Captain Future 26 - Earthmen No More (March 1951) by Edmond Hamilton Page B

of the robot, Otho’s entry into the world was placid, and almost unimpressive. At the proper time, Simon Wright’s skillful hand injected a trace of piniferalone, a hormonal extract from the pineal gland, into the serum that circulated through the doll’s body.
     
    DOLL BEGINS TO MOVE
    Some hours later, Grag, who was observing, noticed the white doll’s arms and legs begin to kick spasmodically.
    “He’s alive, Master,” boomed the robot. Roger Newton and Simon Wright hurried toward the android. They lifted his head out of the thermostat into the artificial air of the Moon-Laboratory. Otho gasped deeply for breath. The next moment his arms and legs flew about in a spasm of excitement.
    Otho was already as well-grown physically as he would ever be, and it was only his mental powers that needed to develop. It was necessary for him to learn how to use his arms and legs, how to adjust himself to his environment. He picked this up with a speed that amazed the huge robot.
     
    OTHO STANDS ERECT
    The day after he was born, he stood up unsteadily.
    “Say, he’s doing better already than I expected,” exclaimed the robot.
    “Naturally,” said Simon Wright dryly, “Otho is physically mature, and is growing mentally at the rate of a year a day.”
    “By all the Moon-devils!” gasped Grag. “How long will it take him to grow up?”
    “He won’t maintain the same pace for long. But I think that the end of a month should see him a mature android.”
    The next day, Otho exhibited his delight in the discovery of his own agility, bouncing around the laboratory like a great rubber ball until Grag finally secured him and put him out of harm’s way. The day after found him mixing half a dozen chemicals and creating an explosion that blew away a section of the laboratory. The day after that found him holding out some of his own food to the robot and snatching it away in delight as Grag pretended to reach for it.
     
    SHOWS LOVE OF MISCHIEF
    “Why, the green-eyed little devil is trying to tease me,” declared Grag.
    Roger and Simon Wright smiled. Roger’s wife laughed as Otho impishly snatched at one of her own hats and, putting it on his own head, strutted proudly about.
    “He likes to dress up,” she exclaimed. “From now on, none of our clothes will be safe around here!”
    “I don’t think we need worry,” asserted Roger. “Otho’s intelligent. And it won’t take him long to learn discipline.”
    He was right. The android was mischievous, but entirely without malice, and he learned quickly what sort of actions were permitted him and which were forbidden. By the end of the month following his birth, Otho was as quick and alert mentally as the average man, despite the great gaps in his knowledge. And when those were filled, predicted Simon, he would be a better laboratory assistant than Grag or any human being could possibly be.
     
    OTHO’S FIRST BIG JOKE
    It was then that there occurred the incident that Grag was ever after to think of as the “great double-cross.”
    It began one day when the robot returned to the laboratory after a short trip over the surface of the Moon, where he had been digging at a deposit of ore Simon had discovered. The grizzled figure of Simon Wright greeted him.
    “You’ve been gone a long time, Grag. What have you brought back?”
    Grag stared in bewilderment. “Why, nothing, Master. You asked me to loosen the ore so that —”
    “I ordered you to bring it with you!” The voice that shrieked at Grag was shrill with indignation. “You stupid, clumsy metal imitation of a man, you haven’t the brains of a moon-pup!”
    “But I distinctly remember —” Grag began again helplessly.
    “Don’t tell me what I said, you imitation junk-heap. You go right back and bring a ton of that ore with you.”
    “Yes, Master.”
    “Just a moment,” came the stern order. “I’m taking no more chances with that feeble brain of yours. I’m going to write everything down so that even you