"I'm getting nowhere, fast. You should have been a math prof in a grad school, Clee. You could flunk every advanced student you had with that one. Belle and I together can't feed it to Compy in such shape as to get a definite answer. We think, though, that your guess was right--if we ever stabilize anywhere it will probably be relative to Hodell, not to Tellus. But the cold fact of how far away we must be by this time just scares the pants off of me." "You and me both, my ripe and old. We're a _long_ ways from home." * * * Jumping went on; and, two or three planets later, they encountered an Arpalone Inspector who did not test them for compatibility with the humanity of his world. "Do not land," the creature said, mournfully. "This world is dying, and if you leave the protection of your ship, you too will die." "But _worlds_ don't die, surely?" Garlock protested. "People, yes--but worlds?" "Worlds die. It is the Dilipic. The humans die, too, of course, but it is the world itself that is attacked, not the people. Some of them, in fact, will live through it." Garlock drove his attention downward and scanned. "You Arpalones are doing what looks like a mighty good job of fighting. Can't you win?" "No, it is too late. It was already too late when they first appeared, two days ago. When the Dilipics strike in such small force that none of their--agents?--devices?--whatever they are?--can land against our beaming, a world can be saved; but such cases are very few." "But this thought, 'Dilipic'?" Garlock asked, impatiently. "It is merely a symbol--it doesn't _mean_ anything--to me, at least. What are they? Where do they come from?" "No one knows anything about them," came the surprising answer. "Not even their physical shape--if they have any. Nor where they come from, or how they do what they do." "They can't be very common," Garlock pondered. "We have never heard of them before." "Fortunately, they are not," the Inspector agreed. "Scarcely one world in five hundred is ever attacked by them--this is the first Dilipic invasion I have seen." "Oh, you Arpalones don't die with your worlds, then?" Lola asked. She was badly shaken. "But I suppose the Arpales do, of course." "Practically all of the Arpales will die, of course. Most of us Arpalones will also die, in the battles now going on. Those of us who survive, however, will stay aloft until the rehabilitation fleet arrives, then we will continue our regular work." "Rehab?" Belle exclaimed. "You mean you can _restore_ planets so badly ruined that all the people die?" "Oh, yes. It is a long and difficult work, but the planet is always re-peopled." "Let's go down," Garlock said. "I want to get all of this on tape."