"Just a minute," said Jeff, thinking furiously. "I know you said you could hyperjump back to any solar system yourself, but I don't want you to. If you have to be taken over by the scientists of the Fleet or leave Earth for good, I must, either way, learn the technique of hyperspatial travel to the point where I can do it without you in a ship like this, adjusted for it."
Quickly, before Yobo or Norby could say anything, Jeff tuned into the controls of the computer and reached out to touch minds with Norby.
— You're up to something, Jeff.
— You bet I am, Norby. Take us into hyperspace, and then out of it to Earth, like this. Jeff visualized it for Norby, who chuckled.
As the Hopeful leaped out of the space-time of Jamya, Jeff felt the usual odd sensation inside himself. It was much worse than usual, almost as though something had turned over in his abdomen, but that might only have been because he was nervous about what he was doing.
The admiral said, "Very good, we're in the solar system. but where's Space Command? I don't see any spomes anywhere."
"Perhaps," said Jeff, "we missed the solar system. We may be in the planetary system of another star."
"Nonsense," said Yobo, "that's the moon over there. It's quite as usual. And directly ahead is Earth. Those are Terran cloud formations. I've studied them for decades. And if there's any question…Can this visiscreen be adjusted for microwave emission and reception? Yes, I see it can."
He made the necessary adjustments. "We can look through the cloud cover and see the continents. Although clouds can be mistaken, continents cannot be."
Even as he spoke, the swirls of white clouds that hid the blueness of Earth's atmosphere thinned and disappeared, and the Earth's globe turned into a circle of ruddy artificial color in which red continents showed up against a black ocean.
Yobo's breath came out in a large whoosh, as though he had been bashed in the abdomen. It was a minute or so before he could say in a strangled way, "There's no Atlantic Ocean. There's one big continent. If that's Earth-and it must be because the moon is still unmistakable-we're 250 million years ago."
Jeff stared at the viewscreen. "Interesting."
"Interesting?" Yobo didn't quite gnash his teeth, but if he had had fangs, he might have shown them. "You and that idiot robot of yours haven't just moved the Hopeful across hyperspace-you've moved it in time as well."
Jeff said, "I'm afraid that's part of Norby's mixed-upness, Admiral. Sometimes he takes you right where you want to go and sometimes…"
"Sometimes he doesn't! That is horribly obvious, Cadet. Since when have you known that Norby gets mixed up in time as well?"
"Well, he was reading history…"
The admiral waved Jeff to silence and shook his finger at Norby, whose back eyes were staring at Yobo with equal innocence. "Listen, you Jamyn robot. Did that sick Mentor make you capable of traveling through time as well as through hyperspace? Is this something that Mentor First planned?"
"No, sir." The domed hat slid down until only the tops of Norby's eyes were peering out at the admiral in his wrath. "I think that McGillicuddy did something that caused this talent of mine."
"Talent? It's a liability!"
"It's Norby's other secret," said Jeff. "The only trouble is that he can't seem to go to any time period when he existed-at least not easily-and he can't go into the future."
"You mean we can't get back to our own time?"
"Oh, no, sir. I mean he can't go into the future from our present-the present we used to be in. I mean…"
"I know what you mean, Cadet. Don't confuse me. Is this-talent-controllable?"
"Not exactly, sir. Time traveling keeps getting mixed up with space traveling, and we hardly ever go directly where we want to."
The admiral sat down against the visiscreen, his huge shoulders slumped and an expression of dismay on his broad face.
"Tell me, you miserable robot and you ridiculous human being, is there any slight possibility of my being taken forward to a time when human beings exist on Earth?"
"Yes, sir," said Jeff. "Norby-let's try."
"Aye, aye, Captain," said Norby, overdoing it as usual.
The Hopeful shivered and shook, and so did Jeff. What if he and Norby got things so mixed up that they were all lost forever?
"I can't see a thing," said Yobo as he peered at the visiscreen. "You've brought us close enough to Earth to be inside the cloud cover. That's dangerous, a little closer and…"
Jeff said hastily, "I'll bring the Hopeful closer through ordinary space. There'll be no danger."
The Hopeful poked her nose out of the cloud and the visiscreen magnified the ground. They were over a continent; in fact, they were over a city. In view were buildings and people.
Jeff said, "We're back to human beings and civilization, Admiral. "
Norby said, "And the Coliseum. Jeff, it's Roman times again. We tied into where and when I was before, so maybe now I'll get to see how that gladiator came out in the fight. They took me to the lion cage just when the fight was starting. Big husky fellow, that gladiator. Reminds me of you, Admiral."
"You mean to say," said Yobo, apparently suppressing a snarl, "that your fascination with this period of history had caused what passes for a mind in that tin hat of yours to get mixed up and drag all of us into Roman times just so that you would have a chance to find out what happened to a gladiator?"
"I didn't exactly mean to do it, sir," said Norby. "I mean, even if I'd intended to do it, I couldn't always guarantee that I could. It's not my fault that I've got emotive circuits and imagination and special talents that get mixed up. I can't help being different from other robots."
Jeff manipulated the controls of the Hopeful and the little ship rose back into the clouds. Hiding a smile, he said, "I think we'd better go someplace else. We don't want to be seen and cause any changes in history."
"Changes in-history?" The admiral mopped his brow. "I suppose that if our scientists tried to copy talents such as this, we'd end up with the constant danger of messing up the past and changing history in such a way that none of us would exist?"
"I think you're right," said Jeff. "Maybe the whole human race wouldn't exist." He touched Norby.
— Mission accomplished, Norby.
— Right, Jeff. He's convinced I'm unreliable.
— Well, you are, aren't you?
— Not really. It's just that…
— Never mind. Now let's really go home.
Only they didn't.
"Where are we now?" Yobo asked weakly.
"Norby," Jeff asked, "where are we?"
Norby was plugging himself into various parts of the computer rather frantically. "I don't know, Jeff. You got my emotive circuits stirred up and something's gone wrong."
"Can't see a thing in the visiscreen," said Yobo. "Everything is all shiny and vague."
"The screen's polarized," said Jeff in horror. "The light outside is so strong that the Hopeful is compensating for it by not letting it show on the visiscreen. And the instrument panel shows that the outside of the hull is getting hotter and hotter."
"I think we're stuck, Jeff," said Norby, his voice tinny.
"Unstick us," yelled Jeff. "We humans won't be able to live much longer if the heat goes any higher!"
"Neither will I," said Norby. "I have delicate brain mechanisms."..
"Then put them to work on solving this problem," roared Yobo.
Jeff's head was pounding and he had never been so frightened in his life. "Have we come inside a star?"
"No, Cadet. Impossible! We'd be dead in a microsecond."
"Then where…Look, Admiral, the readings show a gravitational pull on us. We're being dragged in, or down, somewhere."
"I have deciphered the incoming data," said Norby importantly, "and this is the situation. We are quite close to a star much dimmer than Earth's sun, close enough so that it is heating us rapidly and is pulling at us strongly."
"And we are spiralling inward under that pull," said Jeff. "Norby-get us out of here quickly."