open. Shattered bits tinkled down to the platform.
There was a stir at the end of the hall where the machine stood. Figures
ran into plain sight. Baldies! Ross cried out a warning as he saw those
star men raise weapon tubes aimed at the perch on which the Foanna
stood.

Fire crackling with the speed and sound of lightning lashed up at the
balcony. The lances of light met the spears of dark, and there was a
flash which blinded Ross, a sound which split open the whole world.

The Terran's eyes opened, not upon darkness but on dazzling light,
flashes of it which tore over him in great sweeping arcs. Dazed, sick,
he tried to press his prone body into the unyielding surface on which he
lay. But there was no way of burrowing out of this wild storm of light
and clashing sound. Now under him the very fabric of the floor rocked
and quivered as if it were being shaken apart into crumbling rubble.

All the will and ability to move was gone. Ross could only lie there and
endure. What had happened, he did not know save that what raged about
him now was a warring of inimical forces, perhaps both feeding on each
other even as they strove for mastery.

The play of rays resembled sword blades crossing, fencing. Ross threw
his arm over his eyes to shut out the intolerable brilliance of that
thrust and counter. His body tingled and winced as the whirlwind of
energy clashed and reclashed. He was beaten, stupid, as a man pinned
down too long under a heavy shelling.

How did it end? In one terrific thunderclap of sound and blasting power?
And when did it end--hours ... days later? Time was a thing set apart
from this. Ross lay in the quiet which his body welcomed thirstily. Then
he was conscious of the touch of wind on his face, wind carrying the
hint of sea salt.

He opened his eyes and saw above him a patch of clouded sky. Shakily he
levered himself up on his elbows. There were no complete walls any more,
just jagged points of masonry, broken teeth set in a skull's jawbone.
Open sky, dark clouds spattering rain.

"Gordon? Karara?" Ross's voice was a thin whisper. He licked his lips
and tried again:

"Gordon!"

Had there been an answering whimper? Ross crawled into a hollow between
two fallen blocks. A pool of water? No, it was the cloak of one of the
Foanna spread out across the flooring in this fragment of room. Then
Ross saw that Ashe was there, the cloaked figure braced against the
Terran's shoulder as he half supported, hal