"Don't spare my feelings!" Doctor Fortun smiled with a quiet sadness. "I've told everything but what the Supreme Council instructed me to say. I was to tell you another story ... to play enchantress and keep you lulled, if necessary, in a fool's paradise. But controls one, six and fifteen never quite worked with me. I've had to feign a lot and mask my mind lest I be condemned to power control. We Psychologists are very few--it's our only defense. Those we instruct in the techniques of the mind, must join our guild and swear allegiance _to us_! Why do you think I arranged to come on this trip? For love of the Council? "I'm a woman, Mark! I want a home instead of a clinic and a husband instead of an order for fertilization. I want to experience the rapture that is love and have children. I came because I thought the very qualities in you the Council means to utilize might be the means of circumventing their purpose and ... and make us free!" An incredulous look of surprise spread over Mark's face. For an instant he wondered if the Machiavellian tactics of the Council could extend even this far. But with a determined mental effort he probed the girl's mind and found it was unguarded. There was no trickery, no deception in her mind, even as the tears that blurred the lovely hazel eyes were genuine. "Venus be praised!" He exclaimed fervently, and it was all he could do to refrain from taking her in his arms and kissing away the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. "She speaks the truth," Palanth said telepathically, there was a trace of embarrassment in his thoughts. "She will be a most valuable ally in our fight." * * * * * Mark smiled, his face had lighted as if a profound grief had been removed. "You already know we'll fight, eh, Palanth?" "But of course, O Terran of dubious intellect!" The Martian said grandly and waved the sadly crumpled kerchief now almost devoid of its overpowering perfume. He was himself again, eager for the intellectual struggle against overwhelming odds. "What sort of intelligence is there on Europa?" Doctor Fortun asked, once more in control of herself. "Exquisite beings with a mental power beyond our own, but resembling nothing human," Mark replied. "Let's leave this helio. I'm anxious to inspect the Spacer; I've never commanded a ship of this size." "How many are aboard and what are they?" Palanth inquired. "I hope they're Internationals!" "I don't know the figures, Palanth, but I'm certain at least ninety percent are Internationals. I do know at least five hundred scientists of various categories are aboard. They'll be the first to be awakened from sleep-freeze, for at journey's end, they take charge." "And who's going to give them the antidote?" Mark asked silkily.