He heard the door to the brig click and glanced up just as it slid aside. Ileth Urban stood in the entrance. Ileth's green jodphur-like trousers emphasized her long legs and slim waist. Her black shoulder length hair had been pushed back, disclosing small peaked ears. She came inside, with a look of determination, and the guard closed the door behind her, but didn't lock it. "I ..." she began, caught Saxon's eyes and blushed furiously. Unconsciously her chin went up and she squared her shoulders. "I don't know how to say what I've come to tell you." Again she hesitated, biting her lip. "I think it'll be good news...." "Good news?" echoed Murdock sarcastically. "Have the crew been massacred by Centaurians?" "There's no sign of living Centaurians yet," she replied. "Not on this planet anyway." "Living Centaurians?" asked Murdock. "What do you mean 'living' Centaurians? What have you found?" The silence was alive. Saxon could feel the intangible fear of deep space grip every one of them. There was, he realized, a decided pathologic quality about it, as if every one of them were not quite sane on the subject. "A city," said Ileth in a suppressed voice. There was a quick intake of breaths. "Yes," she went on, "a city. About twenty-five kilometers northeast of here. A perfectly huge city without a single inhabitant." "What planet is this?" Villainowski asked suddenly. "There's no harm in telling you, I suppose," said Ileth, "because we haven't the faintest notion. Our astronomer says that it belongs to Alpha Centauri A, although he hasn't figured its period yet. He says it's about midway between Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. It's a little larger than Earth but not so dense. Gravity is about four fifths what it is at home." Her face sobered at the word "home." "Oxygen content a little high, but not much. The rest of the atmosphere is composed principally of non-poisonous inert gases. Now you know as much as we do." Jon Saxon became aware of a thought emanating from Murdock: "_Seize the girl. Dictate terms to the others._" The same thought, Saxon realized, was forming in their bio-chemist's mind as well. Ileth must have suspected something, because her hand crept up to her small high breasts and she said, "Before I go on, you'd better know that I'm not so unprotected as I look. We were all hypnotized back on Earth and our orders given to us in that condition. Then we were commanded to forget them until after the Little Death. I'm telling you this so you'll understand." The prisoners exchanged glances. "General Atomic," Ileth continued hurriedly, "prepared for any eventuality. If anything happens to me, Q63 will take over. I don't know who he is, and he doesn't know it himself, but any accident befalling me will be the post-hypnotic signal for him to remember. There's also a Q64, Q65--all the way to Q70. So you see it's useless to think that by doing anything to me you can get the upper hand."