This room was large, and luxuriously furnished with the treasures of a score of satellites and planets. Here were rich tapestries from Orlon, a thousand blinding years in the making. Here, a table from Rhea, aglitter with the inlays of the spider men, delicate as the traceries of frost. Great _borvne_ crystals from the pits of Neptune had been transformed into lamps, their cold fire blazing like the play of sun on glacial ice. A priceless Grecian vase from Earth, older almost than time itself, created a world of its own in one corner. But it was the woman who held all eyes ... the silver woman. She came forward now, a strange, shining creature. Her beauty was a breathless thing--ethereal, almost unreal. The cunningly-fashioned toga of silver cloth she wore matched the spun silver of her hair. Yet her hair's silver could not have been that of age, for her skin still held the fresh glow of youth, though uniquely translucent and silvery itself--nearly as pale and clear as the bodies of Pluto's bloodless ice-things. As if in studied contrast, her lips gleamed rich purple, more blue than red; and a hundred striking violet tints glinted in her eyes. Even over the vocodor, her voice had a strange, alien lilt, as if her thoughts, her words, strained the unit's powers: "You ... you are the Earthman--the _gar_ of the asteroids...." She came close to Shane as she spoke; very close, till the fragrance of unknown flowers rose in his nostrils. Her pale hands touched his cheeks, and the violet eyes probed his. They were strange eyes, as strange as the worlds had ever seen--young and clear as a girl's, yet somehow old, too ... old as the void itself; and the things that were in them sent queer tremors rippling through Shane like a chill. It was as if the woman were looking beyond the things that others saw--probing deeper, searching for some precious secret element that only she could grasp. "You are strong, Earthman!" she said softly, and now her voice held a throaty urgency, an undertone that might have told of inner tension. "There is life in you ... much life. It flows hot in your veins...." "He is not for you, _Shi_ Kyrsis!" Reggar rasped harshly. "Our trap needs bait, and we cannot spare him!" * * * * * The hands drew away from Shane's cheeks. The woman turned, and her violet eyes grew big and dangerous. "You cannot--?" she asked, her voice even softer than before. "Who says you cannot, Reggar?" "_We_ cannot, _Shi_ Kyrsis," Reggar answered. One webbed hand moved in an angry, incisive gesture. "We, the two of us, you and I. I cannot, because without him to serve as cover the Federation will sooner or later have my head. And you cannot, because without me there will be no slaves." The woman's hands cupped, as if the long, purple-nailed fingers held some priceless goblet. "But life is a sacred thing!" she whispered. "It runs so strong within him...."