“Hosato?” She blinked at him. “Could you get a doctor. I think my right hand’s hurt. The fingers feel like they’re on fire.”
She tried to raise her right arm to look at it, but Hosato restrained her.
“Just get some rest. Everything will be all right.”
“Hayama. Come up here, quick!”
Hosato was momentarily torn by indecision.
“Take care of her, James,” he said finally, relinquishing his hold to the boy and starting forward.
“We’ve got problems,” Rick announced grimly as Hosato entered the pilot’s booth. “Watch the rear viewscreen there as we hit the top of this next rise.”
Hosato did as he was told. The moon was bright enough to throw shadows as he surveyed the scene in the viewscreen. At first he saw nothing; then something moved in the center of the screen. A blob detached itself from a patch of shadows, then was obscured from sight as their crawler plunged into the next gully.
“What is it?” he asked tensely.
“The central computer’s sent one of the ore scouts after us.”
“What can it do?”
“Well, it’s got an industrial slicer as one of its tools, and an ore crane for another. It can pick us up or cut us apart, depending on its instructions. From what happened back at the complex, my guess is it’ll cut us apart.”
“Hosato!” James called from the back. “Can you give me a hand here?”
“In a minute, James,” Hosato called back.
“Say, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Rick said. “Is it Hayama or Hosato. The kid there keeps—”
“It’s Hosato. Can that thing catch us?”
“It’s faster than we are, but we’re almost out of range of the computer’s control radius.”
“Good.” Hosato sighed.
“Not so fast,” Rick retorted. “I said 'almost.' We’ve got another half-hour’s driving before we’re clear. It’ll be close, but it’ll probably catch us. Even if it doesn’t, it’ll be close enough to use its slicer on us.”
Hosato studied the pursuing vehicle as it came into view again.
“Where are the surface suits?” he asked finally.
“In the tall lockers back in the crew area. Why?”
But Hosato was already gone.
“Hosato—” the boy began, looking up.
“Not now, James,” Hosato mumbled, brushing past him. “We’ve got problems.”
“If I might suggest…” Suzi began, but Hosato ignored the robot.
“If anything happens, James,” he said, dragging the bulky surface suit from the locker and gathering it in his arms, “get in touch with the Hungarian. Suzi can tell you how to find him.”
“But—”
Hosato cut him short, calling ahead to Rick as he started for the cockpit again.
“Stop the crawler in the next gully!”
“What for?” the mechanic called back.
“We haven’t got time to argue,” Hosato growled, joining him in the cockpit. “Just stop this thing and help me get into this suit.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to take a blaster and lay a little ambush for our friend there.”
“You’re nuts,” Rick proclaimed. “You won’t stand a chance out there.”
“If I don’t, none of us have a chance. At least I can create a diversion until the rest of you are out of range. Now, stop this thing.”
The mechanic obediently pulled the vehicle to a halt in the dark shadows of a gully.
“All right,” he said, swiveling in his chair to help Hosato with the suit, “but how will we know to come back and pick you up?”
“You don’t,” Hosato replied, struggling with the suit’s fastenings. “You get out of range and wait. If this works, I’ll follow your tracks and catch up with you. If I’m not there by sunrise, I’m not coming.”
“Well, good luck, Hosato.” Rick slapped him on the back as he headed back to the crew area.
Just through the doorway, he stopped suddenly. His swords, his clothes, were all heaped in the center of the floor next to James. It took him a moment to realize the implications of this fact; then he cast about the area, opening his faceplate.
“Where’s Suzi?” he demanded.
“She she told me to unload her,” James stammered.
“But where is she?” Hosato barked.
As if in response, he heard a muffled hiss of compressed air. The outer airlock door had just opened.
Hosato stoqped and rummaged desperately through his gear.
“I didn’t know what she was going to do!” the boy insisted. “All of a sudden she was gone.”
Hosato finally found what he was looking for. The radio unit he and Suzi sometimes used for communications. Thumbing the unit on, he raised it quickly to his lips.
“Suzi!” he called. “What are you doing?”
“What’s going on?” Rick called from the cockpit Hosato pushed his way forward again, centering his attention on the rear viewscreen.
“See for yourself!” he said, nodding at the screen.
Suzi could be seen clearly, steadfastly making her way back along the crawler’s tracks.
“If you don’t mind my saying so,” Rich said archly, “that’s a waste of a fine robot. She can’t do anything against that ore scout.”
“I didn’t send her,” Hosato snarled. “She’s out there on her own.”
The robot was almost out of sight as Hosato thumbed the radio button again.
“Suzi. I asked you a direct question. Respond!”
“I am executing your plan for diversionary action,” came the calm reply.
“The plan was for me to create a diversion,” Hosato barked.
“That was the only flaw in your plan. I am eminently better suited than you for this mission.”
“Return to the crawler at once!”
“May I remind you”—. Suzi’s voice was dry, despite the radio—“the purpose of this maneuver is to gain time for the crawler to escape. That effect will very quickly be lost if you continue to delay your departure. The time for argument is past.”
“She’s right,” Rick said, and set the crawler in motion again.
Hosato started to stop him, then hesitated. Suzi was right—at least on the time element. Then again, if she failed, he could still try his own gambit.
“For the record,” he said into the radio, “I disagree with your assertion that you can deal with the ore scout better than I could.”
“Normally you would be correct,” Suzi retorted, “but under surface conditions my mobility and maneuverability exceed your own.”
“But your programming won’t allow you to carry out any aggressive functions. How do you expect to stop it?”
“Even though I cannot pose an actual threat, if the ore scout perceives me as a threat, it’ll stop.”
“And then it will start again and you’ll be dead.”
“Actually, the correct phrase is 'nonfunctional.'”
Hosato was involuntarily startled by the correction. He realized suddenly that he had grown to think of Suzi not as a robot but as a living individual.
“Suzi—” he began slowly.
“Future communications will occur only as time permits,” the robot’s voice interrupted. “The ore scout is in sight now.”
Hosato waited impatiently for the crawler to top another rise, thereby giving him a view of the action occurring to their rear. But as the scene rose into the viewscreen, he could see nothing. Then, as they were about to plunge into the next gully, there was a quick flash of light.
