Vrausot drew himself to his full height. "It will be done. Kavula, assign twenty men to a landing party to accompany myself and Mittich out on the surface. A stun gun for each man."
The pilot turned from his controls. "You'll need something heavier than that if you're going among those machines," he said officiously.
Vrausot displayed his teeth in an expression of uncertainty.
"But the robots won't be a factor for very long," Mittich pointed out. "The principal one has been deactivated. The others depend upon it for their power. Soon they'll be immobile too."
"How soon?"
"By next sunup, I'm sure."
"Very well. We'll go asurface then." Vrausot withdrew for his isotonic soaking.
Mittich turned back to the view screen and worked with its controls. Finally he located the aliens—five of them—trudging across the ground. They were headed for a nearby cliff in whose face yawned the mouth of a cave. It was the same cave one of the automatons had reported filled with oxygen. And he further recalled that oxygen was the basic requirement of the aliens, just as it was the Tzareans' fundamental necessity too.
Evidently they feared another assault on their ship. For they were carrying a number of supplies.
"You don't much approve of what the Chancellor is doing?" Kavula asked, drawing Mittich from his troubled thoughts.