swered. "Bill, that 990 is full of mechs!"
Just as she said it a bulky figure in white space fatigues swung out of
the hatch and hurried up the gangplank. Seconds later it burst through
the airlock.
"Frank Nineteen!" we gasped together.
"Please, where is Elizabeth?" he hummed anxiously. "Is she all right? I
have to know."
Frank stood perfectly still when I told him about Elizabeth's
self-deactivation; then a pitiful shudder went through him and he
covered his face with his big Neoprene hands.
"I was afraid of that," he said barely audibly. "Where--you haven't--?"
"No," I said. "She's where you always kept her."
With that the big servo-pilot took off for 22A like a berserk robot and
we were right behind him. We watched him tear open his old locker and
gently lay out the girl's mech's parts so he could study them. After a
minute or two he gave a long sigh and said, "Fortunately it's not as bad
as I thought. I believe I can fix her." Frank worked hard over the
blackened relays for twenty minutes, then he set the unit aside and
began assembling the girl. When the final connections were made and the
damaged unit installed he flicked on her power. We waited and nothing
happened. Five minutes went by. Ten. Slowly the big robot turned away,
his broad shoulders drooping slightly.
"I've failed," he said quietly. "Her DX doesn't respond to the gain."
The girl mech, in her blue dress, lay there motionless where Frank had
been working on her as the servo-pilot muttered over and over, "It's my
fault, I did this to you."
Then Min shouted: "Wait! I heard something!"
There was a slow click of a relay--and movement. Painfully Elizabeth
Seven rose on one elbow and looked around her.
"Frank, darling," she murmured, shaking her head. "I know you're just
old memory tape. It's all I have left."
"Elizabeth, it's really me! I've come to take you away. We're going to
be together from now on."
"_You_, Frank? This isn't just old feedback? You've come back to me?"
"Forever, darling. Elizabeth, do you remember what I said about those
wonderful green little worlds, the asteroids? Darling, we're _going_ to
one of them! You and the others will love Alinda, I know you will. I've
been there many times."
"Frank, is your DX all right? What _are_ you talking about?"
"How stupid of me, darling--you haven't heard. Elizabeth, thanks to Dr.
Scott, Congress has passed Robot Civil Rights! And that movie I made
helped swing pu
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