ptain shrugged and gave the order to lift ship.

* * * * *

It was none too soon. Out of the visionport, Jadiver could see uniformed
men edging up from the underground shelters. They backed out of sight
when the rockets began to flame.

Faster the ship rose and higher. They were in the dense clouds and then
through them, out in the clear black of space, away from Venus.

Jadiver looked down at the machine. It wasn't a vehicle. It was a robot,
and it was familiar.

"It ought to be familiar," said the robot softly. That voice was for him
alone, directly on the auditory nerve. "You designed most of it back on
Earth, remember?"

He remembered. It was not a pretty imitation of a human--it was his
perfect robot. And it was also, his unknown friend, the one who had
watched over him.

He walked slowly down the stairs and stood beside it.

The robot switched to the regular speaking voice. "They built your
design, after all. They needed a big and powerful mobile robot, one that
could house, in addition to the regular functions, an extensive and
delicate mechanism."

That was the voice that had haunted him so long and in so many
situations. It was not Jadiver's own voice, but it resembled his. A
third person might not recognize the difference.

"That other mechanism," said Jadiver. "Is that the one that monitors the
circuit in my body?"

"That _parallels_ the circuit in your body." Tentacles were busy
straightening out the dents. "When I was built, they gave me a good
mind, better than your own in certain respects. What I lacked was
sensory perception. Eyes and ears, to be sure, good ones in a way, but
without the delicate shadings a human has, particularly tactile
interpretations. I didn't need better, they thought, because my function
was to observe and report on the parallel circuit I mentioned.

"In the beginning, that circuit was a formless matrix and only faintly
resembled your nervous system. As nerve data was exchanged back and
forth, it began to resemble you more and more, especially your mind.
Now, for practical purposes, it is you and I can look into it at will."

Jadiver stirred uneasily.

"Don't you understand?" asked the robot. "My mind isn't yours, and vice
versa. But we do have one thing in common, a synthetic nervous system
which, if you were killed, would begin to disintegrate slowly and
painfully. And now that it's developed as much as it is, I would
probably die,