for power, fuzed the control panel in an
instant beyond all use. Before the other mutants could strike, his
extended shielding was back around himself and the laboratory.

_You're going to listen_, Walt told him calmly. _All of you. You're an
earthling. Every one of you. You were born here of Earth parents._

_Nonsense!_

_It's true. You shut up!_

Willy waited, uncertain. The others were equally uncertain. They had not
been prepared for a failure in their initial plan.

_I have proof. Right here._ Walt thought all the details to the mutants
as rapidly and as sincerely as he could. His face was bloodless. His
hand was shaking. The strain of holding the shielding was beginning to
tell on him.

Only two birth certificates were left. I've got to make them see that
Forential had lied to them! he thought.

The mutants were thinking the situation over in privacy, agreeing on a
new course of action.

And there it was!

Wonder of wonders, the last birth certificate was Willy's!

_See! See!_ Walt thought excitedly. _This proves what I was telling you!
Look! All of you! They're the same!_

_It proves nothing_, Bob thought....

_It's faked._

_Is that the best you have to offer?_ one of them sneered.

_Let's kill him! Get it over with!_

_How could I fake it?_ Walt demanded. He realized now what a pathetic
hope it had been. He needed time; given that, the birth certificates
would be very helpful in convincing them. But without time, he couldn't
give them all the background they needed. And they weren't going to give
him time.

_Lyrian traitor!_

_You can't hold us all off, Walt. We're going to kill you._

Walt saw them--saw them mentally--landing their four ships. In a few
minutes they would be upon him.

He began to tremble in impotent rage. He backed toward the door to
escape from the confining walls. He tried to make his shielding even
stronger against their focus rods.

Julia, waiting in the laboratory, heard her heart beating loudly and
rapidly. The one saucer had landed. Walt had boarded it. The four were
drifting, waiting. There was a hum from the signal generator behind her.
Let him be all right, let him beat them off! she prayed.

What's happening? How can I help?

... Perhaps because her mind was so fatigued that it was almost
functioning on the automatic level of sleep, she realized at last why
the two compartments in the space station had been kept separate. After
the second wave of mutan