o inspectors were a little
moved by the story because Roberts said: "OK, Nineteen, you gave us a
break, we'll give you one. Eight o'clock in the morning be ready to roll
for Earth. Meanwhile you can stay here."

The next morning only the two inspectors and Frank Nineteen were
standing by the airlock.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Aren't you taking the girl mech, too?"

"Not allowed to tamper with other companies' robots," Wynn said.
"Nineteen gave us a signed confession so we don't need the girl as a
witness. You'll have to contact her employers."

That same day Min got off a radargram to Earth explaining to the
Atomovair people how a robot employee of theirs had turned up out here
and what did they want us to do about it. The reply we received read:
RATIONALOID DX78-947 "ELIZABETH" LOW EFFICIENCY WORKER. HAVE REPLACED.
DISPOSE YOU SEE FIT. TRANSFER PAPERS FORWARDED EARLIEST IN COMPLIANCE
WITH LAW.

"The poor thing," said Min. "She'll have a hard time getting another
job. Robots have to have such good records."

"I tell you what," I said. "_We'll_ hire her. You could use some help
with the housework."

So we put the girl mech right to work making the guests' beds and
helping Min in the kitchen. I guess she was grateful for the job but
when the work was done, and there wasn't anything for her to do, she
just stood in front of a viewport with her slender plastic arms folded
over her waist. Min and I knew she was re-running her memory tapes of
Frank.

A week later the publicity started. Minor Planets must have let the
story leak out somehow because when the mail rocket dropped off the Bay
Area papers there was Frank's picture plastered all over page one with
follow-up stories inside.

I read some of the headlines to Min: "Bare Love Nest in Space ... Mech
Romeo Fired by Minor Planets ... Test Case Opens at Robot Court ...
Electronics Experts Probe Robot Love Urge ..."

The Io wasn't mentioned, but later Minor Planets must have released the
whole thing officially because a bunch of reporters and photographers
rocketed out to interview us and snap a lot of pictures of Elizabeth. We
worried for a while about how the publicity would affect our business
relations with Minor Planets but nothing happened.

Back on Earth Frank Nineteen leaped into the public eye overnight. There
was something about the story that appealed to people. At first it
looked pretty bad for Frank. The State Prosecutor at Robot Court had his
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