"Captain, I may look dumb, but I've been in the secret service long enough to be found out if I really am. I've a hunch you killed that sphere." "I've thought of that, but how could I? I didn't touch him." "Maybe you don't have to touch 'em to kill 'em. We don't know what they are, except they're different--" "We don't know the real natures of anything, as far as that goes. Man's a mixture of chemicals, but that doesn't explain him. The spheres are a mixture of energies--we can observe that much, but it still doesn't explain them. Where are they from? Why did they come here? What are their primary objectives?" "Primary objectives? That's a military term, ain't it?" "Partly military, and partly scientific. We know the secondary objective of the spheres. It's the same as man's or any other living creature. The spheres are alive and their objective is to keep on living, but that isn't their primary motif. The primary objective is the difference between a good man and a bad one. Whatever is more important to a man than life itself is his primary objective." "Life's pretty important," Masters said, solemnly. "Yes, but life isn't everything. Any man, no matter how yellow or mean he is, has some ideal he's willing to die for--or at least he's willing to risk dying to attain. Look at Norden. He's hard, cold-blooded and he doesn't think twice about putting a bomb in a plant to wipe out scores of lives. He dared me to kill him, rather than help us. His code as a spy is his primary objective. Look at Pember. He must have been frightened by the spheres, but we had to force him to leave his post. We've shown him that his duty now is with us--he realizes that the spheres are the immediate enemy of his country and he'll do his best fighting them. And you and I have ideals--we know each other too well to list them." "I getcha so far, but what about Orkins?" "The man's not afraid of death, but afraid of the unknown. Men like him commit suicide rather than face reality. He wants security. He's afraid of uncertainty. He lives in an unreal, imaginary world and when uncertainty, which is reality, intrudes, he is completely lost." "You make me feel sorry for the poor devil." "That's because you understand why he's funky. Primary objectives make men do what they do--but understanding Orkins doesn't solve our problem." "No. What are the spheres? Are they alive? If so, they must want something. What do they want?"