A Two-Stage Realization

(Google images are making themselves scarce, I hope not permanently.)

(Later: it was not permanently.)

Satan's World.

This realization comes in two stages. Falkayn reflects that he has landed on the disputed rogue planet, Satan, whereas his antagonist has not as yet. That must be making the antagonist impatient...

"Wait! Drag that thought by slowly. You'd started playing with it before, when Chee interrupted -
"Falkayn sat rigid, oblivious..." (XVII, p. 507)

So when did he think about this before and how did Chee Lan interrupt? No word of the text is written without a reason. There must have been something relevant earlier. Turning back, we find:

"...given an unequivocal assignment of the type for which it is built, the robot is superior to the organism. Let Gahood order his fleet to annihilate Muddlin' Through, and the contest became strictly one between ships, weapons, and computers.
"Didn't it?
"Falkayn sat down, drummed fingers on his chair arm, blew acrid clouds at the star images that enclosed him.
"Chee's voice pulled him from his brown study..." (XVII, pp. 503-504)

That was it. The brown study was the playing with the thought before. We should have realized that "Didn't it?" was written for a reason. Falkayn will lure Gahood's robots into the unpredictable environment of Satan.