He went on rambling while Leda shouted at him again.
“He’s not paying any attention,” said Mike sharply. “This is too tied up with the First Law. The Second Law, which would force him to obey you, doesn’t even come into the picture at this point.”
Snookums ignored them. He opened the door, plunged through it, and headed off down the corridor as fast as his treads would move him.
Which was much too fast for mere humans to follow.
They found him, half an hour later, deep in the ship, near the sections which had already been torn down to help build Eisberg Base. He was standing inside the room next to Cargo Hold One, the room that held all the temperature and power controls for the gigantic microcryotron brain inside that heavily insulated hold.
He wasn’t moving. He was standing there, staring, with that “lost in thought” look.
He didn’t move when Leda called him.
He didn’t move when Mike, as a test, pretended to strike Leda.
He never moved again.