"Oooo-o-o-o."
Jeff's spine tingled at the sound. Oola howled more like a primeval wolf than a beagle. "She must miss Norby," he said, hoping it was that.
"I feel like howling in frustration; too." Fargo said. "I've fiddled with some things on the surface that seemed promising, and a few that didn't, and nothing happens. I can't figure out this computer. I just can't fit my mind into the alien mind that constructed it."
Oola stood on her hind legs and pressed her nose against one of the little panels marked irregularly over the surface. The mist began to clear at once.
"I touched that one," said Fargo indignantly.
"Maybe it had to be touched by something cold and damp," said Jeff.
Norby was facing them at the opening. "I'm so glad to see you," he said. "I couldn't seem to open the scanner again from inside, and I was afraid that you'd never manage to work the other side. I felt very scared at the thought of having to stay in here forever, because I was having trouble getting out through hyperspace. How did you remove the energy barrier?"
His legs were telescoped out as far as they could go, so that he seemed to be walking on stilts. Indeed, he was walking-moving round and round the immense hulking shape of the silent Mentor, who was sitting on the floor, with his eye patches covered.
"Oola did it," said Fargo. "And what were you doing in there?"
"I was trying to wake him up," Norby said, pointing to the large robot, "but I failed."
Oola bounded inside and, with one leap, landed on the Mentor's shoulder. She settled down and yowled in his ear, her fangs growing and her body altering to look more tigerish.
"She's reverting to her original shape!" Jeff said.
Abruptly the Mentor stood up. "She is mine!" he said. His voice was harsh as if the mechanism for producing it was seriously out of order. His body was covered with discolorations and dents. He seemed even older than the first time Jeff had encountered him.
"If she's yours," demanded Fargo, sounding angry, "what was she doing inside a hassock all these years? You didn't even know where she was. You didn't care for her one bit, and I do. I claim her. Oola, come to me."
Oola jumped down and stood between the Mentor and Fargo, looking anxiously from one to the other, her ears growing first longer and beaglelike, then shorter and tigerlike.
The Mentor's massive head turned to Jeff. "You were here intruding before. You refused scanning, and you would not help me. You will be scanned now, you and this other creature like you."
Fargo stepped between Jeff and the Mentor. "Now just a minute, sir. Not only are you wrong about the All-Purpose Pet, you are wrong about us. We mean no harm. We have come to find the origins of our own robot, part of whose mechanism may have come from Jamya…Norby, where are you?"
Norby was inside his barrel completely up against the computer. Only his feeler wire was extended and it touched the computer.
Jeff ran to him, "Norby? Are you all right? Answer me!" He bent to touch him and got an electric shock. "Fargo, something's wrong! Norby's tied in to the computer and I can't get him loose!"
"Release our robot, Mentor," said Fargo threateningly.
With that, the Mentor's eyes flashed red. His two right arms seized Fargo about the waist and held him up in the air.
"Monster!" shouted the Mentor. "You interrupted me at important work and I may never…I will not endure this! You will be scanned until everything you know and are becomes part of the computer and your body will be left an empty shell incapable of harming or disturbing me."
Fargo stopped struggling because nothing could break the Mentor's grip. Instead, he laughed, and at that Jeff shook his head. It was Fargo's up-and-at-'em laugh, and it never failed to create trouble.
Jeff stepped up close to the Mentor to try to reason with him, as Fargo had so carefully taught him to do all his life-and as Fargo so infrequently did himself.
It was too late. Still wearing the antigrav collar taken from the Grand Dragon, Fargo rose in the air, carrying the Mentor with him. They swung out into the main auditorium, zooming up into the thick darkness of the high-ceilinged room.
"Fargo, don't!" Jeff called, but Fargo was out of sight in the gloom and did not answer.
"Norby, come out of it. Help me! I can't antigrav without you."
"Meow?" Oola pressed against Jeff's leg and he patted her, absently. As he did so, he became aware of the thin, expandable collar around her neck.
"Oola, can you antigrav?"
"Rowrr?" Oola's fangs disappeared and she looked very much like a Terran housecat, purring against Jeff's leg.
There were terrible noises coming from the darkness overhead, and Jeff, feeling frantic about Fargo, picked up Oola. Holding her close to his chest, he bent his head to hers and thought, very hard, picturing a small cat going up in the air.
Oola meowed once more, and Jeff began to rise. Linking himself telepathically with a not-to-bright All-Purpose Pet that had saber-tooth ancestors was an interesting experience, but difficult to manage. They went up and down, and finally sailed upward-a bit too quickly-toward the Mentor.
The darkness began to separate into distinct shapes, and Jeff could see that the Mentor was still holding Fargo.
Fargo's eyes were shut, his jaw grimly set.
Jeff somehow guided Oola that way. "Don't hurt my brother, Mentor! If you want me to help you…"
Fargo opened one eye, "Shut up, kid. I'm under a strain, trying to do battle with this antiquated hulk, and I have no room to take care of you."
"Why don't you just threaten to let go of your antigrav?"
"Then I fall, too, don't I?"
"Just a little. Fall slowly and let him bang against the floor, then up, then down with another bang, and so on." Jeff had trouble getting the words out, so anxious was he that Fargo understand.
The Mentor understood. He made a sound like gears grinding horribly. "I will let you go, alien monster, if you get me down to the ground. Don't do as the other monster suggests. I am nearly dead and I will be quickly destroyed it there is hard contact with the ground."
Fargo looked at Jeff. Jeff looked at Fargo.
"Let's go down," said Jeff, "Nice and easy." Unfortunately, he didn't count on Oola's reaction. Without warning, she jumped from his arms to the Mentor's shoulder and Jeff found himself in midair without antigrav.
He cried, "Help! I'm falling!"
Fargo yelled, too, as he desperately dropped with the Mentor and tried to snatch at his falling brother.
Jeff was trying to shrink back from the rapidly approaching floor when he felt two hard hands grab him. They were not Fargo's, but the Mentor's. Jeff was hanging from the Mentor's left arms, facing Fargo, who was still wearing the antigrav collar, and was still clutched by the Mentor's two right arms.
Fargo cancelled the fall with such vigor that all three-four, counting Oola-shot upward again.
"Wow!" said Fargo, shaking his head to free his left ear from Oola's enthusiastic licking. "That was close!"
He slapped Jeff's arm and grinned. "Let's all go down slowly, now, and have a reasonable conversation about this. Haven't I always told you, Jeff, that logical argument is better than derring-do?"
"Sure," said Jeff. "You've always told me. What you don't do is show me." His feet reached the floor and the Mentor let go first of Jeff and then of Fargo.
The two brothers watched while the enormous robot, with Oola resting comfortably on his shoulder, clumped slowly back into the scanning room, where Norby still sat inside his barrel. The Mentor sat down and put his head in his hands.
"Suddenly, I'm sorry for him," said Fargo in Terran Basic. "He's such an old robot."
"I think he's Mentor First," said Jeff in Jamyn.