She entered the room reluctantly, her gaze pitying the man seated so strangely still in his chair. She waited for his expression to change when he saw her. In a moment he would be grovelling at her feet. Eve hated what she was doing, but the patterns implanted in her brain by the creators made it impossible for her to resist. The Commander's stern jaw relaxed, his mouth fell open in shock. Impossible! Incredible! The man continued to remain motionless, regarding them with annoyed perplexity. The scientists had blundered; earth beings were not creatures governed by their emotions. The data collected by the spy ships had been erroneous, the invasion would fail. * * * * * Instinctively he looked to the woman. Eve watched him in open amusement, and he wondered if he had not caught a glimpse of sympathy in her eyes. She knew what this meant to him. No man returned to the mother planet in defeat. If he did not follow the time-honored custom of self-destruction to atone for his failure, he would face a quick death when he returned. "What--what did you want?" asked the man, annoyance making his voice a petulant whine. "Nothing, sir. We made a mistake. I'm afraid we came to the wrong place." The Commander turned to Eve, his face transformed by a smile for the first time since they had been together. "I know of an asteroid that is pretty well out of the space lanes. It has an atmosphere and can support life without a great struggle on our part. Do you think you could like it there? Of course, it wouldn't be much of a world for you to conquer, and I would be the only man to serve you ... but...." She studied him thoughtfully, and then in answer to what he had asked, she took his arm. They left the cabin together, walking very closely. It must have seemed a cosmic joke to the gods of the universe to see the invader and the woman, who was to have been his weapon, pause and wave a casual farewell to the planet they had come to conquer. "Asteroid," the man mused aloud. "What kind of crazy gibberish had they been talking? Must be honeymooners from one of the nearby resorts." He shrugged in an attempt to dismiss it from his mind, maybe he ought to ask Helen about it when she got back. Come to think of it she should be back with the supplies any minute now. There was a strange roar from outside, and the sound of some great object hurtling through the air, but strangely enough the man did not leap from his chair and rush to the door to see what created the disturbance. He did not move from the fireplace until the chill had begun to fill the cabin, and then reluctantly he stood up fumbling along the side of the chair for some object leaning against it. When he located it, he grasped it tightly, and then made his way cautiously to the door. He shifted the stick to his left hand fumbling for the latch. Locating it he closed the door.