"That's the plan," he confirms with a touch of smug happiness.

He's well aware that it's completely crazy and that he is perhaps trying to take foolishly good care of the Coluans' bodies by not pitching them into the non-existent lava. Nevertheless, Robbie is pleased that she, too, is on board with attempting the stalling approach.

"You know," he says conversationally as he slams his foot into a wall to get of burst of energy bubbles to direct at the rapidly approaching ... things. "I bet an electro-magnet would work really well on them. They screw up computers, and, if they're anything like Brainy, they were almost computers already."