control tower for all the machinery in here," he
decided. "Anse, suppose you and I go take a look at it."

"We'll take a look at the machines," Rivas said. "Clyde, you and I can
work back on the right and then come down on the other side. You know
anything about this stuff?"

"Me? Nifflheim, no," Nichols said. "I know a robo-control when I see
one, and I know whether it's set to receive or not."

There was a self-powered lift inside the control tower. Conn and Anse
rode it to the top and got out, Anse snapping on his flashlight. It
was dark in the dome at the top; instead of windows there were
viewscreens all around it. Five men had worked here; at least, there
were four chairs at four intricate control panels, one for each of the
four production lines, and a fifth chair in front of a number of
communication screens. There was a heavy-duty power unit, turned off.
Conn threw the switch. Lights came on inside, and the outside
viewscreens lit.

They were examining the control-panels when Conn's belt radio buzzed.
He plugged it in on his helmet. It was Mohammed Matsui.

"There's one big power plant back here," the engineer said. "Right in
the middle. It only powers what's in front of it. There must be
another one in either wing, for the isotope plant and the
cartridge-case plant. I'll go look at them. But the power's been cut
off from the machines in the main building. There's four big switches,
one for each production line--"

He was interrupted by a shout, almost a shriek, from somewhere. It
sounded like Jerry Rivas. A moment later, Rivas was clamoring:

"Conn! What did you turn on? Turn it off, right away!"

Anse jumped to the switch, pulling it with one hand and getting on his
flashlight with the other. The lights went out and the screens went
dark.

"It's off."

"The dickens it is!" Rivas disputed. "There are a couple of big
supervisor-robots circling around, and a flock of workers...."

At the same time, Clyde Nichols began cursing. Or maybe he was
praying; it was hard to be certain.

"But we pulled the switch. It was only the lights and viewscreens in
here, anyhow."

"It didn't do any good. Pull another one."

Matsui, back at the power plant, was wanting to know what was wrong.
Captain Nichols stopped cursing--or praying?--and said, "Mutiny,
that's what! The robots have turned on us!"

He knew what had happened, or was almost sure he did. A radio impulse
had gone out, somehow, from the control to