"Of course I'm sure! These are primitive machines, and I learned most of it from dismantling the first. They're primitive--but they're logical enough for understanding. I can even control the silth when she isn't aware." The larger human suddenly moved the controls, then jerked its hand back, staring at it. Words came to the ears of the silth in which Arnek rode. "I'm sick, Luke. I've got the twitches." The words brought stirrings strongly on the low band, almost but not quite understandably. They also brought a vocal reply from the other human. "Be glad you can twitch. Some bug we picked up, but it's better than being eaten. We're in the clover, kid. Maybe we still got more cop ships tailing us, but let 'em look. When they find the dinosaurs and what's left of our ship, they'll stop looking. The heat's going to be off! We can get back to Earth in a year or so and really live." Ptarra's thoughts cut through Arnek's efforts to understand. "Reproduction feelings," she reported in satisfaction. "They must have higher fertility than I hoped if they can think of it while sick." Then her thoughts sharpened. "Take over your silth!" The human at the board slumped abruptly. Arnek lashed out from the converted cells, felt a brief protest, and then was alone in the brain of the silth. He could not yet control it, but it had no independent will. "There is food and water near if we have to rouse from hibernation while we grow into these silths," Ptarra reported. "Now--help me if you can." Arnek let his weak thoughts blend into hers, trying to give strength as she had often done to him. She was straining her utmost will. Slowly and in jerks, the arm moved across the control board, and clumsy fingers managed to move controls. And at last, from Ptarra's mind, Arnek began to see the plan. There was fuel enough to bring them at maximum speed across an eddy of the galaxy toward the lone sun they had found long before. There a single planet swung in orbit--a planet with food but no dangerous animal life. And there they could wait and grow strong, and multiply as their silths multiplied. They could reach it almost as soon as they came out of hibernation finally, and it would be a safe haven in its isolation. There would be no fuel for further travel. But that could wait, while their numbers grew, and they could restore their lost technology and weapons with the clever hands of the human silths. Then they could take over the galaxy--as they had taken the one so long away! The hands fumbled under the limited control, but they moved across the board. And the automatic pilot was finally set and sealed. "Logic!" Arnek thought softly, and there was wonder at a mind like Ptarra's that could achieve such understanding of even alien mechanisms. Yet under it there was still a cold knot of fear along his nerves.