him--but apparently it did."

"God, God, God," she said softly. "Here I've been crying about a damned
machine, and poor Lew has been lying up there dead." She buried her face
in her hands, and her voice was muffled when she spoke again. "And I'm
all cried out, Mike. I can't cry any more."

Before Mike could make up his mind whether to say anything or not, the
door of Snookums' room opened and Dr. Fitzhugh came out, closing the
door behind him. There was an odd, stricken look on his face. He looked
at Leda and then at Mike, but the expression on his face showed that he
really hadn't seen them clearly.

"Did you ever wonder if a robot had a soul, Mike?" he asked in a
wondering tone.

"No," Mike admitted.

Leda took her hands from her face and looked at him. Her expression was
a bright blank stare.

"He won't answer my questions," Fitzhugh said in a hushed tone. "I can't
complete the analysis."

"What's that got to do with his soul?" Mike asked.

"He won't answer my questions," Fitzhugh repeated, looking earnestly at
Mike. "He says God won't allow him to."

18

Captain Sir Henry Quill opened the door of the late Lieutenant Mellon's
quarters and went in, followed by Mike the Angel. The dead man's gear
had to be packed away so that it could be given to his nearest of kin
when the officers and crew of the _Brainchild_ returned to Earth.
Regulations provided that two officers must inventory his personal
effects and those belonging to the Space Service.

"Does Chief Pasteur know what killed him yet, Captain?" Mike asked.

Quill shook his head. "No. He wants my permission to perform an
autopsy."

"Are you going to let him?"

"I think not. We'll put the body in the freezer and have the autopsy
performed on Earth." He looked around the room, seeing it for the first
time.

"If you don't," said Mike, "you've got three suspected killers on your
hands."

Quill was unperturbed. "Don't be ridiculous, Golden Wings."

"I'm not," Mike said. "I hit him in the pit of his stomach. Chief
Pasteur filled him full of sedative. Mister Vaneski shot him with a
stun beam. He died. Which one of us did it?"

"Probably no single one of them, but a combination of all three," said
Captain Quill. "Each action was performed in the line of duty and
without malice aforethought--without even intent to harm permanently,
much less to kill. There will have to be a court-martial, of course--or,
at the very least, a board of inquiry