For an instant it seemed as though nothing were happening or ever would happen. Strong young arms laced the straining Five into a group as motionless and as sculpturesque as statuary, while between their bodies and around them there came into being a gigantic Lens--a Lens whose splendor filled the entire room with radiance. Under that awful concentration of force something _had_ to give way. The Unit held. The Arisians held. The Lensmen held. The needle of force, superlatively braced, neither bent nor broke. Therefore the Eddorians' screen was punctured; and in the instant of its puncturing it disappeared as does a bubble when it breaks. There was no mopping-up to do. Such was the torrent of force cascading into that citadel that within a moment after its shield went down all life within it was snuffed out. The Boskonian War was over. XXIX. "Did you kids come through QX?" The frightful combat over, the dreadful tension a thing of the past, Kit's first thought was for his sisters. They were unharmed. None of the Five had suffered anything except mental exhaustion. Recuperation was rapid. "Better we hunt that tube up and get Dad out of it, don't you think?" Kit suggested. "Have you got a story arranged that will hold together under examination?" Camilla asked. "Everything except a few minor details, which we can polish up later." Smoothly the four girls linked their minds with their brother's; effortlessly the Unit's thought surveyed all nearby space. No hyperspatial tube, nor any trace of one, was there. Tuned to Kinnison's pattern, the Unit then scanned not only normal space and the then present time, but also millions upon millions of other spaces and past and future times; all without finding the Gray Lensman. Again and again the Unit reached out, farther and farther; out to the extreme limit of even its extraordinary range. Every space and every time was empty. The Children of the Lens broke their linkage and stared at each other, aghast. They knew starkly what it must mean, but that conclusion was unthinkable. Kinnison--their Dad--the hub of the universe--the unshakable, immutable Rock of Civilization--he _couldn't_ be dead. They simply could not accept the logical explanations as the true one. And while they pondered, shaken, a call from their Red Lensman mother impinged upon their consciousness. "You are together? Good! I have been _so_ worried about Kim going into that trap. I have been trying to get in touch with him, but I cannot reach him. You children, with your greater power--" She broke off as the dread import of the Five's surface thoughts became clear to her. At first she, too, was shaken, but she rallied magnificently.