Panic slipped into Thorton's face and then was gone, covered over almost at once by long habits of sudden decisions. "She could have taken the ship anywhere she wanted and we couldn't stop her. Since she's here voluntarily it's obvious what she wants--the asteroid." The medicouncilor tried to shove himself out of the screen. "Don't you ever think, General? There's no real difference between gravity generators except size and power. What she did on the ship she can do as easily here." "Don't worry," said the startled officer. "I'll get her. I'll find the girl and Docchi too." "Never mind him," choked the medicouncilor. "I don't care how you do it. Take Nona at once, without delay." The time had passed for that command. The great dome overhead trembled and creaked in countless joints. But the structure held though unexpected stresses were imposed on it. And the tiny world shivered, groaning and grumbling at the orbit it had lain too long in. Already that was changing--the asteroid began to move. 7 Vague shapes were stirring. They walked if they could, crawled if they couldn't--fantastic and near-fantastic creatures were coming to the assembly. Large or tiny, on their own legs or borrowed ones they arrived, with or without arms, faces. The news had spread fast, by voice or written message, sign language, lip reading, all the conceivable ways that humans communicate, not the least of which was the vague intuition that something was going on that the person should know about. The people on Handicap Haven sensed the emergency. "Remember it will be hours or perhaps days before we're safe," said Docchi. His voice was hoarse but he hadn't noticed it yet. "It's up to us to see that Nona has all the time she needs." "Where is she hiding?" asked someone in the crowd. "I don't know. I wouldn't tell you if I did. They might pry it out of you. Right now our sole job is to keep them from finding her." "How?" demanded someone else near the front. "Do you expect us to fight the guards?" "Not directly," said Docchi. "We have no weapons for that, no armament. Many of us have no arms in another sense. All we can do is to obstruct their search. Unless someone can think of something better, this is what I plan: "I want all the men, older women and the younger ones who aren't suitable for reasons I'll explain later. The guards won't be here for half an hour--it will take that long to get them together and give them orders. When they do come the first group will attempt to interfere in every possible way with their search. "How you do it I'll leave to your imagination. Appeal to their sympathy as long as they have any. Put yourself in dangerous situations. They have ethics and at first they'll be inclined to help you. When they do, try to steal their weapons. Avoid physical violence as much as you can. We don't want to force them into retaliation--they'll be so much better at it. Make the most of this phase of their behavior. It won't last long."