"This way," she said and led him through dissecting tables, past shelves of fantastic creatures preserved in some liquid, and into a small office-like room at the side. Spread out on a shelf were the contents of Jupiter's pack: the medicine chest, emergency rations, spare ammunition, testing apparatus, prospecting tools, his light carbine, the electroscope and geiger counter. It was all there. Tabak's violet-blue eyes glittered with excitement. "There are your weapons, Wanderer-from-Beyond! Now you can drive the Anolyn back into the sea!" Jupiter's face didn't betray his consternation. The carbine was pitifully inadequate. In fact, so long as the horrible little parasite was fastened to his spinal cord, he knew that he would be incapable of using it against the Anolyn. If he could only rid himself of the parasite, though, and get to his ship with even a chunk of that idol.... He narrowed his eyes as a new thought struck him. "Tabak, we must get rid of these spinal parasites first. I--" He nearly said, "I think," but realized that he mustn't show any doubt. "I can do it. But I'll need your cooperation." "Can you?" she cried in excitement and seized his hands, peering into his eyes. "Can you really? You _are_ the Wanderer then!" He looked quickly away. He didn't dare let her glimpse what was in his thoughts. "Yes." "Let me come into your mind; let me be sure," she pleaded. "Tabak, you'll have to trust me." "Why?" her blue eyes clouded in suspicion. She released his hands, backed away. "What is it you want to do to me? What are you hiding? What are you afraid I'll see?" He swore under his breath. There wasn't time to argue, even if he could overcome the girl's suspicions, which he doubted was possible unless he opened his mind to her. Without the slightest warning he jumped for Tabak, grabbed her and swung her off her feet. The girl screamed, twisted, kicked and bit, wild with terror. The thick walls confined her cries. She was soft and tiny like a small white kitten in his hands. A spitting, scratching, squalling kitten. He imprisoned her arms and legs, carried her out into the main laboratory. The Anolyn possessed no anaesthesia. The dissecting tables were equipped instead with straps to hold their victims motionless while they operated. Jupiter buckled the girl face-down on one of the tables. "Please!" she begged hysterically. "Please!" "I'm not going to hurt you," he growled and left her to get his medicine kit from the other room. The kit had been devised to handle almost any emergency that might befall one of the Galactic Colonization Board's special corpsmen. Jupiter found the hypodermic syringe, sterilized it and filled it with exsrocain. The drug was the latest development in a spinal anaesthetic that deadened the nerves of the entire body, inducing a temporary state of suspended animation.