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A Martian colony depends upon Emdee, a medical robot whose abilities exceed those of an ordinary manufactured machine. His knowledge and practical judgment make him indispensable, but the colonists' conversations reveal how difficult it is to explain the human significance of customs, holidays and shared memories to a mind organized differently from their own.
F. L. Wallace begins with a dispute over calendars and the displacement of familiar holidays by the Martian year. That apparently small problem opens onto questions about adaptation, community and the place of a highly capable robot in the life of a settlement far from Earth.
First published in Universe Science Fiction in December 1953, the complete story brings its conflicts to a definite ending. Illustrations credited to Mel Hunter and Malcolm Smith remain in the original EPUB. The narrative combines the practical details of colony life with a reflection on how people recognize care and understanding in an unfamiliar form.