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.This, he thought, is afine peck of trouble for Lucky to find waiting for him when he comes back.And yet there was an odd stir of excitement in the little Martian, too, forhe was sure he could get out of the trouble.and show Lucky a thing ortwo in the process.A new voice broke in. Bigman! Everyone looked up.It was Peverale, stepping down the ramp that led from theupper levels. Great Space, Bigman, are you down there? And Cook? Thenal-most pettishly, What s going on? No one seemed to be able to say anything at all.The old astronomer s eyesfell on the prone body of Urteil, and he said with mild surprise, Is hedead? Page 73 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlTo Bigman s astonishment, Peverale seemed to lose interest in that.He didn teven wait for his question to be answered before turning to Bigman once more.He said, Where s Lucky Starr? Bigman opened his mouth but nothing came out.Finally, he managed to sayweakly, Why do you ask? Is he still in the mines? Well Or is he on Sun-side? Well Great Space, man, is he on Sun-side? Bigman said, I want to know why you re asking. Mindes, said Peverale impatiently, is out in his flitter, patrolling thearea covered by his cables.He does that sometimes. So? So he s either mad or he s correct in saying he s seen Lucky Starr outthere. Where? cried Bigman at once.Dr.Peverale s mouth compressed in disapproval. Then he is out there.That s plain enough.Well, your friend Lucky Starr wasapparently in some trouble with a mechanical man, a robot A robot! And according to Mindes, who has not landed but who is waiting for a partyto be sent out, Lucky Starr is dead! 14Prelude to a TrialDuring the moment in which Lucky lay bent in the inexorable grip of therobot, he expected momentary death, and when it did not come at once a weakhope flared up within him.Could it be that the robot, having the impossibility of killing a human beingingrained in its tortured mind, found itself incapable of the actual act nowthat it was face to face with it?And then he thought that couldn t be, for it seemed to him the pressure ofthe robot s grip was increasing in smooth stages.He cried with what force he could muster, Release me! and brought up hisone free hand from where it had dragged, trailing in the black grime.TherePage 74 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlwas one last chance, one last, miserably weak chance.He lifted his hand to the robot s head.He could not turn his head to see,crushed as that was against the robot s chest.His hand slipped along thesmooth metal surface of the robot s skull two times, three times, four times.He took his hand away.There was nothing more he could do.Then was it his imagination, or did the robot s grip seem to loosen? WasMercury s big Sun on his side at last? Robot! he cried.The robot made a sound, but it was only like gears scraping rustily together.Its grip was loosening.Now was the time to rein-force events by calling whatmight be left of the Laws of Robotics into play.Lucky panted, You may not hurt a human being. The robot said, I may not haltingly, and without warning fell to theground.Its grip was constant, as though rigid in death.Lucky said, Robot! Let go! Jerkily, the robot loosened his hold.Not entirely, but Lucky s legs camefree and his head could move.He said, Who ordered you to destroy equipment? He no longer feared the robot s wild reaction to that question.He knew thathe himself had brought that positronic mind to full disintegration.But in thelast stages before final dissolution, perhaps some ragged remnant of theSecond Law might hold.He repeated, Who ordered you to destroy equipment? The robot made a blurred sound. Er Er Then, maddeningly, radio contact broke off, and the robot s mouth opened andclosed twice as though, in the ultimate extremity, it were trying to talk byor-dinary sound.After that, nothing.The robot was dead.Lucky s own mind, now that the immediate emer-gency of near-death was over,was wavering and blurred.He lacked the strength to unwind the robot s limbsentirely from his body.His radio controls had been smashed in the robot shug.He knew that he must first regain his strength.To do that meant he must getout of the direct radiation of Mercury s big Sun and quickly.That meantreaching the shadow of the near-by ridge, the shadow he had failed to reachduring the duel with the robot.Painfully he doubled his feet beneath him.Painfully he inched his bodytoward the shadow of the ridge, dragging the robot s weight with him.Again.Page 75 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlAgain.The process seemed to last forever and the universe shimmered abouthim.Again.Again
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