“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” said Sushi. “But something must have happened to him on that trek back to the base. He’s not acting anything like himself. Brick, you said he acted like he couldn’t even see you when you talked to him.”
“Yeah, it was weird,” she said solemnly. “He heard my voice and answered my questions, but he kept looking around for me, like I was hiding from him or something. And now that I think about it, some of his answers didn’t, like, totally add up.”
“Yes, they did not totally total,” said Qual. “I spoke to him, and it was as if we were of different species.”
“Weird,” said Sushi without looking up from his work. He twisted two wires together, then said, “Let’s see if I’ve got it right.”
He turned on the translator’s power switch, leaned close to hear if the speaker was on, then booted up the Port-a-Brain. Nothing happened.
“Aaah, bad luck,” said Brick. “Back to the blank screen, huh?”
Sushi was unperturbed. “Nah, I turned it off when I made the modifications. Now I’ve got to go back to the program that was up when we found it. I saved the settings. Let’s see…” The display changed rapidly as he entered a series of commands. “OK, let’s see what we get here,” said Sushi, and hit a key.
The translator’s speaker emitted a low warming-up buzz, then broke into articulate sounds. “Intersystem Sklern-two thousand at nineteen. Please instruct concerning exercise of pets. Research P/E on Pickup Pizza Ltd Common. Do you receive signals? Trantor Entertainment Preferred-hold until forty-five, then sell five hundred. We will take five hundred. Mark Pickup Pizza Ltd. Common to buy below ten…”