"Yes, Shane." Her voice still had its strange, alien lilt. The rich purple lips parted in a smile, and she reached for his hand. "Come quickly. I shall take you to your ship." "To the ship--?" Shane stared at her blankly. "But why--?" "Why?" She laughed softly, and now there was mockery in the violet eyes. "Why not, Shane? It is the only way you can hope to escape this moon of madness. And the reason I help you to escape is--I want you to take me with you!" CHAPTER VII Now they were hurtling through the utter blackness that was space, away from the bleak moon that had been their prison. To port, Jupiter loomed monstrous, overwhelming, its great Red Spot weirdly aglow with seas of flaming hydrogen that seethed and boiled amid gigantic ice-cliffs carved from frozen gases. On the other side, Ganymede and Callisto swung slowly in their orbits; and beyond them, dwarfed by them, tiny Jupiter IX raced through the sky in the counter direction. A navigator said: "The place they held us is Jupiter V--the satellite closest to the planet. The manuals say it is abandoned now. But it was built up as a power station by the Jupiterian entente in the days before the Federation began to broadcast energy." "And now Quos Reggar holds it," the mate echoed. "What is your command, _Gar_ Shane? Shall we ramp at Europa and report it?" Bleakly, Shane stared into the visiscreen. Gadar, the dark star, hurled across the void into the solar system a thousand years ago, was coming into view now, the faint silver gleam of its profile barely visible. "Or we could try Callisto," the mate went on. "They would notify the Federation unit stationed at Europa--send out patrols--" "No," Shane said. "No. We'll go on to Federation headquarters, the Martian meeting. The things we have to tell will mean more there." Abruptly, he turned and left the pilot room, and made his way to Kyrsis' quarters. She came to his knock, and a glow of pleasure suffused her pale, silvery face at the sight of him. "Enter Shane...." The cool fingers touched his hand, drew him in. The violet eyes clung to his, as if in the sharing of some precious secret. He closed the door behind him; breathed in deeply. "Why did you choose to come with me, Kyrsis?" The rich purple lips curved and parted. As always, her eyes seemed to mock him. "How many times have you asked me, Shane?" "How many times--?" he echoed, and now his voice had a bitter ring. "I wish I knew. But still I have no answer." He strode to the visiscreen across the room and snapped it on with an angry flick. Stared broodingly into it. Gadar was almost to the screen's center now. * * * * * Shane said: "You're like that dark star, Kyrsis. What men can see is beautiful--but beneath the surface you're both all mystery. Where did you come from? Where are you going? And why? I always come back to that one question: why, why, why?"