This was new. I couldn't understand what they said until I found the speech center of one, and let my mind reach out, lightly.
"A master says there is a stow-away on one of the ships."
It was unforeseen. Nothing I had encountered could detect my existence without registering on my consciousness. These masters were going to be tougher than humans. I waited while the other replied:
"Do they know what ship he's on?"
My robot waved a tentacle. "There are ten thousand ships here, each waiting for a checkover before reassignment. Would they bother to search each ship?"
"Physically, you mean?" asked the other. "No. They will take him off as the ship leaves."
Getting me off was going to take some doing, though the masters didn't know it. They may have gauged humans correctly, but they hadn't met me. Nevertheless I was uneasy.
"Why does he stay on the ship?" asked my robot.
The other chuckled. "Maybe he's changed his mind, and wants to go home. He'll be surprised when he learns where he's bound for."
I'll admit I panicked then—because a robot chuckled. It's not the friendly sound you might think. And also because of what it said. I had no intention of going home, but I liked to think I could if I wanted to. Now I saw that, due to their system of rotating assignments, it was next to impossible to determine which ship was going back to Earth. I made up my mind quickly.