"Let's go back," he said. "Later we may learn ... how."
"How?"
"How to take them off." Onin was scowling again.
"The humans must not know your batteries are gone."
"No," Onin agreed, his deep-set brown eyes studied Jay. "Without the helmets we could be ... like them."
Jay Forsix nodded. "I have thought of that, many times. But the women would know. They would tell, and we would be destroyed."
"They die too," the lanky one muttered, scowling. "Why not?"
"No." Jay hesitated. "No, I could not see Ina, or even the sulky one killed. And we know too little."
The lanky animat's brain seemed to be awakening swiftly now. He laughed.
"Already you think of yourself as a man," he told Jay. "You are in love with the tall female."