The first needles were jerked out, and replaced by others. Again this was logical: pumping a fluid into the farmer's veins with the intent of suspending the life force until they reached the home planet.
The whole procedure made sense. When the robot couldn't find the spaceship it had taken someone in the vicinity for questioning. They'd be surprised what they'd learn from the farmer though. Absolutely nothing! We had protected ourselves too well. The farmer's ordeal had no bearing on the success of my enterprise. Nevertheless I became slightly ill at the waste involved.
The robot dropped the farmer in a place similar to the one in which I had hidden my supplies. Then it crouched down and became motionless, waiting. There was nothing for it to do.
Nor for myself either. We were out of the atmosphere and on our way.
The journey was six months of monotony. Avoiding the robot was easy because it didn't move. The ship was all mine but I couldn't make use of it. I puttered around, but there was nothing much to learn. The drive was in operation, and as long as it was, I couldn't get close. I had no idea of what it was nor how it worked, but the force that surrounded it was, for me at least, an absolute barrier.
The rest of the saucer was equally confounding. There were several low ceilinged compartments which held instruments at whose functions I could not guess. There were no star charts anywhere, but I had to assume the ship knew where it was going.
Whatever our destination, we were approaching it faster than light. Occasionally I looked out of the vision ports, and what I saw didn't resemble suns, though of course they were. It was the light shaft which changed their appearance.
One day the saucer gave a lurch and we were simultaneously below the speed of light, and near our goal. Dead ahead was a multiple star system. Where it lay with relation to Earth I don't know. Within fifty to a thousand light years I suppose.
For the first time in months the robot stirred, went to the farmer and began to work on him. I kept out of the way. It seemed the sensible thing to do. No matter how often I looked, I couldn't determine the location of the planet toward which we were bound. The ship knew, but I was in ignorance.