"You, young man," Bram said. "Take the circlet there; place it about my neck." * * * * * The flat-metal ring hung from a wire loop. Tremaine fitted it over Bram's head. It settled snugly over his shoulders, a flange at the back against his neck. "Bram," Tremaine said. "What's this all about?" "Watch the wall there. My sight grows dim. Tell me what you see." "It looks like shadows: but what's casting them?" "Can you discern details?" "No. It's like somebody waggling their fingers in front of a slide projector." "The radiation from the star is yet too harsh," Bram muttered. "But now the node draws close. May the High Gods guide my hand!" A howl rang out, a raw blast of sound. Bram tensed. "What do you see?" he demanded. "The outlines are sharper. There seem to be other shapes behind the moving ones. It's like looking through a steamy window...." Beyond the misty surface Tremaine seemed to see a high narrow chamber, bathed in white light. In the foreground creatures like shadowy caricatures of men paced to and fro. "They're like something stamped out of alligator hide," Tremaine whispered. "When they turn and I see them edge-on, they're thin...." "An effect of dimensional attenuation. They strive now to match matrices with this plane. If they succeed, this earth you know will lie at their feet." "What are they? Where are they? That's solid rock--" "What you see is the Niss Command Center. It lies in another world than this, but here is the multihedron of intersection. They bring their harmonic generators to bear here in the hope of establishing an aperture of focus." "I don't understand half of what you're saying, Bram. And the rest I don't believe. But with this staring me in the face, I'll have to act as though I did." * * * * * Suddenly the wall cleared. Like a surface of moulded glass the stone threw back ghostly highlights. Beyond it, the Niss technicians, seen now in sharp detail, worked busily, silently, their faces like masks of ridged red-brown leather. Directly opposite Bram's Repellor, an apparatus like an immense camera with a foot-wide silvered lens stood aimed, a black-clad Niss perched in a saddle atop it. The white light flooded the cave, threw black shadows across the floor. Bram hunched over the Repellor, face tensed in strain. A glow built in the air around the Niss machine. The alien technicians stood now, staring with tiny bright-red eyes. Long seconds passed. The black-clad Niss gestured suddenly. Another turned to a red-marked knife-switch, pulled. As suddenly as it had cleared, the wall went milky, then dulled to opacity. Bram slumped back, eyes shut, breathing hoarsely. "Near were they then," he muttered, "I grow weak...." "Let me take over," Tremaine said. "Tell me how." "How can I tell you? You will not understand." "Maybe I'll understand enough to get us through the night."