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"Camouflage" is a 14,000-word story by Henry Kuttner, about a gang of thieves who commandeer a ship run by a cyborg. The story was first published in the September, 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

Talman is part of a criminal conspiracy to steal a vast some of money, then steal a spaceship, and use the ship to hide out in the asteroid belt. The ship is mostly automated, and run by a ‘transplant’ named Quentin, whom Talman used to know. Quentin had had an accident, and his mind was transplanted into a robotic body. Talman visits Quentin and Quentin’s wife, ostensibly to see an old friend, but really to see if Quentin has any superpowers that will prevent them from hijacking the ship. He decides Quentin does not, and the plan goes ahead. But once Talman and his gang are on board the big ship, they cannot find Quentin among all the machines and circuits, and Quentin begins sudden accelerations and decelerations of the ship to kill off the gangsters one by one. Talman offers to give Quentin a cut of the money, but Quentin knows that he cannot force them to comply—once he gave them the ship, they would renege on the bargain and kill him. As their numbers dwindle, Talman tries to use psychology to determine Quentin’s exact location; he almost succeeds in making Quentin think he is no longer human, but then Quentin manages to kill the rest of the gangsters. He explains to Talman that his comment, “You know I’d never have tried to kill you if you were still Bart Quentin” gave him away—you destroy a machine, not kill it. Quentin allows Talman to leave the ship safely, and then calls for a repair crew.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 7 (1945).