"Wait," Parr bade him. Then, to the man called Captain Worrall: "Just what are you doing here?" "This asteroid," replied Worrall, "is now Terrestrial territory. We're fortifying it against the Martians. War was declared three weeks ago, and we made rocket-tracks for this little crumb. It's an ideal base for a flanking attack." Parr scowled. "You're fortifying?" he repeated. "Well, you'd better shag out of here. There's a power--not working just now, but--" "No fear of that," Varina Pemberton told him. She was smiling. "I can explain best by starting at the start. Recently we got a report of what the Martians were doing out here. We realized that Earth must take care of her own, these poor devils who were being pushed back into animalism. Also, with war inevitable--" "You aren't starting at the start," objected Parr. "Where do you fit into all this? You're no soldier." "Oh, but she is," Captain Worrall said, offering Parr a cigarette from a platinum case. "She's a colonel of intelligence--high ranking. Wonderful job you've done, Colonel Pemberton." She took up the tale again: "If the reverse-evolution power could be destroyed, this artificially habitable rock in space would be a great prize for our navy to capture. So I took a big chance--got myself framed to a charge of Murder on Mars, and was the first woman ever sent here. I knew fairly accurately when war would break out, and figured I had months to do my work in. That captured armor gave me the clue." "All I knew was that it gave off a vibration," nodded Parr. "Exactly. Which meant that the evolution-reverse was vibratory, too. I confided in Sadau, and he and I pieced the rest of the riddle together. The vibrator would be inside, where nobody would venture for fear of jamming the gravity-core--but we ventured--" "And shut it off!" cried Parr. "More than that. We reversed it, started it again at top speed to cause a recovery from the degeneration process. Clever, these Martians--they fix it so you can shuttle to and fro in development. Already the higher beast-men are back to normal, like Rupert there, and the others will be all right, soon." "You had every right to chase me off at the end of a pistol," said Parr. "I might have gummed the works badly." "You nearly did that anyway," Varina Pemberton accused. "Fighting, raiding, stirring up the Martians who might have put a crimp in my plans any moment--but, being the type you are, you couldn't do otherwise. I recognized that when I gave you the protective armor." He gazed at her. "Why didn't you keep it for yourself?" "No," and she shook her tawny head. "I figured to win or lose very promptly. But you, armored against degeneration, might live after me and be an awful problem to the Martians. Remember, I didn't make you give it back until I had done what I came to do."