"Rather like queen bees," suggested Saxon. "Secret order with a vengeance." "_Even from you, darling!_" he caught Ileth's irritating thought. * * * * * He saw Murdock relax on his bunk, intercepted his furious frustration. The T.I.S. agent, he realized, was like cold flame on the inside. "But that's not my news," Ileth said. "I've come to offer you your freedom--within limits, of course." "Eh?" said Villainowski in surprise, and the rest tensed expectantly. Ileth said, "General Atomic believed that it would be to their advantage to go ahead with the expedition as soon as we got control of the ship. We would be on the spot, and any information relating to Alpha Centauri's planetary systems, natural resources, inhabitants (if any), possibilities of colonization and trade--that sort of thing--is of the utmost importance. "I feel...." She hesitated, and Saxon caught a glimpse again of that same intolerable fear gnawing at her mind. "I feel that we should stick together--while we're here at least. If we're fighting among ourselves...." "In other words," Murdock interrupted in a voice without inflection, "you're asking us to go on with the expedition as if nothing's happened?" "Only while we're here," she hastened to assure him. "You won't be given arms, of course. There are only five of you. What earthly chance would you have against the entire crew and the rest of the staff? And this way you won't have to stay locked in the brig. You can carry on with your investigations. We--we don't know what alien form of life inhabits this planet. But the city...." She bit her lip again. "The city was peculiar." A short uncomfortable silence greeted her statement; then Mercedes, the gray-haired anthropologist asked, "What do you mean, child?" "I don't know how to define it. Wait until you see it." But Saxon had intercepted an image in Ileth's mind--a distorted glimpse of a vast beautiful city stretching for kilometer after kilometer without a soul anywhere. A sobering chill prickled up his spine. He said, "I, for my part, am willing to call a truce, Ileth." The girl glanced at him gratefully. Saxon became aware of a passionate thought: "_Oh, the darling stiffnecked bear!_" The girl's color heightened suddenly. She began to think furiously: "_Two times two is four; three times two is six; four times two is eight_...." Saxon grinned at her knowingly, to her added confusion. "_I hate you!_" she thought. Villainowski jumped to his feet, saying, "Of course we accept. We all accept. But let me warn you, young woman, aliens or no aliens, I don't care if we spend the rest of our lives in the Centaurian system, I'm not going to explain my stellar drive to your scoundrels!" Ileth turned to him almost gratefully. "Oh, that doesn't matter. Our engineers are examining it. They've assured me that they can take us back to Earth." Villainowski looked crestfallen.