Norby

"No! The one in Rome," said Norby impatiently. I told you all about it in hyperspace. "

There didn't seem to be any doors, and the corridor began to wind.

"I couldn't understand you in hyperspace. When were you in Rome?"

"When I got the lion. Don't you remember the lion? It was all very unpleasant in the Coliseum. People were fighting in armor and other people were being eaten by lions. Then guards picked me up because I was in the way and threw me into the lion's cage…"

"Norby! Was the Coliseum-intact?"

"Sure. Not at all like the ruin in the pictures of Rome."

Jeff stopped short before another sharp curve in the corridor. "Are you telling me the truth, Norby? We were studying Roman history and you were working with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. So when you left…Norby! You couldn't have."

Norby said, "Well, where did the lion come from? I was thinking how nice it would be to see old Julius himself, and maybe I didn't quite make it and was a century short-a century later in time than Julius-with Christians being thrown to the lions, and one of the lions came with me."

Jeff, feeling stunned, said "That means you actually traveled through time; but scientists say that's impossible."

"Well, I did it anyway. I just don't know how."

"You don't know how you do anything."

"I'm sorry," said Norby. "I guess time travel is my other secret."

"Can you go back into time again?"

"I don't know."

Jeff shook his head. He walked around the bend in the hall and saw an archway leading to a vast auditorium. High, thin slivers of windows shed a feeble light into the murkiness. In the shadows were formidable figures like the one they had seen on the computer screen, all standing very still.

"The Mentors," said Jeff.

"Hundreds of them," agreed Norby, "but they're inactivated.".

"Inacti…do you mean they are robots? Dead robots?"

"I can always tell a robot…almost always."

Jeff walked into the enormous room, moving from one figure to another. They were all about a meter taller than he, each with the bulge on its head and the slit and three patches. There was no color or light in the patches. Their black, metallic surfaces were discolored and, in some places, cracked. They certainly seemed inactive-and very old.

Norby sidled in ahead of Jeff and began rapping the Mentors, surfaces with his knuckles, now that he was sure they weren't alive. He stopped so suddenly that Jeff almost tripped over him.

"Something's alive in here," whispered Norby. "One of them is still alive. And the building-it's alive, too. There's a big computer inside the walls. I should have tuned in to it before. I think it's time to go home, Jeff."

Jeff squared his shoulders and looked around, but he saw nothing moving in the shadows.

"What do you want?" he called out loudly. "You sent for us. What do you want?" c

There was no answer, but Jeff became conscious of a faint vibration in the soles of his feet. Norby was right-the building was alive. Had the castle itself sent for him?

"What do you want of me?" he called again.

"Jeff!" yelled Norby. "Help!" Four scurrying little machines, similar to the gardener robot outside, plunged out of the darkness and hurtled toward Norby. They grabbed and held him by his arms and legs.

As Jeff started toward Norby, one of the large Mentor robots suddenly moved. Its eyepatches began to gleam with an iridescence that was like shining quivering worms. Its four arms rose.

"Jeff-don't let it near you!" Norby cried out as he struggled to shake off the little machines.

It was too late. The robot's arms extended and caught Jeff in a tight grip he could not break.

"Norby," Jeff yelled, "go into hyperspace. Try to leave the machines behind, but take them with you if you have to."

"What about you, Jeff?"

"I'll be all right-until you get back. I know you'll remember how to get back," said Jeff, not at all sure that Norby would.

Norby pulled in his head, and with the small attack robots hanging onto his arms and legs, disappeared.

"Good riddance!" The big robot that was holding Jeff spoke now in a coarse grinding voice. He spoke in Jamyn. "I do not approve of alien machines. Or alien life forms, either."

"Now wait," said Jeff, trying vainly to twist an arm out of the robotic grip. "I'm here on a friendly visit."

"If you are friendly, prove it by staying and performing a task for us."

As he spoke, the Mentor lifted Jeff and carried him to the back of the room, where he pressed a depression in the wall with one of his feet. The wall split in two and slid aside, revealing machinery that glittered and flickered with shifting lights, although nothing else moved. In the center of the machinery, there was a space big enough for ten human beings to stand upright. The Mentor placed Jeff in the space and stood back.

Jeff tried to leave, but found himself encased in walls of force that he could not see but that stung him badly when he touched them. He sat down in the center and waited.

The lights around him began to turn and focus, as if they were concentrating on him.

I'm being scanned, he thought.

— Yes, you are, a telepathic voice replied-Think slowly and clearly so that the scanning of your thoughts will be done correctly.

"No, I won't," said Jeff, aloud. "I'm not going to let you find out where I come from."

— You will stay here until everything is found out and you have completed your task.

"I'm not a machine." Jeff was shouting now, trying to let feelings of indignation drown out his thoughts. "I'm protoplasmic. Organic. I need food. What about that?"

— The Jamyn will provide. Now stop talking so that your mind can be explored, or you will be punished.

"I won't stop. Ow!" He'd been given a rather unpleasant electric shock.

He stopped talking and began to think furiously, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…"

— Where is your planet?

— Never heard of it. 'I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.' Ow! If you give me more electric shocks, I'll fall unconscious and you'll have only mixed-up gibberish in my thoughts to read instead of good Shakespeare.

— Why are you here? What do you call yourself these days?

— The best species in the universe, that's what we call ourselves. And what do you mean these days? 'To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer '

It went on for some time. Fortunately. for Jeff, there was no need to get the Shakespearian speeches word-perfect, or even to think of different ones. After a while, he just kept repeating 'To be or not to be' over and over again. He had two more electric shocks, but after the second, he pretended to stagger and began to think nonsense syllables with all his might. After that there were no more shocks. Outside the walls of force, the figure of the Mentor seemed still, as if it had run down.

And then there was another telepathic voice in his mind.

— Jeff! I'll get you out of here.

Jeff saw Norby beside him, inside the scanner. -Norby! I thought you weren't coming back from hyperspace after all.

— After I refueled I left my attackers in hyperspace and hyperjumped into your prison. I'm going to try to get us out of here and into the dragon's house.

— No! Take us home!

— What if the Mentors' computer can detect where I head for?

— That's smart, Norby! I should have thought of that. But why Zi's house?

— Because I've decided we want her hassock. I don't know what it is, but it's from the Others, and I think it's supposed to be opened. I'm sure Zi doesn't know that.

But the Mentor did. Its thoughts suddenly seemed to thunder out, overriding those of Norby.

— It is I who must have that hassock. I see a picture of it in your mind.

"Hurry," said Jeff, aloud, taking Norby's hand. "Hyperjump!"