The silver woman looked at him. A little of the wildness left her eyes, replaced by something that might have been cunning. Her voice came down to its former liquid murmur. "And what will you do when you get to this moon, Earthman? Will it bring back the cities of your native planet?" "Say what you mean," Shane came back tightly. "Perhaps Earth could be spared--for your aid against the other worlds of the Federation." Shane's eyes blazed. "You _do_ think me a fool, _Shi_ Kyrsis! After all that has gone, can you believe I would trust you?" "It is a chance you must take, if you would save Earth's cities." * * * * * Strain showed in Shane's voice, his face. But his jaw stayed hard, his blue eyes steady. "If Earth must go, then go it will, _Shi_ Kyrsis. For all I know, the meteors may this moment be hurtling down. But even if they are, and though it costs me my life and my homeland, I'll still take the chance in order to break your life-sucking people's power." "But you cannot destroy that power--" The _Chonya_ commander broke in: "More meteors, _Gar_! They gather between us and the satellite!" And Kyrsis jeered. "You see, Earthman? You have lost already!" Shane said to the _Chonya_: "We're going through." "Through the swarm?" The commander's face lost a little of its color, but his voice stayed firm. He picked up his space-phones. "I shall give the order." "We're going through," Shane repeated grimly, "and some of us--those who have repellers--may get there. There will not be many, but only a handful of workers can be on that moon, with Reggar's crew withdrawn, so even a few ships will be enough." "Yes, _Gar_," the _Chonya_ nodded coolly. He spoke into the space-phones, gave the order. The ship lanced into the swarm. There was a nightmare quality to those endless moments. Space was suddenly ablaze about them with a thousand screaming lights that slashed at them from all directions. Off to the right, a great ball of fire appeared from nowhere and blotted out a ship. A streak of flame speared through another, and it exploded in mid-flight. And still they drove on through the tempest, tossed and jostled, beaten, butchered. An alarm bell clanged fiercely. "A rip in the hull, upper port," the _Chonya_ reported grimly. Jupiter V was very large in the screens now. It loomed like a monstrous metal ball, glistening with the hood of structure that encased it. "The swarm is following us now," the commander said. "It moves with us, traveling even faster than are we." His lips twisted wryly. "Their control is getting better all the time." Shane stared into the visiscreen. It was as if the satellite were hurtling up to meet them. The exploding speed of it made the screen seem almost to whirl. And still the meteors swarmed and blazed around them. "Thirty seconds more," the _Chonya_ said. "We must brake by then, or crash instead of ramp." * * * * *