"Unless you'd like to go, Chief," Horse said meaningfully.
I shook my head. I flushed, too, though there wasn't any reason for it.
Unnecessary risks are not a part of a pilot's job.
Horse murmured something that sounded like "gutless" and I said
sharply, "Would you repeat that?"
His gaze met mine levelly. "I didn't say a word, Chief. I'll get my
suit on."
In a little while, I saw him out there on the ramp putting on a great
show of trying to adjust the robot's delemeter, which is what gives
them their uncanny balance.
After about twenty minutes, he waved and stood to one side, and Van
Elling sent the impulse through. The robot staggered, and then came
back to an upright position. Collins stood at the broad part of the
ramp as the line began to move again.
_Discipline begins with self-discipline_, I told myself. _No man ever
achieved anything without self-control._
The more complex robots stayed in the storeroom of the ship, checking
the tonnage, and classifying the elgeron according to quality. These
were just the haulers, on the ramp, and Van controlled them completely
from his board.
His word regarding their breakdown would be the accepted word with the
bosses. I would have a difficult job getting anything on Van Elling.
But Horse Collins? Horse had seen a woman on an asteroid that didn't
exist. Horse had been guilty of insubordination. He would need more
friends than he had to wriggle out from under those charges.
There was another breakdown before we were finished loading, and they'd
timed it well. We blasted off an hour later than usual.
Van went back to the robot quarters and Horse to his charts, and I had
some more entries for the log. I'm not a talkative man, but Horse was.
The silence in the cabin must have bothered him.
He said, "Chief, we could start over. We could forget the nasty things
that have been said."
"I have forgotten them," I said. "Once I enter something in the log, I
forget it."
"All that happened you entered in the log?"
"All. Including your earlier request to delay our return an hour." I
paused. "The disciplinary board can read whatever inferences they want
from that, in the light of what happened later."
"I see. The report would put Van in the soup, too, Chief."
"I suppose."
"That'll lose you _two_ good men."
"Will it?"
Silence for over an hour, and then Horse said, "Before the company
filled you full of that discipline garbage, were you human, Sam? Did
you dream of a better world, a normal world, a world with women?"
"Some things we outgrow," I said. "I'm doing exactly what I want to do."
Horse sighed, and the silence grew again.
I was dozing the next time he opened his mouth. "It's not necessary to
stick it to Van, too, is it, Chief?"
"I record," I said. "I don't judge."
"It wasn't necessary to record my request. Don't give me that, Chief."
"In my opinion, it was necessary."
"Okay. Would you check my co-ordinates?"
He'd caught me in a nap, and I didn't think of the time. It was a
routine request in a routine voice and I rose without thinking and went
over to the scanner.
I put my eye to the eye-piece and saw _her_. A dark girl, without
clothes, more beautifully shaped than any picture I'd ever carried as
an adolescent. And she was waving!
A trembling possessed me, but I fought it. I looked up instantly at
Horse, and I said, "You've increased the magnification about three
million times beyond the requirements of the co-ordinate check. How do
you expect me to substantiate your findings?"