"All right," she said.
She had her open hearth ready by the time they reached the ore deposit which he had been mining yesterday, and he fed an experimental charge through her exterior door, employing his outside charger-keel. First limestone, and then ore. The warmth of her reached out and bathed his flanks, and the red-hotness of her hearth traveled throughout his whole body. In lieu of "giving her a drink"—an operation for which he was not equipped—he charged her with the pigs he had poured the night before. This, of course, delayed the heat, but even so, she had it out in half the time his own hearth would have required.
Thrilled, he plunged into the mining end of the operation, while she processed the heat. A delay occurred when his main ore-crusher broke down and one of its parts had to be replaced. He would have made the part himself, but she offered to do the job for him, saying that it would be good practice. She had the part ready in no time, and it was an exact replica of the old. Installing it required, not hours, as ordinarily would have been the case, but mere minutes.
He was delighted. "You're quite a W.O.M.A.N. at that," he told her.
"My parts-replacement shop is equipped with the best machines money can buy," she said proudly. "Given the specifications, I can manufacture anything under the sun." She paused, and a wave of sadness reached out and touched his hull perceptors. "Except—except—"
"Yes?"
"Nothing," she said. "Shall we get back to work?"
By nightfall, he had both his and her mills in action, and heats coming up in both their hearths. He charged her once more before they settled down for the night so that a heat could be tapped first thing in the morning. A feeling of contentment such as he had not experienced since becoming a M.A.N. came over him as he rested beside her in their valley bed, but he did not permit it to lull him into a concomitant feeling of security, and after deactivating his eyes, he extended his alert-field to maximum radius. If the Boa 9 tried any tricks, he would at least have forewarning.
The Boa 9 did not, however, and the night passed without incident. 8M began mining operations as soon as they reached the ore deposit, while EV poured and processed the heat which she had nursed during her sleep. The stockpile of structural steel was growing visibly now, and in a few days they would be able to shut down their systems and begin erecting the first level of the base. Oddly, 8M found the prospect dismal, rather than cheering, and he was at a loss to understand his apostasy.