"What's that world to us?" Al looked at the metal floor plates under his body. The cherry glow was flooding from his body into the plates. Al was gone farther than he thought. For months he must have been harboring the disease, just as Joe had been ill a long time before realizing it. Al's natural resistance, perhaps strengthened by long years of exposure to the radiations of space, must have held back the final stages until the tide had burst through in an overwhelming flood. Even when Al killed Joe, Al was near the last stages himself. Al remembered Joe's last bid for survival. Joe was much like Oakey. Joe had hated to die, he wanted to live to have soil under his feet again. But the disease had to be wiped out. And Joe had fought with his last weapon, the energy ebbing from his body. The energy.... Grim lines appeared deep around Al's eyes. He raised his hand from the floor. His brain throbbed. Yes, his brain was a battery of energy now, the energy of life. And the purpose of life was to preserve life, a single second, or a thousand million years. Not one life, but the race. That was the aim of life. "Oakey." Al's voice hissed. Oakey turned from the instrument panel. His eyes focussed on the cherry red floor with Al in the center of the glow. Sparks came from Al's mouth as he spoke again. "Before I shot Joe, I tried to make him understand. I had to kill him, and I've got to kill you whether you've got the disease or not. It's the way with things. Our individual lives don't mean a plugged nickel, but a whole race does. We can't take the Quinnies to the green planet." "I told you, they're not people like us," said Oakey. "They just look like us. Some fish look like snakes. Some mammals look like fish. But they're not fish." "But they are like us. I know," said Al. "An atom of iron on Sirius is the same as an atom of iron on the sun. Why can't two human cells be the same, even if they're light-years apart?" "You're just guessing." "I told you, I know." "You think you know. You met a girl once. Maybe she had a nice figure and pretty eyes. Your glands got fooled." "She was just like an earth-girl, only prettier. That's why--" "Maybe she was pretty, but that was ten years ago. You're not handsome any more and neither is she. She's probably got six kids, you said so yourself." "Yes, Oakey, maybe six, maybe only one kid. One that has earth blood in him. My kid, Oakey. There's still one more earthman alive in the universe. That's why I'm doing this to you." Al let the energy flow out through his fingertips. A cherry red bolt struck Oakey right in the face. * * * * * On the green planet, a matron and her son were looking up into the stars. The boy cried out in delight: "A shooting star, mommy," he said. "Make a wish." Trailing red sparks, the meteor seemed to veer off suddenly and speed away again into space.