Jupiter had more than a smattering of biology, and he'd been confronted with weird forms of life before. But nothing so outlandish. He wished he could get one of the Anolyns on the dissecting table in the Mizar's laboratory. Suddenly a thought impinged on his consciousness, an emotionless, inhuman query: "Where did you come from?" He could feel the alien entity that was the octopod probing at his brain cells with invisible feelers of thought. He could no more resist answering than if he had been under the influence of salanedrin, the Venusian truth serum. "Earth. A planet of the system of Sol." He gave the galactic space coordinates, but realized that they had no meaning outside their frame of reference. "From beyond the stars," he amplified. "How?" There was shock, surprise, scepticism in the thought. He visualized the starship, the space warp that had flung him hundreds of parsecs out of his course. But he had the feeling that he might as well try to explain nuclear physics to a Hottentot. He was conscious of a growing doubt in the minds of his captors--almost as if they were afraid of him. All at once, he felt himself turn, start out of the pavilion. The Anolyns, he realized, must have finished their examination. But it was a startling sensation to find himself going back across the clearing like a sleep walker. What had they learned? Had they picked his mind clean? One of the fighting Nehogans separated himself from his fellows and followed him back to the cages. Without conscious volition, Jupiter stooped and crawled inside. The door shut after him with a "click". The lean red-haired Nehogan squatted on his heels just outside. Jupiter wiped the sweat off his forehead, and instantly realized that he had regained control of his muscles. It was dusk, a hazy burnt amber twilight that made everything appear as if he were wearing tinted glasses. The pink-skins had broken camp, loaded the Rik'gans, formed them into a caravan. A detachment of fighting men moved to the head of the procession. Jupiter's cage was equipped like the others with stretcher poles. Two squat porters approached and lifted it to their shoulders, moved into line with the other captives. One of the Anolyns gave a blast on a horn. The head of the caravan moved into the jungle. Imperceptibly, darkness had fallen, but no lights were lit. The inhabitants of this strange world seemed to see as well by night as by day. Jupiter could feel his bearers fall into a rough trot. The cage swayed, jolted rhythmically--an upsetting motion. He felt progressively worse and worse. "Damn!" he thought miserably; "it's making me seasick!" * * * * * The next two weeks were a period of orientation for Jupiter. The caravan travelled by night to avoid the heat. They were fed twice daily--a thick gruel-like substance in which chunks of meat and vegetables had been diced--and it never varied.