"No, but your double did," the girl's voice was opaque. "Turn on the visi-screen in the Spacer, and you'll learn the truth. Everything that has been visi-screened on Terra since your arrival, was recorded in the Spacer's telecast--simply select the broadcasts of the date and hour when we went to Havanol, and it will be shown on the visi-screen panel in the Commander's quarters. Your double--part resemblance, part surgico-synthesis even imitates your voice within one-tenth of a microgram of its tonal quality. Detection was beyond human power, Spacer Lynn." "If I ever get my hands on him...!" Mark's fingers clenched spasmodically as his face went dark with passion. "You never will," the girl said sadly, "nor on the double who took the place of Palanth ... even that detail was taken care of, perfumes and all," her smile was bitter. "By now, both have been converted to power reserve, their usefulness having ended." There was an uncomfortable pause, the silence becoming oppressive in the luxurious helio-plane of the girl. "Who's the Commander of the Interplanetary Spacer?" Mark asked at last, his agile mind already seeking means to circumvent the snare. "_You!_" was the laconic reply. "I? Has the Council gone mad? Do they think that after what's happened they can place a spacer in my power, and still command my allegiance? I can lose their damned Patrol in uncharted space ... _and I will!_" "No, Spacer Lynn, you'll have to find a better, a more definitive solution than that. You see, you promised millions a planet of freedom, where they could build a new civilization patterned after the old American Constitution, but on an even greater, a wider plane of being. You promised them freedom from the Council, and a chance to develop untrammelled not only their minds but their emotions as well; you do not know it, but your double was trained as a great actor, years of conditioning and training taught him to ring the changes of emotion on human souls not deadened by the controls. Reports showed that millions wept, that a tidal wave of joy coursed through their ranks sending them pouring like a human cataract into the awaiting spacers, and sleep-freeze, Mark!" IV "Have you the figures on how many agreed to evacuate?" Mark's face was white and tense. Palanth was silent, immobile, in the hieratic attitude of Martians in deep thought. "Roughly, three hundred million. I received the secret report just before we left Havanol." "Where are they now?" Mark forced himself to ask.