 Tom Dort felt the hairs in his neck rise and bristle. In momentary terror, he pressed his sleeve button switch communicator. Very good, Mr. Dort. Don't panic. No need to panic. Fix your scanner to look into that plate. By Harry, these creatures are our equal. What? What, sir? They dumped out a robot with an infrared visiplate for communication, that's all. Not risking any personnel. Good SOP for them. Whatever we might do would only damage machinery.