her entire body. She saw the doctor sink to the floor, saw the flesh begin to melt from his bones. His face fell away before he contacted the floor, leaving a partially exposed skull from which two eyeballs, looking as if they were twice normal size, stared out. Ursy tried to scream, but no sound came. She fought the pain and reached for the control panel just vacated by the doctor. Her hand hit the ultrashock lever and that saved her life, for the alien, about to lose his grasp on the living thing to which he had attached himself, was seeking relief, striking out at the next nearest living being. His full force of deadly will was being turned toward Ursy. When he felt the battering force cease, he pulled back. That give Ursy a moment. She gasped in a breath and her fingers flew over the control console. Rimfire's systems obeyed. Several things happened with a speed that left the aliens in the air lock raging. While it was true that space-going man did not spend time and resources providing himself with ways to commit suicide and destroy his ship, he had given considerable thought to completing the second stated intent of X&A's mission, the finding of alien life. Alien life did not necessarily have to be intelligent life, nor did it have to be of interest. The first explorers to encounter a Tigian tiger had learned as much, while discovering that an alien animal might have little respect for human life. The lock to which Julie Roberts had directed the gig from Murdoch's Plough was the capture and hold lock. It had been designed to imprison a beast as strong and as fierce as a Tigian tiger and, at least in theory, things that strained the imagination, up to and including what many scientists thought to be a definite possibility, a life-form consisting of pure force. Ursy Wade had seen a shipmate die a horrendous death, with his flesh melting away from his bones. Her fingers were given extra urgency by the feeling that her own flesh was beginning to slip. She hit the «Secure All» switch on the control panel. Doors of durasteel clanged closed at the inner hatch. The air in the corridor outside the lock sizzled and hissed as incredible power was drawn from the ship's Blink generator to be concentrated in the intricate webbings of circuitry installed between the triple bulkheads of the air lock and create a field of force that would have withstood the direct strike of a lightning bolt. The female alien felt the presence of the force field too late. The lash of her anger, at an intensity that would have vaporized more than half of the Rimfire's crew, was absorbed by the field. The male joined her in an effort to smash the walls of their prison. «Enough,» she said. She was weeping in frustration, for once she had possessed the power to reduce the entire ship to its constituent subatomic particles. «Rest,» he said. «We will need our energy later.» «I want a med-crew here, now,» Ursy Wade ordered. She was trembling. Her limbs were weak. Her eyes ached. On the deck, the doctor's blood was pooling. The air filters had cranked up to remove the meaty smell of it. The door burst open and a med-tech skidded to a halt. The doctor had fallen onto his back. His white skull peered out from sagging folds of bloody flesh. «Captain,» Ursy said into the communicator. «I have activated 'Secure All.' « «I'll be right there,» Julie Roberts said. «May I suggest 'Full Alert'?» Ursy said. «We've got us some bad mothers here.» Within five seconds she heard the ship's speakers sounding «Alert-Interior.» She'd heard the signal in drills, but never had she thought, not even in her wildest nightmares, that anything threatening could gain access to Rimfire's interior. Julie Roberts ran into the room where the med-team was examining the doctor and where Ursy was glued to the viewers showing the interior of the air lock. Julie saw Erin Kenner and a handsome young stud standing almost at attention, faces blank of emotion. Her heart gained a beat in sympathy when she saw the little dog cowering at Erin's feet, looking up pleadingly. «Put me on,» she told Ursy, pointing to the communicator. «All ship.» Ursy flipped switches, gave central communications an order, nodded to the captain, who said, «Now hear this. We have secured in air lock forward two an unknown force. To the eye it looks as if the lock is occupied by a man and woman, the woman being ex-lieutenant Erin Kenner, who served aboard this vessel in the recent past. Neither Kenner nor the man is armed. However, there has been one casualty of a particularly violent nature. My orders to you are to be alert, to stay at your stations.» Since Rimfire was on Full Alert, the airtight doors that isolated her various compartments were already closed. «Since we are dealing with an unknown killing force that penetrated the bulkheads of lock forward two before the force field could be activated, my orders are this. Should Erin Kenner or her companion escape the security of lock forward two, all force is authorized to destroy them. Stand by for visuals.» Ursy's fingers flew. The blank faces of Erin and Dent were shown on all viewers throughout Rimfire. «Now hear this,» Julie said, still talking to the entire crew. «We intend, at this time, to try to make contact with the occupants of the air lock. I will leave the audio and visual channels open so that you may see and hear what happens.» She nodded to Ursy, said, «Put me through to them.» «You're on,» Ursy said. «Erin?» Julie said softly. Erin Kenner slowly turned her eyes toward the speaker at the top of the lock's inner hatch. «Erin, do you hear me?» «I hear you,» Erin said in a flat, unmodulated voice. «Erin, we know you are not alone in the lock.» «Yes. Denton Gale, my friend, is with me,» Erin said woodenly, as the alien directed, for the being was still searching frantically for a way out. «And there are others, Erin,» Julie said. There was a visible flash of force that seemed to emanate from Erin's eyes. Julie jerked backward in spite of herself, then recovered. «It would be just about as easy to penetrate the force field that surrounds you as it would be to escape the gravitational pull of a black hole,» Julie said calmly. The alien ceased her attempt to break through to the arrogant human. «We know you are there,» Julie said. «Can we talk? We might discover that we have common ground. You live. We live. We are both creatures of intelligence.» The She laughed through Erin's lips. The sound was sarcastic, brittle. «I think I detect a certain arrogance,» Ursy Wade said, keeping the communicator open. «But think about this, sweetie. You're the one who's got her ass locked up inside durasteel walls and a force field, not us. So who the hell is the most intelligent?» The alien stormed. Mop crawled away to cringe against the bulkhead at the back of the lock. Both Erin and Dent swayed with the force of the blast of anger and frustration. «Look at baby,» Ursy said, «someone licked the red off her candy.» A scream of pure anguish howled from Erin Kenner's lips and then all was quiet. «Since our detection instruments show two living bodies aboard the Mother Lode, « Julie Roberts said, «I assume that you are present—» She paused, rolled her eyes at Ursy. «How do you say this?» «They're present only in spirit?» Ursy said. «We are here,» the alien said, speaking with Erin's lips, but without hesitation, emphasizing the word, «here.» «Who are you?» Julie asked. «You would not understand.» «Let me try,» Julie said. «I am—» «You're right,» Ursy said, breaking into a rolling sound that continued on for long, long seconds, «we don't understand. Is that a name or a confession?» The She was thinking more clearly. They had been robbed of the full extent of their greatness, but not by mental pygmies like the arrogant humans. While it was true that they were unable to break the field of force and the durasteel walls that enclosed them, there were other means of taking charge. «My name is Legion,» she said. «Sounds vaguely familiar,» Ursy said, casting a look at Julie. «I am Captain Julie Roberts of the United Planets X&A ship U.P.S. Rimfire. I am fully empowered by my government to make contact with you and to discuss mutual concerns. We cannot forgive the fact that you have killed one of us, but we are open to discussion.» As her voice came from Erin's lips, there was no hesitation, no lack of modulation. It was a strong but pleasant voice with a husky contralto range. «We have misjudged you,» she said. «We will compensate you for the loss of one of your crew members.» «I don't think compensation is the question,» Julie said. «The problem is, how do we carry on a peaceful dialogue?» «Now that we understand you better,» the alien said, «there will be no more conflict between us. You may lower your force field.» «No, no,» Erin screamed from her place of imprisonment, and so strong was her hate that her lips moved before the alien silenced her with a burst of mental pain. The movement of Erin's lips was not lost on Ursy Wade. «Erin?» she whispered. «Erin, are you there?» «I'm here,» Erin tried to say, against the pain that the alien was giving her. «Don't let them into the ship.» She spoke directly, and silently, to Erin. «I have been more than patient. One more outburst and I will—» Erin did not understand the word that she used, but the meaning was made clear by the menace in her voice. Ursy cut off the communicator for a moment. «When she suggested that we lower the force field, I saw Erin's lips move. She said, 'No, no.' « «I saw,» Julie said. «I don't think we'll lower the force field.» Ursy activated the communicator again. «We have reason to believe that you have taken control of a woman who is our friend,» Julie said. «You are not, you who are now conversing with me, Erin Kenner, and yet you speak with her lips.» «We did not want to alarm you by coming to you in our own form,» the alien said. «Well, I'm not too easily alarmed,» Julie said, «but I don't quite cotton to the idea that you can take over Erin's body.» «She has not been harmed,» the alien said. «Help us and she and the man will be as they were.» «How can we help you?» Julie asked. «Lower your force field and we will talk of what we can do to mutually help each other.» The med-team was carrying the doctor away. Julie looked directly down into the exposed bones of the man's skull. «I think not,» she said. «Perhaps we will be able to talk more successfully if you return to your own forms and release Erin Kenner and her friend.» There was a long pause as the alien carried on an interior dialogue with Erin. «She is trying to trick us,» the alien said. «When we are away from the Rimfire in the gig, she will fire on us.» «No,» Erin said. «She will keep her word.» «You must convince her to lower the force field.» «I can't,» Erin said. «And I wouldn't if I could.» Actually, the conversation, as such, was not in words. The She probed forcefully, seeking answers deep in Erin's mind. She found Erin's wall of anger and hate and could not penetrate it, but was not concerned, for she felt human emotions to be a sign of racial weakness and, in her superiority, she could not imagine that Erin's «inferior» mind had depths beyond the protective anger. She found what she wanted to find, Erin's memories of Julie Roberts. «Truly,» the female told the male, communicating on another level, «the men have a peculiarity. They think that it is honorable to keep their word, even to—» she laughed—"an enemy who will destroy them. We will let her set the terms and then we will wait for the one opening we need.» «There are hundred of life units on this ship,» he said. «They will be very useful when it is time to make our world fruitful.» She gave him the equivalent of an affirmative nod. Life was life. It could be converted into any form, including but not limited to flowers, trees, waving fields of grass. She spoke through Erin's lips. «We will do as you say, Captain Julie Roberts. We will return to our ships and regain our own forms.» «Any display of force once you are disengaged from our air lock will be met by overwhelming destruction. I don't know exactly what you are, but I doubt if you can survive laser disintegration.» «There will be no force,» she said. They could survive laser blasts, but in their present state they would be left to float in space without means of movement. No, they would not initiate force. «Go into the gig,» Julie said. «We will cast you off. When you have reached the Mother Lode, you will assume your own form and release Erin Kenner and Denton Gale. Is that agreed?» «Agreed.» she said. «Then we will talk,» Julie said. «Agreed,» she said. «Don't let them go,» Erin tried to say. «Don't— don't—» The She was annoyed, but she had found the Erin entity to be useful. She was not yet finished with it. She exerted minor will and Erin was looking up at herself and Dent from a height of inches. Dent went into the gig. When Erin followed, Mop started after her. Erin thundered her anger and ordered Mop to sit. The little dog, confused, delayed just long enough for the outer hatch to close. «They've left the dog,» Ursy said. «So I see.» «With one of them inside?» Julie mused for a moment. «I think it would be best to evacuate the lock.» «Ah, the poor little thing,» Ursy said. To evacuate the lock meant death for the dog as his body was blown into the vacuum of space. «We can't do that.» «No, I guess not,» Julie said. «But until we're sure he's nothing more than a flop-eared little dog, he's going to stay there behind the force field.» Mop, left all alone, lifted his muzzle and howled. The gig left Rimfire's lock and fluxed toward the two joined ships that formed one small star as they reflected sunlight. Julie Roberts punched a number and was answered by Rimfire's technical officer, Jack Burnish. «Jack, any findings about our recent visitors?» «Mainly a feeling of awe,» Burnish said. «What force can go through three layers of durasteel without damaging them and kill a man?» Burnish's action station was in a tight little room filled with monitors and controls for Rimfire's massive array of sensors and detectors. «I can tell you one thing,» Burnish went on. «There were two of them. We had a good chance to work on them while they were in the lock. We got emanations originating from the brains of Kenner and Gale in three totally alien ranges. The human thought patterns were almost undetectable, overpowered by the alien presence.» «Jack,» Ursy asked, «can you be sure there were only two of them?» «I wouldn't bet my hat and ass on it,» Jack said, «but we had three separate indications of a powerful force from the man and the woman.» «None from the dog?» Ursy asked. «Nope.» «Are you still monitoring?» Ursy asked. «We see a very confused and sad little pooch,» Burnish said. Ursy turned off the communicator. Mop was still howling brokenheartedly. «Julie—» Ursy said, spreading her hands in supplication. «No,» Julie said. Ursy turned up the volume of the sound. Mop's mournful howl echoed in the room. The female alien would have called it weakness, and, had she suspected that the humans could be so foolishly sentimental, she would have tried to take advantage of the flaw in the racial character. Julie Roberts looked at the sad little dog, all alone in the barren air lock, and said, «Let Jack and his little gang of geniuses observe him for a while, and then—» Ursy grinned. When the inner hatch of the air lock hissed open, Mop's good ear stood up with interest. He saw a woman in uniform. The woman knelt and held out one hand, saying, «Hey, fella. Hi. How ya doin'?» Mop had always been a gregarious dog. He'd only met one human he didn't like, but his recent experiences with the aliens aboard the Mother Lode had colored his natural friendliness with suspicion. Ursy moved forward, talking soothingly. Mop advanced cautiously, sniffed at Ursy's fingers, decided to risk it and let Ursy wiggle her fingertips on the top of his head. He decided that Ursy smelled good and—although he tensed and was a bit nervous—let her pick him up. She rubbed him and talked softly. He gave her hand one gentle, polite little lick and, with a sigh, threw himself onto his back in the crook of her arm, exposing his chest and belly for a little rub. Julie Roberts was on the bridge. The gig carrying Erin Kenner and Denton Gale and them was disappearing through the access port of the converted destroyer. She saw Ursy come onto the bridge with the little dog in her arms, but her attention was on the viewers and the radio. The duty ratings on the bridge took turns getting acquainted with Mop. He was polite, offering his paw to be shook, getting in a little lick now and then. Ursy took her watch position at the weapons contr