The captain hurried to the gauges and glanced at them. He stared back at the machine. "Captain," purred the machine, "you have a little daughter. By the time you get back, she will be grown and will have children of her own. The sooner you leave, the sooner you will see her again. I will regard it as a personal favor if you see that we take off immediately." The captain looked at the machine. Tentacles and eye stalks rose up out of the tip as he watched. It was a big machine, well put together, and it appeared quite capable of handling a roomful of armed men. As a matter of fact, it just had. The captain shrugged and gave the order to lift ship. * * * * * It was none too soon. Out of the visionport, Jadiver could see uniformed men edging up from the underground shelters. They backed out of sight when the rockets began to flame. Faster the ship rose and higher. They were in the dense clouds and then through them, out in the clear black of space, away from Venus. Jadiver looked down at the machine. It wasn't a vehicle. It was a robot, and it was familiar. "It ought to be familiar," said the robot softly. That voice was for him alone, directly on the auditory nerve. "You designed most of it back on Earth, remember?" He remembered. It was not a pretty imitation of a human--it was his perfect robot. And it was also, his unknown friend, the one who had watched over him. He walked slowly down the stairs and stood beside it. The robot switched to the regular speaking voice. "They built your design, after all. They needed a big and powerful mobile robot, one that could house, in addition to the regular functions, an extensive and delicate mechanism." That was the voice that had haunted him so long and in so many situations. It was not Jadiver's own voice, but it resembled his. A third person might not recognize the difference. "That other mechanism," said Jadiver. "Is that the one that monitors the circuit in my body?" "That _parallels_ the circuit in your body." Tentacles were busy straightening out the dents. "When I was built, they gave me a good mind, better than your own in certain respects. What I lacked was sensory perception. Eyes and ears, to be sure, good ones in a way, but without the delicate shadings a human has, particularly tactile interpretations. I didn't need better, they thought, because my function was to observe and report on the parallel circuit I mentioned. "In the beginning, that circuit was a formless matrix and only faintly resembled your nervous system. As nerve data was exchanged back and forth, it began to resemble you more and more, especially your mind. Now, for practical purposes, it is you and I can look into it at will." Jadiver stirred uneasily.