“Come on, James!” Hosato urged, and the three of them sprinted for the ship.

“You can’t count on Ravensteel to do anything,” Sasha insisted. “Even if they believe Gedge, which is doubtful, they won’t lift a finger. Why should they?”

Hosato sighed. This argument had been going nonstop since they lifted off from Grunbecker’s Planet. He thought it was getting circular, but couldn’t be sure. Lack of sleep was making his mind fuzzy.

“Look, Sasha—” he began wearily.

“Say, I hate to interrupt,” Rick interrupted through the open door to the pilot’s compartment, “but where are we going?”

“What was that, Rick?” Hosato blinked.

“I said, where are we going. I want to get this baby on autopilot and join the brawl. I’ve got a couple thoughts on the subject myself.”

Hosato hadn’t really given any thought to their destination. His main concern had been getting away from Griinbecker’s. Still, everyone seemed to be looking at him for a decision.

“I don’t know,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Pick the nearest free spaceport. We can go our separate ways from there.”

“Just like that!” Sasha shouted. “Go our separate ways. Just turn our backs on the whole mess and pretend it never happened.”

“What do you want us to do?” Hosato exploded. “We barely got out of there alive. If your whole security setup and guard force can’t stop 'em, we sure can’t.”

“If we don’t, who will?” She glared back.

“Hold your fire. I’m coming in!” Rick popped in from the pilot’s compartment and stood grinning at them.

“Now that I’ve successfully set foot in no-man’s land, there are a few observations I’d like to make.” He began to pace up and down the lounge, adopting the mock characteristics of a lecturer.

“First of all, Sasha’s right when she says we have to do something. The robots that massacred everybody at Mc. Crae have to be stopped, and we can’t rely on anyone else to do the job. Remember, we didn’t believe what was happening ourselves until it was too late and we were in the middle of it. I don’t see any way anyone else is going to be convinced of the danger until it threatens them directly, and then again it will be too late.”

The mechanic paused and pointed a dramatic finger at Hosato.

“On the other hand, our ace superspy here is right, too. There isn’t much we can do.”

“Then we’re at an impasse,” Hosato observed. “We have to do something, but we can’t do anything. The odds are against us.”

“I thought you were supposed to be some kind of expert at beating long odds,” Sasha probed. “Hell, a while back you were all set to take on that same airtight security system single-handed.”

“And now, between Sasha and me, you’ve got a ready pool of information as to what the security layout is and what makes the machines tick,” Rick added.

Hosato stared at the floor. The others remained silent, letting him turn the facts over in his mind. Finally he sighed and shook his head.

“No. It still won’t work.” he announced. “There’s one big problem no one seems ready to face. We don’t know what happened back there. Until we know what went wrong, we don’t know for sure what we’re up against. Without that little piece of information, any plan for a counterattack would be suicidal.”

The trio sat silently, each lost in their own thoughts.

“Wait a minute!” Rick exclaimed.

“What is it?” Sasha asked, but the mechanic was gone, disappearing through the door of the pilot’s compartment.

He was back in a moment, brandishing a sheaf of papers in his hand.

“Do either of you speak computer?” he asked eagerly.

He dumped the papers in Hosato’s lap, who bent to examine them. The papers were covered with what appeared to be typed mathematical notations interspersed with word fragments.

“What are they?” he asked.

“You should know,” Rick replied smugly. “You gave 'em to me, back at the crawler bay, when you carried Sasha in.”

“And you’ve been carrying them all this time?”

Hosato vaguely remembered the incident, but was astounded the mechanic still had the documents in his possession after all they had been through.

“Yep,” Rick announced proudly. “Had 'em stashed inside my shirt. The guards who searched me at Ravensteel looked at 'em but didn’t figure they were important enough to take away from me.”

“For the benefit of the unenlightened,” Sasha interrupted sarcastically, “what is it you’ve got there?”

“It’s a copy of the most recent entries to the computer-monitor file,” Rick informed her. “The guys were going over it at the end there, trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.”

“I hate to admit this,” Hosato said, “but I don’t know what that is or what it means.”

Rick looked a bit distressed, but answered him. “Everything that’s input into the central control computer passes through the monitor file… every program change, addition, request, everything. If we’re right and Turner did something that created a new logic system in the robots, there should be a record of it here.”

“I can’t help you there,” Sasha interjected. “What I don’t know about computers could fill a library.”

“Same here,” Rick admitted. “I was hoping one of you…”

His voice trailed off as he noticed Hosato’s frenzied activity. Hosato had scavenged a pencil from the depths of the bar and was busily scribbling something on the back of one of the sheets.

“Rick!” he said, handing the mechanic the paper. “Set a course for those coordinates.”

“Where are we going?” Rick asked, studying the sheet.

“To visit a friend of mine,” Hosato replied. “He builds and programs custom robots. Let’s see if he can decipher this mess.”

“Now you’re talking,” Rick said, brightening noticeably.

“Whoa. Don’t get your hopes up yet,” Hosato cautioned. “We don’t know yet if he’ll be able to find anything in that file. Even if he can, we’ve got to come up with a plan of action we all agree with, and that includes… say, where is James, anyway?”

Rick smiled and pointed to the back of the lounge. James was curled up on one of the luxurious sofas, fast asleep. Cradled in his arms like a teddy bear were Hosato’s dueling epees.

“I think the kid has the right idea,” Rick observed. “We could all do with some sleep. There are half a dozen cabins there in back. Take your pick.” “What about you?” Hosato asked. “I’ll be doing the same as soon as I get this new course fed into the autopilot.” He disappeared into the pilot’s compartment once more.

Hosato found himself staring at James’s sleeping form.

“Leave him,” Sasha said softly at his elbow. “He’ll be all right there, and he’ll wake up if you try to move him.”

“I guess you’re right,” Hosato acknowledged. “You know, Rick is quite a guy.”

“Qualified to operate and repair a wide variety of heavy machinery, including space transports shows a high degree of dedication when it comes to completing assignments, but displays little or no leadership ability seems content in current position not currently considered for advancement,” Sasha recited. “You know, until all this, he was just another personnel report on my desk. Funny how you can know a person so well and not really know nun at all.”

“I know what you mean,” Hosato admitted. “Until things blew up back there, he was just another person to pump for information. Now…”

His voice trailed off into silence.

“It must be a lonely way to…”

Sasha started to lay a hand on his arm as she spoke and succeeded only in waving her stump in the air. She stared at it for a moment, then turned away abruptly.

“Sasha…” Hosato said, moving to her side.

“Leave me alone!” she whispered, turning to keep her back to him.

“Sasha. It doesn’t matter,” he insisted.

“I don’t want your pity,” she snarled, and started to stalk away.