"Damnation!" he said. "They must be trying to duplicate themselves. You and your silly jokes about fathers."
"Me?"
"What do you think gave them the idea of reproduction? Their thinking never rises above the level of deductive reasoning. They had to derive the idea from an outside source."
"But—but can they do it?"
"Of course they can! It's an intricate job, but they only have to copy themselves. The laboratory and machine shop is complete. They've amassed a staggering knowledge of science."
"But why?" protested Sofi.
Hen shook his head. "It's beyond me. They should adjust readily to whatever line of work they're applied to. They shouldn't evince ambition. Ambition, by its nature, should be impossible to a machine. But that's not the only organic trait they've been developing. It's what Robots Incorporated was afraid might happen."
He snapped his fingers suddenly.
"The freighter! If we can sneak aboard the freighter, we can get to Ceres and bring back an atom gun. If they're developing emotions we may be able to overawe them. If not...." He hesitated, his mind drawing back from framing the thought. The truth was that the robots were like children, precocious children. He set his mouth grimly.
"If they don't respond to fear, we can destroy them."