“Excuse me, sir?” said Brick, puzzled. She was right in front of the captain, so he must be playing some kind of joke. Either that, or his ordeal in the desert had taken far more out of him than anyone had at first thought. Come to think of it, his behavior had reportedly been a bit strange ever since he had arrived back at the Legion camp. After a moment, she decided she was better off just asking her question. “It’s like this, sir. There’s a rumor we might be facing renegade robots here. As you can imagine, all of us want to know the straight dope on that, as far as you can give it. We understand the need for security-“
“Renegade robots?” Phule scoffed, even while his eyes kept flicking this way and that. “Now, I can tell you with pretty solid authority there’s no such thing. Robots are fine machines, Brick, made to exacting specifications, incapable of error. Except human error-you’ll get that every now and then, of course. You can trust robots, Brick. Anybody who tells you otherwise is dead wrong-dead wrong, I tell you. Take my word for it. I ought to know!”
“Yes, sir,” said Brick, somewhat surprised at Phule’s sudden vehemence on the subject. “Then you don’t think we’re likely to see any combat against them?”
“Combat? Don’t be ridiculous,” said Phule. “That’s off the charts, Brick, completely off the charts.” He paused a moment, then said, “What’s going on, anyway? Are you hiding from me?”
“Hiding?” Brick took off her purple robot camouflage cap and said, “No, sir, I’m not hiding. Maybe you need a cool drink of water, sir. The desert heat may be affecting you-“