We secured into orbit and made our way to the main deck. It was the first time in well over a year that all the men were there together, the first time since the commissioning ceremony. I remember now that I thought for a brief instant of how few of the men I had actually spoken more than several words with, how taut and almost mechanical this entire trip had been, how the crew held a common bond as in other ships, but not of friendship as on other ships on which I had served. Here it was an alliance against the unknown. The unknown, represented not so much by Aldebaran IX, but by Captain Kingsford. He entered the main deck through the hatch from the officers' quarters and all motion and sound among the crew stopped. He walked silently to the center of the deck, nodded briefly at me, and turned to face the men. "Here are the facts on Aldebaran IX as I know them. The assays performed on the ore I brought back display a potential yield of almost ninety percent pure uranium. Ninety percent, gentlemen. You are, I am sure, aware of what this can mean for every last one of us. The extraction of this ore amounts to little more than erecting loaders on almost any site, and automatic conveyors to the refinery we will assemble for reducing the ore to a pure state. Our reaction engineers will then convey the element through the reaction process by which we will return to Earth with a hold filled with true plutonium. This is almost an automatic procedure and can be accomplished with an absolute minimum of operational difficulty. You will ask, then, why I requisitioned a manifest of so large a crew. The answer to this is precaution. "There is a manner of animal life on Aldebaran IX which it is necessary that we subdue. It is a form of flying animal, quite large, which feeds through a suction action, ingesting matter with tremendous force, as it flies. This action not only nourishes the beast, it also forms the fuel for the ejection of waste gases that are its power for flight, jet propulsion, in essence. The animal is omnivorous, quite fast in flight, and leaves an area barren in its trail. It also defies all manner of remote observation. It came upon us in the Essex completely by surprise, though all our scanners and force beams were activated. It was the cause of the death of the entire crew. I alone was inside the Essex at the time. I escaped with the mere loss of an eye. How I managed to be the one to survive I cannot say. Perhaps it was fated that way. But, gentlemen, had we been prepared, had we been firmly entrenched and adequately armed, this beast would have presented no threat at all. We were not prepared then. Now we are. You are probably all familiar with the arsenal manifest. It was for this reason that I ordered the arms we now have on board.