over.

When he was done he pressed her head back to the floor and said, "Lie
still, Sigyn girl, until we can come to move you. Wait for us and Fenrir
will stay here with you."

She obeyed and he left them, the feeling of victory and elation coming
to him in full then.

Lake looked at him questioningly as he entered the control room and he
said, "She'll live."

He turned to the Gern commander. "First, I want to know how the war is
going?"

"I----" The commander looked uncertainly at Lake.

"Just tell the truth," Lake said. "Whether you think we'll like it or
not."

"We have all the planets but Earth, itself," the commander said. "We'll
have it, soon."

"And the Terrans on Athena?"

"They're still--working for us there."

"Now," he said, "you will order every Gern in this ship to go to his
sleeping quarters. They will leave their weapons in the corridors
outside and they will not resist the men who will come to take charge of
the ship."

The commander made an effort toward defiance:

_"And if I refuse?"_

Lake answered, smiling at him with the smile of his that was no more
than a quick showing of teeth and with the savage eagerness in his eyes.

"If you refuse I'll start with your fingers and break every bone to
your shoulders. If that isn't enough I'll start with your toes and go to
your hips. And then I'll break your back."

The commander hesitated, sweat filming his face as he looked at them.
Then he reached out to switch on the all-stations communicator and say
into it:

"Attention, all personnel: You will return to your quarters at once,
leaving your weapons in the corridors. You are ordered to make no
resistance when the natives come...."

There was a silence when he had finished and Humbolt and Lake looked at
each other, bearded and clad in animal skins but standing at last in the
control room of a ship that was theirs: in a ship that could take them
to Athena, to Earth, to the ends of the galaxy.

The commander watched them, on his face the blankness of unwillingness
to believe.

"The airlocks--" he said. "We didn't close them in time. We never
thought you would dare try to take the ship--not savages in animal
skins."

"I know," Humbolt answered. "We were counting on you to think that way."

"No one expected any of you to survive here." The commander wiped at his
swollen lips, wincing, and an almost child-like petulance came into his
tone. "You weren't supposed to survive."

"I know