aster," the Oman said proudly. "I will not
fail any test you can devise!"

"Okay. All you Omans go back to the ship and bring over fifteen or
twenty lights--the tripod jobs. Scat!"

They "scatted" and Hilton went on, "No use asking questions if you don't
know what questions to ask. Let's see if we can cook up something.
Lane--Kathy--what has Biology got to say?"

Dr. Lane Saunders and Dr. Kathryn Cook--the latter a willowy brown-eyed
blonde--conferred briefly. Then Saunders spoke, running both hands
through his unruly shock of fiery red hair. "So far, the best we can do
is a more-or-less educated guess. They're atomic-powered,
total-conversion androids. Their pseudo-flesh is composed mainly of
silicon and fluorine. We don't know the formula yet, but it is as much
more stable than our teflon as teflon is than corn-meal mush. As to the
brains, no data. Bones are super-stainless steel. Teeth, harder than
diamond, but won't break. Food, uranexite or its concentrated
derivative, interchangeably. Storage reserve, indefinite. Laro and Sora
won't _have_ to eat again for at least twenty-five years...."

The group gasped as one, but Saunders went on: "They can eat and drink
and breathe and so on, but only because the original Masters wanted
them to. Non-functional. Skins and subcutaneous layers are soft, for the
same reason. That's about it, up to now."

"Thanks, Lane. Hark, is it reasonable to believe that any culture
whatever could run for a quarter of a million years without changing one
word of its language or one iota of its behavior?"

"Reasonable or not, it seems to have happened."

"Now for Psychology. Alex?"

"It seems starkly incredible, but it seems to be true. If it is, their
minds were subjected to a conditioning no Terran has ever imagined--an
unyielding fixation."

"They can't be swayed, then, by reason or logic?" Hilton paused
invitingly.

"Or anything else," Kincaid said, flatly. "If we're right they can't be
swayed, period."

"I was afraid of that. Well, that's all the questions I know how to ask.
Any contributions to this symposium?"

* * * * *

After a short silence de Vaux said, "I suppose you realize that the
first half of the problem you posed us has now solved itself?"

"Why, no. No, you're 'way ahead of me."

"There is a basic problem and it can now be clearly stated," Rebecca
said. "Problem: To determine a method of securing full cooperation from
the Oma