Rivets and Sprockets by Alexander Key Page B

the first Something we’ve investigated.”
    â€œBut how—”
    â€œYou have another button,” she said. “Why don’t you use it?”
    Sprockets remembered the special button on the side of his head that controlled his ultraviolet perceptors. It was so very special that he wasn’t supposed to touch it except under the most ultraspecial circumstances, and then for only a few seconds at a time.
    Certainly this was a most ultraspecial circumstance.
    Sprockets turned the button. Instantly he shone all over with a strange violet fire. Violet fires danced about his head and shot in blazing streaks from his eyes. He looked like a hot hobgoblin. The sight of him would have scared a stranger out of seven years’ growth. But Leli clapped her hands in delight and sang, “Oh, Sprockets, I didn’t know you could be so positively purplishly beautiful!”
    Sprockets hardly heard her. He was able to look right through the rock. It really was a door, though a most curious one, and it opened into a large room within the hill.

7
    They Enter a Door
    Sprockets turned off his very special button and slumped down before the rock, feeling a little limp. The problem facing him was enough to give any small robot a limpish feeling, and he doubted that he could solve it with all his buttons turned on full.
    The others crowded about him, questioning.
    â€œThe entire rock is a door,” he answered, trying not to sound as baffled as he felt. “I was unable to detect any possible way it could be opened from the outside. It’s nine feet thick, and it must weigh thousands of tons—even here on Mars.”
    â€œOh, dear me!” muttered the doctor, and slumped down beside him, shaking his head. “This is most unsettling.”
    â€œAw, there must be a trick to it,” Jim said, approaching confidently. “Did you notice any locks?”
    â€œNeither locks nor hinges. It seems to slide inward in some manner strange to me,” said Sprockets.
    â€œWhy don’t we try pushing it?” Jim suggested. “If it’s balanced right, its weight wouldn’t count.”
    Jim and Rivets tried pushing it in a dozen different places. The great rock refused to budge.
    â€œBut if it’s a door, it’s got to open someway,” Jim said. “Sprockets, ask Ilium and Leli what they think.”
    Sprockets did, and answered dolefully: “Ilium says there are only four ways to open a door: by force , by key , by order , and by request . He says the first is most unpurplish and primitive, and that he doesn’t recommend it. And he says the second is quite old-fashioned, and that no intelligent Something would bother with it.”
    â€œThat leaves only order and request . B-but grief and Moses, how do you go about ordering a door like this to open?” asked Jim.
    â€œIlium says it can’t be done unless you have mastery over the door,” Sprockets answered.
    Jim slumped down beside his father. “If that’s the case, no one can order the door to open except the Something. Do we have to request the Something to open it for us? How about it, Daddy?”
    â€œEr, h’mm. Bless me, I’m afraid that’s the only solution.”
    â€œSir,” said Sprockets, “shall I signal the Something and—and attempt to make known our, er—”
    â€œOh, no!” said the doctor, giving a slight shudder. “Not right now. Let’s all consider the problem deeply.”
    â€œBut, my goodness,” Rivets began. “I can’t see any problem . I’m not awful bright, but I know my manners . If a door is closed, and you want to enter, the proper thing to do is knock. ”
    And Rivets strode up to the great stone door and knocked, very politely.
    Almost instantly, it opened. It slid soundlessly out of sight into the hillside, exposing a large cavelike space with another door at the farther end.
    Ilium and Leli clapped