The dragon's head appeared alongside the Tyrannosaur's. "Well, at least _there's_ a familiar face," tittered Linda. "Very funny." Marsha screamed. The huge black snake thrust its head through a portal. And the flap of leathery wings could be heard. And the smell of sulphur. "Come on! Come on!" shouted Brunei. "Let's get these things out of here!" After five minutes of intense group concentration, the last of the horrors was banished. "It was a lot harder this time," said Daker. "There were more of them," said Donner. "They're getting stronger and bolder." "Maybe some day they'll break through, and...." Lin Pey let the sentence hang. Everyone supplied his own ending. "Don't be ridiculous!" snapped Brunei. "They're not real. _They can't kill us!_" "Maybe we should stop taking the Omnidrene?" suggested Vera, without very much conviction. "At _this_ point?" said Brunei. He shuddered. "If the garden disappeared, and we had nothing but the bare ship for the next fifteen and a half years, and we _knew_ it, and at the same time knew that we had the Omnidrene to bring it back.... How long do you think we'd hold off?" "You're right," said Vera. "We just have to stick it out," said Brunei. "Just remember: _They can't kill us. They aren't real._" "Yes," the crew whispered in a tiny, frail voice, "they aren't real...." * * * * * _Seven months out_: The garden was covered with a gloomy gray cloud layer. Even the "weather" was getting harder and harder to control. The crew of starship Number Thirteen huddled around the fountain, staring into the water, trying desperately to ignore the snufflings, flappings, wheezes and growls coming from outside the walls. But occasionally, a scaly head would raise itself above the wall, or a pterodactyl or bat would flap overhead, and there would be violent shudders. "I still think we should stop taking the Omnidrene," said Vera Galindez. "If we stopped taking it," asked Brunei, "which would disappear first, _them_ ... _or the garden?_" Vera grimaced. "But we've got to do something," she said. "We can't even make them disappear at all, any more. And it's becoming a full time job just to keep them outside the walls." "And sooner or later," interjected Lazar, "we're _not_ going to be strong enough to keep them out...." "_Brr!_" [Illustration] "The snake! The snake!" screamed Marsha. "It's coming in again!" The huge black head was already through a portal. "Stop the snake, everyone!" yelled Brunei. Eyes were riveted on the ugly serpent, in intense concentration. After five minutes, it was obviously a stalemate. The snake had not been able to advance, nor could the humans force it to retreat. Then smoke began to rise behind the far wall. "The dragon's burning down the wall!" shrieked Lazar. "Stop him!" They concentrated on the dragon. The smoke disappeared. But the snake began to advance again. "They're too strong!" moaned Brunei. "We can't hold them back."