A/N: Thanks for the review! Yes, I'm picking up the idea of robots from those SMDM episodes, though a different mad scientist here than in those eps. You really have to suspend disbelief with robot substitution, but you do with plenty of things on TV shows already.

About the Buck Rogers episode, there it was aliens, not robots. The Searcher was picking up an ambassador and his party to transport them, only some enemy aliens had killed the ambassador et al and were taking their place, using an image screen device they had developed to assume other appearances. They were going to infiltrate key points in the galaxy as they impersonated other people. Only their device was calibrated for current galaxy residents, not for Buck, whose biochemistry was just slightly different from 25th century humans. So their image screen wasn't working entirely correctly with him, and he was getting weird visual effects. He tried to warn everybody that something was wrong with the ambassador and his party, but meanwhile, he had picked up an infection that humans except him were now immune to, so nobody was listening to him. They all thought it was just that he was sick and had a high fever, and they weren't taking his warnings seriously. All except the aliens, of course; they took Buck very seriously and were trying to stop him before he blew their cover.

This story isn't going to precisely parallel that plot, but that episode did give me this idea.

(SMDM)

Rudy was in his office reviewing the lab work and berating himself yet again when Carla's voice brought him to swift attention as his head nurse tapped on the open office door. "Dr. Wells, I just went to check on Steve after reading last night's notes when I got in, and he's not in his room."

"Is he in the bathroom?" Rudy was already moving as he spoke, though. It wasn't far. Back out of his office, down a short length of hall, into the larger equipment room, and then across to the observation room where Steve should have been. There was a bathroom just one door down from there, but the door was standing open, the light off. Carla followed Rudy into Steve's room, and the doctor picked up the detached IV line, which had been left neatly hung on the pole, and sighed.

Carla, who knew Steve very well from several rounds of him being a patient by now, shook her head fondly. "If you really want him to rest and take it easy, you might consider tying him down. It would take pretty strong ropes, though."

Rudy didn't return her smile; he was too busy fighting the sinking feeling of suspicion. He was afraid he knew exactly where Steve had gone. "We need to find him ASAP. He really is quite sick, and he has no business being up running around. You search everything north of here in the lab complex, and I'll take south." South included the area where Dr. Blankenship should have already arrived at work.

Carla left, and Rudy lengthened stride, making a beeline through the halls, not searching as he went but heading directly for a specific destination.

(SMDM)

Steve was a lot weaker than he had realized. The lab complex with all of OSI's assorted experiments and studies going on, far more than just the studies in bionics, was sizeable, but today, it felt like miles. He frequently kept a hand on the wall as he walked, and by the third person who asked him if he was okay, he was beginning to wonder himself. He felt awful. Still, he was bound and determined to repeat last night's chance observation just to see if it was consistent and reproducible.

Unfortunately, when he got to the appropriate area, Blankenship wasn't there. He asked one of the staff that he knew if the man was in yet.

"Oh, yeah, he got here a little while ago. He was interested in looking around before he started work, though. Oscar took him off on a tour of the place, the non classified parts of it, at least. Are you all right, Steve?"

Steve was sagging at the thought of chasing Blankenship and Oscar clear around the whole lab, but he straightened up stubbornly. "I'm fine. Think I picked up a bug somewhere, but it will pass." He turned away, his mind trying to sort this out through the fever.

A tour. Blankenship wanted a tour. Of course, Oscar wouldn't show him anything too classified, but what this would do was tell the other man exactly where those forbidden classified sections were. Steve's suspicions were growing. All scientists were curious, but still, he could see possibilities for spying here.

One foot in front of the other. He kept moving with an effort, and finally, he found them. Oscar was in the weather section, talking to Blankenship and introducing him to a few of the scientists there. Steve propped himself up on the doorframe and watched.

There was no question. The outlined neon yellow was precisely the same as last night, and nobody else, not in the whole lab this morning, had appeared like that to him. This wasn't a fever-induced bionic mistake. This was something sinister, though he wasn't sure exactly what.

Oscar apparently felt his stare, because he looked over and jumped. Blankenship followed his reaction. Having been caught, Steve peeled himself off the doorway and started across the room, trying to keep upright and also reminding himself that phrases like "my bionic eye" weren't safe in this company. Nobody in the room right now except Oscar knew of his enhanced status.

"Oscar," he said, "can I talk to you in your office?"

Oscar looked both annoyed and concerned. "Steve," he replied, dodging the question, "what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you," Steve said. "I have something important to tell you."

Oscar turned to one of the weather scientists and said, "would you please page Rudy Wells?"

Steve's annoyance rose. "Oscar, it's you I need to see. Not Rudy."

Blankenship entered the conversation, smoothly polite. "And who is this, Mr. Goldman?"

"This is Colonel Austin. I'm afraid he's sick today, though, and he should have just stayed put in bed and not come looking for me."

Steve was still staring at Blankenship. "Me being sick has nothing to do with it. I need to talk to you, Oscar." He could feel his body starting to waver, and Oscar caught his arm, supporting him.

"Later, Steve. It will wait."

All at once, Rudy was there, coming up on the other side and taking hold of the bionic arm. "Steve, I've been looking all over for you. What do you think you're doing?"

Oscar answered before Steve could. "He's going back to his room, and this time, Rudy, I want you to keep him there. Sedate him."

Steve protested at once, ignoring the fact that both of them were holding him up and that he probably would have collapsed by this point otherwise. His body was quitting on him, physical and bionic in conspiracy. "I don't need -"

Rudy tightened his grip. "Steve, I am the doctor, and right now, what you need is rest. Everything else can wait." He looked around the couple of people in the room. "Michael, can you help me? I think it's going to take two of us to walk him back there." Oscar yielded as the other man came over, moving over beside Blankenship again. Steve knew that he would be apologizing for this whole episode the minute they were gone. It annoyed him. Couldn't any of them listen to him, even for a moment? Didn't he deserve that much from them after everything? Didn't they trust him at all?

He gave a final try. "Oscar, I need to talk to you."

"Later, Steve. We'll talk about anything you want to later."

Rudy and Michael between them turned him away. Steve resisted, but he had no strength for it. Still protesting, he was steered back toward the door of the weather room.

(SMDM)

Dr. Neborra had watched this whole episode on the screen with every bit as much riveted attention as Austin had showed his robot. As soon as Austin was gone, Goldman turned to the robot. "I apologize for that," he said. "Austin is a good man, but like I said, he's sick today."

"No problem," the robot replied, speaking the words Neborra typed into the computer. "The man clearly wasn't in control of himself. I hope he'll be feeling better soon."

As Goldman and the robot continued their tour, Neborra sat back, his thoughts racing. This tour was invaluable by everything it wasn't showing, not by what it was, and he had been marking all the sections passed over for later attention. But Austin was becoming a real threat. Thank goodness the man was obviously truly sick today, but still, this was endangering Neborra's plan.

"He wanted the one called Rudy Wells to take him back to his room and keep him there. They're keeping Austin in the lab somewhere. Now why would they do that? Since he's sick, the obvious thing to do is either to send him home or maybe to the doctor or a clinic. Why hold him at a scientific lab?" He mused on that for a minute. "Maybe they've tried some experimental treatment or drug on him in one of their tests, and they aren't sure how that might cross react with his inconvenient illness, and they don't want to give an unedited medical history to anyone at a hospital."

Neborra finally gave up that problem for a larger one. Austin being kept in the lab only increased the chances of encountering him again, and sooner or later, Goldman, who regarded him as "a favorite" per the security escort, might actually start listening to him. Whatever Austin was picking up on, it had to be stopped and him silenced before he could reveal it.

No, the solution was clear. Whatever the reason Steve Austin was being held in the lab while he was sick, his illness needed to take a sharp turn for the worse. Neborra couldn't risk having his robot challenged repeatedly. No, he was going to have to kill Austin. Neborra started analyzing poisons mentally, deciding which was innocent enough in symptoms that it could be put down to just an extreme worsening of a virus.