"Of course, I do," said Norby shrilly. "I keep telling you all the time I'm Jamyn in origin-in part."
"Now," said Fargo, "I think I'll pay a visit to the castle under my own steam and not as anyone's prisoner."
The the Grand Dragon had recovered from the mixture of shame and physical confusion that had beset her, and now she struggled to her feet. Her guards rushed to her side as she screamed, "Get that stranger! Bring him down!"
"No," said Fargo, skimming over her head. "I think not. I won the fight fairly and you cannot try to upset the result without showing yourself to be most uncivilized. You just sit there and recover, Your Majesty, while I…"
"No you don't," said Jeff. "Not alone, you don't." He snatched up Norby under his left arm and scooped up Oola with his right. "We're all going. Up Norby-to the castle."
10. Villains?
As Jeff and Norby swept up and forward to follow Fargo, who was already approaching the castle door, Jeff saw that the Grand Dragon was vehemently ordering her guard back. Either she had taken seriously Fargo's stem comment about uncivilized behavior, or else she had decided it didn't matter how the strangers were brought to the castle as long as they got there.
Inside the castle, everything seemed the same as before. The four intruders, two humans, one small robot (now on his feet again), and one All-Purpose Pet, proceeded down the dark corridor. around the sharp curve and into the auditorium, which was still lined by the silent figures of dead Mentors. Oola was restless in Jeff's arms.
"Where's the villain?" asked Fargo. "I don't see any live robot. "
His voice echoed in the vast room, and no one answered.
Jeff took Norby's hand, and then Fargo's. -Let's talk telepathically. It will be safer, and perhaps private, but we have to touch each other, Jeff said to their minds.
— What's that? That was Fargo, startled.
— I'm sorry. I forgot you haven't experienced telepathy. Eerie, isn't it?
— Certainly not. That was Norby. His thoughts were loudest because he was designed for telepathy. It is a perfectly natural way of speaking to one another if one has the talent for it.
Jeff smiled to himself. -Yes, but we human beings aren't used to it. Do you sense anything, robot or otherwise, that's alive in this building, Norby?
— I've been trying. I think there's a barrier field around this room at the moment. I can't sense beyond it. It comes from the scanning section of the computer, part of which must be on the back wall, though nothing shows there.
Fargo let go of Jeff's hand and walked quickly toward the back wall. Jeff ran after, pulling Norby with him. He caught up to Fargo, and grabbed him.
— Don't let go of us, Fargo, or we can't communicate privately. And don't touch that wall, or the computer may give our thoughts to the Mentor.
— Jeff, you are fourteen and I am twenty-four. As your much older brother…
— You can also be my stupid brother. I'm the natural leader here, age or not, because I've been here before… -and you got yourself captured. I've been working with the giant computers at Space Command so I ought to…
While they argued (neither managing to finish a sentence), Norby withdrew his legs and arms into his body, elevated on his antigrav, and floated slowly to the featureless computer wall. Jeff and Fargo stopped their mental conversation and watched him as he sailed up and down the wall, over and back.
— What are you doing, Norby?
— He can't hear you now, Fargo, when you talk telepathically. You aren't touching him.
— I forgot. Maybe you should be leader for a while, Jeff.
"I am leader," said Norby out loud. "I can sometimes catch the telepathic drift, even when I'm not touching you. This is my planet, after all, even if I can't remember much, so let me try."
"Try what?" asked Jeff.
"Try using my intuition."
"Do you have one?"
"Not a human one. I seem to have a built-in imagination and the ability to make guesses and take chances. Or maybe being with human beings has taught me how to take chances, even though I certainly don't enjoy it. Still…"
Norby's feeler wire came out and entered a small crack in the surface. Minutes passed. Norby's back eyes closed. Suddenly the crack began to expand and the wall opened like sliding doors. Inside was an opening covered by a misty atmosphere and around the opening was the mechanism of something that might have been a computer, though it was certainly like no computer Jeff had ever seen.
Jeff said so and Fargo added, "Well I've seen a great many more computers than you have, Jeff, but it isn't like any I've seen, either. What is that place inside?"
"That's the scanning room, Fargo," said Jeff with distaste. "Don't go in. It doesn't feel good."
Norby fiddled with the computer and the mist began to clear.
Fargo said, "There's an old beat-up Mentor. What's it doing in the scanning room?"
Jeff stared at the huge figure within the computer. "I don't know. There was no Mentor there when I was inside."
Norby put out his legs and arms and walked back to Jeff. "I must go inside the scanning room. It is necessary."
"Aha," said Fargo, "your alien nature is coming out, Norby. You're not planning to turn us over to the Mentors, are you?" He did not sound as though he were entirely joking.
Jeff fired up at once. "Don't talk to my robot that way, Fargo. He's loyal to us."
"Are you sure?"
"He rescued me from Mentors before, and I would trust him even if he hadn't."
Norby came closer to Jeff and touched his hand. "Stay here with Fargo, Jeff." -and thank you for trusting me, he added telepathically.
Norby inserted his wire into the computer once more. The mists began to swirl up as the protective field formed, but before it closed in entirely, Norby hopped inside, withdrawing his wire as he did so.
Jeff changed his mind at once, feeling oddly alone without Norby's funny barrel shape in his reach. "I shouldn't have let him go, Fargo. It was a mistake. We've got to get him out of there before he's destroyed."
"Why should he be destroyed? That's not a very brave robot. He wouldn't go in there in a million years if he thought there was danger."
"He's plenty brave in a crisis. Besides, he may have miscalculated. Norby's part Jamyn and if the Mentors made him, perhaps they will try to keep him, or change him or…I don't want that! I want Norby back, just as he is, mixed up and all!"
"Patience, patience," muttered Fargo, studying the computer's complex surface. He touched a few spots. Nothing happened.
"On the other hand," Jeff said, "maybe we should wait and do nothing." He knew he wasn't thinking clearly. He wanted to believe that Norby knew what he was doing, but with Norby, one could never tell when his mixed-up nature might rise to the surface.
Fargo seemed totally absorbed in feeling the odd surface of the computer. He also put his hand out to the mist at the computer entrance and drew it back quickly. "No entry. Strong barrier field. The question is, Can we undo it somehow?" He went on trying.
Jeff finally managed to put it into words. "What if Norby doesn't want to come back with us, Fargo? What if he would rather be on his native Jamya than come back to Earth with me? What if-and what's happened to Oola? I put her down when Norby went inside and now I don't see her."
"Oola," called Fargo. "Here! Come to me!"
"Woof!" She was still beaglelike in appearance as she bounded out of the shadows, ears flapping. She sprang into Fargo's arms, licked his nose, and wriggled in her effort to get down again.
"All right," said Fargo. "You can get down, but don't run away. Stay right here."
She sniffed allover the floor, as if she were looking for something. Then she followed a trail up to the scanner entrance, was blocked by the barrier field, and sat down.