ACID BATH
 

 By VASELEOS GARSON
 
 
  The starways' Lone Watcher had expected some odd developments
 in his singular, nerve-fraught job on the asteroid. But nothing like the
 weird twenty-one-day liquid test devised by the invading Steel-Blues.
  


 Jon Karyl
 was bolting in a new baffle
 plate on the stationary rocket engine.
 It was a tedious job and took all his
 concentration. So he wasn't paying too much
 attention to what was going on in other
 parts of the little asteroid.
 
 He didn't see the peculiar blue space
 ship, its rockets throttled down, as it drifted
 to land only a few hundred yards away from
 his plastic igloo.
 
 Nor did he see the half-dozen steel-blue
 creatures slide out of the peculiar vessel's
 airlock.
 
 It was only as he crawled out of the
 depths of the rocket power plant that he
 realized something was wrong.
 
 By then it was almost too late. The six
 blue figures were only fifty feet away, approaching
 him at a lope.
 
 Jon Karyl took one look and went bounding
 over the asteroid's rocky slopes in fifty-foot
 bounds.
 
 When you're a Lone Watcher, and
 strangers catch you unawares, you don't
 stand still. You move fast. It's the Watcher's
 first rule. Stay alive. An Earthship may depend
 upon your life.
 
 As he fled, Jon Karyl cursed softly under
 his breath. The automatic alarm should have
 shrilled out a warning.
 
 Then he saved as much of his breath as
 he could as some sort of power wave tore
 up the rocky sward to his left. He twisted
 and zig-zagged in his flight, trying to get
 out of sight of the strangers.
 
 Once hidden from their eyes, he could cut
 back and head for the underground entrance
 to the service station.
 
 He glanced back finally.
 
 Two of the steel-blue creatures were jack-rabbiting
 after him, and rapidly closing the
 distance.
 
 Jon Karyl unsheathed the stubray pistol
 at his side, turned the oxygen dial up for
 greater exertion, increased the gravity pull
 in his space-suit boots as he neared the
 ravine he'd been racing for.
 
 The oxygen was just taking hold when
 he hit the lip of the ravine and began
 sprinting through its man-high bush-strewn
 course.
 
 The power ray from behind ripped out
 great gobs of the sheltering bushes. But
 running naturally, bent close to the bottom
 of the ravine, Jon Karyl dodged the bare
 spots. The oxygen made the tremendous
 exertion easy for his lungs as he sped down
 the dim trail, hidden from the two steel-blue
 stalkers.
 
 He'd eluded them, temporarily at least,
 Jon Karyl decided when he finally edged off
 the dim trail and watched for movement
 along the route behind him.
 
 He stood up, finally, pushed aside the
 leafy overhang of a bush and looked for
 landmarks along the edge of the ravine.
 
 He found one, a stubby bush, shaped like
 a Maltese cross, clinging to the lip of the
 ravine. The hidden entrance to the service
 station wasn't far off.
 
 His pistol held ready, he moved quietly
 on down the ravine until the old water
 course made an abrupt hairpin turn.
 
 Instead of following around the sharp
 bend, Jon Karyl moved straight ahead
 through the overhanging bushes until he
 came to a dense thicket. Dropping to his
 hands and knees he worked his way under
 the edge of the thicket into a hollowed-out
 space in the center.
 
 

 There
 , just ahead of him, was the lock
 leading into the service station. Slipping
 a key out of a leg pouch on the space suit,
 he jabbed it into the center of the lock,
 opening the lever housing.
 
 He pulled strongly on the lever. With a
 hiss of escaping air, the lock swung open.
 Jon Karyl darted inside, the door closing
 softly behind.
 
 At the end of the long tunnel he stepped
 to the televisor which was fixed on the area
 surrounding the station.
 
 Jon Karyl saw none of the steel-blue creatures.
 But he saw their ship. It squatted
 like a smashed-down kid's top, its lock shut
 tight.
 
 He tuned the televisor to its widest range
 and finally spotted one of the Steel-Blues.
 He was looking into the stationary rocket
 engine.
 
 As Karyl watched, a second Steel-Blue
 came crawling out of the ship.
 
 The two Steel-Blues moved toward the
 center of the televisor range. They're coming
 toward the station, Karyl thought grimly.
 
 Karyl examined the two creatures. They
 were of the steel-blue color from the crown
 of their egg-shaped heads to the tips of
 their walking appendages.
 
 They were about the height of Karyl—six
 feet. But where he tapered from broad
 shoulders to flat hips, they were straight up
 and down. They had no legs, just appendages,
 many-jointed that stretched and
 shrank independent of the other, but keeping
 the cylindrical body with its four pairs
 of tentacles on a level balance.
 
 Where their eyes would have been was
 an elliptical-shaped lens, covering half the
 egg-head, with its converging ends curving
 around the sides of the head.
 
 Robots! Jon gauged immediately. But
 where were their masters?
 
 The Steel-Blues moved out of the range
 of the televisor. A minute later Jon heard
 a pounding from the station upstairs.
 
 He chuckled. They were like the wolf of
 pre-atomic days who huffed and puffed to
 blow the house down.
 
 The outer shell of the station was formed
 from stelrylite, the toughest metal in the
 solar system. With the self-sealing lock of
 the same resistant material, a mere pounding
 was nothing.
 
 Jon thought he'd have a look-see anyway.
 He went up the steel ladder leading to the
 station's power plant and the televisor that
 could look into every room within the
 station.
 
 He heaved a slight sigh when he reached
 the power room, for right at his hand were
 weapons to blast the ship from the asteroid.
 
 Jon adjusted one televisor to take in the
 lock to the station. His teeth suddenly
 clamped down on his lower lip.
 
 Those Steel-Blues were pounding holes
 into the stelrylite with round-headed metal
 clubs. But it was impossible. Stelrylite didn't
 break up that easily.
 
 Jon leaped to a row of studs, lining up
 the revolving turret which capped the station
 so that its thin fin pointed at the
 squat ship of the invaders.
 
 Then he went to the atomic cannon's
 firing buttons.
 
 He pressed first the yellow, then the blue
 button. Finally the red one.
 
 The thin fin—the cannon's sight—split in
 half as the turret opened and the coiled nose
 of the cannon protruded. There was a
 soundless flash. Then a sharp crack.
 
 Jon was dumbfounded when he saw the
 bolt ricochet off the ship. This was no ship
 of the solar system. There was nothing that
 could withstand even the slight jolt of power
 given by the station cannon on any of the
 Sun's worlds. But what was this? A piece of
 the ship had changed. A bubble of metal,
 like a huge drop of blue wax, dripped off
 the vessel and struck the rocket of the
 asteroid. It steamed and ran in rivulets.
 
 He pressed the red button again.
 
 Then abruptly he was on the floor of the
 power room, his legs strangely cut out from
 under him. He tried to move them. They lay
 flaccid. His arms seemed all right and tried
 to lever himself to an upright position.
 
 Damn it, he seemed as if he were paralyzed
 from the waist down. But it couldn't
 happen that suddenly.
 
 He turned his head.
 
 A Steel-Blue stood facing him. A forked
 tentacle held a square black box.
 
 Jon could read nothing in that metallic
 face. He said, voice muffled by the confines
 of the plastic helmet, "Who are you?"
 
 "I am"—there was a rising inflection in
 the answer—"a Steel-Blue."
 
 There were no lips on the Steel-Blue's
 face to move. "That is what I have named
 you," Jon Karyl said. "But what are you?"
 
 "A robot," came the immediate answer.
 Jon was quite sure then that the Steel-Blue
 was telepathic. "Yes," the Steel-Blue answered.
"We talk in the language of the
 mind. Come!" he said peremptorily, motioning
 with the square black box.
 
 The paralysis left Karyl's legs. He followed
 the Steel-Blue, aware that the lens
 he'd seen on the creature's face had a
 counterpart on the back of the egg-head.
 
 Eyes in the back of his head, Jon thought.
 That's quite an innovation. "Thank you,"
 Steel-Blue said.
 
 There wasn't much fear in Jon Karyl's
 mind. Psychiatrists had proved that when he
 had applied for this high-paying but man-killing
 job as a Lone Watcher on the Solar
 System's starways.
 
 He had little fear now, only curiosity.
 These Steel-Blues didn't seem inimical.
 They could have snuffed out my life very
 simply. Perhaps they and Solarians can be
 friends.
 
 Steel-Blue chuckled.
 
 

 Jon
 followed him through the sundered
 lock of the station. Karyl stopped for a
 moment to examine the wreckage of the
 lock. It had been punched full of holes as
 if it had been some soft cheese instead of a
 metal which Earthmen had spent nearly a
 century perfecting.
 
 "We appreciate your compliment," Steel-Blue
 said. "But that metal also is found on
 our world. It's probably the softest and most
 malleable we have. We were surprised you—earthmen,
 is it?—use it as protective
 metal."
 
 "Why are you in this system?" Jon asked,
 hardly expecting an answer.
 
 It came anyway. "For the same reason you
 Earthmen are reaching out farther into your
 system. We need living room. You have
 strategically placed planets for our use. We
 will use them."
 
 Jon sighed. For 400 years scientists had
 been preaching preparedness as Earth flung
 her ships into the reaches of the solar system,
 taking the first long step toward the
 conquest of space.
 
 There are other races somewhere, they
 argued. As strong and smart as man, many
 of them so transcending man in mental and
 inventive power that we must be prepared to
 strike the minute danger shows.
 
 Now here was the answer to the scientists'
 warning. Invasion by extra-terrestrials.
 
 "What did you say?" asked Steel-Blue.
"I couldn't understand."
 
 "Just thinking to myself," Jon answered.
 It was a welcome surprise. Apparently his
 thoughts had to be directed outward, rather
 than inward, in order for the Steel-Blues to
 read it.
 
 He followed the Steel-Blue into the gaping
 lock of the invaders' space ship wondering
 how he could warn Earth. The Space
 Patrol cruiser was due in for refueling at
 his service station in 21 days. But by that
 time he probably would be mouldering in
 the rocky dust of the asteroid.
 
 It was pitch dark within the ship but the
 Steel-Blue seemed to have no trouble at all
 maneuvering through the maze of corridors.
 Jon followed him, attached to one tentacle.
 
 Finally Jon and his guide entered a circular
 room, bright with light streaming from
 a glass-like, bulging skylight. They apparently
 were near topside of the vessel.
 
 A Steel-Blue, more massive than his
 guide and with four more pair of tentacles,
 including two short ones that grew from the
 top of its head, spoke out.
 
 "This is the violator?" Jon's Steel-Blue
 nodded.
 
 "You know the penalty? Carry it out."
 
 "He also is an inhabitant of this system,"
 Jon's guide added.
 
 "Examine him first, then give him the
 death."
 
 Jon Karyl shrugged as he was led from
 the lighted room through more corridors.
 If it got too bad he still had the stubray
 pistol.
 
 Anyway, he was curious. He'd taken on
 the lonely, nerve-wracking job of service
 station attendant just to see what it offered.
 
 Here was a part of it, and it was certainly
 something new.
 
 "This is the examination room," his
 Steel-Blue said, almost contemptuously.
 
 A green effulgence surrounded him.
 
 

 There
 was a hiss. Simultaneously, as the
 tiny microphone on the outside of his
 suit picked up the hiss, he felt a chill go
 through his body. Then it seemed as if a
 half dozen hands were inside him, examining
 his internal organs. His stomach contracted.
 He felt a squeeze on his heart. His
 lungs tickled.
 
 There were several more queer motions
 inside his body.
 
 Then another Steel-Blue voice said:
 
 "He is a soft-metal creature, made up of
 metals that melt at a very low temperature.
 He also contains a liquid whose makeup I
 cannot ascertain by ray-probe. Bring him
 back when the torture is done."
 
 Jon Karyl grinned a trifle wryly. What
 kind of torture could this be?
 
 Would it last 21 days? He glanced at the
 chronometer on his wrist.
 
 Jon's Steel-Blue led him out of the alien
 ship and halted expectantly just outside the
 ship's lock.
 
 Jon Karyl waited, too. He thought of the
 stubray pistol holstered at his hip. Shoot my
 way out? It'd be fun while it lasted. But he
 toted up the disadvantages.
 
 He either would have to find a hiding
 place on the asteroid, and if the Steel-Blues
 wanted him bad enough they could tear the
 whole place to pieces, or somehow get
 aboard the little life ship hidden in the
 service station.
 
 In that he would be just a sitting duck.
 
 He shrugged off the slight temptation to
 use the pistol. He was still curious.
 
 And he was interested in staying alive as
 long as possible. There was a remote chance
 he might warn the SP ship. Unconsciously,
 he glanced toward his belt to see the little
 power pack which, if under ideal conditions,
 could finger out fifty thousand miles into
 space.
 
 If he could somehow stay alive the 21
 days he might be able to warn the patrol.
 He couldn't do it by attempting to flee, for
 his life would be snuffed out immediately.
 
 The Steel-Blue said quietly:
 
 "It might be ironical to let you warn
 that SP ship you keep thinking about. But
 we know your weapon now. Already our
 ship is equipped with a force field designed
 especially to deflect your atomic guns."
 
 Jon Karyl covered up his thoughts
 quickly. They can delve deeper than the
 surface of the mind. Or wasn't I keeping a
 leash on my thoughts?
 
 The Steel-Blue chuckled. "You get—absent-minded,
 is it?—every once in a
 while."
 
 Just then four other Steel-Blues appeared
 lugging great sheets of plastic and various
 other equipment.
 
 They dumped their loads and began unbundling
 them.
 
 Working swiftly, they built a plastic
 igloo, smaller than the living room in the
 larger service station igloo. They ranged instruments
 inside—one of them Jon Karyl
 recognized as an air pump from within the
 station—and they laid out a pallet.
 
 When they were done Jon saw a miniature
 reproduction of the service station, lacking
 only the cannon cap and fin, and with clear
 plastic walls instead of the opaqueness of the
 other.
 
 His Steel-Blue said: "We have reproduced
 the atmosphere of your station so that you
 be watched while you undergo the torture
 under the normal conditions of your life."
 
 "What is this torture?" Jon Karyl asked.
 
 The answer was almost caressing: "It is
 a liquid we use to dissolve metals. It causes
 joints to harden if even so much as a drop
 remains on it long. It eats away the metal,
 leaving a scaly residue which crumbles
 eventually into dust.
 
 "We will dilute it with a harmless liquid
 for you since No. 1 does not wish you to die
 instantly.
 
 "Enter your"—the Steel-Blue hesitated—"mausoleum.
 You die in your own atmosphere.
 However, we took the liberty of purifying
 it. There were dangerous elements in
 it."
 
 Jon walked into the little igloo. The
 Steel-Blues sealed the lock, fingered dials
 and switches on the outside. Jon's space suit
 deflated. Pressure was building up in the
 igloo.
 
 He took a sample of the air, found that
 it was good, although quite rich in oxygen
 compared with what he'd been using in the
 service station and in his suit.
 
 With a sigh of relief he took off his helmet
 and gulped huge draughts of the air.
 
 He sat down on the pallet and waited
 for the torture to begin.
 
 The Steel Blues crowded about the igloo,
 staring at him through elliptical eyes.
 
 Apparently, they too, were waiting for the
 torture to begin.
 
 Jon thought the excess of oxygen was
 making him light-headed.
 
 He stared at a cylinder which was beginning
 to sprout tentacles from the circle.
 He rubbed his eyes and looked again. An
 opening, like the adjustable eye-piece of a
 spacescope, was appearing in the center of
 the cylinder.
 
 A square, glass-like tumbler sat in the
 opening disclosed in the four-foot cylinder
 that had sprouted tentacles. It contained a
 yellowish liquid.
 
 One of the tentacles reached into the
 opening and clasped the glass. The opening
 closed and the cylinder, propelled by locomotor
 appendages, moved toward Jon.
 
 He didn't like the looks of the liquid in
 the tumbler. It looked like an acid of some
 sort. He raised to his feet.
 
 He unsheathed the stubray gun and prepared
 to blast the cylinder.
 
 

 The
 cylinder moved so fast Jon felt his
 eyes jump in his head. He brought the
 stubray gun up—but he was helpless. The
 pistol kept on going up. With a deft movement,
 one of the tentacles had speared it
 from his hand and was holding it out of
 his reach.
 
 Jon kicked at the glass in the cylinder's
 hand. But he was too slow. Two tentacles
 gripped the kicking leg. Another struck him
 in the chest, knocking him to the pallet. The
 same tentacle, assisted by a new one,
 pinioned his shoulders.
 
 Four tentacles held him supine. The cylinder
 lifted a glass-like cap from the tumbler
 of liquid.
 
 Lying there helplessly, Jon was remembering
 an old fairy tale he'd read as a kid.
 Something about a fellow named Socrates
 who was given a cup of hemlock to drink.
 It was the finis for Socrates. But the old
 hero had been nonchalant and calm about
 the whole thing.
 
 With a sigh, Jon Karyl, who was curious
 unto death, relaxed and said, "All right,
 bub, you don't have to force-feed me. I'll
 take it like a man."
 
 The cylinder apparently understood him,
 for it handed him the tumbler. It even reholstered
 his stubray pistol.
 
 Jon brought the glass of liquid under his
 nose. The fumes of the liquid were pungent.
 It brought tears to his eyes.
 
 He looked at the cylinder, then at the
 Steel-Blues crowding around the plastic
 igloo. He waved the glass at the audience.
 
 "To Earth, ever triumphant," he toasted.
 Then he drained the glass at a gulp.
 
 Its taste was bitter, and he felt hot
 prickles jab at his scalp. It was like eating
 very hot peppers. His eyes filled with tears.
 He coughed as the stuff went down.
 
 But he was still alive, he thought in
 amazement. He'd drunk the hemlock and
 was still alive.
 
 The reaction set in quickly. He hadn't
 known until then how tense he'd been. Now
 with the torture ordeal over, he relaxed. He
 laid down on the pallet and went to sleep.
 
 There was one lone Steel-Blue watching
 him when he rubbed the sleep out of his
 eyes and sat up.
 
 He vanished almost instantly. He, or another
 like him, returned immediately accompanied
 by a half-dozen others, including
 the multi-tentacled creature known as No. 1.
 
 One said,
 
 "You are alive." The thought registered
 amazement. "When you lost consciousness,
 we thought you had"—there was a hesitation—"as
 you say, died."
 
 "No," Jon Karyl said. "I didn't die. I
 was just plain dead-beat so I went to sleep."
 The Steel-Blues apparently didn't understand.
 
 "Good it is that you live. The torture
 will continue," spoke No. 1 before loping
 away.
 
 The cylinder business began again. This
 time, Jon drank the bitter liquid slowly, trying
 to figure out what it was. It had a
 familiar, tantalizing taste but he couldn't
 quite put a taste-finger on it.
 
 His belly said he was hungry. He glanced
 at his chronometer. Only 20 days left before
 the SP ship arrived.
 
 Would this torture—he chuckled—last
 until then? But he was growing more and
 more conscious that his belly was screaming
 for hunger. The liquid had taken the edge
 off his thirst.
 
 It was on the fifth day of his torture that
 Jon Karyl decided that he was going to get
 something to eat or perish in the attempt.
 
 The cylinder sat passively in its niche in
 the circle. A dozen Steel-Blues were watching
 as Jon put on his helmet and unsheathed
 his stubray.
 
 They merely watched as he pressed the
 stubray's firing stud. Invisible rays licked
 out of the bulbous muzzle of the pistol.
 The plastic splintered.
 
 Jon was out of his goldfish bowl and
 striding toward his own igloo adjacent to
 the service station when a Steel-Blue
 accosted him.
 
 "Out of my way," grunted Jon, waving
 the stubray. "I'm hungry."
 
 "I'm the first Steel-Blue you met," said
 the creature who barred his way. "Go back
 to your torture."
 
 "But I'm so hungry I'll chew off one of
 your tentacles and eat it without seasoning."
 
 "Eat?" The Steel-Blue sounded puzzled.
 
 "I want to refuel. I've got to have food
 to keep my engine going."
 
 Steel-Blue chuckled. "So the hemlock, as
 you call it, is beginning to affect you at
 last? Back to the torture room."
 
 "Like R-dust," Jon growled. He pressed
 the firing stud on the stubray gun. One of
 Steel-Blue's tentacles broke off and fell to
 the rocky sward.
 
 Steel-Blue jerked out the box he'd used
 once before. A tentacle danced over it.
 
 Abruptly Jon found himself standing on
 a pinnacle of rock. Steel-Blue had cut a
 swath around him 15 feet deep and five feet
 wide.
 
 "Back to the room," Steel-Blue commanded.
 
 Jon resheathed the stubray pistol,
 shrugged non-committally and leaped the
 trench. He walked slowly back and reentered
 the torture chamber.
 
 The Steel-Blues rapidly repaired the damage
 he'd done.
 
 As he watched them, Jon was still curious,
 but he was getting mad underneath at
 the cold egoism of the Steel-Blues.
 
 By the shimmering clouds of Earth, by
 her green fields, and dark forests, he'd
 stay alive to warn the SP ship.
 
 Yes, he'd stay alive till then. And send
 the story of the Steel-Blues' corrosive acid
 to it. Then hundreds of Earth's ships could
 equip themselves with spray guns and squirt
 citric acid and watch the Steel-Blues fade
 away.
 
 It sounded almost silly to Jon Karyl. The
 fruit acid of Earth to repel these invaders—it
 doesn't sound possible. That couldn't be
 the answer.
 
 Citric acid wasn't the answer, Jon Karyl
 discovered a week later.
 
 The Steel-Blue who had captured him in
 the power room of the service station came
 in to examine him.
 
 "You're still holding out, I see," he observed
 after poking Jon in every sensitive
 part of his body.
 
 "I'll suggest to No. 1 that we increase
 the power of the—ah—hemlock. How do
 you feel?"
 
 Between the rich oxygen and the dizziness
 of hunger, Jon was a bit delirious. But he
 answered honestly enough: "My guts feel as
 if they're chewing each other up. My bones
 ache. My joints creak. I can't coordinate I'm
 so hungry."
 
 "That is the hemlock," Steel-Blue said.
 
 It was when he quaffed the new and
 stronger draught that Jon knew that his
 hope that it was citric acid was squelched.
 
 The acid taste was weaker which meant
 that the citric acid was the diluting liquid.
 It was the liquid he couldn't taste beneath
 the tang of the citric acid that was the corrosive
 acid.
 
 On the fourteenth day, Jon was so weak
 he didn't feel much like moving around. He
 let the cylinder feed him the hemlock.
 
 No. 1 came again to see him, and went
 away chuckling, "Decrease the dilution.
 This Earthman at last is beginning to
 suffer."
 
 

 Staying
 alive had now become a fetish
 with Jon.
 
 On the sixteenth day, the Earthman realized
 that the Steel-Blues also were waiting
 for the SP ship.
 
 The extra-terrestrials had repaired the
 blue ship where the service station atomic
 ray had struck. And they were doing a little
 target practice with plastic bubbles only a
 few miles above the asteroid.
 
 When his chronometer clocked off the
 beginning of the twenty-first day, Jon received
 a tumbler of the hemlock from the
 hands of No. 1 himself.
 
 "It is the hemlock," he chuckled, "undiluted.
 Drink it and your torture is over.
 You will die before your SP ship is destroyed.
 
 "We have played with you long enough.
 Today we begin to toy with your SP ship.
 Drink up, Earthman, drink to enslavement."
 
 Weak though he was Jon lunged to his
 feet, spilling the tumbler of liquid. It ran
 cool along the plastic arm of his space suit.
 He changed his mind about throwing the
 contents on No. 1.
 
 With a smile he set the glass at his lips
 and drank. Then he laughed at No. 1.
 
 "The SP ship will turn your ship into
 jelly."
 
 No. 1 swept out, chuckling. "Boast if you
 will, Earthman, it's your last chance."
 
 There was an exultation in Jon's heart
 that deadened the hunger and washed away
 the nausea.
 
 At last he knew what the hemlock was.
 
 He sat on the pallet adjusting the little
 power-pack radio. The SP ship should now
 be within range of the set. The space patrol
 was notorious for its accuracy in keeping to
 schedule. Seconds counted like years. They
 had to be on the nose, or it meant disaster
 or death.
 
 He sent out the call letters.
 
 "AX to SP-101 ... AX to SP-101 ... AX
 to SP-101 ..."
 
 Three times he sent the call, then began
 sending his message, hoping that his signal
 was reaching the ship. He couldn't know if
 they answered. Though the power pack
 could get out a message over a vast distance,
 it could not pick up messages even
 when backed by an SP ship's power unless
 the ship was only a few hundred miles
 away.
 
 The power pack was strictly a distress
 signal.
 
 He didn't know how long he'd been
 sending, nor how many times his weary
 voice had repeated the short but desperate
 message.
 
 He kept watching the heavens and hoping.
 
 Abruptly he knew the SP ship was coming,
 for the blue ship of the Steel-Blues was
 rising silently from the asteroid.
 
 Up and up it rose, then flames flickered
 in a circle about its curious shape. The ship
 disappeared, suddenly accelerating.
 
 Jon Karyl strained his eyes.
 
 Finally he looked away from the heavens
 to the two Steel-Blues who stood negligently
 outside the goldfish bowl.
 
 Once more, Jon used the stubray pistol.
 He marched out of the plastic igloo and ran
 toward the service station.
 
 He didn't know how weak he was until
 he stumbled and fell only a few feet from
 his prison.
 
 The Steel-Blues just watched him.
 
 He crawled on, around the circular pit in
 the sward of the asteroid where one Steel-Blue
 had shown him the power of his
 weapon.
 
 He'd been crawling through a nightmare
 for years when the quiet voice penetrated
 his dulled mind.
 
 "Take it easy, Karyl. You're among
 friends."
 
 He pried open his eyes with his will. He
 saw the blue and gold of a space guard's
 uniform. He sighed and drifted into unconsciousness.
 
 

 He was
 still weak days later when
 Capt. Ron Small of SP-101 said,
 
 "Yes, Karyl, it's ironical. They fed you
 what they thought was sure death, and it's
 the only thing that kept you going long
 enough to warn us."
 
 "I was dumb for a long time," Karyl said.
"I thought that it was the acid, almost to
 the very last. But when I drank that last
 glass, I knew they didn't have a chance.
 
 "They were metal monsters. No wonder
 they feared that liquid. It would rust their
 joints, short their wiring, and kill them.
 No wonder they stared when I kept alive
 after drinking enough to completely annihilate
 a half-dozen of them.
 
 "But what happened when you met the
 ship?"
 
 The space captain grinned.
 
 "Not much. Our crew was busy creating
 a hollow shell filled with water to be shot
 out of a rocket tube converted into a projectile
 thrower.
 
 "These Steel-Blues, as you call them, put
 traction beams on us and started tugging us
 toward the asteroid. We tried a couple of
 atomic shots but when they just glanced off,
 we gave up.
 
 "They weren't expecting the shell of
 water. When it hit that blue ship, you could
 almost see it oxidize before your eyes.
 
 "I guess they knew what was wrong right
 away. They let go the traction beams and
 tried to get away. They forgot about the
 force field, so we just poured atomic fire
 into the weakening ship. It just melted
 away."
 
 Jon Karyl got up from the divan where
 he'd been lying. "They thought I was a
 metal creature, too. But where do you suppose
 they came from?"
 
 The captain shrugged. "Who knows?"
 
 Jon set two glasses on the table.
 
 "Have a drink of the best damn water in
 the solar system?" He asked Capt. Small.
 
 "Don't mind if I do."
 
 The water twinkled in the two glasses,
 winking as if it knew just what it had
 done.
What is the plot of the story?
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Jon Karyl is bolting a new baffle plate on the stationary rocket engine and ignores what happens around other parts of the little asteroid. A peculiar spaceship lands a few hundred yards away from his plastic igloo, and a half-dozen steel-blue creatures slide out of the airlock. When he climbs up again and sees the creatures, Jon runs for the rocky slopes. Jon brings out his stubray pistol and turns up the oxygen dial for greater exertion as two of the creatures continue to chase him. He manages to elude them by going down a dim trail temporarily. Once Jon finds the stubby bush shaped like a Maltese cross, he keeps going until he reaches the hollowed-out space. He observes the steel-blue creatures from the televisor, noting how they head towards the station to try and destroy it. Although the station is not supposed to break because it is made out of stelrylite, the creatures pound holes into the station with round-headed metal clubs. He presses the atomic cannon’s firing buttons and finds that it is impossible to damage the ship. Suddenly, a Steel-Blue paralyzes him from the waist down and tells him to come with them. Once outside, the Steel-Blue explains to Jon that the most protective metal they use is the softest one in their world. He follows the Steel-Blue into the ship, where a more massive one tells Jon’s Steel-Blue to examine him and give him death. The Steel-Blue brings him to the examination room, where Jon is curious about this whole interaction. He thinks about warning the SP patrol and using his weapon, but his Steel-Blue tells him they are already aware of it. The other Steel-Blues begin reproducing the service station, and Jon’s Steel-Blue tells him that his torture will be dissolved in a liquid they have prepared. When he goes inside, he prepares to blast at the cylinder with his gun. However, the tentacles take it away from him and bring him a glass-like cup filled with liquid. Jon toasts to Earth and drinks the liquid, going to sleep shortly after. When he awakes again, the Steel-Blues are amazed that he is still alive. On the fifth day, Jon breaks out of his plastic bowl with his subray because he is hungry. The Steel-Blues try to torture him more with the poison, and Jon has now made it a fetish to stay alive. When Jon takes the drink from No. 1, it tells him that the SP ship will be destroyed. Jon tries to send a distress signal, and he watches as the SP ship begins to come abruptly. The Steel-Blues watch as he tries to escape, only to be greeted by the voice of a space guard. Captain Ron Small of SP-101 tells him later that the Steel-Blues fed him a liquid they feared. The Steel-Blues tried to fight back, but the SP ship just shot a water rocket and set it on atomic fire. Captain Small and Jon then toast to water. 
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This story follows Jon Karyl, a service station attendant. While fixing something on the rocket engine, a landing peculiar blue ship escapes his attention. When he notices the intruders, he finds them to be steel-blue creatures intent on approaching and capturing him. Escaping away back to the service station, he fires atomic cannons at the creatures' ship only to watch it ricochet off. Suddenly, a Steel-Blue temporarily paralyzes his legs and instructs him to follow. Karyl finds out - through an exchange of mind-reading - that these Steel-Blues are just like Earthmen as they seek out further planets to inhabit. 

Another Steel-Blue instructs Karyl's Steel-Blue to examine him and then torture him, leaving him to his death. Proclaimed to be a soft-metal creature, Karyl is instructed to enter a plastic igloo. This igloo is a reproduction of Earth's atmosphere, so the Steel-Blues can observe the torture. In it, Karyl is given a series of dilutions containing a liquid that dissolves metal, with the last tumbler containing the pure liquid. Though Karyl initially tries to escape using his stubray pistol, he becomes curious about death and drinks the liquid. To the Steel-Blues surprise, he survives the first night and all subsequent days as well, seemingly only suffering from a lack of food and nutrition. Karyl vows to stay alive until the SP ship can rescue him, but his Steel-Blue warns him that they will be ready to attack it when it comes. 

On the sixteenth day, the Steel-Blues await Karyl to die as they give him the final undiluted liquid. Drinking it, Karyl laughs instead and taunts the Steel-Blues. Using a power-pack radio, he sends a warning signal to the SP ship. When it arrives, he stumbles out of the igloo and crawls until he hears a human voice. Later on in his recovery, he finds out that his warning was successful and that the liquid thought to be poison by the Steel-Blues was in fact water. Beneficial to humans, but harmful to robots. In fact, this is what the Captain of the SP ship used to attack the Steel-Blues. 
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After he repairs the rocket engine, Jon Karyl, a starways’ Lone Watcher, notices the invasion of Steel-Blues, extraterrestrial robotic creatures. He flees towards the service station while six Steel-Blues chase behind him. During his run, Steel-Blues use power rays to attack him but fail. He flees successfully into the service station, uses the televisors to spot the motion of Steel-Blues, and examines them. He realizes Steel-Blues are robotic. The pounding sound upstairs makes Jon realizes that Steel-Blues is trying to break the entrance door. He thinks Steel-Blues are doing a useless job as the strongest metal forms the service station in the solar system. He goes to the station’s power plant to use the televisor that can see every room, but the Steel-Blue pounds a hole into the door, which seems impossible to him. He attacks the Steel-Blues’ spaceship with an atomic cannon bomb, finding the bomb ricochet off the ship and strike the rocket nearby. Suddenly, he is taken down by the Steel-Blue, who invades the station when he tries to attack the ship the second time. Through the conversation with the invading Steel-Blue, Jon knows that they can read his mind when it is directed outward.

As Jon is taken to the Steel-Blues’ ship, he learns that the toughest metal in the solar system is considered the most vulnerable one for Steel-Blues. He also knows that Steel-Blues’ purpose in invading the solar system is to conquer more living spaces for themselves. In the Steel-Blues’ ship, Jon sees the leader of the Steel-Blue, who orders Jon’s guide Steel-Blue to examine Jon. After Jon is examined, they classify him as a soft-metal creature by him. Jon is taken to a prison to undergo the torture built by the Steel-Blue, forced to drink a liquid used to dissolve the metal. The Earth space patrol cruiser will come to refuel their ship after 21 days; Jon knows that he has to stay alive until then to alert the SP ship. During the torture, namely drinking the unknown liquid, Jon attempts to escape but fails. The Steel-Blues every day watch him undergo torture. At the beginning of the torture, the liquid is diluted and tastes like some strong acid. As the days pass, the diluted portion decreases, and Jon realizes what the liquid is. Finally, on the last day, when the SP ship is scheduled to come, and Jon is fed with the undiluted liquid, he realizes that it is water and the weakness of the Steel-Blues. He sends the message to the SP ship and then passes out outside the prison. When he wakes up, he is rescued by the SP ship, and the Steel-Blues is destroyed by the powerful water attack of the SP ship.

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The story follows Jon Karyl, a lone watcher that lives in what seems to be an asteroid. He is in charge of watching and protecting the asteroid before other humans come. While doing this, an alien ship arrives on the asteroid. Jon is forced to run from his base while the aliens chase him. He manages to get to his secondary entry to the base without the aliens seeing. When he gets back to the base, he tries to shoot the enemy ship with a cannon, but he doesn’t do any damage. Instead, the aliens manage to break into his base and capture him. Jon is taken to the enemy ship and he realizes that the aliens are in fact robots. The robots take him to their leader, where Jon is told that he will be tortured. Jon knows that there is another ship coming in 21 days, so he only has to survive for those days. The robots give Jon an acid that would slowly kill him, and Jon is forced to drink it. After a few days of this same routine, Jon escapes the ship using his blaster, as he is very hungry. He gets caught again and continues drinking the acid. When the human ship arrives, Jon manages to warn them about the robots. When Jon woke up from passing out, the humans had already destroyed the robots. It is revealed that they had been feeding Jon water and citric acid, thinking that it would kill Jon. 
What are the physical features of the Steel-Blue creatures?
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The Steel-Blue creatures are described to be steel-blue in color. They have egg-shaped heads and walking appendages. The Steel-Blues are also around the height of Jon at six feet, and their appendages are many-jointed. These appendages also stretch and shrink independent of each other, but the cylindrical body and tentacles are kept on a level balance. Instead of eyes, the Steel-Blues have elliptical-shaped lenses that cover half of the head and converge around the sides of the head. Jon notes that they are robots without masters. When Jon follows the Steel-Blue later, he notes that it has a lens on the back of its head as well. The massive steel-blue creature that Jon meets has four more tentacles, including two short ones that grow out of its head. 
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These creatures - robots - are steel-blue in nature with egg shaped heads. They stand at about six feet tall and have a rectangular-like stature with flexible appendages (able to move independently of each other), a cylindrical body, and ellipitcal-shaped lens for eyes that are present both on the front and back of their head. 

Some of the creatures, unlike Jon's Steel-Blue, also have more tentacles that also grew atop their heads. These tentacles were able to move like limbs, for example, it was able to grab the glass containing the yellowish liquid. 
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Steel-Blue is around six feet high. Their head shape looks like an egg, colored Steel-Blue. Each has four pairs of independently jointed forked tentacles, stretching from their cylindrical body, which let them move. Their body shape is straight without the curve of the shoulder or hip. Elliptical-shaped lenses cover their heads for both the front and the back of their heads, whose ends wind around the side. They look like robots. They communicate with telepathy. The leader of the Steel-Blue, No. 1, is more massive than the normal ones and has four more pairs of tentacles, two of which are shorter and stretch out from its head.
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The creatures are described as being of a steel-blue color. They are six feet tall, and they have egg shaped heads. They don’t have any legs or hands, instead they have appendages that allow them to move. They are cylindrical, and have 4 tentacles that allow them to fight and grab things. Instead of eyes they have elliptical shaped lenses that allow them to see, and they also have lenses on the back of their head, which allows them to see. They also communicate with Jon via telepathy, and they can read his mind. 
Describe the setting of the story.
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The story is initially set on an asteroid, where a stationary rocket station is. Jon has a blue plastic igloo to live in. There is also a ravine where he runs to in an attempt to elude the Steel-Blues. There are bushes, water, and dense thicket that he must go through before getting to the hollowed-out space in the center. At the station, there is a lock for his key to go through. The lever then opens to a long tunnel, and there is a televisor that fixes on the area. The station is made out of stelrylite, but it becomes riddled with holes after the Steel-Blues attack. The station also has a row of studs and a revolving turret that fires atomic cannons. There is a yellow, blue, and red button to fire. The Blue Steels’ spaceship can change its part to a bubble-like metal. The spaceship of the invaders is pitch-black and is a maze-like corridor. At the end, there is a circular room with bright light streaming from a glass-like and bulging skylight. In the examination room, the Steel-Blues build a miniature reproduction of the space station with plastic walls. There is a small opening in the four foot cylinder that brings him a strange liquid. Although the Steel-Blues are always present, the tank they keep him in is fairly easy to break out of. 
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This setting occurs in the same system as Earth, inhabited both by humans and the Steel-Blue creatures. More specifically, this story takes place aboard the Steel-Blues' ship. Karyl encounters many rooms including the examination room, but the majority of the story has him in a clear plastic igloo by which is he observed by the creatures. The igloo is a miniature recreation of the service station with a lock outside. 

At the end of the story, Karyl is saved and the setting changes to be onboard the Space Patrol ship, where he is safe and recovering.
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The story happens on an asteroid under the control of the earthman. The surface of the asteroid is rocky and uneven. The service station is underground of a ravine, whose surface is filled with man-high bushes. Its entrance is hidden underneath a dense thicket around the hairpin turn of the old watercourse. In the center of the hollowed-out space lies a self-sealing lock, which is the door of the entrance. Behind the door, there is a long tunnel, the end of which is a room surrounded by the televisors. A steel ladder leads to the station’s power plant room, which is also equipped with televisors that can watch all the rooms in the station. There are weapons stored in the power room. The station is capped with a revolving turret. The outer shell of the service station, including the entrance door, is constituted by stelrylite, the toughest metal in Earthman’s knowledge. The blue spaceship lies near the stationary rocket engine outside the service station.  Inside the blue spaceship, it is dark and mazed with corridors. There is a circular room lighted with a bulging skylight, where the leader of the Steel-Blues is. 

The Steel-Blues build a smaller plastic igloo, similar to the one in the service station, to serve as the prison for Jon to torture him. There are instruments ranged inside, such as an air pump from the station and a pallet laid inside. The wall is made of clear plastic. The atmosphere inside is reproduced as the one in the service station, only with more proportion of the oxygen. There is a cylinder whose center can open, where it usually sits a glass tumbler containing a yellowish liquid that is claimed to be the harmful liquid to torture Jon. The cylinder is equipped with tentacles that can control Jon to drink the liquid and take down his defense.

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The story is located in a small asteroid that is described to be barren and empty, with gray rocks. The asteroid only has a single base, which is where Jon lives alone. There is also a ravine with plants that allow Jon to hide a secondary entry to his base, which is the one that he uses to get away from the steel-blues initially. When Jon gets captured, he is taken to the ship of the steel-blues, and he learns that they made a smaller replica of his base because they want him to die happily. 
What are some of the equipment used in the story?
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Jon uses a stubray pistol that he keeps on him at all times. The space station itself is fairly equipped, with a thin turret that can fire atomic cannons. The ship that the Steel Blues arrive in is very advanced as well, and it is capable of recovering from the cannon. The Steel Blue’s build his habitat out of plastic and other material that they have in possession. When the Steel Blue’s begin Jon’s torture, they feed him a drink that he thinks is hemlock. Later, Jon also uses his little power-pack radio to send a distress signal to the SP ship. When the SP ship defeats the Steel Blues, they use a rocket tube to shoot water and then atomic fire. 
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One equipment is the power-pack radio that Jon has. He uses it at the end of the story to send out call letters to warn the space patrol ship of the awaiting attack from the Steel-Blues. He continually sends the message as a distress signal, unable to receive a message back. 

Another piece of equipment is Jon's stubray gun. Kept on him as a protective weapon, he first attempts to blast the cylinder with it. His attempt was unsuccessful as the Steel-Blue quickly apprehended it, before being returned to him. Later on in the story, Jon uses it to escape his plastic igloo prison. 
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Jon Karyl, a starways’ Lone Watcher on an asteroid, is in a rocket when he notices the invasion of the Steel-Blues, non-terrestrial robotic creatures who try to invade the terrestrial territory. Jon Karyl also possesses a stubray pistol, which he often uses to break his way out of the prison, which the Steel-Blues make, or attack the Steel-Blues. When he flees from the Steel-Blues, he also wears a spacesuit, whose boots can control gravity pull. He takes off his spacesuit until he goes into the prison made by the Steel-Blues. Jon Karyl uses the televisors in the service station to spot the motion of Steel-Blues and the revolving turret to attack the Steel-Blues’ ship. Jon wears a chronometer on his wrist to track the time, counting the remaining days of the arrival of the space patrol ship. He uses the power-pack radio to send the message to the space patrol ship on the day of their arrival.
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Both Jon and the Steel-blues use equipment throughout the story. First, Jon uses space boots and an oxygen dial when running from the steel-blues. The space boots allow him to control his gravitational pull, and the oxygen dial allows him to control the amount of oxygen that he is inhaling. Jon also uses a stubray pistol throughout the story to fight off the steel-blues and to escape from them. The steel-blues use black boxes to control different things. They also have smaller robots, which is what gives Jon the acid every day.
What is the relationship between Jon Karyl and his Steel-Blue (the one that he initially meets)?
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Jon is initially curious about the Steel-Blue that he first meets in the space station. When he notices that it has eyes on the back of its head, it even says “Thank you” to him. It also tells him that its species can read his mind. The Steel-Blue also explains to him that the metal they use at the station is considered to be the softest one from where the Space Blue’s come from. It is not openly hostile towards him, but it does speak almost contemptuously when they go to the examination room. Although his Steel Blue initially did not show much hostility, it does warn him to not even think about contacting the SP ship or using his weapon. However, it does tease him and say that he gets absent-minded at times. When it tells him about the torture, his Blue Steel speaks in an almost-caressing way as well. When Jon breaks out of his tank to find food, his Steel-Blue tells him that it is the first of the creatures that he has met. It commands him to go back to the tank. Although it seems friendly at first, Jon and the Steel-Blue do not have any sort of positive relationship. The Steel-Blue wishes to see him suffer, while Jon wants to survive and get out of the torture room. 
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The relationship between Karyl and his Steel-Blue is a tentative friendship, I would say. Both parties are curious about each other and seem more interested in learning about each other, rather than being vindictive like the No.1 Steel-Blue seems to be. For example, his Steel-Blue thanks Karyl when the latter comments on his innovative eyes on the back on his head. 

Karyl converses and interacts with his Steel-Blue the most, both in regards to the incoming SP ship as well as Karyl's apparent absent-mindedness. 
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Jon Karyl, a starways’ Lone Watcher, is in a controlled relationship with the Steel-Blue, an extra-terrestrial robotic creature that he first meets. He is stricken down by the Steel-Blue and taken by it to its spaceship. Jon is the captive and the watched prisoner of the Steel-Blue. When Jon tries to escape from his prison or the torture because of the unbearable hunger, the Steel-Blue forces him to go back and stay in the newly-built smaller igloo. Jon breaks one tentacle of the Steel-Blue by using his stubray pistol when he tries to resist it. The Steel-Blue suppresses Jon by showing the power of its weapon and forces him back to the prison. The relationship between them is superior and inferior, in the sense of being captive. 
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The relationship between Jon and the first steel-blue is that of capturer-victim. The steel-blue manages to break into Jon’s base and captures Jon. After this, Jon uses the steel-blue to understand what the robots are and how they work. They communicate with each other, and Jon doesn’t seem to be afraid of the steel-blue. Jon was very curious about the species, so he didn’t want the robot in order to learn more about them. When Jon escapes from the torture, the same steel-blue captures him again and takes him back. 