They stopped the snake for a few moments, but the smoke began to billow again. "They're gonna break through!" screamed Donner. "We can't stop 'em!" "What are we gonna do?" "Help!" Creakings, cracklings, groanings, as the walls began to crack and blister and shake. Suddenly Bram Daker stood up, his dark eyes aflame. "Only one thing's strong enough!" he bellowed. "Earth! _Earth!_ EARTH! Think of Earth! All of you! We're back on Earth. Visualize it, make it real, and the monsters'll have to disappear." "But _where_ on Earth?" said Vera, bewildered. "The Spaceport!" shouted Brunei. "The Spaceport! We all remember the Spaceport." "We're back on Earth! The Spaceport!" "Earth!" "_Earth!_" "EARTH! EARTH!" The garden was beginning to flicker. It became red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, invisible; then back again through the spectrum the other way--violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, invisible. Back and forth, like a pendulum through the spectrum.... Oliver Brunei's head hurt unbearably, he could see the pain on the other faces, but he allowed only one thought to fill his being--_Earth! The Spaceport! EARTH!_ More and more, faster and faster, the garden flickered, and now it was the old common room again, and _that_ was flickering. Light was flickering, mind was flickering, time, too, seemed to flicker.... _Only Earth!_ thought Brunei. Earth doesn't flicker, the Spaceport doesn't flicker. Earth! EARTH! Now all the flickerings, of color, time, mind and dimensions, were coalescing into one gigantic vortex, that was a thing neither of time, nor space, nor mind, but all three somehow fused into one.... They're screaming! Brunei thought. Listen to the horrible screams! Suddenly he noticed that he, too, was screaming. The vortex was growing, swirling, undulating, and it, too, began to flicker.... There was an unbearable, impossible pain, and.... * * * * * The sight of starship Number Thirteen suddenly appearing out of nowhere, and sitting itself calmly down in the middle of the Spaceport was somewhat disconcerting to the Spaceport officials. Especially since at the very moment it appeared, and even afterward, they continued to have visual and laser contact with its image, over three light-months from Earth. However, the Solar Government itself was much more pragmatic. One instant, starship Thirteen had been light-months from Earth, the next it was sitting in the Spaceport. Therefore, starship Thirteen had exceeded the speed of light somehow. Therefore, it was possible to exceed the speed of light, and a thorough examination of the ship and its contents would show _how_. Therefore.... You idiots, throw a security cordon around that ship! In such matters, the long-conditioned reflexes of the Solar Government worked marvelously. Before the air-waves had cooled, two hundred heavily armed soldiers had surrounded the ship.