"I regret," said Zor Ala, "that Randall felt it necessary to make his foolhardy attempt to invade the Hive, but of course I understand and sympathize with his reasons. "He feels entirely responsible for the passengers of the Diamvator, and considers himself obliged to attempt their rescue. However, I am very much afraid that his attempt will be ill-fated." Lanson nodded. "The Kralons are very intelligent," he said. "And they will have no scruples whatsoever in dealing with troublesome humans. They resent the fact that their own race is to vanish from the surface of the globe in one phase of the future, and that man has supplanted them as the intelligent, governing form of life. And they intend to do something about it!" Malherne nodded impatiently. "Yes," he said, "but what can we do now? What can we do to help Randall and the rest of my companions? And how can we prepare to use Lanson's theories concerning the Time Trap?" Both Zor Ala and Gordo Lanson regarded the engineer understandingly. They realized his fear concerning his companions, and sympathized with his frustration in being unable to help them. The physicist nodded toward the pile of sheets on the desk. "If you remember your calculus," he said, "you could be of great help to us by checking my figures." Malherne looked uncertainly toward the desk. "I'll do what I can," he said. * * * * * When Randall and McClellan threw their combined weights against the panel in the Hive corridor, they had no idea what lay beyond. The metal sheet bulged, then popped from its guides, and Randall sprawled through the opening, with McClellan atop him. They found themselves in a room which was shining white from ceiling to floor. In the middle of the room was a flat white table over which several Kralons were absorbed. Gathered around the central figures were a dozen or more Kralons, apparently spectators. And on the table lay something which Randall knew, from its outlines, had once been human. Randall looked around for a weapon. A neat stack in one corner of the room caught his eye. There were a dozen or more foot-long metal bus-bars or ingots, apparently spares for fusing electrical circuits. McClellan followed his glance. Simultaneously both men dove for the bars, each arming himself with one of the twenty-pound metal ingots. Meanwhile, the room was in a furor. The metallic clack of Kralon conversation sounded furiously, and huge insect figures were converging from all sides. "Back to back," said Randall tersely, "and let 'em have it!" The first Kralon who approached the Australian put up a protective foreleg, but the heavy ingot brushed it aside like a matchstick, and crushed the Kralon's head to a pulp. It went down twitching, and the next insect had to scramble over the body to reach McClellan.