For what seemed an eternity they fled through the green blaze of the sun, after the ship Durham could no longer see. And ahead of the lifeboat, a light and a portent in the void, went the Bitter Star with its attendant shadows. And Durham, too, began to worry, he was not sure why. Jubb's flagship closed up to them, a vast dark whale beside a minnow. And after a while a tiny bright ball that was a planet came spinning toward them. Karlovic pointed. Hung like a net across space, between them and the planet, was a series of glittering metallic flecks. "The squadron." The communicator buzzed. Karlovic snapped it on, and the face of a Nantan officer appeared on the screen. "We have Morrison," he said. "Come no closer with the Star." Karlovic spoke to the darkbird. Durham's hands, heavy with weariness, slowed the lifeboat until it hung almost motionless. Jubb's great dark cruiser slowed also. Above and between them burned the Bitter Star. It had ceased to move. Durham said, "The Star will come no closer." "Mr. Karlovic," said the Nantan. "Bring your lifeboat in slowly, and alone." The lifeboat came in among the ships of the squadron. "Now," said the Nantan officer, "withdraw the Star." Karlovic said, "Jubb will do so--" "No," said Durham suddenly, "Jubb will not. Look there!" * * * * * Shining with a furious light, the Star had torn itself away from the clustering shadows that hung around it. Durham's heart congealed with a foretaste of icy death. The face of the Nantan officer paled, and Karlovic said in a voice that was not like his voice at all, "I must talk to Jubb." He reached out to shift their single screen, and the Nantan officer said, "Wait, he is speaking on our alternate. I can adjust the scanner--" The picture flopped, blurred, and cleared again, showing now in addition to the officer a part of the Nantan's alternate-channel screen. Jubb was speaking, and it seemed to Durham that the Senyan's strange face was clearly, humanly alarmed. He said, "I cannot withdraw the Star. No, this is not a lie, a trick--hold your fire, you idiots! I'm the only hope you have now. The Star has profited by the lesson of its docility a thousand years ago, when it let itself be led back into captivity. Now it has grown, too much. It cannot be brought back to any world." Durham looked out at the beautiful deadly thing blazing so splendidly in the void. "Can it be destroyed?" "The darkbirds can destroy it," said Jubb. "If they will." The Nantan officer, speaking from lips the color of ashes, said to the image of Jubb on the screen, "You have one minute to get it out of here before I fire." Jubb turned his face away and spoke, to something they could not see. Durham turned to Karlovic. "He said, 'If they will.' Does that mean--" "I told you," said Karlovic, looking out the port, "that the darkbirds were created to guard the Star. And that, in a way, they love it. Who can say how much?" They watched.