Arnek sighed, and his stomach rumbled a protest. But he ignored it. "What good is it? We surely can't make a silth out of a tiny thing like that?" "Why not?" Contempt for male thought was mixed with smug satisfaction for her own. "We don't use the other cells anyhow. Oh, there will be difficulties. They may be short-lived. But with such high grade fiber, we can risk infiltrating a new one as often as we need. There should be enough of them. They probably have half a dozen to a litter twice a year, like most small forms. Possibly billions of them can live on a single planet. And since they're colonizing other worlds like this one...." Even Arnek could see the logic behind Ptarra's assumption in that. Colonizing would explain the sending out of a male and female in each ship, with ships spread out days apart. It wasn't the most efficient method, but it usually insured against any major accident. His people had used the same method at times. It all seemed quite logical, but Arnek felt a tension of intuition along his entire nerve network. No anna had ever used a silth capable of independent intelligence. There must be something wrong with it. Once they infiltrated the new silth, of course, they could soon convert enough nerves to blank out all control from their carriers. But.... "Their weapons," he cried. "Ptarra, in those bodies, we'd be vulnerable to their weapons. And during the ten days we have to hibernate to grow into their nerves, they'd kill us." Ptarra grunted. "Sometimes," she admitted, "you almost think like a female. They would kill us, of course, if we stupidly stayed where later arrivals could find us. Now come on. We've got to chase the creatures around today until they're tired enough to sleep soundly. And don't let them get near that ship, either!" * * * * * It was a bitter day for Arnek. His stomach protested, and by the end of the chase, his legs were beginning to weaken. But ahead of them, the two humans were staggering in the light of the setting sun. The smaller was leaning on the larger as they finally found and entered the little cave near the ship that Ptarra had chosen for them long before. Night had fallen before Ptarra was satisfied. The two silths moved forward as softly as they could, but the loud breathing noises went on, and there was no stir of alarm anywhere on the mental band. "Do you remember everything?" Ptarra asked. "You've got to regain consciousness after the first stage. You can do that, if you set your mind to it." "I remember," Arnek agreed wearily. He'd had the whole routine drilled into him repeatedly until he was sick of it. It was like the horror of having her force him to adapt to this present silth. While he had been ready to accept assimilation, she had fought with him and with her own transformation, refusing to admit even his intuition that their race was ended. Only her cold logic had saved them. He could not deny it now.