It seemed hours later when Ketrik awoke. He had tried in vain to find a way out of the smooth, _crystyte_-walled room. He had sought to loosen one of the heavy stones in the floor until, with bleeding and broken-nailed fingers, he had fallen into a sleep of sheer exhaustion. Now, in the exact center of the room, he noticed a platter of food. He frowned, until it dawned on him that it must have been lowered from the ceiling! He glanced up, but if the entrance was there, it was tightly closed now. He ate the palatable food, but noticed the platter was of light plastex, could not possibly be used as a weapon or anything else. He made another search through his clothes, knowing it was useless. But suddenly he remembered the tiny scanner disc which Mark had given him. He had strapped it tightly to the underside of his arm ... and it was still there! He could think of no use for it now, however. He was still pondering this, when his attuned ears caught a faint sound of footsteps overhead. A moment later a section of the ceiling slid back. Framed in the square of light Ketrik saw a face ... golden, a bit frightened. Praana! Ketrik's heart leaped. "Speak softly," she whispered. "You are in a room directly beneath the main palace. Father has gone for the moment, and I took this chance...." "Why are you here?" She spoke quickly. "A few hours ago I tuned my tele-vise into this one. I heard everything he told you! It's horrible, what he is doing--unbelievable! I hadn't known before! I knew he was conducting some sort of experiment ... but this...." The shock of it, even disbelief, was still mirrored on her face. "Praana, listen to me! Doesn't your father have an Ethero-Magnum here, capable of reaching Earth?" "Yes, in his own private quarters." She was puzzled. "You must get to it! Tune it into the Earth beam, then give me a channel from this tele-vise here, into that beam. If I can reach Mark Travers, I'll have him send the Earth Fleet!" He saw her hesitate. She knew that Mars' patrollers could not stand against Earth's mighty armada. She was visioning the holocaust, the destruction of Martian cities and her own people. Ketrik went on quickly. "Praana, you've been to Earth! You spent most of your girlhood there, and you must remember it still, have a fondness for it! The green forests and wide lakes, the mountains, the unreal clouds in a blue sky--and the people who treated you kindly! All this will go, unless you act. Surely--" "Mars is my world," she was murmuring. "My own people ... to consign them to another horrible war! Mars would never recover." "It will not come to that! If Earth takes the initiative, sends its Fleet in a surprise attack--the display of power will be enough. Dar Vaajo will be helpless in the face of it." Ketrik was not at all sure this would be the case, but here was his only chance. "Quickly ... we haven't much time!"