"What the hell are you doing, Arthur? Take us down!" Farrell gaped at him, speechless. Stryker lumbered past him and took the controls, spiraling the _Marco Four_ down. Men swarmed outside the ports when the Reclamations craft settled gently to the square again. Gibson and Xavier reached the ship first; Gibson came inside quickly, leaving the mechanical outside making patient explanations to an excited group of Alphardians. Gibson put a reassuring hand on Farrell's arm. "It's all right, Arthur. There's no trouble." Farrell said dumbly, "I don't understand. They didn't shoot you and Xav down too?" It was Gibson's turn to stare. "No one shot you down! These people are primitive enough to use metallic power lines to carry electricity to their hamlets, an anachronism you forgot last night. You piloted the helihopper into one of those lines, and the crash put you out for the rest of the night and most of today. These Alphardians are friendly, so desperately happy to be found again that it's really pathetic." "_Friendly?_ That torpedo--" "It wasn't a torpedo at all," Stryker put in. Understanding of the error under which Farrell had labored erased his earlier irritation, and he chuckled commiseratingly. "They had one small boat left for emergency missions, and sent it up to contact us in the fear that we might overlook their settlement and move on. The boat was atomic powered, and our shield screens set off its engines." Farrell dropped into a chair at the chart table, limp with reaction. He was suddenly exhausted, and his head ached dully. "We cracked the communications problem early last night," Gibson said. "These people use an ancient system of electromagnetic wave propagation called frequency modulation, and once Lee and I rigged up a suitable transceiver the rest was simple. Both Xav and I recognized the old language; the natives reported your accident, and we came down at once." "They really came from Terra? They lived through a thousand years of flight?" "The ship left Terra for Sirius in 2171," Gibson said. "But not with these people aboard, or their ancestors. That expedition perished after less than a light-year when its hydroponics system failed. The Hymenops found the ship derelict when they invaded us, and brought it to Alphard Six in what was probably their first experiment with human subjects. The ship's log shows clearly what happened to the original complement. The rest is deducible from the situation here." Farrell put his hands to his temples and groaned. "The crash must have scrambled my wits. Gib, where _did_ they come from?"