The robot, holding both weapons, stepped back, and Trevize rose slowly to his feet, rubbing his left shoulder vigorously, face wincing with pain.
(Fallow whimpered softly, and Pelorat picked it up in distraction, and held it tightly.)
Bliss said to Trevize, in a furious whisper, "Why are you fighting him? He can kill you with two fingers."
Trevize groaned and said, between gritted teeth, "Why don't you handle him.
"I'm trying to. It takes time. His mind is tight, intensely programmed, and leaves no handle. I must study it. You play for time."
"Don't study his mind. Just destroy it," said Trevize, almost soundlessly.
Bliss looked quickly toward the robot. It was studying the weapons intently, while the one other robot that still remained with it watched the Outworlders. Neither seemed interested in the whispering that was going on between Trevize and Bliss.
Bliss said, "No. No destruction. We killed one dog and hurt another on the first world. You know what happened on this world." (Another quick glance at the Guardian Robots.) "Gaia does not needlessly butcher life or intelligence. I need time to work it out peacefully."
She stepped back and stared at the robot fixedly.
The robot said, "These are weapons."
"No," said Trevize.
"Yes," said Bliss, "but they are no longer useful. They are drained of energy."
"is that indeed so? Why should you carry weapons that are drained of energy? Perhaps they are not drained." The robot held one of the weapons in its fist and placed its thumb accurately. "Is this the way it is activated?"
"Yes," said Bliss; "if you tighten the pressure, it would be activated, if it contained energy-but it does not."
"Is that certain?" The robot pointed the weapon at Trevize. "Do you still say that if I activate it now, it will not work?"
"It will not work," said Bliss.
Trevize was frozen in place and unable to articulate. He had tested the blaster after Hander had drained it and it was totally dead, but the robot was holding the neuronic whip. Trevize had not tested that.
If the whip contained even a small residue of energy, there would be enough for a stimulation of the pain nerves, and what Trevize would feel would make the grip of the robot's hand seem to have been a pat of affection.
When he had been at the Naval Academy, Trevize had been forced to take a mild neuronic whipblow, as all cadets had had to. That was just to know what it was like. Trevize felt no need to know anything more.
The robot activated the weapon and, for a moment, Trevize stiffened painfully-and then slowly relaxed. The whip, too, was thoroughly drained.
The robot stared at Trevize and then tossed both weapons to one side. "How do these come to be drained of energy?" it demanded. "If they are of no use, why do you carry them?"
Trevize said, "I am accustomed to the weight and carry them even when drained."
The robot said, "That does not make sense. You are all under custody. You will be held for further questioning, and, if the Rulers so decide, you will then be inactivated. How does one open this ship? We must search it."
"It will do you no good," said Trevize. "You won't understand it."
"If not I, the Rulers will understand."
"They will not understand, either."
"Then you will explain so that they will understand."
"I will not."
"Then you will be inactivated."
"My inactivation will give you no explanation, and I think I will be inactivated even if I explain."
Bliss muttered, "Keep it up. I'm beginning to unravel the workings of its brain."
The robot ignored Bliss. (Did she see to that? thought Trevize, and hoped savagely that she had.)
Keeping its attention firmly on Trevize, the robot said, "If you make difficulties, then we will partially inactivate you. We will damage you and you will then tell us what we want to know."
Suddenly, Pelorat called out in a half-strangled cry. "Wait, you cannot do this. Guardian, you cannot do this."
"I am under detailed instructions," said the robot quietly. "I can do this. Of course, I shall do as little damage as is consistent with obtaining information."
"But you cannot. Not at all. I am an Outworlder, and so are these two companions of mine. But this child," and Pelorat looked at Fallom, whom he was still carrying, "is a Solarian. It will tell you what to do and you must obey it."
Fallom looked at Pelorat with eyes that were open, but seemed empty.
Bliss shook her head, sharply, but Pelorat looked at her without any sign of understanding.
The robot's eyes rested briefly on Fallom. It said, "The child is of no importance. It does not have transducer-lobes."
"It does not yet have fully developed transducer-lobes," said Pelorat, panting, "but it will have them in time. It is a Solarian child."
"It is a child, but without fully developed transducer-lobes it is not a Solarian. I am not compelled to follow its orders or to keep it from harm."
"But it is the offspring of Ruler Bander."
"Is it? How do you come to know that?"
Pelorat stuttered, as he sometimes did when overearnest. "Wh-what other child would be on this estate?"
"How do you know there aren't a dozen?"
"Have you seen any others?"
"It is I who will ask the questions."
At this moment, the robot's attention shifted as the second robot touched its arm. The two robots who had been sent to the mansion were returning at a rapid run that, nevertheless, had a certain irregularity to it.