t go through her, but it
could never squeeze past her. The robot would have to run for it. If
it came toward Anti, she might be able to burn it down. But she would
be firing directly into the control room. If she missed even
partially--

The instruments were delicate.

It wasn't better if Jordan got the chance to bring down the robot.
Anti would be in the line of fire. No, that wasn't good, either.
They'd have to think of something else.

"Jordan," called Docchi as he entered the control compartment. Jordan
wasn't there. Nona was, still gazing serenely at the gravity
indicator.

Lights were streaming from the corridor on the opposite side of the
compartment. Docchi hurried over. Jordan was just inside the entrance,
the toaster clutched grimly in his hand. He was hitching his truncated
body slowly toward the stern.

Coming to meet him was Anti--unarmed, enormously fat Anti. She wasn't
walking; somehow it seemed more like swimming, a bulbous, flabby sea
animal moving through the air. She waved her fins against the wall and
propelled herself forward.

"Melt him down!" she cried.

It was difficult to make out the vaguely human form of the geepee. The
powerful, shining body blended into the structure of the ship
itself--unintentional camouflage, though the robot wasn't aware of
that. It was crouched at the threshold of a cabin, hesitating between
the approaching dangers.

Jordan raised the weapon and as instantly lowered it. "Get out of the
way," he told Anti.

There was no place for her to go. She was too big to enter a cabin,
too massive to let the geepee squeeze by her even if she wanted it to.

"Never mind that. Get him," she answered.

A geepee was not a genius even by robot standards. It didn't need to
be. Heat is deadly; a human body is a fragile thing. This it knew. It
ran toward Anti. Unlike man, it didn't need magneslippers. It had
magnetic metal feet which could move fast, and did.

Docchi couldn't close his eyes, though he wanted to. He had to watch.
The geepee torpedoed into Anti. And it was the robot that was thrown
back. Relative mass favored the monstrous woman.

The electronic brain obeyed its original instructions, whatever those
were. It got to its feet and rushed toward Anti. Metal arms shot out
with dazzling speed and crashed against the flesh of the fat woman.
Docchi could hear the thud. No ordinary person could take that kind of
punishment and live.

Anti wasn't ordinary; she was st