"They're coming!" McAllister exclaimed, withdrawing. Mortimer retreated with him, striking out for a small passageway that fed from one of the side walls. Stewart strained forward, shading his eyes against the glare of Aldebaran. The landing party's advance was half concealed by the mass of rocks and outcroppings that hid most of their ship. Only occasionally could he see part of a space-suited Hyadean form as its clumsy, swaying stride brought it more completely into his line of sight. And vision was further complicated by the glint of sunlight off the Mineral Analyzer's up-thrust drill head, which had finally come to rest against the rock. Carol tilted her head attentively and frowned. "I'm picking up the _oddest_ radio stuff. The modulation breaks down into nothing more than clicking and hissing sounds. I can't seem to get any meaning. It's too--alien!" Randall reached back into the cave for his hostile-atmosphere sheath. "I'm going out there and see what happens. After all, I'm responsible for our predicament." But just then the first alien figure pulled into view, coming around the boulder and pausing. Apparently sighting Randall's movement in the cave entrance, the Hyadean raised a stubby arm that held a gleaming metal instrument. Randall pulled Carol back into the subterranean chamber. But Stewart only stood there frozen in bewilderment. Then the Mineral Analyzer's ponderous drill head slipped from its perch and came plunging down. It shattered the Hyadean's helmet and almost tore his grotesque head off, sending his weapon flying out across the plain. The creature lay there writhing for a moment, then was still, its hideous crocodile head turned lifelessly toward Aldebaran. Stewart, his eyes locked hypnotically on the prostrate form, could only watch with shocked fascination as the other members of the landing party appeared from behind the rocks. They stood silently around the body, then turned back toward their ship. "Tzareans"--"Tzarean Shoal"--"Curule Assembly"--"Vrausot"--"Mittich"--"_uraphi_"-- Strange words and phrases whirled about in Stewart's thrashing thoughts as a great flood of deeply buried experiences rushed with cyclonic fury into the conscious levels of his mind. And he realized that, just as the sight of the Hyadean ship had swept aside the conditioning Randall had imposed upon him, so was the sight of Hyadeans--Tzareans--hurling aside another, denser curtain of conditioning. He staggered back into the cave and fell sitting against the wall as all the suppressed knowledge and memories engulfed him. * * * * * _Stewart and Harlston were seated beside the table in the Great Hall of the Curule Assembly. They were having some difficulty making themselves comfortable in chairs designed to accommodate Tzarean buttocks and tail, rather than support the human form. They were manacled, but only symbolically--with flimsy crepe paperlike handcuffs._