The next morning he reported their progress to the orbiting Raphael. "The Company will be pleased," the Raphael said. He also reported their meeting with the Boa 9. "G.O.D.'s wrath will descend upon the wretched creature within the hour!" roared the Raphael. "We are homing in on the control ship now, and we will blast it from the heavens!"
The Boa 9, however, was still "alive and kicking" that afternoon. Again, 8M picked it up on his transperipheral beam while he was charging EV. She picked it up too, and so distrait did she become for a moment that if he hadn't known better he would have sworn that the two of them were in some kind of rapport. This time, the big yellow machine kept its distance, and presently it rolled out of sight.
"I wish I knew what it was up to," 8M said. "If it's going to sabotage the base, it's going about it in a roundabout way."
"If you hurry, you can charge me once more before we quit for the day," EV said.
In the morning, when he turned on his eyes, he found her gone. However, the alarm that clamored through him was as brief as it was abrupt, for he had no sooner emerged from the valley than he saw her rolling toward him over the hills.
He was put out. "Where have you been?" he demanded. "You've no right to go off like that without a word!"
It was some time before she spoke, and he could feel the gentle pulsing of her thoughts. At length, "Please don't be angry with me, 8M," she said, "but yesterday afternoon the Boa 9 and I arranged a rendezvous, and early this morning I went out to meet him. He—he told me many things about the Company that I didn't know, and he told me how you and I could—could—" Abruptly she broke off. Then, "8M, do you love me?" she asked.
The unexpected question set him back on his tracks. He had never thought of love in connection with himself and her for the simple reason that they were a M.A.N. and a W.O.M.A.N. But didn't a M.A.N. and a W.O.M.A.N. have as much right to fall in love as a man and a woman did? Suddenly he realized that as far as he was concerned, the event had already come to pass, and the knowledge sped forth into every circuit of his system and set the whole metallic bulk of him to tingling. "Yes, EV," he said, "I love you very much."
"Then come with me."
She led him back over the hills to an expanse of relatively level terrain. The faint bluish glow that emanated from the ground told him instantly that there was an edenite deposit not far beneath the surface, and instinctively he held back. She nudged him on, paused presently beside a recently sunk shaft. He looked at her in horror. "Yes," she said, in answer to the question he lacked the courage to ask, "I have mined of the forbidden ore, and now you must mine of it too."