«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 control panel. Mop sat at her feet, looking up with his hopeful, brown eyes. She reached down and put him in her lap. After a while he stepped gingerly up onto the console, found a small area that was blank of buttons and keys and levers, sighed, and curled up for a little practice nap. «Captain,» a rating said in an edgy voice, «the generator on the Mule has just been activated on flux.» «Weapons, stand by,» Julie ordered. Ursy clicked off the fail-safes for Rimfire's battery of laser cannon. The Mother Lode slowly separated from the converted destroyer. «Weapons ready,» Ursy said. «Stand by,» Julie ordered. A melodic tone indicated the activation of Rimfire's radio receiver. The strong contralto voice came from the speakers. «We have done as we agreed,» the alien said. «We are now ready to talk.» «I'm pleased that you have decided to be peaceful,» Julie sent. «If you will allow Erin Kenner and Denton Gale to contact me—» «Those you mention,» the alien said, «are aboard the vessel called Murdoch's Plough. However, it will be some time before either of them can speak. I hasten to inform you that they are unharmed, but it will be a few hours before they recover from the non-damaging mental trauma of being, once more, separate entities.» «Until then,» Julie said, «we have nothing to discuss. You can, however, demonstrate your good will by turning on the holo-viewers so that we can see you.» «It is my pleasure,» she said. And in an instant every viewscreen aboard Rimfire showed them. Their graceful bulk filled the screens. Their wings were partially unfurled. «They're magnificent,» Ursy whispered in awe. «Thank you,» Julie Roberts said, not unaffected by their radiance but hiding her surprise well. «We regret that our contact with your race was based on misunderstandings,» she said. «Our first impressions were based on the belligerence of the men on board the vessel called Murdoch's Plough. They were armed, and their first reaction to us was to try to use their weapons.» «What did you do with them?» Julie asked. «Unfortunately, they are dead,» the alien said. «And why did you seize control of Erin Kenner and Denton Gale?» Julie asked. «As you know, we are not completely invulnerable,» she said. «After our experience with the crew of Murdoch's Plough we acted with caution. We did not, as you know, kill the Kenner and Gale things. We merely looked into their minds and saw that not all men are evil, as were the men
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