CATCH THAT RABBIT
The holiday was longer than two weeks Mike Donovan admitted that. It was six months with pay. He admitted that, too. But now he and Powell were out on the asteroid and there were problems. The new robot, with its six subsidiary robots, was designed as a team for mining on asteroids. The team worked well as long as Donovan watched it. But when Donovan didn't watch it, the robots didn't work. They didn't bring back any ore from the mines of the asteroid; they didn't even come back punctually: Donovan had to fetch them.
Donovan explained this to Powell, and they discussed the problem again and again.
"Well, let's talk to the robot," Powell suggested finally. "If we can't find out what's wrong, US Robots loses a hundred million in cash and we lose our jobs.”
Donovan fetched robot DV-5 and kicked the door shut.
“Hi, Dave," Powell said. "How do you feel?”
"Fine,' said the robot. 'OK if I sit down?' He sat down on the specially strong chair which was kept for robots. DV-5 was not a huge robot, but he was two metres tall, and weighed five hundred kilograms.
"Dave, you're a good robot, a sensible mining robot," Powell began. "You have been designed to collect ore from the rocks of asteroids. And you control six subsidiary robots.”