The Athena Colonization Plan was ended. They had known such a thing might happen--that was why the _Constellation_ had been made ready for the voyage in secret and had waited for months for the chance to slip through the ring of Gern spy ships; that was why she had raced at full speed, with her communicators silenced so there would be no radiations for the Gerns to find her by. Only forty days more would have brought them to the green and virgin world of Athena, four hundred light-years beyond the outermost boundary of the Gern Empire. There they should have been safe from Gern detection for many years to come; for long enough to build planetary defenses against attack. And there they would have used Athena's rich resources to make ships and weapons to defend mineral-depleted Earth against the inexorably increasing inclosure of the mighty, coldly calculating colossus that was the Gern Empire. Success or failure of the Athena Plan had meant ultimate life or death for Earth. They had taken every precaution possible but the Gern spy system had somehow learned of Athena and the _Constellation_. Now, the cold war was no longer cold and the Plan was dust.... * * * * * Billy sighed and stirred in the little-boy sleep that had not been broken by the blasts that had altered the lives of eight thousand people and the fate of a world. She shook his shoulder and said, "Billy." He raised up, so small and young to her eyes that the question in her mind was like an anguished prayer: _Dear God--what do Gerns do to five-year-old boys?_ He saw her face, and the dim light, and the sleepiness was suddenly gone from him. "What's wrong, Mama? And why are you scared?" There was no reason to lie to him. "The Gerns found us and stopped us." "Oh," he said. In his manner was the grave thoughtfulness of a boy twice his age, as there always was. "Will they--will they kill us?" "Get dressed, honey," she said. "Hurry, so we'll be ready when they let Daddy come back to tell us what to do." * * * * * They were both ready when the _Attention_ buzzer sounded again in the corridors. Lake spoke, his tone grim and bitter: "There is no power for the air regenerators and within twenty hours we will start smothering to death. Under these circumstances I could not do other than accept the survival terms the Gern commander offered us. "He will speak to you now and you will obey his orders without protest. Death is the only alternative." Then the voice of the Gern commander came, quick and harsh and brittle: