Charlie lifted a neutron gun. "No. You're wrong. None of us is free. You'll find a ship has followed you here. And you're going to follow it back." Of course, Steve thought dully. Charlie was dead. Charlie could not return as himself. But they were right back where they started from, for the creature who was Charlie could force their return. Kevin stood near the viewport, spoke grimly. "He's not lying. There's a ship out there." Schuyler Barling smiled coldly, took up his position near Charlie. "You all rejected my command once," he said. "You shouldn't have. I had no desire to come back to Earth like that. I've also learned that I can share my body on an equal basis with my master, something none of you would consider. Now we'll take you back." Almost eighty men had died--for nothing. Steve held Teejay's hand briefly, released it. One life more wouldn't matter, and if there were a chance.... "Charlie, don't you remember anything?" "What should I remember?" "I'm your brother." "That much I knew when I called you on Ganymede. But there are no emotional ties. Keep back!" Steve took a step toward him. "You're my brother, and you wouldn't kill me. You can't." It was wild, impossible, and he knew it. The creature was not his brother, had not been his brother for years. Yet if some small vestige of his brother's emotional memories remained-- "Keep back, I warn you!" Steve could see the finger tightening on the trigger when he dove. His shoulder jarred Charlie's knees, and they went down together, rolling over and over on the floor. The neutron gun hissed once, between them, and Charlie relaxed. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth for a moment, and he said, "Steve." He died that way, with the smile still on his lips. Schuyler Barling was laughing and screaming, froth flecking his chin. The delicate balance between parasite and host had been entangled, possibly beyond repair. Neither could dominate, and the result was a hopeless, gibbering hulk of a man. "Poor devil," said Kevin. "He'll get psychiatric treatment on Earth, if that will help." Steve crossed to the airlock, climbed into a spacesuit. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Teejay wanted to know. "You're forgetting about the other ship. We haven't got a blasting cannon on the _Frank Buck_, and there isn't one down on the _Gordak_, either. But with no absorbing medium in space, one of these neutron guns can be a potent weapon." Steve clamped the fishbowl helmet down over his head and activated the airlock. Soon he stood outside, with nothing but space on three sides of him. On the fourth, his magnetic boots gripped the _Frank Buck_'s steeloid hull as he set himself, ready to fire the small hand gun.