Tightly, he said: "Get a cross on your fleet, Commissioner. Give them their true orders--that Ceres is to be spared." * * * * * The panic that flared in _rey_ Gundre's eyes was a frightful thing to see. His face sagged, grey as lead. "No, Corvett--! Not that! I can't--!" "Then you can die," Jarl said. He raised the ray-gun. The high commissioner's mouth worked. "No, no...." Tottering, he stumbled towards the viziscreen. Jarl followed him, grim as death. The clustered pinpoints were closer to Ceres now, slashing through the void like streaks of light. With trembling fingers, _rey_ Gundre fumbled at the dials. "Faster!" Jarl clipped. "Your life depends on it, Gundre! If they strike, you die!" A new voice, behind them, said, "No, Jarl." By sheer reflex, Jarl whirled. A man stood in operation unit's doorway ... a tall man with a gaunt, pain-twisted body, and high-domed head, and burning eyes. A man Jarl Corvett knew so well-- "_Wassreck--!_" "Yes, Jarl. Wassreck." The other's voice was almost gentle. The wry mouth twisted with the thin ghost of a smile. Jarl's knees went weak as water. His gun-hand sagged. He clutched a chair to keep from falling. Still smiling, _Ktar_ Wassreck moved forward, into the navigation room. "Did I surprise you, Jarl?" "I--thought you dead." "And Sais, too--?" The other chuckled softly, and half-turned. "Come, my dear...." And of a sudden, there was dark Sais, framed in the open doorway--radiant, lips half-parted, eyes aglow. _Ktar_ Wassreck said, "I know how much she means to you, my comrade. I brought her here, from Karrel's ship, to wait till you should come." His pain-warped shoulders twisted. "Because I knew you'd come, Jarl, sometime. Loyalty is a thing you understand." "I called him on the _Knife's_ screen, Jarl," Sais broke in. Her voice was warm and eager. "The crew didn't think to guard me. After that, I ran away, into the desert, and waited till the flagship came." Jarl swayed. His brain was reeling, and everything had a queer, distorted look. He wondered if perhaps he'd finally fainted ... if this were all a dream, somehow, or death. But he made himself speak, because he had to learn the truth ... find answers to the questions that kept tumbling and jumbling.... "You ... were aboard the flagship--?" "Of course, Jarl," Wassreck nodded. "I wasn't captured, nor yet did I surrender. All this has been a careful plan, worked out between the high commissioner and me." "A--plan--?" "Yes!" _Ktar_ Wassreck's voice rang. With sudden eagerness, he leaned forward, and his eyes burned with a strange new light. "Jarl, with the power that's in these robots, the universe is ours to rule! What force is there that can stand against them? What planet could defy their might?"