ort gates. "Here,
by grace of the Lhari, stands the doorway to all the stars," he quoted.
"Well, maybe you were here first. But look out--we're coming!"

A doorway to the stars. Bart had crossed that doorway once, frightened
and alone. _Dad, if you could only know!_ The first interstellar ship of
Eight Colors was to bear the name _Rupert Steele_, but that was years in
the future.

Now, looking at the _Swiftwing_, at Ringg and Tommy, at Raynor Three and
Vorongil, who would all be his shipmates in the new world they were
building, he felt suddenly very lonely again.

"Come in, Bart. It's your party," Meta said softly, and he felt her hand
lying in his. He looked down at the pretty Mentorian girl. She would be
with him, too. And suddenly he knew he would never be lonely again.

His arm around Meta, his friends--man and Lhari--at his shoulder, he
went back to the celebration, to plan for the first intergalactic voyage
to the stars.

The End

* * * * *

AUTHOR'S PROFILE

Marion Zimmer Bradley was born in Albany, New York and before she
started her writing career she was a file clerk, music teacher and a
carnival performer. Her hobbies are reading science fiction novels,
going to the opera and listening to folk music.

In addition to having written a number of other books, she has written
more than 30 magazine stories and articles and has been writing
professionally for the past ten years.

* * * * *

_A Terrifying Tale Of Horror In The Skies_

THE FLYING EYES

By J. Hunter Holly

Author of ENCOUNTER and THE GREEN PLANET

Linc Hosler was sitting in a packed football stadium when the Flying
Eyes appeared and cast their hypnotic power over half the crowd.
Thousands of people suddenly began marching zombie-like into the woods
where they vanished into a black pit.

Linc used every resource of the Space Research Lab and the National
Guard to destroy the Eyes. But nothing could stop them, for they proved
immune to bullets and bombs.

In desperation, Linc captured an Eye and found a way to communicate with
it through his mind. He learned that radiation was fuel for the
creatures' lives. And then they issued their terrible ultimatum: Explode
a series of atom bombs to supply them with radiation or they would turn
the world's population into mindless robots.

It gave the world two harrowing choices--self-destruction via f