"Does this Borsu expect us to guarantee this welcome? To assure them that they will be received with open arms? People are strange. Once the initial excitement of their arrival is over, who can say how ordinary citizens will react?" "You must understand that they come in peace and friendship. They are tired, weary of searching for a home. They need our help--" "You say they're _blue_, doctor." Ridgemont's eyes were penetrating. "Do you think the world can withstand still another race problem? Do you?" "I don't know," Woodward said miserably. "I'm only Borsu's friend, Mr. Ridgemont, his emissary. I can't answer questions like this. I thought that you, a man of science--" "As a scientist, your Borsu fascinates me, of course. I'd like to interrogate him for years. I'd like to dissect his mind and body until I know everything about him and his people. But you're asking me a different question. You're asking--do I want Borsu as a neighbor?" Woodward stood up. His face was pale, and the leg that wasn't there throbbed with pain. He was sweating, a gray sweat that coursed down his seamed cheek and soiled the collar of his shirt. "I don't feel well," he said. "If you'd excuse me--" "Of course," Ridgemont said solicitously. "We can talk more about this later, when you feel up to it...." "Yes," Woodward said. * * * * * That night, in a hotel room in Washington, Dr. Carl Woodward died of a coronary thrombosis. Secretary of Science Ridgemont, however, was curious enough about the doctor's story to send a deputation to his home in Pennsylvania. As a simple precaution, one of the men in the party was an armed policeman named Sergeant Kemmer. At the first sight of the blue-skinned man, Kemmer became alarmed enough to draw his gun. Borsu recognized the weapon, and its dangerous potential, from his reading. Frightened, he tried to flee through the front door, and Kemmer misinterpreted his movement as an attack. He fired three times. One of the bullets penetrated Borsu's temple, and killed him instantly. Three months passed before the next delegation from the aliens appeared on Earth. This time, their arrival was detected, and the visitors were brought safely to the local authorities in the Nebraska community where their vessel landed. Their names were Cor, Basuc, and Stytin. Stytin was a female, lovely in her blue-skinned shapeliness. A team of scientists were dispatched from Washington, Tokyo, and London to take charge of the alien trio. It was another two weeks before their marvelous facility with language permitted them to talk intelligently to their examiners.