Felder looked at me in a sort of numb awe. "How did you figure that
out?"
"It came to me in a flash, but the clues were all over the place.
McGuire didn't stay on the course I gave him; he couldn't, if he
wanted to avoid meteors. And then, too you said that he ought to
have more sensory apparatus, so that he could judge facts. The facts
that come into his brain from his own sensory apparatus _have_ to be
utilized in his memory banks. He didn't have to know all the steps in
reasoning that would lead from one voice pattern to another if it could
be demonstrated as a _fact_--as an axiom, if you like.
"If _you_ tell him that he must change course, he isn't obliged to
pay any attention; but if he spots a meteor, he has to accept that as
a fact, and he changes course to allow for it. In a sense, then, the
meteor is capable of giving McGuire orders, and you aren't."
Felder didn't look any too happy; no one likes to have a point in his
own field explained to him by a layman. But he couldn't argue with me.
"There's a great deal more to be done before McGuire can be put into
practical service," he said heavily. "We may as well head back to
Ceres."
"I don't think so," I said. "McGuire's in good enough shape to let
us make the big splash on Earth that Ravenhurst wants to make. He'll
need it if Viking is to have enough financial leeway to go on with this
project."
"What about ... what about Brentwood?" Vivian Devereaux asked.
"We can get rid of him at Phobos just as easily as we can at Ceres. If
there's any explaining of any kind to do, we can lay the blame on him.
He won't be in any position to deny it."
She nodded, understanding exactly what I meant.
There were still plenty of bugs to be worked out of McGuire, but now I
could see our way clear to getting both Thurston and Baedecker off our
backs for a while.
At that point, Brentwood stuck his head in the door. "What's going on?"
he asked in his soft voice.
"We're going on to Phobos, Brentwood," I said. "Go on back to your room
and stay there." He withdrew his head. I looked at Videnski. "Go lock
him in, Ted. He gives me a pain in the neck."