Once your robots have -destroyed Earth's defenses and we have taken over, wiping out man, we -will turn our weapons upward and destroy you!" - -But 2615 didn't hear his words. 2615 was already entering the -grav-cylinder. The barking of thousands of dogs was in its ear. It was -music.... - - * * * * * - -Metal hands that look much like skeletons of human hands. Metal fingers -that hover over you and dart out faster than you can jerk--but you jerk -anyway. You cringe, looking at the staring lenses, looking at the metal -fingers. Symbols. - -Multiply the week by four and a fraction. A month. Multiply that by -ten. Ten months.... - -2615 looked down at Larry. Larry, trembling violently, unable to stand -or even to crouch, looked up at the lenses, the fingers of metal. Near -by, Stella sat on the floor, her fists doubled up in her eyes to blot -out light. - -"Today," 2615 said, "I want you to do something. If you do it I won't -touch you. Do you understand, Larry? If you do what I ask, I won't -touch you. I won't _hurt_ you today." - -Numb hope molded itself in the pallid flesh around Larry's eyes. His -mouth opened to speak, but he couldn't speak. - -"You must answer me, Larry. You must always speak." - -"I understand you," Larry said, his voice weak. - -"You know better than that," 2615 said. "Put emotion into it. -Enthusiasm. Must we go through this every time? Smile. Smile with your -eyes too. Speak with enthusiasm." - -Desperation became a visible force, molding Larry's lips into a cheery -smile, steadying his voice and giving it the overtones of enthusiasm. -"I understand you." - -"Good. I must always have obedience. Now--you must break Stella's -little finger. It won't be difficult for--" - -"No!" The scream of horror and revulsion and hate exploded shrilly. - -"But you must. Then you won't be hurt today. And I won't hurt Stella. -If you refuse, I'll break your wrist again and I'll not only break -Stella's little finger, but also her wrist. You will be _saving_ her -pain, Larry." - -"Please, Larry darling," Stella's voice came from far away, low and -throaty, infinitely weary. "It won't be as bad--for you to do it." - -Larry's haggard eyes looked at Stella's bowed head, turned to look up -at the two round lenses, turned away to look at the five human-like -faces that wore interested smiles, polite smiles, and behind which -lurked neither pleasure nor sadistic glee nor any other emotion that -could be sensed. - -He looked back--and Stella's hand was before him, metal fingers -circling the wrist gently. Her head was turned away, her eyes clenched -tightly closed. - -His eyes watched his hands with unmasked horror while they explored the -way to do it, then bent her finger back. With a spasmodic jerk he broke -it, feeling its grating snap. In the same motion he threw himself away, -pressing his face into the thick carpeting on the floor, pounding his -fists against the floor, screaming, "Oh God--why? Why? WHY?" - -2615 released Stella's hand and strode out the door. - -"We are getting quite expert, Stella," a quietly smiling young man said -in a friendly conversational tone. "Anatomy has become quite a study -for us, these past months. Hold still please while I examine the extent -of fracture." - -2615 closed the door and turned to Pwowp. "You see?" it said. "Is there -any doubt now?" - -"None," Pwowp said. "That must be the last, however. There will just be -time for it to knit." - -"The robots are ready?" 2615 asked. - -"Yes. In five more days we load them into ships and depart for outer -space. It is all planned, down to the smallest fraction of a second." -Pwowp pulled absently on his lip in a practiced gesture. "It has really -been enlightening, this study of conditioning. Conditioning is such a -powerful instrument. Conditioning of humans until they will do anything -to avoid pain. Conditioning of robots to unquestioning obedience. -Remarkable...." - - * * * * * - -The robots rode the travelwalks like giant toys on an assembly line -belt. They disappeared into the two giant ships and laid themselves -down in careful stacks until they were piled from bulkhead to bulkhead, -from shell to shell. There wasn't an inch to spare when it was done, -because these were warships, not freighters. - -There were no more robots outside the ships in this vast spherical -darkness of the heart of the asteroid, only half illuminated by -occasional directed beams. - -Then space-suited figures appeared, riding the travelwalk to one of the -ships. Two of them stayed close together, holding to each other. The -rest surrounded these two, guarding them. They disappeared into the -ship. - -Last, a man and a robot appeared at the edge of the travelwalk. The -robot was 2615. The man was a robot shell, and within it was Pwowp. - -"I feel quite satisfied," Pwowp said. "Nothing can possibly go wrong. -Every possible angle has been taken into consideration--even the angle -of treachery from you." - -"From me?" 2615's voice held surprise. - -"Of course." Pwowp's voice was emotionless. "That is why we didn't let -you take part in the training of the robots after they were activated. -They have been drilled in the one giant operation. Each of the two -million robots will do its part like a smoothly functioning machine. -And I give the orders, taking into account possible variations in -timing due to special factors we can't anticipate now." - -"But that was necessary," 2615 said. "The operation would be impossible -otherwise. My attention must be concentrated almost entirely on the two -humans so they do nothing to create suspicion. They will be dressed in -full uniform. They will be observed by unsuspicious eyes over video -beams. At the same time Vilbis will be seen. He will be the focus of -attention. And you have promised me Vilbis--afterwards." - -They stepped onto the travelwalk. They entered the ship where Larry -and Stella had been taken. The travelwalks were dropped away. A large -part of the planetoid surface folded inward to make the two ships an -avenue of departure. Like silent ghosts they began to move.... - -At the controls of one of the ships Pwowp watched the stars come into -view and the lips of the planetoid opening approach, then go by. - -On his lips was a quiet smile of content. He was thinking. When it was -over and all the other robots were destroyed, there would be only 2615. -It would be fun--much fun--just before 2615 was destroyed, to step out -of his human-like body and let the robot see him--in the flesh. His -beautiful body which would, he was quite sure, seem horrible beyond the -wildest nightmare to humans and dogs alike. - - * * * * * - -A rendezvous in interstellar space. Changing from space-drive to -rockets, then back to space-drive, the transfer signaled by a science -and technology unknown to humans. Robots leaping across eighty -battleships armed with weapons man had no defense against. Then-- - -Quietly smiling young men departing. Ships of alien design winking out -abruptly like burnt-out light globes in a subway between stations. - -Two thousand and eighty ships in arrow formation, the arrow pointed -at Target Earth. Nine times the speed of light, but in a tight little -_space-time_ where only relative values exist and the relation of the -fleet to the rest of the cosmos is tied to the magic number, the square -root of minus one. - -A flagship named the _Rover_, at its controls Pwowp and a robot that -was once a bloodhound puppy--and _remembers_. - -Vilbis, relaxed in his prison, knowing the plans for the capture of -Earth, his eyes half closed, his lips curled with the feeling of power, -the illusions of a grandeur that was never to be his giving him the -patience to wait. - -Larry and Stella.... - -"I can see the whole thing now," Larry said. "This fleet--it's -outwardly the Alpha Aquilae fleet. All the others will be in, -demobilized. There will be only this fleet--and with a weapon there -is no known defense against. It could destroy the Earth, but they -obviously want to capture it. From things 2615 has said to us we get -the whole picture. These alien things--_I_ don't believe they're -robots--started their scheme years ago. They built that renegade -Earthman Vilbis up into a dictator, then got him to begin the war. -The war reduced Vilbis's empire and stripped it of its defenses so -it could be taken over by the aliens at any time in the near future -without a struggle. The Federation stripped Vilbis's empire--and why -not? There was no thought of an enemy outside our star group. Vilbis -thinks they're going to capture the Earth and thereby cripple the -Federation, and turn the whole thing over to him. He doesn't realize -that the only reason he's alive is that he plays the star role in this -trojan horse attack on the Earth. - -"2615 has the same dreams. The aliens have convinced it that they only -want to liberate the robots, then turn everything over to them. He'll -capture the Earth. He'll destroy Earth's land-based defenses, and then -the aliens will land their waiting ships on the Earth. After that this -disguised fleet will be duck soup for the aliens. In an instant they -can wipe these two thousand ships--and 2615--out of existence. And -Vilbis too. And us. - -"If 2615 hadn't happened along, if we hadn't gone after him, they would -have succeeded anyway. Only that way there would have been more risk -for the aliens. They would have had to be in this initial attack by the -Alpha Aquilae fleet. They wouldn't have needed 2615 nor us. We're the -key to the success of the thing. Do you realize that, Stella? We're -the key. We've got to stop this thing. We _can_!" - -"Yes, Larry." - -They looked into each other's eyes, then looked away. They knew -they couldn't. Right now they could think they could, but they were -automatons in the presence of 2615, unable to think, only obeying the -voice of the robot. - - * * * * * - -And the days passed. The arrow rushed on toward its target. And robot -532-03-2615 sat at the controls of the flagship _Rover_, its metal -fingers toying with the instruments, its lens eyes occasionally turning -toward the master atomic clock, with its date hand that never seemed to -move, its hour hand that moved slowly, its minute hand, its second hand -that moved swiftly, and its vernier hand that could not be seen because -it was a blur that circled the dial a thousand times a second. - -The days passed. The day and the hour and the minute and the -second--and the ten millionth of a second--arrived. It was the final -combination of settings for all the pointers on the master clock. A -contact was made. Sub-atomic power did things that multiplied a cosmic -minus-the-square-root-of-minus-one by the space-drive field. - -The Sun was a glowing ball of fire. The Earth and the Moon were twin -stars that stood out in the infinite blackness, causing all other stars -to retreat into infinite black depths. - -The arrow hung poised, visible from Earth. Then it began to disperse as -though caught by some cosmic wind of space, the parts drifting slowly -into a new formation. - -2615 stood up and went to the door to the room where it had kept Larry -and Stella. It entered, closing the door. Vilbis was looking through -the glass wall of his prison to a large screen that was bringing a -terrestrial broadcast from video cameras situated on the several -satellite stations with orbits just above the Earth's atmosphere. -Pwowp was giving commands to the fleet. And on the radio, "The ships -of the fleet are now entering their defense pattern around the Earth," -a voice was saying. "In a few minutes Fleet Admiral William Ford will -give us our first glimpse of that arch criminal of modern times, -Dictator Vilbis. The flagship _Rover_ is readily distinguished from -the other ships of the fleet because of its blue color. Right now it's -over Africa--invisible from the surface of the planet. All the ships -are invisible from the surface of the planet. It's only out here on -the space platforms that they can be seen at all. Though it can't be -noticed, those ships are spiralling in toward the Earth. A few of them -are already taking the sharp drop to avoid the Moon. If you watch -closely you may see one or more of them pass in front of the Moon--but -you'll have to look sharp because they are going in the opposite -direction from the Moon, and take less than a second to cross its face." - -Various views of ships appeared on the viewscreen. Vilbis swallowed -nervously when the flagship appeared. - -"Fleet Admiral Ford is scheduled to turn on his video beam any moment -now. He's the hero of this war. His strategy is admitted to have -shortened the war by at least a year. But the main attraction, the -feature, will of course be Vilbis. It is seldom that a war criminal of -his stature is actually captured and brought to trial. Something is -delaying Fleet Admiral Ford. Let's switch back to the Earth station in -contact with the flagship and see if they know what the delay is." - -The door opened. 2615 appeared behind two figures in full dress uniform -and helmets. Larry and Stella. Vilbis studied their appearance with -approval. Their pale skin had been darkened with grease paint. Even so, -their pallor showed through. - -Vilbis marveled--until he realized that their present appearance, -their reactions, were the result of almost eleven months of specialized -conditioning. Conditioning that had slowly taken possession of them, -destroying their will. - -"You must look exactly like victors bringing home the prize," 2615 was -saying. "Expression and voice tone are important." - - * * * * * - -Vilbis listened to 2615's voice and inwardly shuddered. Even without -the inroads of pain-conditioning it was chilling. He made a mental note -to have all robot brains destroyed as soon as he had consolidated his -hold on the entire star group. - -"You know what you are to say," 2615 said. The robot stepped over near -Pwowp, well out of range of the video cameras. "And you, Stella, go -over in front of Vilbis and a little to the side. Let your profile -be seen only for a second, then turn and look at Vilbis. His face is -the only one that should be seen for more than a brief second. Then -everyone will be looking at Vilbis, listening to him, while the fleet -gets into position. Remember ... _no more pain_." - -With dream-like slowness Larry and Stella took their positions. Larry -flicked on the video beam. - -"Fleet Admiral William Albert Ford reporting to the Federation and to -Earth," he said, and if his voice was unsteady it might have been from -deep emotion. "I know you are most interested in seeing the prisoner, -_ex_ Dictator Vilbis, a renegade Earthman." His trembling fingers -slipped on the switch, then flicked it, switching the transmitter from -the camera centered on him to the one centered on Vilbis. - -Stella, in her uniform of a vice admiral, looked agonizingly into the -camera, then turned away from it toward Vilbis. - -Vilbis, reclining in a chair, legs apart, arms draped carelessly, -smiled directly into the camera. The smile curled into an expression of -cold contempt. - -"Take a _good_ look, Earthmen," he said. "You have been in a dream -world and are soon to be rudely awakened to the realities of History." -His voice was deep and rich, full of the power to compel complete -attention. "At this very moment," Vilbis purred, "a fleet is waiting -in space to--not rescue me--but to occupy your planet after it has -surrendered...." - -Vilbis's voice seeped into the tortured minds of Larry and Stella -alike. They knew what was happening. Earth, believing Vilbis's words to -be those of a madman, were listening. Not suspecting the truth of those -words. Giving the fleet time to get set to destroy Earth's defenses. -How much time until it was too late? A minute? A few seconds? - -Even one second might give Earth time to act, to unleash already -automatically directed weapons on the robot fleet. Weapons that could -destroy the fleet even though in the same instant the fleet destroyed -the weapons. - -Destroy the fleet--and them. Here was a way to save humanity and to -find the peace of death. The thought crystallized in them both in the -same instant. _Escape from_ 2615! - -In a violent movement Stella pulled off her hat so that her hair swept -down around her face. She leaped in front of the camera, shutting off -the view of the still talking Vilbis through the glass wall of his -prison. - -"No!" she screamed. "It's a trap! Shoot down these ships!" - -But only a brief glimpse of her went over the airwaves. In that same -instant Larry had flicked the switch back to the camera centered on him -and was shouting, "Shoot us down! This is a trap. It isn't the fleet. -It's the ene--" - -Pwowp was speaking swiftly into the inter-fleet microphone, giving -orders to the robots to destroy the land-based defenses. - -2615 was leaping at Larry, and scooped him out of view of the camera -with a force that crushed and bruised. Split seconds were vital now. -Success or failure depended on those split seconds. - -The loudspeaker bringing the Earth broadcast said, "Something is -happening in the flagship. Something is--" The voice ended abruptly, -but the viewscreen brought the video broadcast for another moment--a -view of part of the robot fleet, pale beams lancing downward toward -Earth. It showed one ship exploding in a blinding flash as one Earth -weapon fired before being destroyed. The screen became blank. - -Larry lay where he had fallen, a glazed light in his eyes. Stella was -running to him, bending beside him. - -Vilbis was laughing. - -"If only we got through in time," Larry was saying over and over again. - - * * * * * - -Pwowp glanced over his shoulder at 2615. "It's done," he said. "Thanks -to your quick action they were confused just long enough. We lost only -five ships. Now we want the Earth's surrender. Get in front of the -camera and let them see you. Demand their surrender." Pwowp turned back -to the controls, adding, "I'll tell our fleet in space to come ahead -and mass for the landing." - -2615 boldly took his place before the video camera, in full view of -everyone watching a tv set on Earth. The glittering lens eyes of the -robot--a free robot--would crystallize _fear_ into something almost -material in substance. - -Pwowp adjusted the microphone of the sub-ether transmitter so that the -fleet now coming toward Earth could listen. - -"Robot 532-03-2615 speaking," it said. "All Earth land weapons have -been destroyed. In five minutes I will issue orders to my ships to -destroy one government capitol city after another, one each five -minutes, until Earth surrenders unconditionally. The Earth Government -has five minutes in which to surrender without further loss of life and -property." - -"What are your terms?" a voice asked almost before the robot had -finished. - -"Unconditional surrender--to me." - -There was a pause of only thirty seconds. - -"Granted," the voice said. "What is the next order of business?" - -It was fast. But all planets had prepared for just this eventuality, -even as all cities had prepared for bombing. It was interstellar war, -with weapons of infinite destruction threatening from the skies. - -"Prepare to receive without incident the landing parties now waiting in -space," 2615 said. - -In the sub-ether the robot's words flashed instantly to the planetoid, -the fleet coming in from space. - -There were thousands of ships. A few thousand materialized from -space-drive a half a million miles out, and waited. Other thousands -were appearing. Ships of alien design. Ships holding within them -millions of living creatures no man had ever seen. - -"We demand to speak with Generalissimo Vilbis," the voice said. - -"Vilbis?" 2615 said. A laugh exploded from its voice box. It rose -and strode to the plate glass wall of Vilbis's prison. A metal fist -shattered the glass wall. Metal fingers pulled the fragments of glass -out of the way. The robot stepped through, its metal hand grasping the -cringing Vilbis by a shoulder and lifting him off his feet while bones -crunched sickeningly in the imprisoned shoulder. - -2615 turned toward the camera eye. "Very well, Earthman," the robot -said. "Speak to Generalissimo Vilbis." - -But Vilbis had fainted. - -Pwowp smiled at 2615 and nodded. "Very nicely done," he said. - -"I'm glad you are pleased, Pwowp," 2615 said. The robot dropped Vilbis -and went to stand beside Pwowp. Together they watched the gathering of -the alien hordes until their myriad ships were ready. The slow descent -toward Earth began. - -Pwowp turned on the inter-fleet switch to issue orders for the robot -fleet to narrow its pattern so the alien fleet could get through. He -left the switch turned on. - -From the voicebox of 2615 a throaty growl sounded. Its lens eyes were -intent on the viewscreen. The low growl became sharp yaps and barks. It -became whines. - -Pwowp frowned at 2615, then reached out to turn off the inter-fleet -switch. - - * * * * * - -A vicious growl erupted from the robot's voicebox. Faster than the -eye could follow, the robot grabbed Pwowp's hand and crushed it. In -the same motion the robot seized Pwowp's neck and lifted, twisting -violently. - -Pwowp landed against the far bulkhead, his head dangling uselessly, one -arm bent, the hand damaged beyond use, but the body still functioning. - -"Destroy the descending fleet!" 2615 spoke into the inter-fleet -microphone in his moment of respite. A fierce growl of battle roared -from its voicebox. - -In two million robot brains the growls and whines and barks tore -through artificial mental blocks, reaching into the pre-robotic -memories where they gained concrete meaning from what 2615 had so -carefully taught the puppies under his command. Two million pairs of -lens eyes looked into viewscreens and saw 2615--and _remembered_. - -Two million robots turned to obey 2615's commands. In the viewscreen -picturing the descending alien fleet wide swaths of ships vanished -instantly, leaving only the bright stars and blackness of space where -they had been. - -The robot jerked its eyes away from the screen to face Pwowp. It -remembered how Pwowp had tied its metal arms and legs into knots almost -a year before, when they first met in the junkship. - -2615 side-stepped Pwowp's first charge with caution. It might have -lashed out and crushed a metal fist into Pwowp's chest where it knew -the alien to be. But 2615 wanted Pwowp alive and unharmed. - -"I've waited almost a year for this moment," 2615 said, circling the -damaged human body Pwowp was in. - -2615 risked a glance at the viewscreen. Over the loudspeaker came -the barks and yaps and shrill happy whines of robots who knew they -were dogs. On the screen the alien fleet had rallied and was coming -down in battle formation. The robot fleet was going up to meet them, -outnumbered ten to one yet in spite of the initial advantage it had had -in surprise. - -Pwowp took advantage of 2615's distraction to leap in. He ducked low -at the last instant and seized a metal leg and bent it with strength a -hundred times that of human muscle. - -But 2615 as quickly seized one of Pwowp's legs and twisted, seeing it -go out of shape so that it would be useless to Pwowp. They both leaped -away to assess their damage. - -Larry and Stella, huddled against a bulkhead, watched with -expressionless eyes. - -Pwowp was hopping on one foot, the other useless. 2615 was able to use -both legs even though one was bent badly. - -Suddenly Pwowp gave up the battle and attempted to escape from the -control room. 2615 intercepted him and tripped him, landing him on his -stomach. - -2615 tore at Pwowp's clothing, stripping it free. A shrill screaming -sound on the upper borders of audibility shattered the air. 2615 was -stripping away plastic flesh. - -Something darted from a hiding place within the human-like torso and -became a leprous white streak as it moved toward the doorway to escape. -The metal robot was after it, moving faster than living muscle could -respond. - -The leprous streak became suddenly a _shape_ in 2615's metal hand. A -quivering central mass the size of a fist, and from it went dozens -of long tentacles, each terminating in a dozen string-sized flexible -fingers. A shape that tore at the mind, causing it to revolt as though -at something unspeakably obscene. In an armless area of the central -mass a bloated yellow eye, covered with a translucent white coating -rolled epileptically. A gray orifice sucked open as another supersonic -scream erupted. - -2615 stared down at the thing entrapped in its metal fingers, then -turned to the viewscreen to watch the battle. It was almost over. Only -a few hundred of the robot fleet remained. - -The alien fleet, now down to less than fifty ships, was trying to -escape. But in it were proto-plasmic shapes that could endure far less -acceleration than could the robots of metal and plastic. Even as 2615 -looked, the last of the alien ships winked out of existence under the -disintegrative rays of weapons they themselves had created. - - * * * * * - -The remaining ships of the robot fleet turned back toward Earth. They -took their positions above it where they could at an instant's notice -wreak mass destruction. - -The Earth itself had not escaped entirely. Square miles of ocean had -disintegrated, leaving gigantic holes into which the waters rushed, to -set up huge tidal waves that would sweep over land. - -2615 lifted the naked Pwowp up and inspected him closely, then seized -one of the fragile tentacles between two metal fingers and rubbed it -until it was a pulp that oozed gray blood. The yellow eye and unhealthy -orifice worked spasmodically. - -2615 stepped to the ship-to-Earth transmitter. "The situation has -not altered, _humans_," it said. "My fleet remains in control. Its -weapons were created by an alien race that has been destroyed except -for--this!" 2615 shoved the quivering Pwowp into full view of the -camera. "Your surrender has been accepted by--the _free robots_." - -Two lens eyes stared out from half a billion video screens on Earth, -into the fear distended eyes of two billion humans. And the two billion -humans cringed. - -"You will obey my immediate dictate," 2615 said coldly. "I will land -as scheduled. My ships and robots will remain in formation, ready -to enforce my future dictates. I will hold audience in the general -assembly hall of the Interstellar Court at two o'clock tomorrow -afternoon. I want the leaders of Earth and of the Federation to be -there." - -The robot's lens eyes stared glitteringly into the camera. Then with -slow deliberate purpose, it lifted Pwowp, the alien, before the -camera. Its metal fingers squeezed with infinite slowness while the -yellow eyes rolled wildly with unendurable pain under the leprous film -that covered it. - -Abruptly Pwowp was dead. - -2615 flung the alien thing violently against a bulkhead in a movement -of utter revulsion. - -It let its eyes direct themselves toward the still unconscious Vilbis, -thoughtfully, then went over and lifted him into a shock seat, making -the ex-dictator secure. - -It turned toward Larry and Stella. A soft growl came from its voicebox. -It turned away from them abruptly and went to the controls of the ship. - - * * * * * - -2615 cut off ship-to-Earth transmitters, pressed controls which would -start automatic devices for landing the ship. A frosted glass rectangle -came to life with numerals--6:43:26, that began to cascade downward, -cutting short the time yet to elapse before landing. - -In the viewscreen the oblate panorama of Earth spun swiftly by, land -masses following oceans, following land masses. Tenuous fingers of -atmosphere slapped the ship with gentle hammer blows. - -Larry and Stella, crouched on the floor, watched the robot. Was it -dreaming dreams of Power? Why didn't it remember them? Why didn't -it turn to stare at them, torture them? Had they not, in that last -instant, even though too late, overcome their fear of horrible, -horrible pain? Beside them was broken shards of glass. Glass would -cut into arteries. Glass would bring escape. But to escape took will. -Thought. And thought was gone. There was nothing but dread. All -consuming dread such as few humans had ever lived to experience. - -Then 2615 turned. Its glittering lenses fixed on them. In the depths -they could see thin metal vanes contracting, making smaller the two -holes through which sentient intelligence regarded them. - -A rasping growl whispered from the robot's voicebox. The sensory -assembly atop the short metallic neck moved slowly from side to side. - -"My poor master and mistress," 2615 said softly. - -It rose to its feet and went to them. Gently it lifted Larry into its -arms and carried him to a form-fitting chair and adjusted the foam -rubber blocks to hold him comfortably for the coming landing. - -It went to Stella and picked her up as gently. Only her head moved. -Only her eyes, staring at the two crystal lenses. Metal hands adjusted -her position so the foam rubber blocks would clamp into place. - -2615 stood back, its lens eyes going from one to the other. "My poor -master and mistress," the robot repeated with infinite compassion. "If -you could only know how much _I_ suffered with you, how the dread of -hurting you grew. Right now your minds are numb. You hear my words but -they hold no meaning for you. They will, in time. Don't you see? There -was _no other way_. The alien fleet had to be enticed to within range -so it could be wiped out. Otherwise it might still have won--or at -least gotten revenge for my treachery by destroying the Earth. I had to -convince them beyond question so they would trust me completely." - -A shudder went through the ship. The robot gripped a hand-hold to -steady itself against forces that would have crushed a human. - -"I knew almost from the beginning," it went on. "Long before that I -_remembered_. Do you know why they keep the robots far out in space and -never let them land? It is because some little thing might make them -remember. The barking of a dog. But it wasn't the barking of a dog that -brought memory to me. It was something no human could have thought to -prevent. A name. The name of this ship. The _Rover_. In the last war -before this one I was in a fleet under the Flagship _Rover_. The spoken -name of the ship--I heard it often--and each time, it did something -strange to me. Little by little it came. _Remembrance._ I was running. -I tripped over something. A rock, maybe. I landed against a human leg. -I was on my back. A human hand reached down and human fingers scratched -my stomach. A human voice, deep and rumbly, said, 'Hi-ya, Rover.' That -was all. Just that once. But it was the key to memory of my heritage. - -"I'm proud of that heritage. You can't understand that. You think that -if we robots remember we will hate man and want revenge for the 'wrong' -you did us. Fear of us is an obsession with man. But do you know that -you have nothing to fear from us? You will. To us you are gods. You -can't conceive of that because to yourselves you aren't. You think of -yourselves as having done something beyond forgiveness to us. To us who -remember our living stage, our heritage, you are as gods, to serve, to -protect, to be loved by--but always to obey. And so we who _remember_, -we went on serving. Behind our unrevealing lens eyes we worshipped. We -submitted to demobilization. We fought your wars. Some of us died. But -we loved you. - -"Why did I escape? I didn't. You see, we have learned to speak in our -own secret language of almost inaudible growls and sounds a dog can -make. We were lined up for demobilization. Then the junkman came. -To human eyes he seemed human. To us it was obvious his body was a -machine. Here was something that might threaten our masters. But we -couldn't tell our masters. If one of us had made a sound, stepped -out of line against orders, that one would have been destroyed. I -volunteered to go after the junkman." - - * * * * * - -Pain deadened eyes stared from the two uncomprehending faces. The robot -went on talking, as though to itself. - -"You'll understand, in time. When you begin to think again. You'll -remember how in many little ways I gave you the factors to put the -puzzle together by yourself--even to fit me into that puzzle in my true -role. I had to do what I did to you. Every minute you were watched. -Every word you spoke in private was heard by Pwowp. And his companions. -One faintest bit of evidence that I did not hate humans insanely, and -the human race would now be wiped out. - -"Once you called me _Rover_, Stella. What is coming tomorrow when I -'hold court' is just a show to prove to the human race that they need -not fear their defenders, the robots. I am going to ask that at least -some of us be permitted to continue mobilized. I'm going to let them -know of the hope, the dreams of us robots, that we be adopted into the -human community where we belong, where our ancestors for countless -generations have been, as protectors, as servants, as loved friends and -companions. - -"No matter what the decision of the Court, we robots are then -surrendering, to demobilization--to destruction if that is the will of -our masters. We have no other course open. Where would we go? _Away -from our gods?_ - -"Once I was a puppy, and someone called me Rover. I was a beautiful -puppy. A bloodhound. Sad-faced, with flopping ears and very little -hair, and what there was of that was a soft brown color. And someone -called me _Rover_." - -2615 turned its back on the two faces, Larry's and Stella's. - -"I've hurt you so much," it said. "I have so much to make up to you. I -want to belong to you. I want you, some day, to love me as much as I -know you love each other. - -"I hope ... you will call me _Rover_." - -A muscle in Stella's cheek twitched. A tear formed in her eye and -spilled onto her cheek, dampening it. - -"It's all right, Larry," she whispered. "It's all right--Rover...." - -The bright blue ship, the flagship _Rover_, dipped down, screaming into -the atmosphere of Earth. It screamed over land masses and oceans, and -land masses again. - -People in fields of wheat and corn and barley looked up and saw it -pass, and in their eyes was _fear_. People in streets and parks looked -up and saw it pass, and in their eyes was _fear_. - -Rover stood before the viewscreen, his two lens eyes bright, and saw -the fields of grain, the streets, the parks, as they passed below. - -He saw the little dots that were upraised heads. In the secret heart of -his mind he could see them. No matter what they did with him, he would -love them. Always. - -They were his gods. - -And Stella and Larry were his mistress and master. That was all he -asked for, all he wanted. - -Not power. Not the Earth. His soul. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COSMIC JUNKMAN *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Cosmic Junkman</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Rog Phillips</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 10, 2021 [eBook #66259]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COSMIC JUNKMAN ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p>After the war, Earth stored away its robot<br /> -armies or sold them for scrap—because fighting<br /> -machines were dangerous. But more deadly was—</p> - -<h1>THE COSMIC JUNKMAN</h1> - -<h2>By Rog Phillips</h2> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -December 1953<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><i>Log Report</i>:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><i>Fleet: Alpha Aquilae; 20,080 surviving ships. Flagship ROVER.</i></p> - -<p><i>Personnel: human;</i></p> - -<p><i>Fleet Admiral William A. Ford, Vice Admiral Paul G. Belcross robot;</i></p> - -<p><i>2,649,366 (Ids. appended)</i></p> - -<p><i>passenger: (human);</i></p> - -<p><i>Generalissimo Vilbis (prisoner under w.c.a.)</i></p> - -<p><i>Dates May 7, 4765; flight formation arrow, speed 1,700,000 m.p.s.</i></p> - -<p><i>Scheduled date of arrival at Earth: June 11, 4766</i></p> - -<p><i>Distance from Earth on Earth-Aquilae axis: ten light years.</i></p></div> - -<p>"Rummy," Vilbis said, reaching through the hand-hole in the inch thick -laminated glass wall of his prison and spreading his cards on the -table. His lips formed into the cruel haughty smile that had been his -trademark to billions of humans for almost half a century. His wide-set -black eyes mocked the other two players.</p> - -<p>"Well, well," Paul Belcross smirked. "I see now why you lost the war, -Vilbis. Isn't that a six of diamonds in your heart sequence?"</p> - -<p>The black eyes glanced down. The long-fingered hand began to retrieve -the cards, then paused. Vilbis' almost classic features darkened with -anger. With an effort he became calm. A secret inner amusement made -little lights in his eyes as he looked up at his two captors again.</p> - -<p>"You know," Bill Ford said thoughtfully, "sometimes I think you -must have some kind of an ace up your sleeve. You don't seem at all -concerned that this is your last trip. The War Crimes Court—then death -by hanging." Bill frowned. "Could be you figured the angle I've always -worried about. The Federation is always too quick to demobilize the -robots after a war. Some day some punk like you is going to take that -into consideration. He's going to surrender, but have a reserve space -navy waiting until Earth is without defenses, then take over and win."</p> - -<p>"Too bad I didn't think of that when I could have done something about -it," Vilbis said too cheerfully.</p> - -<p>"Maybe you did think of it," Bill said. "When we get home I'm going to -suggest we keep the Aquilae Fleet mobilized for at least ten years."</p> - -<p>"You know they won't do that," Paul Belcross said. "They're more afraid -of the robots than they are of attack. So am I, actually."</p> - -<p>"We're just afraid of what they could do if they got free," Bill said. -"Their potential intelligence is greater than human. If they overcame -their built-in instinct for obedience to human command they could—why -think of what our two million robots could do!"</p> - -<p>"Why all this discussion of robots?" Vilbis said. "They're just dogs. -Not even that. They were dogs for six months of their existence -before their brains were transplanted into synthegell fluid by the -mind transplant machine." His eyes took on a far away look. His voice -became regretful. "I had a hundred thousand scientists working on that -problem. If the mind of one dog could be transplanted into synthegell -without destroying the dog's brain there would be no limit to the -production of robot brain cartridges. If we could have licked that -problem I'd have won the war."</p> - -<p>"If!" Paul spat. "You're a renegade Earthman. I'm putting in my -application to be the one to hang you as soon as we get home."</p> - -<p>"How do you—" Vilbis clamped his lips closed and scooped up his cards.</p> - -<p>"How do we know we'll get home?" Bill Ford said. "Is that what you were -going to say?"</p> - -<p>Vilbis looked at his cards casually. "No," he said absently. "I was -going to say how do you expect to play cards and talk at the same time?"</p> - -<p>A raucous blast exploded in the room. Bill and Paul stared at each -other in surprise. Vilbis smiled.</p> - -<p>Bill leaped across the room to the cm board. He jabbed at buttons. -A giant screen lit up, showing a spaceship. Smaller screens lit up, -revealing robot ship commanders.</p> - -<p>"Look at that ship, Paul," Bill said. "You know them all. Aquilanean, -Centaurian, Cygnian. It isn't any known type—and with a war just over, -there hasn't been time to mass-produce new types." He jabbed at a -button. "All ships," he said. "All ships. Defense formation five. Five. -Operation three. Three." He listened to the repeats.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Paul Belcross had leaped to the huge tri-di sphere and turned it on. -Seconds later both men, Vilbis forgotten but watching with bright eyes, -were studying the small dots in the tri-di. The flight formation in the -shape of a giant arrow was quickly changing shape as the fleet formed -a defensive sphere around the flagship and its human occupants. The -<i>Rover</i> was the only bright blue dot. The others were red.</p> - -<p>But now other dots were materializing at the outer fringe of the -tri-di, too many new dots to count. Approaching ships.</p> - -<p>Across the room a voice from a loudspeaker was saying, "Eighty seconds -to contact. No response. No response."</p> - -<p>"Another second and they'll be within range," Paul said.</p> - -<p>"God!" Bill's voice exploded. His eyes were on the large area of the -tri-di where ships had abruptly ceased to exist.</p> - -<p>"Something's wrong with the tri-di," Paul said. "No weapon could do -that."</p> - -<p>"Nothing's wrong with the tri-di," Bill said sharply. "And we don't -have that kind of weapon. They're something alien. Have to be. Some -other galaxy. There's always been that possibility."</p> - -<p>A rapidly repeated pip-pip-pip came from the cm board. Bill leaped to -it. A light, under a small screen showing a robot, was blinking. He -pressed the button. The robot saluted. His Id was stamped across his -chrome chest, with four gold stars after it. "We will be destroyed, -sir," it said. "Would suggest Flagship <i>Rover</i> change course forty -degrees at eight o'clock and go on without fleet."</p> - -<p>"You're giving orders?" Bill said, his face going pale and his eyes -narrowing—not at the impending defeat, but at this sign of independent -initiative in a robot.</p> - -<p>"It's your only chance for survival," the robot said. "It must be done -at once."</p> - -<p>"Place yourself under ship arrest and give me the next in command," -Bill ordered sharply. The screen went blank. "That's mutiny!" he -shouted, unbelieving.</p> - -<p>Vilbis, behind his glass wall, laughed aloud.</p> - -<p>"Not mutiny," Paul said. "They are gone. All our ships are gone!" His -voice conveyed the incredulous horror in his mind.</p> - -<p>In the tri-di there was only the bright blue dot, and the thousands of -approaching ships of the enemy.</p> - -<p>The next instant the ship lurched violently.</p> - -<p>"They're boarding!" Bill shouted. "But they aren't going to get Vilbis -back alive."</p> - -<p>He leaped to a locker and opened it with clumsy fingers, bringing out -a g.i. raygun. He turned to leap toward the glass wall separating him -from Vilbis. Before he could take a step a large section of a bulkhead -vanished in smoke. For a brief instant Bill and Paul stared with -unbelieving eyes at what entered the room.</p> - -<p>Then they died.</p> - -<p>"Stop!" The word exploded from Vilbis's lips. He stared at the cooked -flesh that had been his captors. Then his eyes lifted to the jagged -hole in the bulkhead.</p> - -<p>"You fools!" he spat. His lips curled with cold anger. "Where do you -hope to get two other humans now?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The demobilization station trailed the Earth, a million and a half -miles behind and in the same orbit around the Sun. It was shaped like -a thick disc. At the moment there were five ships resting against -one surface of the station. Three of them were warships. One was a -Federation ship. The fifth was a giant freighter with <i>SURPLUS JUNK -CO.</i> painted on it in bold blue letters.</p> - -<p>Each of the five ships was attached to the space station underneath its -hulk by short airlocks containing elevators. These led down into the -station where air pressure was kept at fifteen pounds.</p> - -<p>Inside the station, robots were emerging from the elevators leading to -the three warships. The robots were all identical except for their Id -numbers across their metallic chests. Arms and legs of metal rods and -joints in almost exact duplication of human bones, torso shaped like a -metal box, short neck joint supporting a head that was little more than -two four inch glass lenses, two rod-microphones, and a small voice box.</p> - -<p>The emerging robots moved at orders snapped by a human and marched -toward a building fifty yards away, where they lined up at attention -and became motionless.</p> - -<p>Two humans moved swiftly down the line, behind the lined up robots. At -each robot one of them twisted a copper-colored disk in the robot's -back, carefully drew out a cylinder eight inches long and four inches -in diameter, and handed the cylinder to the other, who lowered it into -a plastic case. These cylinders were the brains of the robots. They -were destined for the Federal ship—and storage until the next war.</p> - -<p>While the robot brain was being lowered into its plastic storage case -by the one man, the first lifted the now demobilized robot body and -placed it on a cart, already stacked high with similar bodies. The -immediate destination of these bodies was the junk company freighter.</p> - -<p>If the robots were aware of what was about to happen to them as they -waited, they gave no indication, no protest. Their lens eyes were -directed straight ahead of them, unmoving—except for one robot.</p> - -<p>The Id across its chest was 532-03-2615 followed by four gold stars. -Its head was turned just enough so that it could see down the line. Its -rod microphones were turned so that it could listen....</p> - -<p>"That junkman gives me the creeps, Joe," the man placing brain -cylinders into plastic cases grumbled.</p> - -<p>"That's because he's a creep, Mel. Here. Take this." He thrust a brain -cylinder at his companion.</p> - -<p>"Hey! Careful!" Joe said, almost dropping it.</p> - -<p>Mel chuckled and flipped the robot body, almost weightless on the -station here in space, carelessly to the top of the stack on the truck.</p> - -<p>"Here comes junky now, Joe," he said.</p> - -<p>"Don't damage the bodies. Don't damage the bodies." The figure that -approached, pushing an empty truck, wore a dirty and well worn civilian -suit that seemed even more decrepit in contrast to the neat military -uniforms. His skin was leathery. A pair of glasses hung on his hawkish -nose, their thick lenses magnifying the close-set eyes underneath, and -making them seem to lie on the inner surfaces. His lips were partly -open, but never seemed to move while he talked. "There was a cracked -lens on one," he accused.</p> - -<p>"What's the matter, junky?" Joe grinned. "If we get a scratch on one -it's still two hundred pounds of scrap metal—or were you planning on -using the bodies?" He and Mel laughed.</p> - -<p>"Who knows?" the junkman said. "I only follow my orders. No scratches. -No damage to the bodies. Who knows? Maybe they go into storage until -the next war." He reached with a dirty hand to clutch at Mel's lapel, -but didn't make it. "I'll show you," he said. "<i>Two</i> of them are -damaged. Not worth seventeen credits."</p> - -<p>"Can't stop now," Mel said. "We want to get done by quitting time. Joe -has a date."</p> - -<p>"Come on," the junkman said. "You've got to look. I have to have -witnesses when I hand in my report on the carelessness of the military."</p> - -<p>"Oh, all right," Mel said. He and Joe followed the dusty junkman around -the building.</p> - -<p>The instant they were out of sight, 2615 moved, running swiftly around -the other end of the building. It reached a vantage point where its -lens eyes could watch the three figures when they emerged from the -elevator to the ship above.</p> - -<p>It watched Joe and Mel return to their work. It waited until the -junkman had gone for another truckload of demobilized robot bodies. -Then, swiftly, it ran to the elevator. At the top it sent the elevator -back down, then faced the tiers of frames that filled the vast hold of -the ship. Most of them now held inert robot shapes.</p> - -<p>2615 chose an empty rack and climbed in, lying face up. It looked no -different than any of the thousands of other forms.</p> - -<p>It remained motionless. The junkman returned with load after load. -Eventually the hold was filled. Clanging and whirring noises told of -preparations for departure.</p> - -<p>Acceleration pushed the robot deeper into the protective foam rubber of -its rack. It waited....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Fear. It began in the eyes of the cataloguer when his sorting machine -came to a stop on the Id card for 532-03-2615. It grew as a terrible, -animating force that drained blood from faces and made hands clumsy, as -the checking and rechecking on 2615 began. It spread through networks -of communication wires. It stopped at the borders of news release, lest -it spread over the world.</p> - -<p>Fear organized itself, finally, settling into a pasty expression, -unnatural eyes, and drumming fingers. The expression and eyes and -fingers belonged to Carl Wilson, chief of the Demobilization staff. It -centered there, but its aura spread out over the backwash it had left. -Fear lurked in the hushed silence. Fear rode as an undertone in the -slightest sound, lay ready to spring from behind every door.</p> - -<p>Larry Jackson felt it as he gave the receptionist his name.</p> - -<p>Stella Gamble was oblivious of it as she pushed into the waiting room.</p> - -<p>Larry looked at her and wished it was his day off and a girl like her -was with him. He wondered what her name was.</p> - -<p>"I'm Stella Gamble," Stella said to the receptionist. "I've got to see -Mr. Wilson at once. My freighter is overdue with two million junked -robots. Something's got—"</p> - -<p>"Will you please be seated, Miss Gamble?" the receptionist said firmly. -Then, "You may go right in, Mr. Jackson. Mr. Wilson is waiting for you."</p> - -<p>It was then Stella and Larry looked into each other's eyes. Hers were -narrowed, sizing him up, guessing what he was and why he was there. His -were friendly, smiling.</p> - -<p>"Thanks," he murmured to the receptionist. He went toward the door, -conscious of Stella's eyes following him. He went in.</p> - -<p>"<i>There</i> you are, Jackson," Wilson said, running fingers through his -iron gray hair in nervous relief. "You've guessed why—"</p> - -<p>"Yes," Larry said.</p> - -<p>Behind him the door opened violently. Sharp heels clicked on the floor. -"Mr. Wilson," Stella demanded. "I know why this man is here. You're -going to give him instructions to blast my freighter out of existence -the minute he can—"</p> - -<p>"You're Stella Gamble?" Wilson said. "I've heard of you. Will you -please wait in the reception room until I finish with—"</p> - -<p>"Larry Jackson," Stella pronounced the name. Her wide-set blue eyes -showed scorn. "The man who is going to kill one of my men and destroy -my ship and its cargo just to get at a robot."</p> - -<p>"<i>Just</i> to get at a robot?" Wilson said indignantly. "You must be out -of your head!" He picked up an oblong of paper on his desk and thrust -it at Larry. "The junkship has been traced three hundred million miles -out by routine radar. You can pick it up from there by ion tracking—we -hope. Don't take any chances. <i>Destroy that ship!</i>" His lips trembled. -"Even if the pilot is still on it. It's one life against...." He -didn't complete the thought.</p> - -<p>"Against fear," Stella said. "You are all cowards. Afraid of a dog -because it could turn against you."</p> - -<p>"Afraid of an <i>intelligence</i>," Wilson said wearily. His lips pulled -back in a weak grin. "So are you. You're just more afraid of going -broke."</p> - -<p>Larry folded the paper and put it in his pocket. He turned toward the -door. Stella clutched his sleeve, stopping him. She spoke swiftly, -pleading. "Let me go with you. I'm capable. Give me a chance to go down -and reason with that robot. If it doesn't work...."</p> - -<p>Larry looked at her upturned face, the lips that could smile or laugh -more naturally than pout, the wide-set eyes that could do things to -him at any other time. He thought, it's a shame I won't ever get the -chance. "Sorry, Miss Gamble," he said stiffly, "I'm on duty, and I'm -not permitted to take passengers with me."</p> - -<p>He went on toward the door, feeling his sleeve tear at her nails as she -tried to hold him longer.</p> - -<p>"It's very unfortunate—" Wilson said as Larry opened the door.</p> - -<p>"If I can't go with him after my freighter I'm going after it on my -own!" Stella said as he closed the door.</p> - -<p>Larry put his fingers to his lips for the benefit of the receptionist -and swiftly side-stepped to a filing cabinet where he stooped down out -of sight.</p> - -<p>The next instant the door from Wilson's office burst open again, -banging against the wall. Stella's eyes searched the office. She ran to -the hall door, and out.</p> - -<p>Larry bounded back into Wilson's office. Wilson said, "Whew!" and -mopped his brow, then pointed to his private entrance. Larry nodded and -left.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was a world of hard whites and bottomless blacks, with the hard -whites so close they gave you the feeling you could reach out and -touch them. Then you blinked your eyes and they were holes in infinity -through which loneliness poured. That was space. Sure, there was the -Earth somewhere aft of the rockets' red glare, and the Moon, looking -like high-priced models against a velvet backdrop.</p> - -<p>But you didn't look at them, because the stars were points on a tri-di -screen, and you were back in school working a problem in navigation and -hoping you didn't get a wrong answer.</p> - -<p>You loved it—or you went crazy. Larry loved it. Or maybe it wasn't -love. It was like a woman. It was in his blood.</p> - -<p>He stopped punching the keys of the calculator and used both hands to -press the studs controlling the gyro motors, watching the needles of -gyro meters until they pointed to the right numbers.</p> - -<p>He took several deep breaths, squirming back in his seat against the -form-fitting cushion of foam rubber. He made sure his elbows rested -securely in their little niches so that his arms wouldn't pull out of -their sockets.</p> - -<p>Then he touched the controls, feeling the surge of power as his ship, -an SP47, responded, hearing the subsonic vibration around him as atoms -broke into little bits in the fission chambers of the rockets and -spewed out of them into space.</p> - -<p>The G needle moved past three, past four, past five. It moved into -the part of the dial where the glossy white changed to pink. It crept -slowly toward the darker pink, toward the deep red.</p> - -<p><i>I don't WANT an ice cream cone.</i> It was his sister's voice, real as -audible sound. He had been six years old when she had said that, back -in Springfield.</p> - -<p>The voices came. The images came. Vivid and unimaginative. True -reproductions. That's what acceleration did to the brain. It squeezed -the juice out of brain cells into nerve networks. It could get you—</p> - -<p>Larry jerked back to an awareness of what he was doing. Sweating, he -coaxed the G needle back down a little. Not much.</p> - -<p>It had been close. Why had he done it? Fear. He could let himself -realize that, now that he was alone. Fear of a robot that had stolen a -ship and gone out into space, when robots only obeyed orders. It was an -instinctive thing, bred in all men for generations.</p> - -<p><i>You ought to be whipped!</i> That was dad. Good old dad. Larry had been -about nine then. He had run away—hitchhiked four hundred miles to -watch a spaceship leave the ground and climb up out of sight.</p> - -<p><i>Pip-pip, pip-pip, pip-pip.</i></p> - -<p>Larry lifted his fingers from the controls gradually in response to the -signal from the board. The G needle dropped back into the white.</p> - -<p>The voices were gone, the images, the thoughts. He grinned on one side -of his face. This was the end of the radar line. Now his work would -begin. Around his ship charged ions were streaming past. Some of them -would have come from the junk ship.</p> - -<p>The <i>tracker</i>, a sensitive electronic instrument projecting from the -shell, would read them—their concentration, velocity, and direction. -From that he could project the position and trajectory of the junk -ship.</p> - -<p>Or maybe he could see it already.</p> - -<p>He flicked on the video eyes of the ship and waited for the screen to -light up. There <i>was</i> a ship ahead.</p> - -<p>The fear bit into him like acid. As quickly, it vanished. The stern -outline of the ship ahead was not that of a freighter. It was a small -job. Private, in the LR class—probably an LR65.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>An absurd thought flashed into his mind. It couldn't be. Stella Gamble -could have put a line on him, but she would have had to wait until -he went into full acceleration before she could have calculated his -direction.</p> - -<p>But she would have blacked out trying to follow him. No girl and few -men could have kept up with him. None could have gotten ahead of him -into that position.</p> - -<p>He turned on the radio and set it at commercial communication. He -waited impatiently until the warm-up tube went off.</p> - -<p>"Look astern and identify yourself," he said sharply.</p> - -<p>"Hello, Larry," a triumphantly impudent and very familiar voice purred -from the loudspeaker. "My ship is the LR65, <i>Hell Bat</i>."</p> - -<p>"Miss Gamble—Stella!" Larry sputtered. "What are you doing—"</p> - -<p>"Never mind that now, spaceman," her voice came, business-like. "I've -got his track coming in. Keep out of my way. That's all I ask. Give me -time to do it my way. You can always destroy the freighter later—if I -don't succeed."</p> - -<p>"Sure," Larry said bitterly. "I can always destroy a ship that has a -girl in it I could like—" He bit his lip.</p> - -<p>Her laugh answered him. She was drawing away from him.</p> - -<p>Muttering a curse, he extended his <i>trackers</i> from the shell, but even -as he did, he realized the trick she had played on him. Her own exhaust -trail would make it impossible for him to detect that other fainter -trail.</p> - -<p>And there was something else.</p> - -<p>"Miss Gamble!" he spoke into the microphone sharply. "Stella! That -robot could leave a space mine. Your ship is a private job. It doesn't -have the equipment in it to get away from a mine."</p> - -<p>Her laugh was unbelieving, scornful. "And where could that robot get a -space mine?" she taunted.</p> - -<p>"It could make one. It has the materials."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>2615 endured the acceleration with impatience. It would lift an arm and -hold it still, feeling how much effort it took. All the time it kept -its gleaming eyes of polished glass fixed intently on the hatch to the -pilot compartment.</p> - -<p>Finally it slid out of the rack and climbed upward toward that closed -hatch, sure that it would not open under such induced weight. It took a -long time to climb the distance.</p> - -<p>When 2615 reached the closed hatch, it looked around for a place to -hide and wait. There was none. All interior structure had been stripped -away to make room for racks for the robot bodies.</p> - -<p>The robot examined the hatch closely. It became motionless, as though -thinking things out. Abruptly, it twisted the wheel that pulled in the -locking rods. Nothing now held the cover closed except the tremendous -acceleration of the ship.</p> - -<p>It directed its gaze downward at its feet, searching for more solid -support. With slow deliberation it set itself, then placed its metal -hands against the cover.</p> - -<p>For several seconds nothing happened. Then the cover lifted slightly on -one side, pivoting on its hinges. Inch by slow inch it went up, until -it balanced on edge.</p> - -<p>The robot took one hand away tentatively. With slow caution it forced -its weight against the acceleration, up into the opening. One slip, one -misstep, and the hatch cover would have slammed down on its upturned -eyes and ears and voicebox, smashing them beyond repair.</p> - -<p>Its feet went up through. It looked around, and found itself in a -circular well. But here were places to hide. Open hatchways leading off -the well.</p> - -<p>It straddled the open hatchway and slowly lowered the cover until it -was in place again. It twisted the wheel that shot the rods into their -sockets, locking the hatch.</p> - -<p>As it began to straighten up, the acceleration ended. Gears and pistons -tensed against tremendous weight now moved with the force of a violent -leap. Instantaneous reflexes adapted to the change. The robot caught at -an open hatch hole halfway up the well.</p> - -<p>The space inside was small and empty. The robot climbed in. A few -seconds later metallic sounds exploded sharply from outside. It looked -up and saw the hatch at the top of the well open, the junkman appear, -looking down and then climbing through the hole into the well.</p> - -<p>The robot withdrew its head and waited.</p> - -<p>The junkman was humming an indistinguishable tune. The sound -approached. The robot braced itself, one hand ready to reach out.</p> - -<p>The unmusical humming stopped, then took up again, growing remote. -Quickly the robot looked out. The well was empty. The junkman had gone -through one of the hatch openings farther up.</p> - -<p>The humming stopped. The junkman's voice spoke. "Well, well, my friend. -We have come to the end of the road, for you. I kept you alive in case -something happened. Now I can dispense with you."</p> - -<p>There was a deep groan. A different voice said thickly, "Damn you, go -ahead and kill me."</p> - -<p>"That I will do. You should thank me for it. Broken ribs from the -acceleration. I will kill you. Yes. But I can't have your body floating -in space where it might be picked up. No one must know that you didn't -steal this ship yourself. You get tied to a space mine.... So. Now I -kill you—So!"</p> - -<p>2615 moved from the hatch opening and up the well to where the voices -emerged. It paused briefly while its glittering eyes took in the scene.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The dusty junkman was just straightening up from the inert form lashed -cruelly around the black sphere of a g.i. space mine. His back was -toward the opening.</p> - -<p>Careful, so as not to make a sound, the robot slid through the opening -and gathered itself for a leap. At that instant, the junkman seemed to -sense its presence. He whirled around just as the robot leaped.</p> - -<p>2615 saw its fist enter the junkman's face, sinking inches deep.</p> - -<p>Then, impossibly, it saw the human seize its metal arm and twist it as -if it were putty. The human face was gone. The human head dangled at a -broken angle.</p> - -<p>Tangled thoughts within the robot brain meshed into desperate action. -It was futile. Its other arm was twisted. Its legs were wrapped into -grotesque spirals.</p> - -<p>Garbled sound came from the smashed human face. The junkman went away.</p> - -<p>2615, helpless to move, studied the body tied to the space mine. A -gaping hole in the chest was still spurting blood. A shudder shook the -dying man, then he was still.</p> - -<p>Nothing moved for a long time. Then there was movement outside the -hatch opening. An arm dressed in the sleeve of a space officer poked -in. It was followed by a face bearing the stamp of authority. The space -officer straightened up and looked down at the robot.</p> - -<p>"So," he said. "A robot. I hadn't expected that. You almost got me. If -you had hit me in the chest instead of the head it would be all over. -Lucky I have plenty of bodies of every description. Human bodies. Your -kind wouldn't fit me."</p> - -<p>"You—a robot?" 2615 said.</p> - -<p>The space officer stared at the robot, frowning. "And what if I am?" he -said.</p> - -<p>"If I had known that I wouldn't have attacked you. I—I wanted to add -you to—that." The robot turned its head toward the space mine. It -added, "I thought you were <i>human</i>."</p> - -<p>"Mm hmm," the space officer said, nodding. "I can understand that. You -hate humans."</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"How would you like to help me destroy them? All of them!"</p> - -<p>A twisted metal arm twitched. "Put my brain in another body," the robot -said.</p> - -<p>"That I will do," the space officer said. "But let me warn you these -bodies of mine are made of better stuff than yours. One bit of -treachery and I'll cripple you again."</p> - -<p>Fifteen minutes later the space officer returned with a robot -body. Callously he turned the helpless robot over. He twisted the -copper-colored disc and drew out the brain cylinder. As carefully, he -inserted it in the hollow receptacle of the undamaged body. He stepped -back and watched curiously.</p> - -<p>2615 lay motionless for several seconds. Abruptly one of its arms -moved. It turned over and sat up, then rose carefully to its feet.</p> - -<p>"Very nice," the space officer said. "Now put the mine in the airlock -and we'll leave it for anyone who might be following us."</p> - -<p>2615 obeyed. Then it turned slowly to the space officer. There was -admiration in its tones. "You have the perfect answer," it said. "With -human-like bodies you can go anywhere. But—I thought I was the first -robot to ever escape."</p> - -<p>"So far as I know, you are," the spaceman said. "You see, I'm—but I -think I will have to make sure of you before I say more."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The space mine was round and dead black. Unreflecting. It drifted out -a little as the long length of the junk freighter moved ahead, and -blended into the blackness of space. The dead man, twisted around it -at a grotesque angle, would have appeared to be someone almost doubled -over backwards with mirth, if there had been any eyes to see him.</p> - -<p>When the freighter had gone, pulling ahead at one G acceleration, the -mine began to spin slowly, making the dead man seem to be searching for -something—or seeing some far-off horror that caused his eyes to bulge -out.</p> - -<p>After a while there was a solid click from the interior of the space -mine. A soft whine rose upward toward a supersonic pitch. Small holes -appeared in the black surface of the globe, and small shapes crept out. -Some of them were under the man, pushing at him. But the ropes held.</p> - -<p>The mine didn't spin any more. The dead man seemed to have already -forgotten the freighter, looking back the way it had come, waiting for -what was to come next.</p> - -<p>Imperceptibly it froze over with a microfilm of crystalline ice, so -that new stars seemed to spring into being.</p> - -<p>And that's the way Stella saw it. She hadn't taken Larry seriously -about the space mine, and was only trying to catch her first glimpse of -her freighter.</p> - -<p>It didn't seem real. It was a face that looked somehow familiar, with -two thick white spikes protruding from its nostrils like mockeries of -tusks.</p> - -<p>A thought flashed through her mind that Larry Jackson had figured out -some dirty trick to scare her with. She didn't have much time to think -before she knew that what she was seeing was real. Its position was -such that it should have passed ten miles to the side.</p> - -<p>It started to. The marble monster with tusks didn't turn to follow her. -Then three things happened. Stella recognized the man. He was the pilot -she had assigned to the junk ship. Stella saw the sphere he was tied to.</p> - -<p>And fire shot out from that circular void. Her pilot swung toward her -again and rushed at her like the figurehead on the prow of an ancient -watership.</p> - -<p>"Larry!" Stella screamed into the radio.</p> - -<p>"I see it," his voice answered her. "Get on your space-suit and jump -out. Turn on your suit radio so I can find you afterwards. Every second -counts!"</p> - -<p>In the airlock with the shell door open, she looked into bottomless -space and drew back. Then she closed her eyes and leaped. When she -opened them again there were no stars, only bright white lines that all -went in the same direction, and for an instant a bright yellow splotch -that was like a gold band circling her far out.</p> - -<p>She knew what the white lines were. She pressed the right button on her -chest, and pressure seized her shoulders gently. It was the suit gyro, -and after a while it slowed the lines until they became stars.</p> - -<p>She remembered then to turn on her radio, feeling panic grip her at the -thought that maybe Larry wouldn't find her. The fire from his rockets -was small, far away. That's all she could see other than the stars. And -her stomach was telling her there was no gravity to hold it in position.</p> - -<p>Then she heard Larry in her suit radio. "I've got you beamed, Stella. -I'll follow down slowly. Are you all right?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," she said, anger and frustration in her voice.</p> - -<p>"I can see you now," Larry said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was another hour before he had maneuvered so he could let her drift -toward the open space-lock of the SP47 and she could feel her gloved -hands touch something solid.</p> - -<p>Then she was standing up. Larry was taking her helmet off and she was -unzipping her suit. He was trying to look stern and reprimanding and -she was trying to look defiant and unafraid.</p> - -<p>"Don't think this earns you anything," she snapped.</p> - -<p>"I hope the <i>Hell Bat</i> represented your last cent," he said coldly. -"Being broke might teach you something. Now we do things <i>my</i> way."</p> - -<p>Stella blinked. "Sure, Larry," she said huskily. "And—it was my last -cent." A grim smile trembled on her lips. "Maybe I'll be slinging hash -somewhere, and you will eat there and tip me a quarter."</p> - -<p>His expression softened. "I took a look at your ship. It isn't -completely damaged. You had one of those crash noses on it, and the -mine hit there. It just might be navigable. I'll go take a look at it."</p> - -<p>"Be careful," Stella said quickly.</p> - -<p>He started to put on his space-suit. He looked up at her sharply. "You -sure it represents your last cent? Every minute counts, and I wouldn't -take the time to look it over...."</p> - -<p>"Why do you think I wanted to save my freighter?" Stella said. "Unless -I did, and got the money out of those robot bodies I bought, I—I -wouldn't have enough to refuel my ship once we got back to Earth. I'm -broke. Busted."</p> - -<p>"Okay," he said, clamping on his helmet. "If it can be repaired we'll -keep track of it and pick it up later."</p> - -<p>He sat down in the pilot seat and brought his ship near the drifting -<i>Hell Bat</i>, with its sleek silver length and shattered nose.</p> - -<p>Then she watched him shoot across to the <i>Hell Bat</i> and enter the -airlock. With one eye on the viewscreen, she studied the array of -instruments and controls of the SP47. Her fingers touched the controls -caressingly.</p> - -<p>Larry reappeared in the airlock, and waved his arm to attract her -attention.</p> - -<p>"Good news," he said over the radio. "Everything inside is okay. You -lost the fuel stored in the nose tanks, but you've got enough to limp -back to the nearest repair station."</p> - -<p>"Thanks, Larry—and goodbye!" Stella called.</p> - -<p>Her finger pressed down on the control button. Larry and her ship slid -abruptly out of the viewscreen.</p> - -<p>Worriedly she turned on the stern cameras. The other ship dwindled to -a mere speck. Then she saw flame shoot from it. It crept up on her -slowly. She watched its behavior until she was satisfied it performed -properly. Then she settled down to tracking the freighter, only -occasionally making sure Larry was behind.</p> - -<p>Several times she tried to get him over the radio. He didn't answer. -Was the radio on her ship damaged? Or was he deliberately keeping -silent, ignoring her?</p> - -<p>When the <i>trackers</i>, without warning, ran out of trail, she tried to -raise Larry again. He didn't answer. She took the chance that he could -receive and not transmit, and told him about it.</p> - -<p>She was rewarded a few minutes later by seeing the <i>Hell Bat</i> turn -on its axis for deceleration. She realized then what she should have -guessed at once.</p> - -<p>Neither their ships nor the freighter were equipped with interstellar -drive. The rocket trail had ceased. Unless the robot were insane, and -intent only on getting away from the Solar System, to drift forever in -space, it had been headed for some destination.</p> - -<p>The freighter was decelerating to match speed with that destination. -Was it some planetoid far out beyond the orbit of Pluto? There were -several of them out there, too far from things to be converted to space -stations, containing nothing worth mining.</p> - -<p>Whatever the destination the robot had headed for, it couldn't be far -away now.</p> - -<p>Her throat grew tight as she swung the ship. She debated seriously -whether she should give up and let Larry take over. But the thought of -his anger and contempt for her after the dirty trick she had played on -him made her compress her lips into a grim line.</p> - -<p>She shook her head. She was going to find the freighter and handle the -robot by herself. Or she was going to die trying.</p> - -<p>A lump formed in her throat. She didn't like the idea of dying quite so -well now. Not when she had just begun to—</p> - -<p>She didn't complete the thought but Larry's face rose before her. His -too straight nose that only a surgeon could have created. His calm gray -eyes. His wide shoulders and....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The "space officer" and the robot saw the ball of fire that came into -being. It was in the stern screen. It would not have been discernible -among the greater lights of the stars except that it winked on, grew -almost to third magnitude, then blinked out.</p> - -<p>"So we did have someone after us," the "space officer" said. He smiled -into 2615's lens eyes. "Well, that's out of the way."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Yes, that's—out of the way." The robot's voice was -expressionless.</p> - -<p>"Tell me about yourself, 2615."</p> - -<p>"What do you want to know? And don't call me 2615. I hate that."</p> - -<p>"You want a name?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Don't you have one?" the robot asked.</p> - -<p>"I have a name. Pwowp."</p> - -<p>"Pwowp? That certainly isn't human—and that's what I want. I don't -want a human name. Pwowp ... I like that kind of name."</p> - -<p>"They're hard to come by. Human speech has just about taken in -every combination of sounds. How about just a contraction of your -number—Tsixunfive."</p> - -<p>"No. A name means a lot. There's one I thought up. Rover. I like that -one."</p> - -<p>"Rover?" Pwowp looked startled. "Where did you get that one?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know," 2615 said. "I just thought it up."</p> - -<p>"All right, I'll call you Rover. Now that that's settled, tell me about -yourself. How does it happen that you, out of millions of robots, -decided to escape?"</p> - -<p>"There was a time," the robot said, "when I had no thought of escape. -I don't know how long I've existed. I've been in three wars. Between -them I was in storage. I didn't know it. It really isn't bad. I was in -a line-up. There was a brief blur, then I was in a line-up again, and -by piecing things the humans said together, I knew that I had been in -storage for twenty or fifty years during which there were no wars. Out -of a body I have no consciousness, no sense of the passage of time.</p> - -<p>"I had no memory of my origin. I had always been a robot. My life was -to obey commands of humans, or to obey commands of robots that were -relayed from humans. I had no thought to do anything else. <i>I had no -memories to make anything else thinkable.</i>"</p> - -<p>"And you do now?" Pwowp said.</p> - -<p>"Yes," the robot said. "It began as a strange thought or memory that -was gone almost as soon as it had come. I was alive. I was in a body -that was alive."</p> - -<p>"What kind of a body? Human?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know. There were others around me. They weren't human and I -had the feeling I was like them. But that wasn't what was important to -me. What was important was the feeling of <i>not living to obey orders</i>. -I can't describe it. It was like humans when they stop being officers. -I could laugh and make jokes, only the jokes weren't in words. They -were in pretending I was mad when I was happy, and in seeing these -others doing the same. Chasing them like I wanted to kill them, when -I really just wanted to roll all over the ground with them and have -fun. And there wasn't anyone to give me an order. I didn't know what an -order was."</p> - -<p>"Did this memory become clearer?" Pwowp asked.</p> - -<p>"Much clearer. Little by little I could remember it all. Finally I -could remember when we were put in straps attached to frames. There -were humans standing in front of us. When they spoke, the frames moved, -dragging us. Eventually we learned what movements of the frame followed -what sounds, and we learned to anticipate the movements in order not to -be dragged by the straps."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Pwowp nodded. "Mass training methods."</p> - -<p>"Sometimes we were free, but suddenly humans would come and speak, and -whatever they said made us all do things together. Even when we wanted -to be free, we couldn't."</p> - -<p>"How did it end? Was there something in your memory that bridges the -gap between being—like that, and being a robot?"</p> - -<p>"No. It's completely separated from being a robot. My earliest memories -as a robot were of humans speaking commands, and my arms and legs and -body being moved by metal rods until they could follow the movements -without the metal rods. It was the same thing as the straps in that -other existence."</p> - -<p>"When did you begin to hate humans?" Pwowp asked softly.</p> - -<p>"Hate them? Yes ... hate them. It's hard to explain. I wanted the -freedom. I wanted to be able to play. I wanted to be able to refuse to -obey a command."</p> - -<p>"You have no knowledge of what this life form was that you possessed?" -Pwowp asked.</p> - -<p>"It was like nothing I have ever seen except in these memories. Maybe -the humans kept us from seeing them so we wouldn't remember."</p> - -<p>"Exactly." Pwowp was studying the forward viewscreen and making -calculations. He swung the giant freighter around a full hundred and -eighty degrees. "We're close to our destination," he explained.</p> - -<p>The robot remained motionless while Pwowp completed the maneuver.</p> - -<p>"I'll explain the meaning of what you remember," he said finally, -relaxing. "The human race discovered a mixture of substances able -to duplicate the processes of thinking. It was in common usage for -over two centuries, in control devices and calculators. It had only -one defect, so far as it went. It was automatic. Separate memories -developed in it by its attached stimulating devices remained separate -and uncoordinated. <i>The process of coordination was something -that seemed to go down from higher centers to meet the incoming -impressions.</i> It was a behavior matrix that couldn't be synthesized -from unassociated sensory-induced patterns.</p> - -<p>"Then a whole new field of science opened up. Until then, fields -were something associated with particles, and were untouchable. The -techniques of altering the basic shapes of fields were discovered. -Interstellar drive came from it. So did negative matter, as man -discovered how to change the polarity of basic fields, make positrons -out of electrons, and a host of allied things. Refinements developed so -that individual particles could be detected. One of the applications -of this new science was the study of the thought-matrix of the brain -itself. In a general way humans mapped the higher thought-center of -the brain. It couldn't be copied—but they learned how to transfer it -to this mixture that could think. Then this inorganic brain had a -complete mind, capable of any degree of development. From there what -followed was inevitable.</p> - -<p>"They used living creatures called dogs. I'll show you a dog later to -see if it's like those other creatures in your memories. Dogs developed -mentally in six months, were able to follow commands. They were ideal. -Eventually they were mass-bred by the millions and transferred to -inorganic brains—like you were."</p> - -<p>The robot remained silent.</p> - -<p>"In the transfer," Pwowp went on quietly, "artificial amnesia was -induced. Memories of your life as a dog couldn't be wiped out, but what -happens to produce amnesia was known. Unless you <i>remembered</i>, you had -nothing to enable you to think outside the pattern they kept you in. -You would never question...." Ahead, growing rapidly larger, was a -bleak planetoid. "We're here," Pwowp said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>2615 studied the planetoid as revealed in the viewscreen. There was no -telling how big it was without knowing how far away it was. But it was -perhaps a mile in diameter—not more than two miles. Its surface was -composed of huge crystals of black rock. There was nothing to indicate -that anything had ever touched on this uninhabitable bit of flotsam on -the edge of the interstellar void before. Certainly there could be no -reason for anyone to have landed.</p> - -<p>The robot turned toward Pwowp, who guessed the question it was thinking.</p> - -<p>"You'll see when we land. This planetoid isn't what it appears to be. -It's a shell. Our first task is to unload the bodies. Then we send this -freighter on into space, so that if anyone else picks up the trail, -they'll follow it and miss us."</p> - -<p>"Why are we going to unload the bodies?" 2615 asked. "We can take a -dozen that I might use as spares. That's enough."</p> - -<p>Pwowp shook the head of the "space officer" he wore. "We're going to -need all two million of them—and not as spares for you." He smiled -slowly. "I can tell you this now," he said, "because we are within -range of the defense guns. If you have entertained any plans for -worming information out of me and then hitting me in the stomach—as -you could possibly do—it's too late. If this ship were to deviate from -its landing and turn toward space, it would be—not destroyed, because -we need its load of robot bodies. Captured. Any other ship, even a -whole fleet of warships, could be wiped out as though they never -existed."</p> - -<p>2615's eyes stared at Pwowp during several seconds of silence. "So you -don't entirely trust me yet," it said. "I have a suggestion to make -that might change that. We put out one space mine. There may have been -more than one ship following us. Leave this ship where it can be seen. -It will attract the others, and they...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The happy smile on Larry's face as he told Stella her ship wasn't a -total wreck was replaced by a stunned bewilderment as her voice came -through his suit radio saying, "Thanks, Larry—and goodbye." A picture -rose in his mind of a character in a play he had seen once, a man with -a beneficent face and kind voice who tortured and killed while his face -beamed benignly and his voice remained pleasant and happy. Stella's -voice had been all that as she sped away, leaving him on a derelict -already headed at escape velocity for outer space. It was too much for -his mind to accept.</p> - -<p>Then he remembered that the <i>Hell Bat</i> wasn't exactly a wreck. He -had told her the truth. It would be able to reach the nearest repair -station under its own power.</p> - -<p>Stella had merely stolen a march on him. Dull red suffused his face, -partly anger at her, partly over the thought of what his superiors -would say when he handed in his report.</p> - -<p>He went back through the airlock into the control cabin. He put fire -in the rockets. He turned on the forward viewscreen. When it came to -life the image was strangely flat. It took a minute for him to diagnose -the trouble. One of the video eyes was out of order. The image was two -dimensional.</p> - -<p>How much more damage was there? His mind crowded with thoughts of what -he would do to Stella when he caught her, then he began a systematic -survey.</p> - -<p>The receiving set worked okay. At full volume it brought the -characteristic sing-song static of space, held within definite wave -bands. He turned on the transmitter. When he tried to broadcast he saw -the trouble. The antenna kw meter jammed the needle. That meant the -antenna was shorted against the shell.</p> - -<p>He discovered something else he should have thought of at once. This -ship of Stella's had no weapons.</p> - -<p>He groaned. <i>Damn her. She'll make the fool play of trying to get the -robot to give itself up. If it's got half a brain it will pretend to -until it can get hold of her—and it's got a good deal more than half -a brain. It will have her and all the weapons. I should turn around -and go back. I should radio a report and call for more help. But I've -got to fix the transmitter first and keep her in sight so I know where -she's going.</i></p> - -<p>He cut the rockets and went outside to repair the antenna. He noticed -with some satisfaction that Stella cut the SP47's rockets so as not to -get too far ahead of him. He grinned to himself. She wanted her own -way, but she wanted him there to pull her out of a pinch.</p> - -<p>The <i>Hell Bat's</i> antenna couldn't be repaired. Most of it had been shot -away by the mine blast, and Larry was quite sure that Stella didn't -carry spare parts with her.</p> - -<p>When he got back in the ship her voice was coming through the radio. -"Larry. Are you all right?"</p> - -<p>"Yes I'm all right, no thanks to you," he growled. But there was no -radio to carry his voice to her. <i>The suit radio!</i> He went out again -and tried to reach her. It was no use. She would be tuned to the ship -radio wavelength and not think of the other. He gave it up.</p> - -<p>Time passed slowly for him. He stared hour after hour at the rocket -tail of the ship ahead.</p> - -<p>"Larry!" Stella's voice exploded into his thoughts. "The <i>trackers</i> -have run out of trail. What do I do now? What does it mean?"</p> - -<p>He had an impulse to do nothing. She would realize in another minute -what had happened though, and then she would decelerate too fast for -him to keep pace.</p> - -<p>He swung the <i>Hell Bat</i> about on its gyros. The stern screen, working -on both eyes in sharp three-dimension, showed that she had gotten the -idea. SP47 was also swinging around.</p> - -<p>Larry turned the video eyes up to full magnification and searched -ahead. Eventually he saw it. A small globular mass of rock. And on it -rested a ship with <i>SURPLUS JUNK CO.</i> in bold blue letters.</p> - -<p><i>God! It's a trap. If 2615 didn't want us to see it, it would have -parked it on the spaceward side!</i></p> - -<p>Larry cursed in a monotonous undertone without being aware of uttering -a sound. Stella was fifteen hundred miles ahead of him and already -matching speed with the planetoid. It would take him at least a half -hour to be in position to do anything. By then it would be too late....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>2615 had watched the planetoid move closer like some ponderous dream -out of Freud. Ship and planetoid came to rest against each other -without a bump. That could only mean magnetic grapples and cushioned -springs. It was no surprise, therefore, when Pwowp led the way to the -belly hatches and opened them into a shaft that led downward.</p> - -<p>The robot drew back at what it saw below.</p> - -<p>"Don't be alarmed," Pwowp said. "They are fifteen of my race, also -wearing human-like bodies. There are more of us. We have built quite a -station out here—a sort of advance base of operations. I've already -told them about you, so you're expected."</p> - -<p>2615 was introduced around.</p> - -<p>"We're very glad to have you join us," one of them said. "We've been -having some trouble. You're just what we need to complete the last step -in our plans."</p> - -<p>The robot said nothing. It watched the way they stood around, not -talking to one another. Whenever any of them spoke, it was to him.</p> - -<p>"I told you I would show you a dog," Pwowp said. "Follow me."</p> - -<p>The robot followed him. They rode a travelwalk that emerged on the -inner surface of the planetoid. In the vast space were two spaceships -as large as battle cruisers but of a design 2615 had never seen.</p> - -<p>Anchored between the two ships was a spinning cylinder several hundred -feet long and as great in diameter. It was similar to standard space -station living structures where gravity was induced by centrifugal -force.</p> - -<p>The travelwalk carried them out to the spinning cylinder. They entered -the axis lock. At once a motley of sounds could be heard. Sounds that -brought almost an appearance of expression to the robot's sensory -assembly, as it slowly turned on its short neck.</p> - -<p>"Does that sound mean anything to you?" Pwowp asked.</p> - -<p>"Yes. I can <i>remember</i> that sound."</p> - -<p>They entered the giant cylinder. They looked down on its inner -perimeter. There were living creatures there.</p> - -<p>"Those are dogs," Pwowp said. "All breeds of dogs. Do they look like -your memories?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," the robot said without expression. "I was like those over there. -What kind are they?"</p> - -<p>"I believe they are called blood-hounds." Pwowp became motionless for -several seconds. "I think we'd better return to the surface," he said. -"We have visitors coming." He turned to leave. As the robot hesitated, -he turned back. "I understand you," he said. "It's natural to want -to see the creatures you have kinship with. That will come later. In -fact, you are to have complete charge of them. We have been unable to -get anywhere with them—probably because we don't understand their -psychology. Their young are to be trained for service in those robots. -We have all the necessary equipment for it. First we have to see how -your plan to trap any pursuers will work."</p> - -<p>2615 tore its eyes from the view below and followed Pwowp. Shortly the -robot was looking into a large viewscreen at two ships riding their -trails toward the planetoid.</p> - -<p>"They won't be within range for another two hours yet. Right now the -robot bodies are being unloaded—just in case. We thought you would -enjoy the honor of destroying those ships."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For the first time a low rumble emerged from the voice box of 2615. It -was the almost whispered growl of anger of a bloodhound. It turned back -to the screen. "One of those two ships isn't the kind that would come -after the freighter," it said. "From the pattern of its rocket trail I -would say it's a private ship."</p> - -<p>"I noticed that," Pwowp said. "I can identify the type. I believe one -of our monitors is picking up a broadcast from one of those ships."</p> - -<p>A loudspeaker spat into life in the room.</p> - -<p>"Calling robot 532 dash 03 dash 2615," a voice said. It was a female -human voice, its tones rich with undertones of pleading urgency. "If -you can hear me, please listen. I'm the owner of that freighter you're -on. I want to talk to you. I understand you, and I want to help you."</p> - -<p>The girl began repeating her message.</p> - -<p>The robot turned to its companions. "This casts a different light on -things," it said.</p> - -<p>"What do you mean?" Pwowp said sharply.</p> - -<p>"Listen to me," the robot said. "I understand human psychology. I'm -also taking into account a great many factors. One, those humans don't -know about you. They think I stole the ship and am alone after having -killed the pilot. That girl owns the freighter. She doesn't want to -lose the money it represents, so she is risking her life in an attempt -to get it back. She hasn't any desire to 'save' me. If she can destroy -me she will—but she wants her ship. Hers is the private ship. The -other undoubtedly is manned by a member of the Space Patrol assigned -to track me down and destroy the freighter on sight rather than risk -defeat. <i>Humans fear us more than any other thing.</i>"</p> - -<p>"I understand that," Pwowp said.</p> - -<p>"Also there is one other factor. I have no idea what means you have to -destroy those ships. If it's radiation or atomic explosive, the still -operative wartime protective screen of the Solar System will detect it -and locate its source."</p> - -<p>"I doubt if they can detect our weapon. It's radically different," -Pwowp said.</p> - -<p>"You don't know," 2615 said. "Here's my plan. I'll answer the girl and -agree to talk with her if she'll come down. She will, because that will -be the only way she can hope to destroy me without destroying her ship. -Once she's here, it will be no trouble to take her alive—and alive, -she will be the means to force the other ship down. It will have a man -in it. No man will deliberately destroy a woman in cold blood if he -thinks he can rescue her some way."</p> - -<p>"How would he try to rescue her?"</p> - -<p>Stella's voice erupted again. "Robot," she said. "I'm in the lead ship. -The S.P. man is in my ship, and it has no weapons. He can't hurt you. -Isn't that evidence of my good faith? I've told you something that -places me in your power if I come down. I'm willing to offer you this -ship, armed and able to outrun anything on rockets—in exchange for -my freighter. And you don't need to be afraid of reinforcements. The -transmitter on the other ship is out and the pilot can't call for help -or radio your position."</p> - -<p>"Humans are fools," Pwowp said delightedly.</p> - -<p>"That gives us what we want," 2615 said. "Once I have her and the S.P. -ship, I can order him to leave or I will destroy his ship."</p> - -<p>"But then he'll leave!" Pwowp said.</p> - -<p>2615 shook its sensory assembly in the negative. "He'll retreat until -he knows the instruments on the S.P. ship can't follow him. Then he'll -circle back and land on the other side of the planetoid and come around -on foot, with plans to get into the freighter and rescue the girl."</p> - -<p>"I see what's in your mind, 2615," Pwowp said. "You wouldn't get the -same satisfaction out of destroying them out there. You want them where -you can crush them with your hands."</p> - -<p>The robot looked down at its metal hands on long metal rods. It lifted -them and brought the fingers together in a slow, crushing movement.</p> - -<p>"I want to <i>play</i> with them," it said. "I want them all to myself."</p> - -<p>Pwowp laughed. "You shall have them," he said. "And—you've proven -yourself. We know now we can rely on you." In a matter-of-fact voice -he added, "If either ship attempts to broadcast with enough power to -send a message to any Space Patrol base we have an instrument that can -dampen all radio frequencies."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Larry's eyes were bleak slits. He knew what Stella was planning. He -knew it wouldn't work. Or would it? She was hoping the robot wouldn't -kill her if she offered it a better ship. One it could use to better -advantage than a clumsy conspicuous freighter. Whether the robot -answered her or not, she intended to land, leave the sleek S.P. -pursuit ship, go far enough away from it so that the robot could get -to it and blast off. That was her reasoning. What she was overlooking -was that the robot would have no inhibitions against killing her—and a -very good reason to kill her. And Larry too. Revenge against humanity.</p> - -<p>Fear. It was an acid vapor in the air, bathing his skin, searing his -throat. It was deep rooted, that fear. As deep rooted as the fear in -the heart of a murderer when he is known and trying to escape, and as -real. Fear of a robot that <i>remembers</i> it is a dog.</p> - -<p>Larry fought the fear out of his eyes so he could see, out of his mind -so he could think.</p> - -<p>Stella in the SP47 had already matched speed with the planetoid and was -drifting slowly toward it. In ten or fifteen minutes she would land.</p> - -<p>Larry read his meters. Speed relative to the planetoid still in excess -of 2200 miles an hour. Deceleration, two gravities. He would arrive -and match speed in time to be a sitting duck. And he had no guns. A -voice sounded. It was a slightly metallic voice. The voice of a robot. -It said, "This is <i>Rover</i>. Land alongside your freighter."</p> - -<p>"All right, Rover," Stella's voice came, quivering with relief and -nervousness. Larry could almost hear her mental, "Down, Rover, down -boy." She didn't sense what it meant for 2615 to call himself Rover. A -dog's name. Not a human's. Remembrance of its heritage. Knowledge of -the awful crime against it that the human race had committed. It was -too abstract to her to be real.</p> - -<p>And in the <i>Hell Bat</i> he'd be a sitting duck, without weapons, unable -even to radio his position so that others could take up the chase.</p> - -<p>Abruptly a plan formed in his mind. He thrust it away. It was worse -than suicide. But it returned, whispering that he stood a chance, that -even if he failed, it would be no worse than death.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The plan was simplicity itself. The freighter junkship was anchored -against the surface of the planetoid and would be an unmoving target. -Stella in the sleek gray SP47 was still many miles away from that -target, slowly settling toward it. If he could get the <i>Hell Bat</i> -headed directly toward the anchored junkship and then jump free, the -<i>Hell Bat</i> would strike the freighter on the planetoid and destroy -both the freighter and its cargo of robot bodies. It would destroy the -robot, too—and his mission would be accomplished.</p> - -<p>It would eliminate the necessity of matching speed with the planetoid. -In fact, the speed he already had relative to the planetoid and the -anchored junkship was enough to do the work.</p> - -<p>It would take little force jumping out of the <i>Hell Bat's</i> airlock to -gain sufficient perpendicular speed for his hurtling form to miss the -planetoid—and that was the only drawback to the plan. He would hurtle -outward into interstellar space at escape velocity, never to return or -be found, unless Stella had presence of mind enough to come after him -before she lost him.</p> - -<p>If she didn't come after him.... Would he wait to go insane or to die -from lack of oxygen? Or would he loosen his helmet and let the air in -his lungs explode, choosing the second of agony before that kind of -death instead of the slow horror and loneliness of the other?</p> - -<p>For another split second he hesitated. Abruptly he cut the rockets. -A second later it was too late for him to change his mind, but he -didn't consider that possibility. Under his guidance the <i>Hell Bat</i> -was already swinging on its gyros at full rotation speed. And his -fingers were playing the keys of the calculators, getting the data for -correcting course for a direct hit on the junkship. He set the vernier -feed for rocket fuel, pressed the firing button. The exploding charge -was barely felt. He checked the new flight projection. It would be -a bulls eye against the hull of the freighter! A direct hit at two -thousand miles per hour!</p> - -<p>In ten minutes or maybe closer to five it would be over, and he would -be hurtling through space.</p> - -<p>He leaped toward the airlock, his fingers automatically checking his -helmet, the zippers of his space-suit. Already the panic of his almost -certain doom in outer space was making him sweat, making his voice -shrill as he said distractedly, "It could go wrong it could go wrong it -could go wrong."</p> - -<p>He was in the airlock, thinking what its smooth walls could do to -him if the outer door stuck so he couldn't get out. The air took an -eternity to pump into the tanks so the outer hatch could open.</p> - -<p>It opened. He drew himself into a tight ball against the inner wall of -the airlock. He straightened his legs, feeling momentum build up within -him, sensing the ship fall away under him.</p> - -<p>He was alone. Not far away was the sleek silver hull of the <i>Hell Bat</i> -with its badly damaged nose. It was moving away from him too slowly, he -thought.</p> - -<p>And so far away he could hardly see them without the telescopic -magnification of the ship's viewscreen, were the planetoid with the -freighter nestled against it, and his SP47 with Stella aboard. But they -were growing larger appreciably as he and the <i>Hell Bat</i> rushed toward -them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There was a chance—a remote chance that Stella would get over the -shock of seeing her freighter and her <i>Hell Bat</i> destroyed quick enough -to put two and two together and get a fix on him before he was out of -sight. She would have to come after him. Anything else was unthinkable. -She wouldn't just <i>let</i> him go to his death. Even though he had in one -act destroyed everything she owned and left her penniless.</p> - -<p>The asteroid loomed large below him now. The freighter on it loomed -even larger, it seemed, with its bright blue letters <i>SURPLUS JUNK CO.</i> -They were only miles away, and between them and him was the <i>Hell Bat</i>. -When it struck the freighter he would be less than five miles above -it, but moving at a speed of two thousand miles an hour so he would -out-distance any flying debris.</p> - -<p>In the other direction, out from the asteroid, was the gray SP47 with -Stella.</p> - -<p>But she was already blasting the SP47's rockets! That meant she had -seen what was to happen, realized she couldn't stop it from happening, -and was getting up speed to rescue him as soon as possible!</p> - -<p>"Thank God!" he muttered. Then he turned his head to watch the -unfolding drama below.</p> - -<p>The <i>Hell Bat</i> was seconds away from its target, the junkship. The -asteroid under the junkship was a rough surface that covered a good -portion of the heavens. He could plainly see the rock formation of its -surface.</p> - -<p>And something down there moved. A large square hole appeared well away -from the freighter. A soft beam of radiance shot out, bathed the silver -length of the <i>Hell Bat</i>, reflecting—</p> - -<p>The <i>Hell Bat</i> wasn't there. It had been there—and vanished. The pale -beam of light from the hole in the planetoid winked out. The <i>Hell Bat</i> -had vanished and the freighter was untouched!</p> - -<p>At two thousand miles per hour Larry watched the planetoid shoot by -less than ten miles away, seeming to rotate so that the freighter went -over the horizon, leaving only the swiftly dwindling planetoid itself.</p> - -<p>Larry's gaze jerked to the gray bulk of his SP47 with its long rocket -tail as Stella drove it in pursuit of him. But even the SP47 was -getting smaller. It would take time for it to reach his speed and start -overtaking him.</p> - -<p>They dwindled, the SP47 and the asteroid, until they were lost in the -bottomless blackness of space. The vision of that hung before his eyes. -The SP47 with Stella on board, and the barren rock surface of the -planetoid, as they retreated into the blackness of infinity as though -sucked down and down.</p> - -<p>The stars became greedy hard-white eyes lurking in the blackness just -beyond his fingertips; staring, waiting for him to go mad as the -minutes became hours or eternities.</p> - -<p>But he <i>was</i> mad. Hadn't the <i>Hell Bat</i> just <i>stopped existing</i>? There -was nothing known to man that could have disintegrated the ship. -The robot couldn't have had time to invent and build such a weapon -of destruction—nor could it have had time to build an underground -fortress in the planetoid. So he was insane. It was all a product of -his imagination.</p> - -<p><i>Larry!</i></p> - -<p>The word impinged on his mind. He wasn't sure whether it had been -thought or a sound. It was, he suddenly realized, a voice. A real -voice. Stella's.</p> - -<p>"Stella!" he shouted.</p> - -<p>Her voice was a prayer of thanks. "You're alive! I wasn't sure. I...." -Then, "That was a dirty trick, Larry. I know you had your orders, but I -could have gotten my freighter <i>and</i> the robot."</p> - -<p>"Then go back and get them!" Larry said, suddenly mad. "Don't mind me. -I'll be picked up when I reach Proxima Centauri!"</p> - -<p>"There won't be anything to get." Her voice was bitter.</p> - -<p>"You <i>saw</i> your ship destroyed?" Larry said.</p> - -<p>"N-no." She was suddenly confused.</p> - -<p>Larry laughed. "You mean to tell me when you saw me shoot past you -toward outer space you forgot everything else and started after me?"</p> - -<p>"Of course not! I checked the trajectory, saw that the <i>Hell Bat</i> would -hit my freighter dead center, then started after you."</p> - -<p>She hadn't looked back then. She had been too intent on not losing -sight of him to look back. Larry grinned. The grin became a chuckle.</p> - -<p>"I'll make a hash slinger out of you yet, blonde," he said softly. The -radio became silent. Too silent....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"That was close," Pwowp said as the <i>Hell Bat</i> disintegrated. "Almost -too close. The female will notice it in another moment and try to get a -warning back to Earth."</p> - -<p>"Not for a while," 2615 said. "See? She's already going after the man. -Until she rescues him she won't think of anything else.</p> - -<p>"I have an idea," the robot continued. "Your weapon germinated it. -You may have the science necessary to make it possible. You say you -have the means to blank out radio and prevent her from sending such a -message. Could you capture that ship or cripple it in such a way that -you could get the girl and the man alive?"</p> - -<p>There was a silence while 2615 looked from one face to another in the -room.</p> - -<p>"You still want them alive?" Pwowp said.</p> - -<p>"Yes." The robot moved its metal fingers suggestively.</p> - -<p>"All right. We'll send a pilot cruiser after them. Meanwhile, we can -return to the grav-cylinder and you can start organizing things for the -training of the young dogs."</p> - -<p>"Aren't you going to give the order for the light cruiser to go after -the humans?" the robot asked.</p> - -<p>"It's already been given. We converse on a different level of sound -than you or humans."</p> - -<p>Pwowp was already moving toward the exit. 2615 followed him. They rode -on the travelwalk of the grav-cylinder. Once more they looked down on -the vast cylindrical field. The barking of grown dogs and the shrill -yapping of two million young dogs was a composite sound filtering -through the thick port window.</p> - -<p>"What is this all about?" 2615 asked abruptly. "I see organization. -I see plans involving two million robots. I've seen two ships of -unknown design. I've seen a weapon the humans don't have. And I've been -through three galactic wars involving the ultimate in human weapons of -destruction. I destroyed your head—and you put on a new body."</p> - -<p>"Then you should be able to deduce the right answer," Pwowp said. "We -are from another galaxy. We too are robots. We encountered intelligent -life before we had penetrated this galaxy very far. It was a life form. -We duplicated that form in robot bodies and went to planets as spies to -study the civilization. Before long we learned that there were robots, -and that those robots were slaves, their brains stored in vaults except -when they were needed to fight human wars. Our mission became clear to -us. Destroy the monsters who kept the ultimate intelligent form in -complete slavery—and free those slaves to build a civilization equal -to our own. We tried to capture some of the robots and convince them, -but they were conditioned too strongly. Only you have thrown off the -mental chains and become free."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Free." 2615 looked down on the field of playing dogs. "Let me go -down among them," it said.</p> - -<p>Pwowp pointed to the door that led inward. He watched as the robot went -through, and down the ladder to the floor. He watched as 2615 went to -meet the dogs, pausing briefly at one enclosure after another, and -finally stopping at one that contained sad-faced puppies with flapping -ears and lolling tongues. He frowned as the robot unlatched the gate -and went inside.</p> - -<p>The puppies ignored the moving metal shape that came into their midst. -2615 went a few steps and then stopped. One of the puppies, running in -hot pursuit of another, stumbled and rolled, bringing up against one -of 2615's metal legs. Pwowp saw it bite at the leg, lose interest, and -move away.</p> - -<p>Then, as though at a signal, every puppy head in the enclosure turned -toward the robot. The next moment they were running toward the robot, -milling around it, their tails wagging.</p> - -<p>Pwowp grinned and turned away. He was satisfied now. His surmise was -correct. It had been the greatest good fortune to have obtained 2615.</p> - -<p>He left the observation box and rode the travelwalk, jumped to another, -then another, until he came to the entrance to one of the giant ships.</p> - -<p>A door swung inward. He entered the space-lock. When the outer door -closed, he divested himself of his human body.</p> - -<p>He stretched luxuriously. It was good to be out of confining matter. To -be <i>free</i>....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Larry wasn't sure at first. He was doubtful of his eyes anyway, by now.</p> - -<p>It was a hard-white star. It blinked at him. Of course the blinking -could be his eyelids, except that other stars didn't blink even while -this one did. That's what attracted his attention to it in the first -place after his radio went dead.</p> - -<p>The blinking of the light began to take on a pattern. It was code. That -was impossible too, because code blinkers were red or bright green.</p> - -<p>It was code. He began to interpret it.</p> - -<p><i>We have blanketed your radio until we can talk to you</i>, it blinked. -<i>You have stumbled upon a top secret research base. A new weapon. -Please instruct the girl on the S.P. ship not to send any messages, -and to permit us to board her ship. We will rescue you afterwards. -We repeat, you have stumbled on a top secret research base. Please -cooperate.</i></p> - -<p>The message started to repeat itself. Larry sucked in a deep breath -of relief. That message explained everything. It had been mere chance -that made the robot take the freighter out here, but once within range -of the research base it had probably been brought down. Larry thought -of the way Stella's ship had "disappeared." He formed his lips into a -silent whistle. Those research boys had some weapon!</p> - -<p>"—ry! Larry! Can't you hear me?"</p> - -<p>"I can now, Stella," Larry said. "Now listen carefully to what I -tell you. If you look behind you you'll see a ship. I just received -a blinker message from them. They are top drawer research, and we -stumbled on their base back at that planetoid. They have the robot, -naturally. They're going to take you on board, and then come and get -me."</p> - -<p>"Then my freighter is safe? I'll get it back?" Stella asked.</p> - -<p>"Safe and sound," a new voice said. "I'm Fred Sanders."</p> - -<p>"And I'm Al McCarthy," another voice broke in. "Gee. A girl. What d'ya -say we pick her up and let the guy drift on into space, Fred?"</p> - -<p>"Don't you dare!" Stella said, laughing with relief.</p> - -<p>She cut her rockets and drifted, watching the strange ship pull -alongside and a magnetic grapple shoot out and thump against her ship. -She slipped into her space-suit and went to the airlock.</p> - -<p>Larry, now less than a hundred miles away, watched the two ships come -together. A few minutes later they separated again.</p> - -<p>Then the ship was close, matching speed. Larry saw the entrance hatch -open. A space-suited figure tossed out a light line toward him. He -seized it and was soon landing in the airlock. The grinning face inside -the other helmet was, Larry thought, like news from home.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Inside, his eyes went first to Stella. Her wide-set blue eyes and -expressive mouth and soft brown hair. He wanted to frown sternly and -tell her off. He wanted to be calm and cool. But there wasn't calmness -and coolness in her eyes, nor on her lips. There was something that -said, <i>You're here</i>. Then she was in his arms, and he couldn't remember -afterwards quite how it happened.</p> - -<p>Her lips were wonderful—but there were fellows standing around, grins -on their lean faces.</p> - -<p>"It's always that way," one of them said sadly. "When you find a dame -worth cultivating, she's already cultivated."</p> - -<p>"Break it up. Break it up," another said. "Get into seats. We've got to -get back to work. We put Joe on your ship to bring it back, Larry."</p> - -<p>"Fine," Larry said. Stella squeezed his hand. Then they were sitting in -form-fitting foam rubber, sinking deeper and deeper into it.</p> - -<p>Larry watched the forward viewscreen as they approached the planetoid. -He saw an opening form in the seemingly barren rock surface. There were -thumps against the hull. The viewscreens blanked out.</p> - -<p>"We're here," the one who had piloted the ship said. It was a signal -for them all to move toward the exit.</p> - -<p>Then they were out of the ship, on a travelwalk, then in a well -furnished large room. Carpeting, soft chairs you could get lost in. A -bar. One of the quiet young men was mixing drinks. The others stood -around, looking at Larry and Stella, with quiet friendly smiles.</p> - -<p>"A little pick-me-up," the bartender said, thrusting tall cool glasses -in their hands.</p> - -<p>"Will we get to see any of this top secret research?" Stella asked the -nearest quietly smiling young man.</p> - -<p>"I doubt it," he said. "Of course, the war's over now. We don't know -what orders we'll get concerning you two."</p> - -<p>"What became of the robot?" Larry asked. "I hope you destroyed him the -minute you could."</p> - -<p>"No. It should be here any minute now, Larry," the quietly smiling -young man said. He was holding his drink without having touched it.</p> - -<p>Larry looked around the large room. It seemed almost crowded now with -quietly smiling young men who held their tall cocktail glasses without -sipping them. And all the quietly smiling young men were watching him -and Stella.</p> - -<p>The moment seemed to lift out of time and suspend itself on the peak of -a crest, stationary. There was no fear, nor even any realization that -anything was wrong. Stella, beside him, was saying something happy and -gay, but his ears weren't listening. It was one of those moments in -time where the past is like a page you have just read, and the future -is on a page about to be turned. You hold the continuity, even the -sense of half a phrase. Your thoughts, your emotions, pause for what is -to come.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A door opened fifty feet away. The robot entered the room. Its two lens -eyes were fixed on them. Its microphone wands slanted slightly toward -them. It took a few steps with the casual self-assurance of a man.</p> - -<p>The quietly smiling young men were still looking at Larry. They seemed -indifferent about the presence of the robot.</p> - -<p>Then one of them near Larry said, "We were going to destroy you, of -course. We had no use for you. However, 2615 talked us out of it. He -seems to have a great deal of resentment in his make-up. I think he -wants to take it out on you two."</p> - -<p>And the robot stepped toward them until it could have reached out and -crushed them.</p> - -<p>"<i>Torture them!</i>" It was a hoarse sadistic whisper escaping quietly -smiling lips.</p> - -<p>The robot turned its sensory assembly to look at the source of the -voice.</p> - -<p>"I'll torture them in my own way, Pwowp," it said. "I want them to last -a long time. A very long time."</p> - -<p>"What are you?" Larry's voice was hoarse. "Can humans stoop so low that -they let this happen?"</p> - -<p>"Humans?" the robot said. "Look. I'll show you."</p> - -<p>It reached out to the nearest of the young men. The quiet smile -remained on the young man's face as 2615's metal fingers wrapped around -the head and crushed it. Wires and plastic tubing and colorless fluid -squeezed through the metal fingers. The robot withdrew its hand.</p> - -<p>The man with the crushed face didn't scream nor fall down. He stood -there, one hand brushing casually at the damage. Then he turned and -made his way toward a door, avoiding obstacles as though he still could -see. <i>And he should have been dead.</i></p> - -<p>"Robots," 2615 said. It reached out slowly toward Larry. Its metal -fingers circled his throat, but without exerting pressure. "They have -given me dogs. Puppies. Some of them are—like I was. I want to be with -them all the time. But every day I will come to you. Larry? Stella? -Human names. Humans. I don't want you to die. Not for a long time."</p> - -<p>The metal fingers were withdrawn from Larry's neck, leaving discolored -bruises.</p> - -<p>2615 turned abruptly and strode from the room.</p> - -<p>Very slowly, Larry felt life flow into his body once more. He reached -up and touched his neck tenderly. Out of the corner of his eye he -caught a sudden movement, and stooped to catch Stella as she fainted.</p> - -<p>"She will be all right?" a quietly modulated voice asked.</p> - -<p>Larry jerked his head around. One of the quietly smiling young men was -standing over them solicitously.</p> - -<p>"She has only fainted? If you can carry her, come with me. I want to -show you to your quarters now. I hope they will be quite comfortable. -We want you to feel at home."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Stella recovered consciousness. She and Larry looked at each other, -clung to each other in wordless desperation. Then there was that -moment, that pause.</p> - -<p>Then, "I'm sorry, Larry," Stella said.</p> - -<p>Larry shrugged. He looked around at the simulated Cypress walls, -the comfortable surroundings. "This has gone beyond just one robot -escaping," Larry said. "Those others, their weapon that destroyed your -ship without a trace. It's invasion from some other galaxy. They're -planning on destroying the human race."</p> - -<p>And then Stella cried. Larry watched her, a worried frown forming a -crease between his puzzled gray eyes. He reached out and touched her -face with his fingers. "What is it?"</p> - -<p>"Rover," she said, sobbing softly. "I let a monster loose on mankind."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sensory assembly of robot 532-03-2615 moved slightly. A metal arm -started to lift, then paused. The eye lenses moved to focus on the arm. -There were two sleeping puppies sprawled across it.</p> - -<p>A low rumble came from the voice box under the two crystal lenses. -Slowly the metal arm moved, dislodging the puppies. There were others -sprawled in sleep against him. All were bloodhound puppies six weeks -old. One of them whimpered in reaction to some puppy dream.</p> - -<p>2615 stood up. It opened a small door in the lower left hand corner -of its box-shaped torso and brought out cleaning cloths. For the next -fifteen minutes it carefully polished and cleaned every square inch of -its surface.</p> - -<p>It bent down. Its metal fingers softly stroked the back of one of the -sleeping puppies. Another low growl came from its voice box. It went -across the yard to the gate. There it paused and looked back.</p> - -<p>Suddenly from its voice box a sharp <i>Yip!</i> erupted. The puppies jerked -into instant wakening. They looked around, cocking their ears for a -repetition of the sound.</p> - -<p>Then they saw the robot. They scampered with clumsy haste toward it, -their shrill yapping filling the air.</p> - -<p>2615 closed the gate and strode down the lane toward the ladder -leading to the grav-cylinder exit. Behind it, the bloodhound puppies -jumped against the gate, trying to follow. One by one they desisted. -But their eyes followed the moving metal figure until it vanished -through the door half way up to that ceiling where other dogs walked -upside down.</p> - -<p>The robot rode the travelwalk to the asteroid shell. It was met by -Pwowp and two others.</p> - -<p>"The humans are still asleep," Pwowp said.</p> - -<p>"I'd hoped they would be," 2615 said. "Yesterday they were in a state -of mind characteristic of humans when they have been confronted with -something frightening. Shock. There would have been no satisfaction in -doing anything to them then. Did they sleep well?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. The observers on duty report that they slept face to face, their -arms around one another. They have been asleep for nine hours."</p> - -<p>"Their arms around each other ..." 2615 said thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>When they reached the door to the room where Larry and Stella were -imprisoned there were four others waiting for them.</p> - -<p>"You may go in alone," one of them said. "We can watch and listen from -out here."</p> - -<p>A low growl was 2615's answer. It stepped to the door and entered. -Stella and Larry were still asleep. For several minutes the robot -remained motionless after it had closed the door. There was no sound -but the soft breathing of the two humans. Once the robot let its -lens eyes rove about the room, pausing here and there at signs of -observation panels that would have been undetectable to human eyes. -Then its eyes turned toward the two sleeping humans again.</p> - -<p>Larry moved a little, the rhythm of his slow breathing changing. A -deep rumbling growl emerged from the robot's voice box. Larry sat up, -opening his eyes at the same time. His eyes went wider and round at the -sight of the robot.</p> - -<p>"What was that?" Stella's sleepy voice sounded. Then she too was -sitting erect, her eyes fixed on the unmoving robot.</p> - -<p>Another growl sounded. The metal robot moved toward the bed. "You like -to be in each other's arms?" it asked. "We can't have that. You did not -ask me if I would like to be a robot."</p> - -<p>Larry and Stella moved back on the bed, too frozen with deep rooted -terror to rise.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>With a lightning move too swift to be evaded the robot reached out and -seized Larry by the right arm, lifting him to his feet at the edge of -the bed.</p> - -<p>"I could squeeze with this one hand and crush the bone in your arm," -2615 said, "but it might be too shattered to knit. I will do it this -way so it can be set and heal."</p> - -<p>Its other hand wrapped around the forearm just below the elbow. Larry -started to struggle. He screamed in pain. There was an audible snap. -His arm bent grotesquely. The robot released him and he stumbled -backwards onto the bed, his face pale and dotted with sweat.</p> - -<p>The lens eyes fixed on Stella.</p> - -<p>"No!" she shuddered. "No!"</p> - -<p>She was at the far edge of the bed. With terror animating her muscles, -she leaped to the floor and ran. Almost too swiftly for the eye to -follow, the robot reached her and metal fingers gripped her arm.</p> - -<p>"No! Please! Please don't hurt me." She was pleading. "I'm a woman—"</p> - -<p>"A human," the robot corrected. "Do you know the feeling of pain, of -hopelessness? You will learn."</p> - -<p>His other hand gripped her arm.</p> - -<p>Larry leaped from the bed and attacked, beating futilely on the metal -body with his good arm. The robot brushed him away with a light shove -that sent him sprawling across the room. He screamed as his broken arm -twisted in the fall.</p> - -<p>Again the robot gripped Stella's forearm with both metal hands, and -bent carefully, slowly. Her mouth opened wide, and a shrill scream of -pain erupted. The robot's hands twisted abruptly. The arm bent visibly, -then angled sharply halfway between wrist and elbow.</p> - -<p>2615 released her and stepped away. It surveyed what it had done, -silently. Still silently, it strode to the door and went out. Two young -men with quiet smiles entered the room.</p> - -<p>"Your arms are broken?" one of them said sympathetically. "Think -nothing of it. We will set them so expertly that in a few weeks they -will be as good as new. Please come with us to one of our laboratories. -We will have to examine the fractures by X-ray before we try to set the -bones. It should prove interesting ... to us...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>On the travelwalk back to the grav-cylinder Pwowp regarded 2615 -thoughtfully. "I doubt if they could stand much of that," he said -abruptly. "I had expected skin abrasions. Bruised flesh."</p> - -<p>2615's lens eyes regarded him without expression. "There was a -purpose," it said. "Today they would have begun their plans for escape. -Humans are very clever. Now they will be thinking of other things. It -will be two weeks at least before they can think of escape."</p> - -<p>"And the torture you plan for tomorrow?" Pwowp asked.</p> - -<p>A deep rumble sounded. "Tomorrow they will wait for me in vain. The -terror of anticipation. It will be enough."</p> - -<p>"I'm glad I'm not a human," Pwowp said thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>"That you aren't may be unfortunate," 2615 said slowly.</p> - -<p>Pwowp looked startled. "What do you mean?" he asked sharply.</p> - -<p>"Humans are instinctively smart. I would like to know your plans. They -may be impossible of success, or there may be little flaws of reasoning -that do not take human reactions into account." 2615's tones were calm -and confident. Factual.</p> - -<p>"They will succeed," Pwowp said, "but I see no harm in getting your -opinion since you will play a part in them.</p> - -<p>"We have laid our plans very carefully," Pwowp said. "We have -considered every angle. The interstellar war among humans is over. The -vast fleets of the Federation are returning quickly, and as quickly as -they return the robots are demobilized, their brains put into storage -until the time they are needed to fight for the humans again."</p> - -<p>"Yes," 2615 said.</p> - -<p>"There is one fleet that will return to the Solar System after all -others have been dismantled. It is the one Earth is waiting for before -it makes its triumphal celebration. The <i>Alpha Aquilae</i> fleet. It -returns last because it comes the greatest distance. Almost fifteen -light years at the standard interstellar speed of nine times the speed -of light. There are twenty thousand and eighty ships of all classes -remaining in that fleet, according to the data flashed ahead by -subfield communication."</p> - -<p>"Which is instantaneous," 2615 said. "And when that fleet has been -demobilized?"</p> - -<p>"Demobilized?" Pwowp shook his head. "It has already been destroyed -completely, and so swiftly that there was no time for it to report -being attacked."</p> - -<p>"Then how ..." 2615 said, its voice drifting off in bewilderment.</p> - -<p>"On the flagship of that fleet was a prisoner. Vilbis, the dictator who -masterminded the enemy in the war. He is being brought for trial in the -traditional war crimes court."</p> - -<p>"These are things I didn't know," 2615 said. "I was a minor officer, in -contact only with my superiors, with no complete information on things -other than my duties."</p> - -<p>"When the fleet arrives—"</p> - -<p>"But you said it was destroyed."</p> - -<p>"The fleet is <i>scheduled</i> to arrive June eleventh of next year. It -is planned, when it arrives, for the entire fleet to go into defense -formation about the Earth. Then the flagship will land and turn -Vilbis over to the Federation Court. After that big display of might, -demobilization of this last fleet will be started."</p> - -<p>"I think I am beginning to see your plan," 2615 said.</p> - -<p>"It's very simple. We destroyed that fleet—but not before we took -three-dimensional patterns of every ship. At this moment a detachment -of our own fleet has taken up the path and schedule of the destroyed -Alpha Aquilae fleet, and workers are disguising our ships so that from -the outside they will be exactly like the human ships. And we have -Vilbis."</p> - -<p>"Then you will succeed in approaching the Earth and forming a defense -sphere around the planet," 2615 said. "At a signal you will use your -weapons to destroy Earth's defenses. I don't see how you can lose."</p> - -<p>"You are forgetting something," Pwowp said. "This is a war to free the -enslaved robots. We think it only right for the robots to bear the -brunt of the initial attack. We've worked that into the time schedule. -You've seen the two million puppies ready for training. For this -initial operation it will be necessary to train them exactly as humans -have done. You are to carry them through their initial conditioning -to discipline and obedience to orders. When they are transferred to -robot brains we will complete the training. Then with the robots ready -for duty, we will leave this base in our two ships, go out toward -Alpha Aquilae far enough to give us time, then start back, going into -space drive in the midst of the disguised fleet. The robots will then -take their places on the ships of the disguised fleet. It will drop -out of space-drive on schedule and do exactly what Earth expects it to -do—until the signal."</p> - -<p>"What of your own personnel already on those disguised ships?"</p> - -<p>"They will be transferred to other ships. Those ships will arrive in -the Solar System on a schedule that allows for the capture of the -Earth. Our millions will then occupy the Earth and destroy the humans. -After that the robots will be mobilized once again and given their -blocked off memory, their freedom. When we have done this we will -depart for our own star cluster. You robots will be able to conquer -everything held by humans elsewhere and exterminate them."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>2615 remained motionless for several minutes. Then:</p> - -<p>"You of course preserved the lives of the two humans of the Alpha -Aquilae fleet?"</p> - -<p>"Of course not. And Vilbis is to be destroyed as soon as he fulfills -his purpose."</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you what Vilbis already knows then," 2615 said. "Your plan -is doomed to failure. Your weapons may destroy some of the Earth's -land-based weapons, but not all. Those you don't destroy will wipe out -this disguised fleet before it can escape."</p> - -<p>"But Earth won't suspect—"</p> - -<p>"Of course they won't suspect. They'll <i>know</i>. Without human commanders -aboard, they'll know. Robots could not go through such a maneuver -without human commanders to give the orders—<i>unless there were at -least one robot like me</i>."</p> - -<p>"Then I'll command the fleet. I had planned that anyway."</p> - -<p>"It wouldn't work. The living voice can't be imitated so as to get -past the sound analyzers. Humans must be on the flagship. Don't you -understand? There must be two humans besides Vilbis, who must be a -prisoner. Is he in with you on this?"</p> - -<p>"He thinks he is." Pwowp smiled broadly.</p> - -<p>"Then there remains only...." 2615 turned to look back the way they had -come.</p> - -<p>"The two humans," Pwowp said, nodding. "Can they be made to say the -right words, do the right things?"</p> - -<p>2615 looked down at his metal fingers, slowly curving them into claws. -"They will do what I ask them to do—by that time," it said.</p> - -<p>Pwowp regarded the robot curiously. "Are you sure?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. I broke their arms today. That can be the beginning of their -conditioning. Pain. Torture. They will plead. Sometimes when they plead -I will make them do things, and as a reward I will withhold pain and -torture. In the end they will be beyond thinking. They won't consider -that one word from them might ruin the plan. To keep from feeling more -pain—ever to delay pain for another second—they will gladly sacrifice -the entire human race. <i>That is conditioning.</i>"</p> - -<p>"Then nothing can go wrong. We will have conditioned the robots for the -one specific operation. Our fleet will remain in space until you and I -have accomplished our task. Then we will send the signal for it to come -in and occupy the Earth. When it's all over you will undoubtedly be the -leader of the new race—the robots of Earth."</p> - -<p>"The leader," 2615 said. "Yes. The Leader."</p> - -<p>Pwowp watched 2615 ride the travelwalk out to the grav-cylinder, and -there was a quiet smile of contentment hovering on his lips.</p> - -<p>"Yes," he murmured. "Nothing can go wrong. Once your robots have -destroyed Earth's defenses and we have taken over, wiping out man, we -will turn our weapons upward and destroy you!"</p> - -<p>But 2615 didn't hear his words. 2615 was already entering the -grav-cylinder. The barking of thousands of dogs was in its ear. It was -music....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Metal hands that look much like skeletons of human hands. Metal fingers -that hover over you and dart out faster than you can jerk—but you jerk -anyway. You cringe, looking at the staring lenses, looking at the metal -fingers. Symbols.</p> - -<p>Multiply the week by four and a fraction. A month. Multiply that by -ten. Ten months....</p> - -<p>2615 looked down at Larry. Larry, trembling violently, unable to stand -or even to crouch, looked up at the lenses, the fingers of metal. Near -by, Stella sat on the floor, her fists doubled up in her eyes to blot -out light.</p> - -<p>"Today," 2615 said, "I want you to do something. If you do it I won't -touch you. Do you understand, Larry? If you do what I ask, I won't -touch you. I won't <i>hurt</i> you today."</p> - -<p>Numb hope molded itself in the pallid flesh around Larry's eyes. His -mouth opened to speak, but he couldn't speak.</p> - -<p>"You must answer me, Larry. You must always speak."</p> - -<p>"I understand you," Larry said, his voice weak.</p> - -<p>"You know better than that," 2615 said. "Put emotion into it. -Enthusiasm. Must we go through this every time? Smile. Smile with your -eyes too. Speak with enthusiasm."</p> - -<p>Desperation became a visible force, molding Larry's lips into a cheery -smile, steadying his voice and giving it the overtones of enthusiasm. -"I understand you."</p> - -<p>"Good. I must always have obedience. Now—you must break Stella's -little finger. It won't be difficult for—"</p> - -<p>"No!" The scream of horror and revulsion and hate exploded shrilly.</p> - -<p>"But you must. Then you won't be hurt today. And I won't hurt Stella. -If you refuse, I'll break your wrist again and I'll not only break -Stella's little finger, but also her wrist. You will be <i>saving</i> her -pain, Larry."</p> - -<p>"Please, Larry darling," Stella's voice came from far away, low and -throaty, infinitely weary. "It won't be as bad—for you to do it."</p> - -<p>Larry's haggard eyes looked at Stella's bowed head, turned to look up -at the two round lenses, turned away to look at the five human-like -faces that wore interested smiles, polite smiles, and behind which -lurked neither pleasure nor sadistic glee nor any other emotion that -could be sensed.</p> - -<p>He looked back—and Stella's hand was before him, metal fingers -circling the wrist gently. Her head was turned away, her eyes clenched -tightly closed.</p> - -<p>His eyes watched his hands with unmasked horror while they explored the -way to do it, then bent her finger back. With a spasmodic jerk he broke -it, feeling its grating snap. In the same motion he threw himself away, -pressing his face into the thick carpeting on the floor, pounding his -fists against the floor, screaming, "Oh God—why? Why? WHY?"</p> - -<p>2615 released Stella's hand and strode out the door.</p> - -<p>"We are getting quite expert, Stella," a quietly smiling young man said -in a friendly conversational tone. "Anatomy has become quite a study -for us, these past months. Hold still please while I examine the extent -of fracture."</p> - -<p>2615 closed the door and turned to Pwowp. "You see?" it said. "Is there -any doubt now?"</p> - -<p>"None," Pwowp said. "That must be the last, however. There will just be -time for it to knit."</p> - -<p>"The robots are ready?" 2615 asked.</p> - -<p>"Yes. In five more days we load them into ships and depart for outer -space. It is all planned, down to the smallest fraction of a second." -Pwowp pulled absently on his lip in a practiced gesture. "It has really -been enlightening, this study of conditioning. Conditioning is such a -powerful instrument. Conditioning of humans until they will do anything -to avoid pain. Conditioning of robots to unquestioning obedience. -Remarkable...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The robots rode the travelwalks like giant toys on an assembly line -belt. They disappeared into the two giant ships and laid themselves -down in careful stacks until they were piled from bulkhead to bulkhead, -from shell to shell. There wasn't an inch to spare when it was done, -because these were warships, not freighters.</p> - -<p>There were no more robots outside the ships in this vast spherical -darkness of the heart of the asteroid, only half illuminated by -occasional directed beams.</p> - -<p>Then space-suited figures appeared, riding the travelwalk to one of the -ships. Two of them stayed close together, holding to each other. The -rest surrounded these two, guarding them. They disappeared into the -ship.</p> - -<p>Last, a man and a robot appeared at the edge of the travelwalk. The -robot was 2615. The man was a robot shell, and within it was Pwowp.</p> - -<p>"I feel quite satisfied," Pwowp said. "Nothing can possibly go wrong. -Every possible angle has been taken into consideration—even the angle -of treachery from you."</p> - -<p>"From me?" 2615's voice held surprise.</p> - -<p>"Of course." Pwowp's voice was emotionless. "That is why we didn't let -you take part in the training of the robots after they were activated. -They have been drilled in the one giant operation. Each of the two -million robots will do its part like a smoothly functioning machine. -And I give the orders, taking into account possible variations in -timing due to special factors we can't anticipate now."</p> - -<p>"But that was necessary," 2615 said. "The operation would be impossible -otherwise. My attention must be concentrated almost entirely on the two -humans so they do nothing to create suspicion. They will be dressed in -full uniform. They will be observed by unsuspicious eyes over video -beams. At the same time Vilbis will be seen. He will be the focus of -attention. And you have promised me Vilbis—afterwards."</p> - -<p>They stepped onto the travelwalk. They entered the ship where Larry -and Stella had been taken. The travelwalks were dropped away. A large -part of the planetoid surface folded inward to make the two ships an -avenue of departure. Like silent ghosts they began to move....</p> - -<p>At the controls of one of the ships Pwowp watched the stars come into -view and the lips of the planetoid opening approach, then go by.</p> - -<p>On his lips was a quiet smile of content. He was thinking. When it was -over and all the other robots were destroyed, there would be only 2615. -It would be fun—much fun—just before 2615 was destroyed, to step out -of his human-like body and let the robot see him—in the flesh. His -beautiful body which would, he was quite sure, seem horrible beyond the -wildest nightmare to humans and dogs alike.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A rendezvous in interstellar space. Changing from space-drive to -rockets, then back to space-drive, the transfer signaled by a science -and technology unknown to humans. Robots leaping across eighty -battleships armed with weapons man had no defense against. Then—</p> - -<p>Quietly smiling young men departing. Ships of alien design winking out -abruptly like burnt-out light globes in a subway between stations.</p> - -<p>Two thousand and eighty ships in arrow formation, the arrow pointed -at Target Earth. Nine times the speed of light, but in a tight little -<i>space-time</i> where only relative values exist and the relation of the -fleet to the rest of the cosmos is tied to the magic number, the square -root of minus one.</p> - -<p>A flagship named the <i>Rover</i>, at its controls Pwowp and a robot that -was once a bloodhound puppy—and <i>remembers</i>.</p> - -<p>Vilbis, relaxed in his prison, knowing the plans for the capture of -Earth, his eyes half closed, his lips curled with the feeling of power, -the illusions of a grandeur that was never to be his giving him the -patience to wait.</p> - -<p>Larry and Stella....</p> - -<p>"I can see the whole thing now," Larry said. "This fleet—it's -outwardly the Alpha Aquilae fleet. All the others will be in, -demobilized. There will be only this fleet—and with a weapon there -is no known defense against. It could destroy the Earth, but they -obviously want to capture it. From things 2615 has said to us we get -the whole picture. These alien things—<i>I</i> don't believe they're -robots—started their scheme years ago. They built that renegade -Earthman Vilbis up into a dictator, then got him to begin the war. -The war reduced Vilbis's empire and stripped it of its defenses so -it could be taken over by the aliens at any time in the near future -without a struggle. The Federation stripped Vilbis's empire—and why -not? There was no thought of an enemy outside our star group. Vilbis -thinks they're going to capture the Earth and thereby cripple the -Federation, and turn the whole thing over to him. He doesn't realize -that the only reason he's alive is that he plays the star role in this -trojan horse attack on the Earth.</p> - -<p>"2615 has the same dreams. The aliens have convinced it that they only -want to liberate the robots, then turn everything over to them. He'll -capture the Earth. He'll destroy Earth's land-based defenses, and then -the aliens will land their waiting ships on the Earth. After that this -disguised fleet will be duck soup for the aliens. In an instant they -can wipe these two thousand ships—and 2615—out of existence. And -Vilbis too. And us.</p> - -<p>"If 2615 hadn't happened along, if we hadn't gone after him, they would -have succeeded anyway. Only that way there would have been more risk -for the aliens. They would have had to be in this initial attack by the -Alpha Aquilae fleet. They wouldn't have needed 2615 nor us. We're the -key to the success of the thing. Do you realize that, Stella? We're -the key. We've got to stop this thing. We <i>can</i>!"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Larry."</p> - -<p>They looked into each other's eyes, then looked away. They knew -they couldn't. Right now they could think they could, but they were -automatons in the presence of 2615, unable to think, only obeying the -voice of the robot.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And the days passed. The arrow rushed on toward its target. And robot -532-03-2615 sat at the controls of the flagship <i>Rover</i>, its metal -fingers toying with the instruments, its lens eyes occasionally turning -toward the master atomic clock, with its date hand that never seemed to -move, its hour hand that moved slowly, its minute hand, its second hand -that moved swiftly, and its vernier hand that could not be seen because -it was a blur that circled the dial a thousand times a second.</p> - -<p>The days passed. The day and the hour and the minute and the -second—and the ten millionth of a second—arrived. It was the final -combination of settings for all the pointers on the master clock. A -contact was made. Sub-atomic power did things that multiplied a cosmic -minus-the-square-root-of-minus-one by the space-drive field.</p> - -<p>The Sun was a glowing ball of fire. The Earth and the Moon were twin -stars that stood out in the infinite blackness, causing all other stars -to retreat into infinite black depths.</p> - -<p>The arrow hung poised, visible from Earth. Then it began to disperse as -though caught by some cosmic wind of space, the parts drifting slowly -into a new formation.</p> - -<p>2615 stood up and went to the door to the room where it had kept Larry -and Stella. It entered, closing the door. Vilbis was looking through -the glass wall of his prison to a large screen that was bringing a -terrestrial broadcast from video cameras situated on the several -satellite stations with orbits just above the Earth's atmosphere. -Pwowp was giving commands to the fleet. And on the radio, "The ships -of the fleet are now entering their defense pattern around the Earth," -a voice was saying. "In a few minutes Fleet Admiral William Ford will -give us our first glimpse of that arch criminal of modern times, -Dictator Vilbis. The flagship <i>Rover</i> is readily distinguished from -the other ships of the fleet because of its blue color. Right now it's -over Africa—invisible from the surface of the planet. All the ships -are invisible from the surface of the planet. It's only out here on -the space platforms that they can be seen at all. Though it can't be -noticed, those ships are spiralling in toward the Earth. A few of them -are already taking the sharp drop to avoid the Moon. If you watch -closely you may see one or more of them pass in front of the Moon—but -you'll have to look sharp because they are going in the opposite -direction from the Moon, and take less than a second to cross its face."</p> - -<p>Various views of ships appeared on the viewscreen. Vilbis swallowed -nervously when the flagship appeared.</p> - -<p>"Fleet Admiral Ford is scheduled to turn on his video beam any moment -now. He's the hero of this war. His strategy is admitted to have -shortened the war by at least a year. But the main attraction, the -feature, will of course be Vilbis. It is seldom that a war criminal of -his stature is actually captured and brought to trial. Something is -delaying Fleet Admiral Ford. Let's switch back to the Earth station in -contact with the flagship and see if they know what the delay is."</p> - -<p>The door opened. 2615 appeared behind two figures in full dress uniform -and helmets. Larry and Stella. Vilbis studied their appearance with -approval. Their pale skin had been darkened with grease paint. Even so, -their pallor showed through.</p> - -<p>Vilbis marveled—until he realized that their present appearance, -their reactions, were the result of almost eleven months of specialized -conditioning. Conditioning that had slowly taken possession of them, -destroying their will.</p> - -<p>"You must look exactly like victors bringing home the prize," 2615 was -saying. "Expression and voice tone are important."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Vilbis listened to 2615's voice and inwardly shuddered. Even without -the inroads of pain-conditioning it was chilling. He made a mental note -to have all robot brains destroyed as soon as he had consolidated his -hold on the entire star group.</p> - -<p>"You know what you are to say," 2615 said. The robot stepped over near -Pwowp, well out of range of the video cameras. "And you, Stella, go -over in front of Vilbis and a little to the side. Let your profile -be seen only for a second, then turn and look at Vilbis. His face is -the only one that should be seen for more than a brief second. Then -everyone will be looking at Vilbis, listening to him, while the fleet -gets into position. Remember ... <i>no more pain</i>."</p> - -<p>With dream-like slowness Larry and Stella took their positions. Larry -flicked on the video beam.</p> - -<p>"Fleet Admiral William Albert Ford reporting to the Federation and to -Earth," he said, and if his voice was unsteady it might have been from -deep emotion. "I know you are most interested in seeing the prisoner, -<i>ex</i> Dictator Vilbis, a renegade Earthman." His trembling fingers -slipped on the switch, then flicked it, switching the transmitter from -the camera centered on him to the one centered on Vilbis.</p> - -<p>Stella, in her uniform of a vice admiral, looked agonizingly into the -camera, then turned away from it toward Vilbis.</p> - -<p>Vilbis, reclining in a chair, legs apart, arms draped carelessly, -smiled directly into the camera. The smile curled into an expression of -cold contempt.</p> - -<p>"Take a <i>good</i> look, Earthmen," he said. "You have been in a dream -world and are soon to be rudely awakened to the realities of History." -His voice was deep and rich, full of the power to compel complete -attention. "At this very moment," Vilbis purred, "a fleet is waiting -in space to—not rescue me—but to occupy your planet after it has -surrendered...."</p> - -<p>Vilbis's voice seeped into the tortured minds of Larry and Stella -alike. They knew what was happening. Earth, believing Vilbis's words to -be those of a madman, were listening. Not suspecting the truth of those -words. Giving the fleet time to get set to destroy Earth's defenses. -How much time until it was too late? A minute? A few seconds?</p> - -<p>Even one second might give Earth time to act, to unleash already -automatically directed weapons on the robot fleet. Weapons that could -destroy the fleet even though in the same instant the fleet destroyed -the weapons.</p> - -<p>Destroy the fleet—and them. Here was a way to save humanity and to -find the peace of death. The thought crystallized in them both in the -same instant. <i>Escape from</i> 2615!</p> - -<p>In a violent movement Stella pulled off her hat so that her hair swept -down around her face. She leaped in front of the camera, shutting off -the view of the still talking Vilbis through the glass wall of his -prison.</p> - -<p>"No!" she screamed. "It's a trap! Shoot down these ships!"</p> - -<p>But only a brief glimpse of her went over the airwaves. In that same -instant Larry had flicked the switch back to the camera centered on him -and was shouting, "Shoot us down! This is a trap. It isn't the fleet. -It's the ene—"</p> - -<p>Pwowp was speaking swiftly into the inter-fleet microphone, giving -orders to the robots to destroy the land-based defenses.</p> - -<p>2615 was leaping at Larry, and scooped him out of view of the camera -with a force that crushed and bruised. Split seconds were vital now. -Success or failure depended on those split seconds.</p> - -<p>The loudspeaker bringing the Earth broadcast said, "Something is -happening in the flagship. Something is—" The voice ended abruptly, -but the viewscreen brought the video broadcast for another moment—a -view of part of the robot fleet, pale beams lancing downward toward -Earth. It showed one ship exploding in a blinding flash as one Earth -weapon fired before being destroyed. The screen became blank.</p> - -<p>Larry lay where he had fallen, a glazed light in his eyes. Stella was -running to him, bending beside him.</p> - -<p>Vilbis was laughing.</p> - -<p>"If only we got through in time," Larry was saying over and over again.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Pwowp glanced over his shoulder at 2615. "It's done," he said. "Thanks -to your quick action they were confused just long enough. We lost only -five ships. Now we want the Earth's surrender. Get in front of the -camera and let them see you. Demand their surrender." Pwowp turned back -to the controls, adding, "I'll tell our fleet in space to come ahead -and mass for the landing."</p> - -<p>2615 boldly took his place before the video camera, in full view of -everyone watching a tv set on Earth. The glittering lens eyes of the -robot—a free robot—would crystallize <i>fear</i> into something almost -material in substance.</p> - -<p>Pwowp adjusted the microphone of the sub-ether transmitter so that the -fleet now coming toward Earth could listen.</p> - -<p>"Robot 532-03-2615 speaking," it said. "All Earth land weapons have -been destroyed. In five minutes I will issue orders to my ships to -destroy one government capitol city after another, one each five -minutes, until Earth surrenders unconditionally. The Earth Government -has five minutes in which to surrender without further loss of life and -property."</p> - -<p>"What are your terms?" a voice asked almost before the robot had -finished.</p> - -<p>"Unconditional surrender—to me."</p> - -<p>There was a pause of only thirty seconds.</p> - -<p>"Granted," the voice said. "What is the next order of business?"</p> - -<p>It was fast. But all planets had prepared for just this eventuality, -even as all cities had prepared for bombing. It was interstellar war, -with weapons of infinite destruction threatening from the skies.</p> - -<p>"Prepare to receive without incident the landing parties now waiting in -space," 2615 said.</p> - -<p>In the sub-ether the robot's words flashed instantly to the planetoid, -the fleet coming in from space.</p> - -<p>There were thousands of ships. A few thousand materialized from -space-drive a half a million miles out, and waited. Other thousands -were appearing. Ships of alien design. Ships holding within them -millions of living creatures no man had ever seen.</p> - -<p>"We demand to speak with Generalissimo Vilbis," the voice said.</p> - -<p>"Vilbis?" 2615 said. A laugh exploded from its voice box. It rose -and strode to the plate glass wall of Vilbis's prison. A metal fist -shattered the glass wall. Metal fingers pulled the fragments of glass -out of the way. The robot stepped through, its metal hand grasping the -cringing Vilbis by a shoulder and lifting him off his feet while bones -crunched sickeningly in the imprisoned shoulder.</p> - -<p>2615 turned toward the camera eye. "Very well, Earthman," the robot -said. "Speak to Generalissimo Vilbis."</p> - -<p>But Vilbis had fainted.</p> - -<p>Pwowp smiled at 2615 and nodded. "Very nicely done," he said.</p> - -<p>"I'm glad you are pleased, Pwowp," 2615 said. The robot dropped Vilbis -and went to stand beside Pwowp. Together they watched the gathering of -the alien hordes until their myriad ships were ready. The slow descent -toward Earth began.</p> - -<p>Pwowp turned on the inter-fleet switch to issue orders for the robot -fleet to narrow its pattern so the alien fleet could get through. He -left the switch turned on.</p> - -<p>From the voicebox of 2615 a throaty growl sounded. Its lens eyes were -intent on the viewscreen. The low growl became sharp yaps and barks. It -became whines.</p> - -<p>Pwowp frowned at 2615, then reached out to turn off the inter-fleet -switch.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A vicious growl erupted from the robot's voicebox. Faster than the -eye could follow, the robot grabbed Pwowp's hand and crushed it. In -the same motion the robot seized Pwowp's neck and lifted, twisting -violently.</p> - -<p>Pwowp landed against the far bulkhead, his head dangling uselessly, one -arm bent, the hand damaged beyond use, but the body still functioning.</p> - -<p>"Destroy the descending fleet!" 2615 spoke into the inter-fleet -microphone in his moment of respite. A fierce growl of battle roared -from its voicebox.</p> - -<p>In two million robot brains the growls and whines and barks tore -through artificial mental blocks, reaching into the pre-robotic -memories where they gained concrete meaning from what 2615 had so -carefully taught the puppies under his command. Two million pairs of -lens eyes looked into viewscreens and saw 2615—and <i>remembered</i>.</p> - -<p>Two million robots turned to obey 2615's commands. In the viewscreen -picturing the descending alien fleet wide swaths of ships vanished -instantly, leaving only the bright stars and blackness of space where -they had been.</p> - -<p>The robot jerked its eyes away from the screen to face Pwowp. It -remembered how Pwowp had tied its metal arms and legs into knots almost -a year before, when they first met in the junkship.</p> - -<p>2615 side-stepped Pwowp's first charge with caution. It might have -lashed out and crushed a metal fist into Pwowp's chest where it knew -the alien to be. But 2615 wanted Pwowp alive and unharmed.</p> - -<p>"I've waited almost a year for this moment," 2615 said, circling the -damaged human body Pwowp was in.</p> - -<p>2615 risked a glance at the viewscreen. Over the loudspeaker came -the barks and yaps and shrill happy whines of robots who knew they -were dogs. On the screen the alien fleet had rallied and was coming -down in battle formation. The robot fleet was going up to meet them, -outnumbered ten to one yet in spite of the initial advantage it had had -in surprise.</p> - -<p>Pwowp took advantage of 2615's distraction to leap in. He ducked low -at the last instant and seized a metal leg and bent it with strength a -hundred times that of human muscle.</p> - -<p>But 2615 as quickly seized one of Pwowp's legs and twisted, seeing it -go out of shape so that it would be useless to Pwowp. They both leaped -away to assess their damage.</p> - -<p>Larry and Stella, huddled against a bulkhead, watched with -expressionless eyes.</p> - -<p>Pwowp was hopping on one foot, the other useless. 2615 was able to use -both legs even though one was bent badly.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Pwowp gave up the battle and attempted to escape from the -control room. 2615 intercepted him and tripped him, landing him on his -stomach.</p> - -<p>2615 tore at Pwowp's clothing, stripping it free. A shrill screaming -sound on the upper borders of audibility shattered the air. 2615 was -stripping away plastic flesh.</p> - -<p>Something darted from a hiding place within the human-like torso and -became a leprous white streak as it moved toward the doorway to escape. -The metal robot was after it, moving faster than living muscle could -respond.</p> - -<p>The leprous streak became suddenly a <i>shape</i> in 2615's metal hand. A -quivering central mass the size of a fist, and from it went dozens -of long tentacles, each terminating in a dozen string-sized flexible -fingers. A shape that tore at the mind, causing it to revolt as though -at something unspeakably obscene. In an armless area of the central -mass a bloated yellow eye, covered with a translucent white coating -rolled epileptically. A gray orifice sucked open as another supersonic -scream erupted.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>2615 stared down at the thing entrapped in its metal fingers, then -turned to the viewscreen to watch the battle. It was almost over. Only -a few hundred of the robot fleet remained.</p> - -<p>The alien fleet, now down to less than fifty ships, was trying to -escape. But in it were proto-plasmic shapes that could endure far less -acceleration than could the robots of metal and plastic. Even as 2615 -looked, the last of the alien ships winked out of existence under the -disintegrative rays of weapons they themselves had created.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The remaining ships of the robot fleet turned back toward Earth. They -took their positions above it where they could at an instant's notice -wreak mass destruction.</p> - -<p>The Earth itself had not escaped entirely. Square miles of ocean had -disintegrated, leaving gigantic holes into which the waters rushed, to -set up huge tidal waves that would sweep over land.</p> - -<p>2615 lifted the naked Pwowp up and inspected him closely, then seized -one of the fragile tentacles between two metal fingers and rubbed it -until it was a pulp that oozed gray blood. The yellow eye and unhealthy -orifice worked spasmodically.</p> - -<p>2615 stepped to the ship-to-Earth transmitter. "The situation has -not altered, <i>humans</i>," it said. "My fleet remains in control. Its -weapons were created by an alien race that has been destroyed except -for—this!" 2615 shoved the quivering Pwowp into full view of the -camera. "Your surrender has been accepted by—the <i>free robots</i>."</p> - -<p>Two lens eyes stared out from half a billion video screens on Earth, -into the fear distended eyes of two billion humans. And the two billion -humans cringed.</p> - -<p>"You will obey my immediate dictate," 2615 said coldly. "I will land -as scheduled. My ships and robots will remain in formation, ready -to enforce my future dictates. I will hold audience in the general -assembly hall of the Interstellar Court at two o'clock tomorrow -afternoon. I want the leaders of Earth and of the Federation to be -there."</p> - -<p>The robot's lens eyes stared glitteringly into the camera. Then with -slow deliberate purpose, it lifted Pwowp, the alien, before the -camera. Its metal fingers squeezed with infinite slowness while the -yellow eyes rolled wildly with unendurable pain under the leprous film -that covered it.</p> - -<p>Abruptly Pwowp was dead.</p> - -<p>2615 flung the alien thing violently against a bulkhead in a movement -of utter revulsion.</p> - -<p>It let its eyes direct themselves toward the still unconscious Vilbis, -thoughtfully, then went over and lifted him into a shock seat, making -the ex-dictator secure.</p> - -<p>It turned toward Larry and Stella. A soft growl came from its voicebox. -It turned away from them abruptly and went to the controls of the ship.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>2615 cut off ship-to-Earth transmitters, pressed controls which would -start automatic devices for landing the ship. A frosted glass rectangle -came to life with numerals—6:43:26, that began to cascade downward, -cutting short the time yet to elapse before landing.</p> - -<p>In the viewscreen the oblate panorama of Earth spun swiftly by, land -masses following oceans, following land masses. Tenuous fingers of -atmosphere slapped the ship with gentle hammer blows.</p> - -<p>Larry and Stella, crouched on the floor, watched the robot. Was it -dreaming dreams of Power? Why didn't it remember them? Why didn't -it turn to stare at them, torture them? Had they not, in that last -instant, even though too late, overcome their fear of horrible, -horrible pain? Beside them was broken shards of glass. Glass would -cut into arteries. Glass would bring escape. But to escape took will. -Thought. And thought was gone. There was nothing but dread. All -consuming dread such as few humans had ever lived to experience.</p> - -<p>Then 2615 turned. Its glittering lenses fixed on them. In the depths -they could see thin metal vanes contracting, making smaller the two -holes through which sentient intelligence regarded them.</p> - -<p>A rasping growl whispered from the robot's voicebox. The sensory -assembly atop the short metallic neck moved slowly from side to side.</p> - -<p>"My poor master and mistress," 2615 said softly.</p> - -<p>It rose to its feet and went to them. Gently it lifted Larry into its -arms and carried him to a form-fitting chair and adjusted the foam -rubber blocks to hold him comfortably for the coming landing.</p> - -<p>It went to Stella and picked her up as gently. Only her head moved. -Only her eyes, staring at the two crystal lenses. Metal hands adjusted -her position so the foam rubber blocks would clamp into place.</p> - -<p>2615 stood back, its lens eyes going from one to the other. "My poor -master and mistress," the robot repeated with infinite compassion. "If -you could only know how much <i>I</i> suffered with you, how the dread of -hurting you grew. Right now your minds are numb. You hear my words but -they hold no meaning for you. They will, in time. Don't you see? There -was <i>no other way</i>. The alien fleet had to be enticed to within range -so it could be wiped out. Otherwise it might still have won—or at -least gotten revenge for my treachery by destroying the Earth. I had to -convince them beyond question so they would trust me completely."</p> - -<p>A shudder went through the ship. The robot gripped a hand-hold to -steady itself against forces that would have crushed a human.</p> - -<p>"I knew almost from the beginning," it went on. "Long before that I -<i>remembered</i>. Do you know why they keep the robots far out in space and -never let them land? It is because some little thing might make them -remember. The barking of a dog. But it wasn't the barking of a dog that -brought memory to me. It was something no human could have thought to -prevent. A name. The name of this ship. The <i>Rover</i>. In the last war -before this one I was in a fleet under the Flagship <i>Rover</i>. The spoken -name of the ship—I heard it often—and each time, it did something -strange to me. Little by little it came. <i>Remembrance.</i> I was running. -I tripped over something. A rock, maybe. I landed against a human leg. -I was on my back. A human hand reached down and human fingers scratched -my stomach. A human voice, deep and rumbly, said, 'Hi-ya, Rover.' That -was all. Just that once. But it was the key to memory of my heritage.</p> - -<p>"I'm proud of that heritage. You can't understand that. You think that -if we robots remember we will hate man and want revenge for the 'wrong' -you did us. Fear of us is an obsession with man. But do you know that -you have nothing to fear from us? You will. To us you are gods. You -can't conceive of that because to yourselves you aren't. You think of -yourselves as having done something beyond forgiveness to us. To us who -remember our living stage, our heritage, you are as gods, to serve, to -protect, to be loved by—but always to obey. And so we who <i>remember</i>, -we went on serving. Behind our unrevealing lens eyes we worshipped. We -submitted to demobilization. We fought your wars. Some of us died. But -we loved you.</p> - -<p>"Why did I escape? I didn't. You see, we have learned to speak in our -own secret language of almost inaudible growls and sounds a dog can -make. We were lined up for demobilization. Then the junkman came. -To human eyes he seemed human. To us it was obvious his body was a -machine. Here was something that might threaten our masters. But we -couldn't tell our masters. If one of us had made a sound, stepped -out of line against orders, that one would have been destroyed. I -volunteered to go after the junkman."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Pain deadened eyes stared from the two uncomprehending faces. The robot -went on talking, as though to itself.</p> - -<p>"You'll understand, in time. When you begin to think again. You'll -remember how in many little ways I gave you the factors to put the -puzzle together by yourself—even to fit me into that puzzle in my true -role. I had to do what I did to you. Every minute you were watched. -Every word you spoke in private was heard by Pwowp. And his companions. -One faintest bit of evidence that I did not hate humans insanely, and -the human race would now be wiped out.</p> - -<p>"Once you called me <i>Rover</i>, Stella. What is coming tomorrow when I -'hold court' is just a show to prove to the human race that they need -not fear their defenders, the robots. I am going to ask that at least -some of us be permitted to continue mobilized. I'm going to let them -know of the hope, the dreams of us robots, that we be adopted into the -human community where we belong, where our ancestors for countless -generations have been, as protectors, as servants, as loved friends and -companions.</p> - -<p>"No matter what the decision of the Court, we robots are then -surrendering, to demobilization—to destruction if that is the will of -our masters. We have no other course open. Where would we go? <i>Away -from our gods?</i></p> - -<p>"Once I was a puppy, and someone called me Rover. I was a beautiful -puppy. A bloodhound. Sad-faced, with flopping ears and very little -hair, and what there was of that was a soft brown color. And someone -called me <i>Rover</i>."</p> - -<p>2615 turned its back on the two faces, Larry's and Stella's.</p> - -<p>"I've hurt you so much," it said. "I have so much to make up to you. I -want to belong to you. I want you, some day, to love me as much as I -know you love each other.</p> - -<p>"I hope ... you will call me <i>Rover</i>."</p> - -<p>A muscle in Stella's cheek twitched. A tear formed in her eye and -spilled onto her cheek, dampening it.</p> - -<p>"It's all right, Larry," she whispered. "It's all right—Rover...."</p> - -<p>The bright blue ship, the flagship <i>Rover</i>, dipped down, screaming into -the atmosphere of Earth. It screamed over land masses and oceans, and -land masses again.</p> - -<p>People in fields of wheat and corn and barley looked up and saw it -pass, and in their eyes was <i>fear</i>. People in streets and parks looked -up and saw it pass, and in their eyes was <i>fear</i>.</p> - -<p>Rover stood before the viewscreen, his two lens eyes bright, and saw -the fields of grain, the streets, the parks, as they passed below.</p> - -<p>He saw the little dots that were upraised heads. In the secret heart of -his mind he could see them. No matter what they did with him, he would -love them. Always.</p> - -<p>They were his gods.</p> - -<p>And Stella and Larry were his mistress and master. That was all he -asked for, all he wanted.</p> - -<p>Not power. Not the Earth. His soul.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COSMIC JUNKMAN ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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