the consternation
that sometimes erupted at his sudden appearance. At certain selected
spots, Snookums would stop, put his metal arms on floors and walls,
pause, and then go zooming off in another direction with Leda Crannon
only paces behind him, trying to explain to crewmen as best she could.

If Snookums had been capable of emotion--and Leda Crannon was not as
sure as the roboticists that he wasn't--she would have sworn that he was
having the time of his life.

Seventeen minutes after the throb had begun, Snookums rolled into Power
Section and came to a halt. Something else was wrong.

At first he just stopped by the door and soaked in data. Mike's
muttering; the clipped, staccato conversation of the power crew; the
noises of the tools; the deep throb of the ship itself; the underlying
oddness of the engine vibrations--all these were fed into his
microphonic ears. The scene itself was transmitted to his brain and
recorded. The cryotronic maze in the depths of the ship chewed the whole
thing over. Snookums acted.

Leda Crannon, who had lost ground in trying to keep up with Snookums'
whirling treads, came to the door of Power Section too late to stop the
robot's entrance. She didn't dare call out, because she knew that to do
so would interrupt the men's vital work. All she could do was lean
against the doorjamb and try to catch her breath.

Snookums rolled over to the board where Multhaus was sitting and watched
over his shoulder for perhaps thirty seconds. The crewmen eyed him, but
they were much too busy to do anything. Besides, they were used to his
presence by this time.

Then, in one quick tour of the room, Snookums glanced at every meter in
the place. Not just at the regular operating meters, but also at the
meters in the testing equipment that the power crew had jack-plugged in.

Mike the Angel looked around as he heard the soft purring of the
caterpillar treads. His glance took in both Snookums and Leda Crannon,
who was still gasping at the door. He watched Leda for the space of
three deep breaths, tore his eyes away, looked at what Snookums was
doing, then said: "Get him out of here!" in a stage whisper to Leda.

Snookums was looking over the notations on the meter readings for the
previous few minutes. He had simply picked them up from the desk where
one of the computermen was working and scanned them rapidly before
handing them back.

Before Leda could say anything, Snookums rolled over to Mike th