His first dazed impression was that the creature was made of metal; it had a metallic sheen about it. His second impression was that the creature was composed of many kinds of crystals of a color varying all the ways from infra red to ultra violet. The crystals seemed to be in rapid vibration. A glow like an aura came from it and the colors changed very rapidly. The creature was round, two feet in diameter. Appendages of linked crystals extended to the controls on the panel. Apparently these appendages could be extruded and withdrawn at will. As Craig stared, an appendage was withdrawn from the control panel and another was extended from the circular body. If it had eyes, they were not visible, if it had ears, he could not see them. There was no mouth, no nose, there was only this globe of shining pulsing crystals. "Where--where is the man we were talking to?" Craig whispered. In his mind was still the lingering thought that they had spoken to a man. "You were talking to me." A slight orange pulsation passed over the crystals as the voice came. "Who--who--" "I am Filo of the Sorodromes," the voice answered. The crystals glowed with a deep red color as if being Filo of the Sorodromes was a great thing. "Why did you think something was wrong in the ship?" "Well--" "Speak the facts. Have you humans grown suspicious?" "Suspicious of what?" "Of the existence of the Sorodromes. Has some member of the crew revealed our existence?" The globe showed a violent green at the question. "No," Craig answered. "Not so far as I know." "Then why did you think something was wrong?" "It wasn't that we _knew_ something was wrong." "You are in a position where lying will do you no good. What is happening inside the station? Are our controls failing?" "What controls? Do you mean that you can control the crew of the _Andromeda_ from here?" "What do you think?" Filo answered. "If there had been any important loss of control, I would have known about it. But there may have been hints, attempts to convey information, which I did not catch. Have there been such attempts?" Before Craig could answer another voice was whispering in the air, calling urgently, "Great Filo? Please contact me immediately." The voice was a thin whisper of sound, as if somewhere a man was thinking and his thoughts were being built up to audible volume. "Yes," Filo answered. "What is it?" "Nuoy insists on coming aboard the ship. Please instruct me." "Who is Nuoy?" "He seems to think he is the top dog in the System." "What does he want?" "I have told him a part of the story of Star Goal and that the race which lives on Star Goal possesses immortality. He insists on returning immediately to Star Goal to obtain immortality for himself. After that he plans to establish a regular traffic between Star Goal and the Solar System to peddle immortality to those rich enough to pay for it." A faint repugnance sounded in the whisper.