"That's not going to help anything, you know," she said.

"Maybe not, little girl, but it does wonders for my primitive, ignorant mind!" He booted it again.

"Oh, act your age, Captain! I ..." She paused, looked past him.

"Well, don't stop now. What ...?"

He turned and stared in the same direction.

A considerable distance off, a small figure standing in a boat was flailing its arms frantically at the air.

Towering on two sides of the figure, like the walls of a canyon, were two night-black nightmare shapes not quite as big as a pair of good-sized shuttlecraft. Their descent was graceful, almost ballet-like.

Unconsciously, Mal had slipped an arm around Kitten's waist. This time she didn't move it.

"Was that a scream, there?" Her voice was even, but there was the slightest tremor to it. She was remembering an earlier time on another island.

"I think so. There! An explosion?"

"Maybe. Maybe ..."

They waited anxiously. The halcyon sea recovered. The small boat was gone.

Needless to say, the small figure was too.

Kitten let out a long breath. "Well, I guess it wasn't a very good idea after all." She slipped gently out of his grasp and peered over the twisted railing of the skimmer.

"I think we ought to try and wade off the reef to the island proper. We can come back for blankets and supplies. It's bound to be warmer inland than out on these wrecks. Besides, they're liable to be pulled off the reef when the tide comes in. I don't fancy being dumped into the surf at 2 a.m." She slipped easily over the edge, hung by her fingers for a moment and dropped lightly into the shallow water. Her knees bent as she took the impact.

A tiny portion of the entity that was the Vom reacted to a foreign ingestion. A minute portion of the food did something odd to a few cells. The strangeness was communicated to the Vom-mind. The reaction extended. A group of cells were suddenly disoriented. At their center, neural deracination took place.

Idly, then more attentively, finally in a state of real concern, the Vom sought to isolate the farrago. Some cells were by-passed and not affected. Others were ... notharmed , but disoriented on an increasingly massive scale. They became incapable of performing their proper functions.

Synaptic connections were deliberately broken in an attempt to seal off the infection. The attempt failed.

Had the difficulty been enzootic, the Vom might have controlled it. But it seemed to strike at random points, unpredictably. The difficulties this caused were not irreparable, but at the height of battle they were a disaster. A small portion of the Vom-mind was forced to shut down. The creature's power was noticeably weakened. The Guardian-Machine and the Other sensed it, pressed harder.

A whole quadrant of projection cells died before they could be shuttered down. The Vom quivered in pain, sending huge waves crashing across nearby islands, smashing through the brush and sweeping away small lives.

NOW (said the Guardian in a roar of triumph)

YES, NOW (came a quietly grim thought from the Other)

Hopelessly, desperately, the Vern fought back. Despite frantic repair and isolated control, the infection continued to spread. But the Vom's resources were immense. It was beginning to slow the disaster. It might yet contain the threat, survive, hold, rebuild, counterattack. It might ...

A double-section of power-cells suddenly collapsed, unable to supply the awesome demands on their substance. An edge, a point, a limit had been reached and passed, and the Vent went over. Slowly, then with increasing speed.

It was a new sensation for the Vom. Sections of self died around it. The mind was partly but not wholly detached from the physical process, even as it fought back. When it felt realization that finality was about to occur, when death convulsions shook the ocean floor around it, it cried out a last appeal.

STOP!: CONCESSION!: I ABJURE POWER!.

(the Other did not reply. the Guardian-Machine did)

THAT IS NOT OF YOUR NATURE : THE UNIVERSE DEMANDS YOUR PASSING.

(Guardian-Machine and Other struck again)

Perceptions took on strange colorings for the Vom. Another new sensation. A last new sensation.

(a final observation. brilliant light boiling away consciousness as though the soul water was)

(then....)

DISSEMINATION.

(long-thoughts were space-scattered)

DISSOLUTION.

The great organic capsule broke into a thousand pieces. A thousand-million. And more.

(conclusion)

DISSIPATION.

The trillion bits of no-vom broke down to the molecular level Then the sub-molecular.

DEATH.

(an empty conscious chaos lost the binding wire of thought. return to nothingness)

DONE! (said the Guardian, half in wonder, half in contentment)

It sought out the Other, said simply ...

THANK YOU.

NOT NECESSARY.

(said the Guardian in reply ...)

YOU PLANNED THIS : YOUR CONCEALMENT : YOUR TIMING OF ALL : YOUR MOMENT OF ENTRY : ALL PLANNED (statement of fact, not query)

YEA AND VERILY (then, curiously) WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?

WHAT WOULD YOU SUPPOSE I WOULD DO?.

(pause) I THINK YOU WILL DIE

THAT IS WHAT I SHALL DO: IT WILL TAKE A LITTLE TIME : ANY PART OF I-MACHINE.

CAN BE SHUT DOWN RAPIDLY ENOUGH : TO SHUT DOWN THE MACHINE-I WILL.

TAKE A LITTLE LONGER : I WILL SHOW YOU THINGS BEFORE THIS IS DONE.