Again, Barton thought, Bearpaw's descriptions had been accurate. Even so, he wasn't prepared for the effect the two aliens made, his inner confusion: were they peo- ple, or weren't they?

The door closed. "Man Szabo," (hey said, together.

"That's man Ferenc, if you don't mind. What do you want?"

The male-Dahil, that would be-said, "Turn ship and land our planet, man Ferenc."

"Like hell I will!"

"Any way, so you do. You do. You do now." The aliens moved forward, flanking him, ignoring the other two men.

"In a pig's hat! This is my ship. Get out of here."

"Yes," said Dahil, "will get out."

**Yes," echoed the female, Tiriis. "Soon will go."

But they didn't, just then. They both looked at Fereuc Szabo, and in about a minute he grabbed his crotch and went pale.

"Yes, man Szabo," said Dahil. "Land our pl^ ^or be not right, so ever."

476.

"Land, you be right," Tiriis said, and nodded vig- orously. "Land?"

On the man's face. Barton saw it happen. The humanity went out of it; he saw the killer that Bearpaw had feared. Barton shivered; he was seeing a monster reborn. He looked away, but he couldn't stop hearing.

"You fools! You utter, ignorant foolsl Do you know what you've done?"

Dahil smiled. "Yes, man Szabo. Now we land our planet."

"No," said Szabo. "Not now, or ever. This isn't how Fd have wanted it, but it's a way out." He turned to the other two men; Barton wished he hadn't. "Get out of here; I don't want you dead!"

Neither did Barton, but he figured to have to stay, any- way. He shook his bead and backed away, hoping his face looked more friendly than frozen. Bearpaw didn't leave, either.

Szabo turned back to Dahil; the man was panting like at the end of a long, hard run. "You had to pull the pin out of the grenade, didn't you? You had to explode some- thing you don't even understand."

Close to screaming, now, he said, "Don't you see?

When I was this way before, I killed one of you. Didn't that tell you anything? Then you made me right, and for the first time in fifteen years. I was human again. And you can control humans, can't you?"

Not too many things scared Barton, usually, but Szabo's smile did, then. Almost casually, he took Dahil by one arm and threw him across the room. About half- way up the wall, the Other hit; when he dropped to the floor, he didn't look too well.

Szabo turned to Tiriis. "You made a mistake." Quietly, he said it. "You thought this would make me obey you.

Instead, it will let me kill you. And," he added in a thoughtful tone, "the Children, too."

He reached for Tiriis, gently, or so it looked, but she wasn't having any. She tried for the door; be was there ahead of her. Clearly, he could have caught her if he'd wanted to. He said, "To end this, to allow the ship to go home again, I will kill you two, and the Children. Not the !p women who are bearing more Children, for they can still be aborted. But the Children first."

And the two Others, the only ones who could make

477.

him right again, last? Barton wondered if that was a con- scious part of the man's thinking.

"And there's no way you can stop me now, is there?"

Szabo whispered. "No way at all." Going out, he slammed the door so hard so that the door chime jingled.

Bearpaw gave a nervous laugh. "If that's a victory bell, I'm not sure it's worth it." Barton didn't answer; he was thinking that with the Others' powers, there must have been a number of changes they could have thought into Szabo, that might have sapped his will instead of unleash- ing the tiger. But Szabo himself bad said, downside on Opal, that logic wasn't their strong point. Well, the tiger wouldn't give them another chance; that was for sure.

Tiriis tugged at the two men, urging them to help her with Dahil. Barton couldn't see the point; he didn't es- pecially want to see the aliens dead, but he wasn't calling the shots. For now, though, the injured Other might as well be as comfortable as possible, so feeling like a soft touch. Barton helped move Dahil onto a couch. He wasn't exactly unbroken around the outskirts, the way Szabo had played billiards with him, but given the chance, i( looked as if he could heal up all right. Except for the arm, may- be, that Szabo had used for a throwing handle.

Tiriis waved the men off and bent over Dahil, chanting something under her breath; Barton caught a sort of tune, but no words. After a time the alien came awake, which Barton wouldn't have bet on for a day or two, and they put their heads together and chanted low-volume har- mony. Then they sat back, Tiriis apparently trying to comfort Dahil in ways that weren't clear to Barton.

The wait stretched out, but Barton didn't feel like leav- ing. Then the door opened, and Ferenc came in. Not Szabo the monster, but Ferenc the human; th? difference was all over his face.

He looked at the two Others and shook his head. "I'm not sure who won this round, or whether I^m glad or sorry. You were in time; you caught me well short of the nursery." He shrugged, "As I say, I don't know who won.

Obviously, I'm better off right and you're better off alive.

But what this means to my race, I don't know."'

His voice hardened. "We won't try this again; I assure you of that. You will go to the nursery, and not leave it again without my permission. I've increased tfer" iguard throughout the ship, and given shoot-to-kill Uw fftions.

478.

I think your abilities fall short of ensuring that no guard will be able to follow my orders."

He wasn't done yet. "Don't think to tamper with my sexuality again-not for blackmail, or revenge, or plain spite. If you do, I will wipe your kind of life off this ship and, to the best of my capabilities, off your home planet.

Is that fully clear?"

To Barton it was. This ship's giant laser could wipe out villages like so many anthills, and the sleep-gun's field, on wide spread, could turn escaping stragglers into drooling zombies. Of course, no human, close enough to Opal to use those weapons against the Others, could use them. But Szabo could, the Szabo that Barton had seen briefly. So the way to keep Opal safe was to keep Ferenc Szabo "right." Barton figured they'd get the point.

The Others went back to their own area and stayed there, and the ship passed Opal and receded from it until the pressure from the Others on that planet diminished and finally vanished entirely. The battle was over, arid until Ren Bearpaw told him. Barton hadn't even thought of the scariest part, the thing that hadnt happened after

alL

"If we'd come within their teleporting' range,'* the

Comm-man said, "and suddenly the ship had been full o Others, we'd've been cooked for sure."

*Thanks," Barton said. Then seeing puzzlement, he clarified it. "I mean, thanks for not telling me any

sooner."

As Opal fell behind. Barton could feel the tensions ebb.

After the mass influence from that planet, the efforts of Dahil and Tiriis were easy to resist, even for Barton. As Gyril put it, "We bad mental muscles we hadn't known about. Now that we've exercised them, they're in better

shape."