nto the captain's scheme, cursing his tongue for wandering.
And deep within him he felt a new sensation, a vague uneasiness and
insecurity that he had not felt in all his years of military life. The
strange ship was a variant, an imponderable factor thrown suddenly into
his small world of hatred and bitterness, forcing him into unknown
territory, throwing his mind into a welter of doubts and fears. He
glanced uneasily across at Brownie, vaguely wishing that someone else
were with him. Brownie was a troublemaker, Brownie talked too much,
Brownie philosophized in a world that ridiculed philosophy. He'd known
men like Brownie before, and he knew that they couldn't be trusted.

The gray hull gleamed at them as they moved toward it, a monstrous wall
of polished metal. There were no dents, no surface scars from its
passage through space. They found the entrance lock without difficulty,
near the top of the ship's great hull, and Brownie probed the rim of the
lock with a dozen instruments, his dark eyes burning eagerly. And then,
with a squeal that grated in Sabo's ears, the oval port of the ship
quivered, and slowly opened.

Silently, the sleds moved into the opening. They were in a small vault,
quite dark, and the sleds settled slowly onto a metal deck. Sabo eased
himself from the seat, tuning up his audios to their highest
sensitivity, moving over to Brownie. Momentarily they touched helmets,
and Brownie's excited voice came to him, muted, but breathless. "No
trouble getting it open. It worked on the same principle as ours."

"Better get to work on the inner lock."

Brownie shot him a sharp glance. "But what about--inside? I mean, we
can't just walk in on them--"

"Why not? We've tried to contact them."

Reluctantly, the little engineer began probing the inner lock with
trembling fingers. Minutes later they were easing themselves through,
moving slowly down the dark corridor, waiting with pounding hearts for
a sound, a sign. The corridor joined another, and then still another,
until they reached a great oval door. And then they were inside, in the
heart of the ship, and their eyes widened as they stared at the thing in
the center of the great vaulted chamber.

"My God!" Brownie's voice was a hoarse whisper in the stillness. "Look
at them, Johnny!"

Sabo moved slowly across the room toward the frail, crushed form lying
against the great, gleaming panel. Thin, almost boneless arms were
pasted against the hard metal; a