"The Marties think they're going to get the System back, some day." He laughed. "They've been trying to persuade me to help them for a long time, now. Well, I'm going to. After my fleet has the drive. We'll invade Earth, then. The TSN won't be able to stand up to us--not when torps start coming out of nowhere. Picture it--all of Earth, busy fighting us off, all its attention on the invasion, and on nothing else. Then, when the fighting's going nicely, my men and I will raid a few choice supply dumps I've had spotted for a long time. We'll load up on equipment and supplies, and take off, leaving some badly disconcerted Marties to finish their little revolt any way they want to--with no Earth for them to conquer!" "_What?_" It ripped out of me. Pat was sitting there, her mouth open too, the same stunned question written on her face. Thorsten laughed his omnipotent laugh again. "Certainly! Didn't you know, Holcomb? Ordinarily, of course, a hyperspatial ship will take off from a planet on standard atomic drive, and cut to her hyperspatial engines when it's out in deep space. But it's possible to take off directly into hyperspace--the only trouble being that the warp changes a hundred cubic miles of adjacent mass to C-T matter." "Seetee! You mean contraterrene?" That was Pat, tense-faced. I couldn't say anything. I sat there, staring at Thorsten--calm, laughing, deliberate bringer of death to a world and its billions. Because C-T atoms, in contact with normal matter, reacted violently. A hundred cubic miles, detonating instantaneously, would leave a ring of dust where Earth and Moon now swung. "There will be no cancer of humanity in space!" Thorsten declared. I jumped for him. One slug caught my shoulder. The other plowed through the muscles of my back. I lay bleeding among the broken glass and dishes on the table. Thorsten swung a rabbit punch at my head, and laughed. VIII The cell was small, dark, and damp. There were stitches across my back, under tape, and a traction splint and bandages on my shoulder. Let's forget pain. Pain.... _Let's forget it! Forget it!_ I lay on my belly. I'd been on my belly for most of a week. And for most of a week, I'd thought of how it would be to dig my fingernails into my side, rip loose the phony skin over my ribs, and fire that one shot into Thorsten's guts. All I needed was a chance. Here in the cell, in a corridor somewhere, alone with him, surrounded by his men, chance of life or no--that wasn't what counted. I wasn't sane myself, anymore. There were two people in the Universe--Thorsten and me--and room for one! A chance. Lord God, a chance! But all I had was dampness and darkness.