The Lightning's Course

The robot stirred restlessly and moved at length across a room littered with parts of others of its kind. Its blue photocellular eyes peered out into the starshot Martian sky. Could it know that its creator was coming nearer, riding flame through the night?

Swiftly the gyrotomic sped beneath the vaulted ceiling of Certagarni, using the air propellers and gyrovanes as local ordinances demanded for the sake of air conservation, slanting above streets thronging with gesticulating, chanting men wearing the bizarre native dress of old Mars.