"You'd call it that." Now fully dressed, the other straightened. "I am a messenger, a human spokesman for the Helgae, with no other goal than to help our race live at peace." "There'll be men who take convincing of that." "You mean--men like the one named Martin Krobis?" Boone stared. "Krobis--? You know about him?" "Of course." His mutant son still smiled. "The mind-rays poured your every thought into me--even those too utterly alien for the Helgae themselves to understand. So, I know of Krobis: the things he's done; the way he thinks; the fact that he is here now, blasting at this very city--" Like an exclamation point, new impact came. Thread-like cracks shot through the radiance of the bubble-chamber's inner surface. The floor shook till Boone could hardly stand. * * * * * Lor's face went grim. His voice rang with sudden tension: "Come, quickly! We dare not die in this mad destruction! We dare not!" He pivoted as he spoke; moved swiftly towards the bubble's exit. Gripping his blaster, Eileen trembling beside him, Boone followed. Now they walked another world--a world of weird translucence, bubble-cells and tunnels, pitch-blackness and colors too brilliant for human eyes to bear. Yet through it all, the man called Lor strode swiftly, surely. Not once did he hesitate or falter. It was as if the whole, vast, maze-like pattern were etched in acid on his brain. Then, at long last, they were on a ramp and climbing in slow spirals, ever upward. Ahead, a pale light glowed ... the light of Hyperion's ice-shell-filtered outer day. Lor led them out a low-roofed cave-mouth ... helped them up the slope of a brushy rise. Bitterly, he flung his arm out: "Look--the city!" Boone looked, then shuddered; and suddenly Eileen was sobbing. For they gazed on a holocaust, a ruin, strewn with the smouldering shards of a thousand shattered domes. "So these are the ways of men!" Now there was wonder in Lor's voice; and sadness. "They have so much to learn!" "Oh, Lor--!" Eileen choked on her tears. The mutant turned to face her. "You need not cry, my mother. We--I--shall teach them better." Then, once more smiling: "Think of some living thing--a thing of beauty. Picture it sharp and clear within your mind." She stared up at him--face puzzled, eyes still brimming. "I--I'll try...." "Then close your eyes." She did as he had ordered. Lor stood unmoving, placid. Yet while Boone watched, mists seemed to rise and gather, swirling. Then, in their midst, a flower took form, a perfect blood-red rose. The sphere-man reached out, plucked it. "Here, my mother." Eileen's eyes went wide with awe and sheer delight. She gasped aloud and held the opening bud close, drinking in its fragrance. Lor faced Boone. "You asked for proof to convince doubters. Would such serve?" Boone ran his tongue along dry lips. "Do I even need to answer?" "Then let us go. We must reach those who can stop the blasting of these Helgae cities."