"Lily?"

"Lily and I have been partners out here for over twenty years. Us and the koalangs."

Zip put the disk into his pocket. "Thank you, sir. Best wishes to you."

"You too. An occasional visit once in a while is welcome, especially when people respect my way of life. Most don't understand. I think you three do. Just protect George. He's a good friend, and they're hard to find."

About 56 hours later, the Vigilant Warrior came into the proximity of Z25. Joe eased the ship through a scattering of moderate-sized asteroids and then came into a s.p.a.ce where there were relatively few chunks of stone and iron moving through s.p.a.ce. On the far side of the open area was an asteroid nearly twenty miles long and half as wide.

"There it is," announced Joe. "Z25."

Zip gave a nod to Mark, and Mark opened communications.

"Vigilant Warrior calling Z25. We have arrived in your area and seek permission to land."

"You made good time, friends," came a voice instantly. "Come on in and welcome."

The Starmen had spoken to St. George once during their journey from Montezuma's Castle, but only briefly. The communications were encrypted, but even the encryption could be a tipoff to an enemy who might be listening in.

As they made their final approach, the Starmen had a good view of Z25's horizon near the time of local sunset. The surface was dark because of the oblique illumination, but several boulders caught the sunlight and appeared as bright sentinels on the landscape. The brightest of the boulders, just to the upper right of a deeply shadowed crater in the foreground, marked the landing area. A cl.u.s.ter of artificial structures was visible nearby, and several s.p.a.ceships were parked in an informal array. A dome covered the buildings, and reflected the sun in a burst of brightness. Mark had a quick memory of dewdrops in the garden of his home on Earth when he was a child. He recalled thinking that each dewdrop held a small sun.

In moments the Starmen were sitting in George St. George's study. He was a man in his middle-fifties, of average height and weight, with a full head of wavy blond hair. It was obvious that he cut his own hair, but long practice had made him skilled at it. Though his eyes were ice-blue, he exuded warmth. He had a ready smile. The Starmen were sitting in a makeshift room under a temporary atmosphere dome on an isolated asteroid, but St. George's courtliness and genuine respect for his visitors made them feel as if they were in a manor house. On his desk lay a thick book with the t.i.tle Commentary on the Letter to the Romans, and several sheets of paper and a pen were set beside it where he had obviously been doing some study.

"I hope you men won't mind waiting for refreshments. It's almost dinnertime and the crew will be coming up for a meal in about half an hour. Of course, you'll join us, won't you?"

"Thank you Mr. St. George," responded Zip. "We'd be pleased to meet your men and see your operation."

"Monty tells me you three are real ripstavers, and he doesn't say that very often about anybody. You must have impressed him!" St. George was full of smiles.

"May we sit down, Mr. St. George? Our business is rather urgent!" Zip continued.

"Of course, of course. Please forgive me! We don't get visitors of any kind out here and I'm just not used to entertaining. Please forgive me!" St. George rushed busily setting out chairs, bringing in two from a room next door. "And please call me George."

Once they were settled, Zip began to tell George about the pirates and Zimbardo's likely determination to find and eliminate the one man who knew where the pirates' asteroid could be found. Before he got too far into the story, George lifted a hand and smiled. "Yes, yes, I know," he said. "Monty told me all about it."

The Starmen leaped out of their chairs, absolutely stunned. Before they had left Montezuma's Castle Zip had impressed upon Vly how vital it was for St. George's safety that they not communicate until his friend was safe. Zip had begged him to send just a quick, encrypted message that Z25 was to expect three visitors who had Vly's seal of approval-no more.

"George!" gasped Joe. "That message could have been intercepted by the pirates! They must be looking for you!"

"We told Vly not to communicate with you! It could mean your life!"

continued Mark, suddenly heartsick with anxiety.

George chuckled. "Don't worry, Starmen! The pirates already tried to find me through Monty, but the greegles protected him, and the pirates'll never find me without cooperation from Monty-which they'll never get. There's really no need to worry. We're completely safe here.

We'll have dinner, you'll stay here to sleep, I'll show you around the operation, and you can go back to Ceres."

The Starmen were speechless for a moment. Joe's eyes nervously scanned the room and Mark stared at George with his mouth agape. Then Zip spoke.

"What are greegles, George?"

George chuckled again. "You haven't heard of this 'asteroid miner's legend'? Most people think it's in a cla.s.s with leprechauns and mermaids, the story of the greegles, but it's all true. The greegles are the inhabitants of the asteroids. Don't know if they're alive or not. They're made of metal-some kind of metal-or maybe they just wear a metal suit. They're about a foot high. Now, don't stare at me like that; you're looking thoroughly obflisticated, probably thinking I've been out in the vacuum too long, but I've seen them! They're little and they're old, very old, but they're powerful! No one can beat them!

Usually no one ever sees them and they don't have any need to interfere with human beings. They don't mind it too much, though, if a solitary asteroid miner sees them once in a while."

"And wh-, what do they have to do with Montezuma?" asked Zip, keeping his voice steady.

"Why, a short time after you left the Castle, about five ships tried to land on the Castle by force-pirates, for sure. No doubt they wanted to force Monty to tell 'em where I am. But Monty knows how to contact the greegles. There's a lot of greegles on Adamant." George chuckled again.

"Those poor fellows-the pirates, that is! When the pirates told Monty they were going to land whether he wanted them to or not, why, he just called the greegles for help. They cut four of the ships into pieces in a matter of seconds, leaving the crew floating in their s.p.a.cesuits.

Then they grabbed them with some sort of invisible grappling beam or something and herded them toward the fifth ship. That ship gathered them in and took off."

Now George laughed out loud. "They got the message real fast! Go away and don't come back! And they scrammed! Never even set foot on Montezuma's Castle. Monty will make good use of the floating s.p.a.ce junk the pirates left. Serves 'em right!"

Just then a gentle buzz sounded. "That's the call for dinner, friends.

Come meet the others!"

Almost immediately another sound came through the communications system-an urgent clangor. St. George's face became taut and a look of surprise and anxiety came over his features.

"What's that?" asked Zip.

"It's the alarm," St. George whispered. "It's never sounded before."

The alarm abruptly shut off and an excited, panic-stricken voice came through the intercom.

"Five ships approaching! Coming in fast! They're commanding all hands to come to the landing field and threatening to destroy the whole operation if we don't cooperate! They've already started to destroy the base!"

5: The Destruction of Z25

JOE dashed from the room and sped down the hallway to the control center of the mining base. Each strike of a laser beam colored the interior of the buildings with ruby red as the attackers' targets were vaporized, and the flashes were coming with disturbing frequency. He hurled himself into the tiny office where a frantic young man sat at a console.

"We're going to die!" cried the young man. Joe looked through the large window and saw five ships hovering over the base. Their laser cannons were rapidly destroying the outlying parts of the mining base. There were no defensive weapons. Joe glanced at the radar screen and his hair stood up as he saw that the screen showed nothing. To the surveillance system, the ships were invisible. The technician was babbling in abject, helpless fear, but Joe's pulse leaped when he realized that the frightened young man might be right. They could all be dead at any moment. The man fled the room crying.

Joe looked out the window again and saw that laser cannons had begun to destroy the ships. Through the horrifying, rapidly expanding concentric vapor sh.e.l.ls, he saw the Vigilant Warrior crumpling into a heap. The other ships were either completely destroyed or well on the way.

"What is this? Who are they?" exclaimed Mark. He, Zip, and George had followed Joe to the control center and were watching the laser beams sweep the landing field. The ships were being indiscriminately reduced to molten slag.

"Their laser beams are immensely powerful, and they're operating at full capacity," observed Zip, grimly. Just then the lights went out and every apparatus in the control center went dark.

"They found and destroyed the power plant," whispered George, the tenseness evident in his voice. "But they're not touching the inhabited parts of the base."

Suddenly Zip turned to their host. "George!" he said urgently. "Do any of your crew know that we are Starmen?" George turned a distracted face to Zip and stared as if he wasn't comprehending what Zip had said.

"Do any of your crew know that we are Starmen?" Zip repeated carefully.

"I-I don't know. I didn't tell anybody, I think, but I didn't keep it a secret."

"Look! Gather them all together and tell them not to say anything about us to these invaders! Our safety may depend on it, as well as any chance we all have of eventually escaping!"

"Ah-all right," George stammered.