He called Charley Craig. "Charley--did you make it?" "We made it to the drive room--two of us and one prowler," Charley answered. "What about you?" "Norman and I have the control room. Cut their drives, to play safe. I'll let you know as soon as the entire ship is ours." He went to the viewscreen and saw that the battle was over. Chiara was letting the searchlight burn again and prowlers were being used to drive back the unicorns from the surrendering Gerns. "I guess we won," he said to Lake. But there was no feeling of victory, none of the elation he had thought he would have. Sigyn was dying alone in the alien corridor outside. Sigyn, who had nursed beside him and fought beside him and laid down her life for him.... "I want to look at her," he said to Lake. Fenrir went with him. She was still alive, waiting for them to come back to her. She lifted her head and touched his hand with her tongue as he examined the wound. It was not fatal--it need not be fatal. He worked swiftly, gently, to stop the bleeding that had been draining her life away. She would have to lie quietly for weeks but she would recover. When he was done he pressed her head back to the floor and said, "Lie still, Sigyn girl, until we can come to move you. Wait for us and Fenrir will stay here with you." She obeyed and he left them, the feeling of victory and elation coming to him in full then. Lake looked at him questioningly as he entered the control room and he said, "She'll live." He turned to the Gern commander. "First, I want to know how the war is going?" "I----" The commander looked uncertainly at Lake. "Just tell the truth," Lake said. "Whether you think we'll like it or not." "We have all the planets but Earth, itself," the commander said. "We'll have it, soon." "And the Terrans on Athena?" "They're still--working for us there." "Now," he said, "you will order every Gern in this ship to go to his sleeping quarters. They will leave their weapons in the corridors outside and they will not resist the men who will come to take charge of the ship." The commander made an effort toward defiance: _"And if I refuse?"_ Lake answered, smiling at him with the smile of his that was no more than a quick showing of teeth and with the savage eagerness in his eyes. "If you refuse I'll start with your fingers and break every bone to your shoulders. If that isn't enough I'll start with your toes and go to your hips. And then I'll break your back." The commander hesitated, sweat filming his face as he looked at them. Then he reached out to switch on the all-stations communicator and say into it: "Attention, all personnel: You will return to your quarters at once, leaving your weapons in the corridors. You are ordered to make no resistance when the natives come...."