e are so different in every way that an inhabitant of either
star-group cannot exist in the other. Xollar's purple atmosphere is
characteristic of Andromedan worlds. Your oxygen-saturated air is
typical of worlds in your galaxy. Just as Xollar's purple mists would be
immediately fatal to you, so would your clear oxygen-tainted air be
quickly fatal to me.

* * * * *

"Accordingly, my only chance of surviving in one of your worlds is to
first transfer my Intelligence to the body of one of the dwellers upon
that planet. Of the seven planets within reach of my net I found only
two that promised to be at all suitable. One was your Earth, the other
a minor planet circling the star you call Vega. I brought both you and a
net-load of Vegans here to this oxygen-filled enclosure I had already
prepared.

"The Vegans were the headless things with the jelly nuclei. I watched
your battle with them, and waited to choose as my vehicle the planetary
type that proved the stronger. You vanquished the Vegans, so it is in
the body of an Earthling that I shall leave Xollar, and it is to the
planet Earth that I shall be hurtled through the inter-dimensional gate.

"Aside from the slight difficulty caused by having to keep my body and
yours each in its proper element during the operation, the matter of
transfer into one of your bodies is a simple one. It involves none of
the clumsy brain surgery of your Earthly science. We of Xollar have
found that the real Intelligence of a being is an invisible force not at
all dependent for existence upon the protoplasm through which it
manifests. My Intelligence can function quite as well in your brain
cells as in my own.

"I require no assistant in the transfer." Zehru indicated an intricate
piece of apparatus on the platform behind him. It was a massive cylinder
of fluorescent metal, with two long metallic cables running from its
center, each cable ending in a saucer-shaped disk.

* * * * *

"I have only to thrust one cable through the force-wall into your
enclosure and place its disk upon one of your heads, then place the
other disk upon my own head. The apparatus is entirely automatic. Three
seconds after both disks are in place my Intelligence will course into
the Earthling brain, driving out his Intelligence and destroying it as
mine enters.

"I will, of course, remove the selected body from under the paralyzing
plate before I at