"I've hurt you so much," it said. "I have so much to make up to you. I want to belong to you. I want you, some day, to love me as much as I know you love each other. "I hope ... you will call me _Rover_." A muscle in Stella's cheek twitched. A tear formed in her eye and spilled onto her cheek, dampening it. "It's all right, Larry," she whispered. "It's all right--Rover...." The bright blue ship, the flagship _Rover_, dipped down, screaming into the atmosphere of Earth. It screamed over land masses and oceans, and land masses again. People in fields of wheat and corn and barley looked up and saw it pass, and in their eyes was _fear_. People in streets and parks looked up and saw it pass, and in their eyes was _fear_. Rover stood before the viewscreen, his two lens eyes bright, and saw the fields of grain, the streets, the parks, as they passed below. He saw the little dots that were upraised heads. In the secret heart of his mind he could see them. No matter what they did with him, he would love them. Always. They were his gods. And Stella and Larry were his mistress and master. That was all he asked for, all he wanted. Not power. Not the Earth. His soul.