"They took him away right after opening our lock. I don't know why--or why they didn't take us, too." A voice, low and compelling, spoke in Rik Guelf's brain. "_You and Captain Rodolph will quit your ship. I advise you not to resist._" Rodolph jumped and Guelf knew he had received the order too. The robots wheeled aside, let them pass. "We're in her ship," Rodolph said. "She hooked us--lassoed us is a better word. Here we are." The compartment was awe-inspiring in size. A blue vaulted ceiling rose a thousand feet overhead. From wall to wall was the same distance. The floor beneath them was metallic, not translucent. It appeared as solid as any Earth metal. Huge conduits ran to machines that the squat robots were tending. The equipment rose a hundred feet high. Then they saw Danold. He was walking slowly toward a moving runway. Robots stepped on and off the runway as they went about what seemed to be routine matters. And the same calm voice which had spoken soundlessly into their minds, now bade them step on the runway. They did so, traveled toward a screen and through it into a long, dim corridor. And at the end of the corridor stood the Crystal Woman. She was a giantess--a Titan--. She sat in a chair, white robe trailing from her shoulders and fully a hundred feet beyond her sandaled feet. And the three men stood like midgets before her, stared, rendered silent with awe as the runway slowed to a full stop. They waited, Danold with legs outspread, defiant, hands on blasters which he carried in holsters. Rodolph and Guelf were unarmed. Rodolph folded his arms and tried to give the look of a man unafraid. Guelf wasn't thinking of the woman's size, nor of what she represented. "Beautiful!" raced through his mind. "With a beauty which hurts like a sharp, twisting blade." The woman's dark eyes stopped on Guelf. "Thank you," she said pleasantly. A shiver ran through Guelf, and he had no time to wonder at her knowledge of his own tongue. Now the woman looked at Danold. She rested an elbow on a knee, cupping her chin. "Little man?" she asked softly, "why did you try to destroy the _Avol_--my ship?" "You are my enemy," Danold answered. "You fired on Galactic Service ships. You destroyed the _Perseid_ and its crew. It was my duty to try and down you." "Your Galactic Service attacked first. When I fled to hyper space they followed. When I emerged, they were on all sides. I had no quarrel with them." "What do you want?" Danold said harshly. "This is _our_ Galaxy. It--" "Little men from one planet? And you claim a Galaxy?" Danold nodded, looked stubborn. "You've got us," he admitted. "But somehow, some time, we'll destroy you. Unless," he added, "you recognize our authority and confess your trespassing."