Feeling more curious, he projected himself inside and was immediately delighted, despite its obvious mechanical character. It was metallic and smooth and there were numerous incomprehensible devices piled up against the walls of the tiny, circular room. Seated at a panel, their backs toward him, the two creatures were busily manipulating little spots of brilliant color, and one was creating a weird but soft cacophony with its mouth. Tensor was amused as well as interested. He listened, and managed to decipher a pattern to the speech, even though only confused scatterings of intelligence came from the chaotic minds. He again observed the astonishing similarity of appearance between the aliens and human beings. From a small orifice in the panel, a reply issued; cold and rasping in tonal quality. "Control to Scout Three. Roger on the presumed alien. Lieutenant. I knew that civilian with you would get you into trouble." "Well, it wasn't exactly the fault of--" "Enough. Bear away from the base until certain you are not being followed." While one of them played with the moving color spots on the panel, the other twisted a knob, and all segments of the outside became successively visible in a viewer. "Scout Three to Control. Nothing in sight." "Very well. The orders are to stay there until dark, after which you may return." "But that's two hundred hours away," the other savage hissed. "We don't have enough oxygen." "You'll just have to work it out somehow," the panel replied coldly. "We can't endanger the whole military base for one useless civilian biologist." This was a fascinating exchange to Tensor, as he puzzled out the curious relationships and their purposes. He floated near the ceiling, listening, face set in civilized impassivity. One of the creatures grumbled, leaned back and swung around in its chair. It jerked erect when it saw the man at the ceiling. [Illustration] Tensor smiled at the poor, dumb creature and was rewarded by a disgustingly loud noise from its mouth and a mad rush back to the panel. The other had seen him, too, and was staring wide-eyed at him. Tensor moved closer to observe, but the one who had seen him first continued shouting shrill, ear-splitting noises at its companion, who seemed to be trying unsuccessfully to obey. Petulantly, Tensor disintegrated the noisy one and also some ugly cables that led from the panel to the wall. That improved the esthetic situation immeasurably, he felt. There was a quick sucking of breath from the remaining savage as it looked wildly about for a moment, as if searching for its vanished companion, and then stared at the place where the cables had been. "Well--" It made a hopeless gesture with its shoulders and slumped back into its chair. "That does it. No pilot. No radio. Damn. Even the Leader would have trouble with this situation." It looked uneasily at Tensor, and remained perfectly, cautiously still.