a Vires
rose from the desert ahead of them. The sun was near setting, and the
black walls of the stronghold huddled sullenly under its crimson rays.

The Martians left them here, and Nuwell and Maya went on alone toward
their goal. Nuwell expelled an audible sigh of relief.

"I'm glad we're free of those monsters," he said. "I don't understand
how you could carry on a conversation with such creatures, Maya. It
sounded like a series of animal grunts and cries to me. I caught an
occasional word, like 'oxygen' and 'psychokinesis.' What were you
talking about?"

"He was telling me about Goat Hennessey's experiments, and how they
differed from the rebels' experiments before Goat came to Ultra Vires,"
answered Maya.

"That kind of talk serves no good purpose," said Nuwell irritably. "The
rebel movement has been broken now, and there's no point in thinking
about the illegal things they tried to do."

They came down the slope and approached the southern airlock of Ultra
Vires. The airlock was still sealed. Nuwell activated it, and they went
through it into the big building.

It was dark inside. Nuwell fumbled around a wall and found a light
switch. He pressed it, but nothing happened.

"The electrical system isn't operating," he said. "We'll have to use our
marsuit torches."

He switched on his flashlight. It cast a long beam down the dusty
corridor. Far ahead of them, a small animal scurried across the faint
light and vanished into the darkness.

Nuwell checked his atmosphere dial.

"The oxygen in here is all right," he said. "The air has been
maintained, anyhow. We can take off our helmets."

They took off the marshelmets and walked down the corridor. They checked
each side door, looking for the communications room, but found only
empty chambers or abandoned rooms in which books, papers and broken
furniture were scattered in complete disorganization.

It took them nearly an hour to find the communications room. And there
they met disappointment.

Ultra Vires' radio transmitter and receiver had been dismantled. There
was nothing there but a jumble of broken tubes, discarded parts and bare
wire ends dangling from the walls. Nothing but an overturned table and
two bent metal chairs.

"That settles that," said Nuwell, more philosophically then Maya would
have expected. "Our only hope is to find a groundcar."

That necessitated another search, but at last they found the motor pool.
And there were three groundca