"All right," I said, my voice sounding queer and remote to me. "Lie down and I'll strap you up."
As he climbed onto the vacant table my eyes searched the room frantically for something to cut the connection between that blue and that red wire.
"I'm ready," the doctor said, relaxing on the table with no more apparent concern than a man getting into a barber chair for a shave.
I buckled the straps with fumbling fingers, my thoughts racing. There was not a tool in sight anywhere. Nothing that could cut that wire.
"We forgot to warm up the tubes!" Dr. Moriss exclaimed.
"You aren't as calm as you pretend to be," I chided, hiding the thrill of triumph that rose in me. "As soon as I finish buckling the straps on you and your future receptacle I'll warm up the circuit."
"Thanks, January," he said with relief.
I finished with him and went to the robot, the robot so soon to be activated with the doctor's intelligence. I buckled the straps about its inert form exactly the way I had done with the living.
"Why don't you turn the current on before doing that?" Dr. Moriss asked.