As it approached the star liner, WALL · E's small probe ship was swallowed inside the Axiom's docking bay, where it was locked safely into place.

 

Still clinging to the outside of the ship, WALL · E saw the loading dock come to life. From every corner, gleaming service robots of all sizes and descriptions appeared. Their names shining on their front panels, they paused until lines appeared in front of them on the floor. Apparently¹, the bots carried out their directives by following these preprogrammed lines around the ship.

 

The probe ship's cargo² doors smoothly³ slid open, and WALL · E saw EVE. She was still shut down; only the green light on her chest was flashing.

 

"Eee-vah?" WALL · E whispered as a chrome-trimmed crane-bot lifted her out of the hold and lowered her onto the huge deck below. WALL · E was careful to speak softly and remain hidden.

 

Immediately, a squad⁴ of robots surrounded EVE. To them, she was Probe One. A tiny mint-blue robot with a bristle-brush head was beeping orders to the rest of the robots. His name was M-O. He was a microbe obliterator⁵ with one simple directive: clean.

 

M-O scanned EVE. Disgusted, he computed⁶ that she was fifteen percent contaminated with dirt. He signaled his crew, who hurried along bright red lines on the floor to begin the cleanup. A vacuum-bot, a sprayer-bot, and a buffer-bot zipped along their lines to do their jobs.

 

WALL · E watched as the crane-bot lifted one of the bots from the probe ship and lowered it onto the deck. WALL · E suddenly had an idea. He wedged himself into another probe-bot's place, and the crane-bot picked him up next.

 

As M-O continued to scan the probe-bots on deck, he suddenly came across WALL · E, who was boxed up and nervously⁷ trying to blend in. M-O turned to the boxed robot and scanned him: 100% FOREIGN CONTAMINANT! A red light popped out atop M-O's head and a siren began to wail⁸.

 

Poor WALL · E, having spent centuries cubing trash, was very dirty indeed. M-O instantly charged at WALL · E in a cleaning frenzy⁹. Frightened, WALL · E pushed him away with his front panel.

 

M-O tried again. WALL · E rolled backward, leaving a dirty trail on M-O's immaculate floor. M-O lunged forward and scrubbed at the track marks. Amused by his power over the cleaning-obsessed M-O, WALL · E had another idea. Just to see what might happen, he decided¹⁰ to stick out his tread and make another spot on the floor. M-O leaned over and scrubbed at it compulsively.

 

Teasing him now, WALL · E wiped one of his treads on M-O's head. M-O went crazy, trying to rid himself of the yucky stuff.

 

Suddenly, two steward-bots—the policing bots of the Axiom—emerged from a wall. Nearby, a small robot shot out of a pneumatic tube and into the docking bay. It was Gopher, the Captain's personal assistant. He quickly gave orders to the steward-bots. Then he headed toward the probe-bots. A blaring siren sounded, prompting the cleaning crew to snap to attention.

 

Gopher began to scan each probe-bot. He checked WALL · E and then moved on to the next robot. Realizing that something wasn't quite right, he stopped for a moment. He turned to look WALL · E over again, but the little robot was gone. Gopher continued until he finally came to EVE.

 

Gopher scanned EVE, and instantly, every alarm on deck began to sound. Green lights flashed everywhere. A hover¹¹ transport glided¹² up to Gopher. He beeped and ordered the crane-bot to lift EVE into the vehicle. Gopher climbed into the driver's seat and navigated¹³ the transport into an open elevator.

 

"Eee-vah!" WALL · E called, hurrying after the transport. He managed to hop¹⁴ inside the elevator just before its doors closed.

 

Behind him, the other bots began to file out of the loading dock. Each robot moved strictly¹⁵ along its designated line. M-O discovered WALL · E's latest filthy¹⁶ trail. But the dirt veered¹⁷ away from M-O's designated line, and bots were never supposed to go off their designated lines. Not ever.

 

M-O looked at his departing crew, then back at the dirt that irresistibly¹⁸ called to him. He closed his eyes and did something no service robot aboard the Axiom had ever done: He jumped off his designated line. Somehow, WALL · E had had a strong effect on the industrious¹⁹ cleaner-bot.

 

Cringing²⁰, M-O slowly opened his eyes. He looked around cautiously. No alarms. No whistles. Nothing had happened! That wasn't so hard, he decided, and cheerily began following WALL · E's tracks, scrubbing as he went. He was determined²¹ to find and clean this bot.

 

瓦力乘坐的小探测飞船驶近“功理”号，进入了它的停靠站，被可靠地固定到了适当的位置。

 

瓦力仍然紧贴着探测飞船的外壁。他看见装卸月台忙碌了起来。大大小小、形态不一、闪闪发光的服务机器人从各个角落走出来。他们的名字在他们的胸前面板上闪闪发光。他们等到面前的地板上出现线条之后才开始行动。显然，这些机器人沿着飞船四周预先设定的这些线路来执行他们的指令。

 

探测飞船的货舱门流畅地滑开，瓦力看见了伊芙。她的电源仍然关闭着，只有胸前的绿灯在闪烁。

 

一个镀铬边的起重机器人将伊芙从货舱里取出，然后把她放在下面巨大的船舱地板上。“伊——娃？”瓦力低声说道。瓦力很小心，说得很轻，没有被人发觉他的存在。

 

一队机器人立刻围绕在伊芙四周。对他们而言，她是探测机器人一号。一个脑袋是一把鬃刷的薄荷蓝色微型机器人正在“嘟嘟嘟”地向其他机器人下达命令。他的名字是莫。他是一个微生物终结者，他只执行一个简单的指令：清洁。

 

莫扫描了伊芙。他计算出她身上百分之十五的地方被灰尘污染了，这让他十分反感。他向他的队员们发了信号，他们便沿着地板上明亮的红线快速移动开始清洁。一个吸尘机器人、一个喷雾机器人和一个缓冲机器人沿着他们的线路快速移动以完成他们的工作。

 

瓦力看着起重机器人从探测飞船中举起其中的一个机器人并将它放在船舱地板上。瓦力突然有了一个主意。他挤进另一个探测机器人的位置，起重机器人下一个就举起了他。

 

莫继续扫描着船舱地板上的探测机器人时突然遇到了正团成盒状、紧张地试图混在其他机器人中的瓦力。莫转向这个收缩成盒状的机器人，并扫描了他：“百分之百外来致污物！”莫头顶上冒出盏红灯，警报声响了起来。

 

可怜的瓦力几个世纪来都在将垃圾压成方块，他确实极其肮脏。莫立刻向瓦力冲去，疯狂地想要将他清洁干净。瓦力被吓坏了，他用前胸面板将莫推开。

 

莫又试了一次。瓦力向后退去，在莫纤尘不染的地板上留下一道肮脏的轨迹。莫猛地扑到地上，用力擦洗那道轨迹。瓦力发现自己能影响对清洁过于痴迷的莫，被逗乐了，他又想出了一个主意。他决定伸出他的履带，在地板上再留下一道污迹，来看看会发生什么。莫趴在污迹上方，难以自已地擦洗它。

 

瓦力想要戏弄他，用一条履带去擦拭莫的脑袋。莫抓狂了，尽力将这令人讨厌的东西擦掉。

 

突然，两个乘务员机器人——“功理”号上的机器人警察——从一堵墙里冒出来。一个小机器人从附近的一个气流输送管里冲出来，冲进停靠站。它叫戈法，是船长的私人助理。他快速地向乘务员机器人下达命令，然后他向探测机器人走去。刺耳的警铃响起，提示清洁团队立正。

 

戈法开始一个一个地扫描探测机器人。他检查了瓦力，然后走向下一个机器人。意识到有什么地方不对劲时，他停顿了一会儿。他转身想再次检查瓦力，但这个小机器人已经不见了。戈法继续检查机器人，最后他来到了伊芙的前面。

 

戈法扫描了伊芙，一瞬间，船舱地板上的所有警报器都响了起来。各处都有绿灯在闪烁。一架悬停运输器滑翔到戈法面前。他“嘟嘟嘟”地命令起重机器人把伊芙举起放入运输器内。戈法爬上驾驶座，驾驶着运输器进入一架开着门的电梯。

 

“伊——娃！”瓦力叫道。他紧追在运输器后面，在电梯门合上前成功地跳进了电梯。

 

在他身后，其他的机器人开始排队走出装卸月台。每个机器人都严格顺着他的指定线路行进。莫发现了瓦力最后留下来的肮脏踪迹，但是这些尘土偏离了莫的指定线路，而机器人不该偏离他们的指定线路，在任何时候都不应该偏离。

 

莫看了眼他正在离开的队员，然后又看了看尘土，他难以抗拒它发出的召唤。他闭上眼睛，做了“功理”号上的餐饮服务机器人从未做过的事情：他离开了指定线路。不知怎的，瓦力对这个勤劳的清洁机器人产生了巨大影响。

 

莫忐忑不安地慢慢睁开眼睛。他小心地四处张望。没有警报。没有汽笛声。什么都没有发生！他认为这事没那么难，接着他开始开心地一路跟随瓦力留下的痕迹进行擦拭。他打定主意要找到这名机器人，把他清理干净。

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