The car hurtled past them. A light-beam slashed from it as it came abreast the doorway where the guards were huddled. There was a flurry of motion; hoarse shouts of panic. Shane and the other _Chonya_ moved in. The last of Reggar's men sought to flee. But the technician, Dylar, cut them down. Then Shane was bursting into the place where the great Paulsini mind-control projector was housed. * * * * * It was an awesome sight, a shaft that seemed to stretch away to infinity overhead. And in its center stood the incredible Paulsini tube, that infinitely delicate electronic unit that was the heart of the projector, core of the whole weird device that so deftly changed the frequencies of the waves within men's brains. A gigantic tube, almost unbelievable, so large that it staggered the imagination. Even Shane stood half-incredulous as he stared up at it. "It must be a hundred feet tall!" he said numbly. "No wonder they can reach out into space--" Dylar nodded. "Yes. The whole center floor of the shaft is a huge lift, a hydratomic elevator to push the tube up into the air above this structure that covers the surface." He pointed a quivering finger. "See! There is a great lid capping off the shaft! No doubt it is linked to the lift mechanism so that it opens as the tube rises--" Behind them, the other _Chonya_ suddenly slammed shut the corridor door. "Guard-cars!" he called tensely. "A whole line of them, headed this way!" It broke the spell of Shane's fascination. "Our only hope for getting away from this moon alive is to smash this projector," he clipped tightly. "And that means--smash this tube," Dylar answered. "Any other thing that we might do could be repaired." Shane strode to the tube; hammered savagely at the transparent silicon with his light-gun's butt. "It is no use," the _Chonya_ technician told him grimly. "A tube as incredibly huge as this one will stand up against anything smaller than a proton cannon. It has been designed for strength--to handle power ... temperature changes ... shock and impact ... the sheer weight of its own structure." He shook his head. "I fear we've come here for nothing, _Gar_ Shane. No efforts of ours can hope to smash this." * * * * * Bleakly, Shane stared at the monster tube ... at the glittering metal of the lift on which it stood ... at the great shaft, rising high above them to the cap of the dome. The _Chonya_ at the door said: "They're unloading here by hundreds, and they've brought enough equipment for a siege! When they start moving in, there'll be no stopping them." Dylar's eyes flicked swiftly about the shaft. "There may be another way out--" "No!" Shane snapped. His jaw was hard. He brought up a clenched fist; shook it grimly. "We came here to smash this thing. We're going to do it." He turned on his heel and ran to the nearest door. "Come on! We've got to find the control room!" "The control room--?"