“There, see!” Alice said. “How can you doubt that the Second Captain survived and sent the bird for help now?”
“But four years have passed since then.” I answered. “Most likely, he’s dead.”
“But I should relate to you one very strange event.” The robot said. “It took place not all that long ago. About a month or so. Just three days before the epidemic began. I would not have even remembered about it had I not seen the Blabberyap bird. A small black ship landed here on our world. One individual emerged. He wore a hat. We thought at first that he wanted to deal in our spare robots, but it turned out his ship was damaged and he needed our aid… We were delighted to have a chance to render assistance to this person…”
“That was Doctor Verkhovtseff.” Alice whispered.
“But when his ship was ready for flight we asked him if he might give us some machine oil or recent newspapers in exchange for the labor. However, the person in the hat cursed us and said that we would get nothing. And that we should be thankful to him for even leaving us alive. I then said to him: ‘Alien, you should be ashamed of yourself. I remember when we aided a non sapient bird, a Blabberyap, and repaired her wing, although she had nothing to give us in return, and we thought nothing about it. But you are a sapient being, an Earthman by your exterior appearance. You should be ashamed of yourself!’ At that he asked: ‘What Blabberyap’s wing did you fix?’ I said that had happened all of four years before and was irrelevant to the present matter. But he insisted that I tell him all about the injured bird. You should have seen how angry he became. He cursed us for helping the bird, and when he learned she had flown on to the planet Blooke, he set off for there. ‘I have wasted far too much time on that darned bird!” And he muttered a few more things. And later that night he was seen near the main cistern…”
“What cistern?”
“Now all is clear!” The robot said. “He went to the main cistern that contained the machine oil! He is an evil individual, and he may very well have contaminated it with harmful bacteria…”
We told the robot the bacteria may very well have gotten to the planet by some other means, but the robot just shook its head and would not listen to a word I said.
As a parting gift we gave the robot a can with machine oil, enough so he could fix several dozen robots, and promised to immediately send hyperspatial telegrams to the nearest planet as soon as we were in space again so they could send a ship with machine oil.
When the robot departed my friends grew furious.
“The faster we go the better.” They rushed to me. “We may still be able to save the Captain! Now there isn’t the slightest doubt that he’s fallen into some misfortune and that Doctor Verkhovtseff fears that someone will learn the truth.”
“I feel ashamed of being an Earthman.” Zeleny said gloomily. “And until we solve this mystery I won’t be able to look any aliens in the eyes. If Earth has produced such a despicable monster it is our duty to find him and pull his fangs. Maybe the Second Captain will be able to help us in this, once we find him. The animals can wait.”
I sighed and agreed, and anyway Alice and Poloskov were in complete agreement with Zeleny.
“All right.” I said, joining the majority. “Although I suspect that your hopes are founded only on rumors and we won’t find the Second Captain in the Medusa system. As soon as we’re convinced that it is all an error we can head back to the center of the Galaxy do some quick animal collecting.”
“Prepare the ship for departure!” Poloskov gave the order. “Zeleny, to the engine room. Get ready with the antigravs.”
I sent over to the port to take a last look at a planet rendered lifeless and empty by a race of industrious robots who never thought about what they were doing; then I noticed the robot dispatcher was running toward the Pegasus across the dusty field. He was carrying something in his hands.
I went down the gang plank to meet him.
“Take these animals.” He said. “All you need do is change their machine oil; at the moment they’re all paralyzed.”
He pushed a pile of metallic objects into my arms.
“Farewell.” He said as I pulled up the gangplank. “If you should ever find that fiend in a hat and not know what to do with him, bring him to us. We have tons of ruined lubricants to smear him with!” The robot started to laugh and headed off into the dust.
While the ship accelerated for our hyperspace jump I changed the lubricating oil on the metallic animals. I really did want to get a look at the type of animals robots might come up with for their world. And when Zeleny looked into the lab two hours later he almost collapsed from shock. On the floor of the lab he saw little robot animals on wheels chasing after each other. As animals they were terrible, but they more or less resembled mice and cats. Evidently, when the robots built them, they still had memories of real cats and mice.
I placed the robot animals in a steel cage, but sometimes they slip out and go chasing after the diamond backed turtle.
Chapter Fourteen
The Chase for Milady deWinter
The Medusa system is located at the very furthest reaches of our Galaxy. It consists of three planets orbiting a large sun from which protuberances like long hairs flow out into the darkness of space. The first world, the world closest in to the star, is so baked by the heat that it was instantly clear that we would find nothing there.
We flew on to the second world.
The planet was empty, a gloomy desert. The rays of the sun beat back from shining grey rocks, from a lake of asphalt, from a few naked trees. An eternal wind howled over this world.
“Well, is it?” I asked the Blabberyap bird. “Is this the planet or not?”
The Blabberyap leaned its head to one side and gave me no answer.
“Pa,” Alice said, walking to the port hole in the crew’s lounge, “that’s no way to talk to him. He’s afraid of you?”
“But he’s not afraid of you?”
“None of the animals are afraid of me.” Alice said. She was holding one of the robot cats in her arms; it kept licking Alice on the nose with its cold, rubbery tongue. “Blabberyap dear, tell us, did you have to leave your master on this planet?”
The Blabberyap listened to Alice’s words and answered in the voice of the Second Captain:
“‘Beware of the mirages. Do not trust them. Do not get lost in them.’“
“Alas, I think the bird is rather stupid.” I said sincerely. “Is she talking about the planet or about mirages?”
“We’ll see.” Alice answered.
Rain was trickling down the ports; the rain itself was light but the wind blew it in streams that ran over and flowed down the Pegasus’ hull. Even looking out onto this planet was uncomfortable. A long, very boring, night had fallen.
“Oh well,” Poloskov said, “It’s too late to do anything outside today. I suggest we have supper and get some sleep.”
After supper Alice locked the metal cat in its cage, picked up a book and sat down on the small couch in the Crew’s Lounge. I set about searching for the runaway Diamond Backed Turtle, to make certain it did not get into trouble. Poloskov and Zeleny also had things of their own to do.
Two or three hours passed. I returned to the Crew’s Lounge. Alice was still reading. The lounge was comfortable and warm and especially pleasant now that, although the wind still howled beyond the port, the rain at least had stopped.