uldn't have
quit.

_... Corcoran fields. E and IR and nine-space something or other.
She'd never seen Pete like this before. He looked real different. Sort
of like a professor, or something. He must be real smart. And
so--well, not good-looking especially but, well, appealing. Real SA,
he had...._

"So that's how it works," Pete Ganley said. "Quite a weapon, against
them. It wouldn't work on a human being, of course." She was staring
at him dreamy-eyed. He laughed. "Silly, I bet you haven't understood a
word I said."

"I have too."

"Liar." He locked the automatic pilot on the copter and held out his
arms. "Come here, you."

"Oh, Petey...."

Who cared about the weapon? He was right, even if she wouldn't admit
it. She hadn't even listened, hardly. She hadn't understood.

And neither had Riuku.

* * * * *

Riuku waited until she'd fallen soundly asleep that night before he
tried contacting Nagor. He'd learned nothing useful. He'd picked up
nothing in her mind except more thoughts of Pete, and gee, maybe
someday they'd get married, if he only had guts enough to tell Susan
where to get off....

But she was asleep at last. Riuku was free enough of her thoughts to
break contact, partially of course, since if he broke it completely he
wouldn't be able to get back through the Shielding. It was hard enough
to reach out through it. He sent a painful probing feeler out into
space, to the spot where Nagor and the others waited for his report.

"Nagor...."

"Riuku? Is that you?"

"Yes. I've got a contact. A girl. But I haven't learned anything yet
that can help us."

"Louder, Riuku. I can hardly hear you...."

Alice Hendricks stirred in her sleep. The dream images slipped through
her subconscious, almost waking her, beating against Riuku.

Pete, baby, you shouldn't be like that....

Riuku cursed the bisexual species in their own language.

"Riuku!" Nagor's call was harsh, urgent. "You've got to find out. We
haven't much time. We lost three more ships today, and there wasn't a
sign of danger. No Earthman nearby, no force fields, nothing. You've
got to find out why." Those ships just disappeared.

Riuku forced his way up through the erotic dreams of Alice Hendricks.
"I know a little," he said. "They damp their thought waves somehow,
and keep us from spotting the Corcoran field."

"Corcoran field? What's that?"

"I don't know." Alice's thoughts washed over him, pulling him ba