Then at last it was over. The hands turned Odin upon his back and he lay there, gasping and hurting, like one who has just come up from deep water. The lights were so bright that at first he could see nothing. Then his vision cleared and he knew where he was--in the surgery room of the Nebula. Ato was standing nearby, trying to reassure him. Beside Odin on another bed was Gunnar, lying flat on his back and stripped to the waist. Gunnar was howling curses and kicking like a frog. A doctor and a nurse were there. And completing the group was Nea holding a round object in each hand--round things with unkempt, trailing hair. He was not completely conscious--and for a second she looked like a high priestess of the Amazon, holding two mummified heads before her-- The pain left him. His mind cleared and he lay there gasping from the ordeal. Ato and Nea smiled at them. So cheerfully that he almost expected them to write out a bill for surgical fees. "God, that was a close one," Ato said, and wiped his forehead. "Five hours of it. And it was touch and go all the time." "What happened?" Odin asked. He remembered something about a glittering tomb and Maya awakening from her long sleep and Grim Hagen. He even remembered the Bron carelessly swinging Piper's head by the hair. But these were mere scenes that flashed before his mind. He could not fit them together, as yet. "Tell him, Nea," Ato said. * * * * * She smiled proudly. "It was my invention that saved you. You see, I have two of them now. I told you that they are as near as we can get to making living things. And I also told you that there is much more to them than you saw. They are destroyers and they are builders. We found you dead--or nearly so. Hagen had sent volt after volt through your bodies. You were electrocuted." "We hurried you back to the ship. And all this time, while Ato steered us back into space, the Kalis and I--for that is what I have decided to call them--have been working over you. You might say that we are master electronicians, rebuilding circuits, repairing transistors and condensers--" "You were plenty rough," Gunnar grumbled. "We had to be. Do you remember a story about the bush-men dying from a curse? Here." She held her two precious Kalis in one arm while she tapped the base of her skull. "In here is a bulb, the old brain, not even an idiot's brain, that brought you up from the jungle. It is a simple, worrying brain. Easily frightened. Easily convinced. It was convinced that you were dead. We had to arouse it." Odin fancied that he could hear the two Kalis purring contentedly like cats. Well, they had done a good job. Let them purr. He would like to have thanked them, but how can you thank two bowling balls with scalps of cat's whisker wire? * * * * *