jesus christ on the cross

Below the crest of the dune, the Artoo unit righted itself. It paused briefly toclean its single electronic eye with an auxiliary arm. Then it produced an electronicsqueal, which was almost, though not quite, a human expression of rage. Hummingquietly to itself then, it turned and trudged off toward the sandstone ridges as ifnothing had happened. Several hours later a straining Threepio, his internal thermostat overloaded andedging dangerously toward overheat shutdown, struggled up the top of what he hopedwas the last towering the dune. Nearby, a pillars and buttresses of bleached calcium,the bones of some enormous beast, formed an unpromising landmark. Reaching thecrest of the dune, Threepio peered anxiously ahead. Instead of the hoped-forgreenery of human civilization he saw only several dozen more dunes, identical inform and promise to the one he now stood upon. The farthest rose even higher thanthe one he presently surmounted. Threepio turned and looked back toward the now far-off rocky plateau, whichwas beginning to grow indistinct with distance and heat distortion. "Youmalfunctioning little twerp," he muttered, unable even now to admit to himself thatperhaps, just possibly, the Artoo unit might have been right. "This is all your fault.You tricked me into going this way, but you'll do no better."