Bill squirmed. "Well," he protested, "Is was just cold. We imagined she was scared. Just like I imagined it was Unk. My guilty conscience. And you weren't feeling so good in the first place. Nice setup for a fancy group hallucination." Molly was pressing a house-dress energetically and just smiled at him. Bill muttered about the obstinacy of the female mind and ladled out a generous helping of artificial dog food he'd synthetized from the matter-converter. Is stuck her pink tongue greedily into the mess. Was looked idly on. Not having any unborn pups to feed, Was wasn't hungry. But suddenly Was looked up at Bill and barked once, sharply. At the same time, Is's beautiful dark eyes became anxious. She started to shiver. She cowered. Bill blanched. He scooped up Is, holding her against his chest. Molly stopped ironing. "What is it, Bill?" "Don't get scared," he chattered. "It's coming back. The dogs heard it. Maybe they're tuned a little higher than we are. Honey, it wasn't imagination. HERE IT COMES!" It came. A blatting, vocalized anger that trembled the ship. Molly was somehow in Bill's arms, Is for once forgotten. And the Voice came clear, the angry, peevish muttering of an old man. "Stupid bits of living matter. Eons have I tried to reach their low thinking level. They are incapable of responding. Best to destroy them." "Bill! Answer him!" Bill ran his tongue around the inside of his parched mouth. "Uh--" he said. "Wait a minute, Unk. I mean Voice. We hear you." The Voice, who most assuredly could not be Unk, went wild. It skittered, it slid, it throbbed with unholy excitement. Then it came back, roaring, "Why did you not answer me, insignificant creatures?" "Uh--" said Bill, sweating. "Answer me! Do you dare to ignore me, the Supreme, the Only Intelligence in the universe?" "Well," said Bill, glassy-eyed. "That is, there doesn't seem to be much to say--" "NOT MUCH TO SAY!" The Supreme Intelligence went into a spin. "I shall destroy you, do you understand me, you insignificant accretions of matter? How dare you exist? Know you that matter disappeared billions of years ago. You do not belong in this universe!" Bill blinked. He met Molly's anxious glance. Then something made him grin. His lips moved. "He's as crotchety as Unk was. I can handle him." Molly's lips smiled tremulously in agreement. Bill said brazenly to the Voice, "I am, therefore I am--if you've read your Descartes. In other words, we're here, so we belong. Sell me something else." He waited for the lightning bolt. It didn't come. "Descartes? Sell? Speak plainly, stupid creature. Or are you incapable of true thought? That would be the final irony. After slowing my thought-rate down over eons of time. To find that you cannot think! Yet, what else could I expect of your intelligence, hampered by its envelope of living matter?" "We can think, Voice," Bill offered. "What did you--?"