Without warning, Xtery took Chuck's military Colt .45 pistol and sealed it in an air-tight plastic container. This bundle, he placed on a table in the kitchen and sat Miles down at the table and told him to negotiate with the weapon.

Instead of asking why, the elder Barwin merely ran a hand that currently trembled through his cropped white hair and sat down. But his eyes were filled with questions that he appeared afraid to ask.

"I'm not dressed properly," Miles said nervously, "for a serious all-out parlay at the upper level."

Xtery wondered if this statement was made out of sarcasm or out of frustration. Miles, like all of them, had been under tremendous emotional pressure since the kidnapping of the 9-year-old Misma.

At the moment, Miles wore casual slacks, a white shirt with the collar open, and black loafers.

"You'll do," Xtery said. "Just don't give up and don't give in."

Everyone was taken aback by Xtery's maneuver. Especially Chuck. Xtery had walked over beside him without warning, unbutton his leather holster at his waist, lifted out the gun and dropped it into a plastic bag and quickly sealed it.

Chuck had stepped back just as if Xtery had threatened him.

"Something going on?" he asked.

"Maybe," Xtery said.

"The other day, it was the rabbit," Bdudd said and her manner indicated it was a tsk-tsk situation.

"And I saw him staring at an eagle," Muduud said.

"I have not gone batty," Xtery insisted to the two Verdidiuns and the others. "At least, I hope so. On the other hand, I've asked Ted Atkins to come over with some of his friends and their weapons."

"I thought you forbid him to use that thing?" said Chuck.

"Not forbid," said Xtery. "Although, yes, I did mention that I would be extremely grateful if he didn't fire it at anything or anyone. However, the situation has changed considerably since then."

Chuck took off his gunbelt and walked over and placed it on the table. Starr immediately took a plastic bag and placed the gunbelt inside and sealed it. Then placed it on the table.

"Just being careful," she explained.

Miles stared at the gun on the table. "Just how long do you want me to negotiate?" he asked.

"As long as it takes," Xtery said, then turned to Bdudd and Muduud. "And you guys keep him supplied with coffee. And report anything unusual."

"Peanutbutter sandwiches?"

"Yes. Those, too. But keep very quiet and as still as possible and let Miles do his job."

"What job?" Miles wanted to know.

"Talk!" said Xtery. "Mention peace a lot and how much better it is to be kind to your neighbor and keep it going. This may take days."

Xtery chased everyone else out of the kitchen.

"I'm pretty fond of that gun," Chuck said once they entered the main room.

"I don't really think so," Xtery told Chuck.

Chuck turned to Starr and started to explain something about "the old military mien," but she had already figured it out.

"Things," she told Xtery with a touch of excitement. "Things. Not rabbits or eagles."

"The probability is high," Xtery said.

"The general gave it to me some months ago," Chuck admitted.

"You ever fired it?"

"Sure. Lots of times. It felt like a gun and it fired like a gun."

"Interesting," Xtery said.

"But you think it's a Vacht?"

"I think the correct terminology is some Vacht."

"Well, if it's Vacht," said Chuck with a tone of derision in his voice, "Miles is the perfect one to talk it to death."

"Actually, he's probably pretty good at what he does so I wouldn't put him down too badly," Xtery said. "If my theory about him being captured by the Vacht at some point in the past is correct, he was at least good enough to talk them out of killing him."

Chuck's hands dropped to his side. In spite of his military bearing, he had trouble keeping his hands still. His eyes resembled those of a small puppy.

"You're absolute right. What a stupid thing to say anyway. What am I supposed to do?" he asked Xtery.

"It seems rather, well, dumb of me to ask you to have patience. And I feel rather callous about asking it. But the Vacht certainly hasn't killed her. Not yet. I think I would be aware of a development of that nature. I think they're still trying to persuade her to cure the infection she caused. And she's being very brave and refusing to do it."

"She's just a baby," he said. "She won't be able to hold out forever against those monsters."

"This particular baby was raised in the dirt and filth of Juarez and El Paso. She will not be an easy victim for the Vacht," Xtery said. "In a few more years, they would regret meeting her. And may be regretting that very fact even now."

"My baby?"

"Yes. She's a very wonderful and quite gifted talent, Chuck. You will learn this in days to come, I assure you. And you will be proud of her."

"Hell, I'm proud of her anyway," Chuck said.

A few minutes later, Ted Atkins and two others walked through the doorway into the main room of the citadel. Ted paused to clean his spectacles. The girl in the short-cropped hair and the odd earrings headed immediately to the ever-present decanter of lemonade on the coffee table near one of the couches and poured a glass.

"I think I'm getting addicted to this stuff," she said.

"Kitchen's off limits at the moment," Xtery warned.

"Life is tough all over," she said and stared back at the doorway which now revealed a scene of the Barton Springs swimming pool built along a rock embankment in Austin, Texas.

The other girl looked more like the stereotype of a small school librarian. Mousy, the expression was, Xtery thought. But, of course, she was a crackerjack pilot when it came to the flying saucers that Ted and the others had constructed. Because she had phenomenal instinct. Miles had referred to it once as "guessing ability." Regardless, she could sense where things were located in space and time and avoid them. Many of the lizard air force and those in government at New 51 were able to fly the craft, but the better pilots seemed to have an especial guessing ability. Miles was right about that.

"We could, of course, just blow about half of the moon apart," Ted said when Xtery and Starr discussed the Vacht problem with him.

"Unwise," Xtery assured him. "Throughout the universe, there's an indelible link between planets that develop lifeforms and their moons. Other factors must exist as well, but as a rule life doesn't develop on any planet unless there's a moon to create gravity fluctuations and an ocean to serve as a test-tube for DNA or whatever passes for DNA on that particular planet."

"And also, there's the probability that the Vacht are hiding Misma somewhere in their midst on the moon," Starr told Ted.

"I checked with a friend at an observatory," Ted said. "He confirmed that the moon is somewhat larger than it used to be last time anyone noticed. It's amazing that you figured it out."

"I'm disappointed that it took me so long," Xtery said. "But the Vacht is a rather impressive enemy. And we have certain limitations. We cannot, unfortunately, just eliminate them with Ted's secret weapon because we cannot tolerate the collateral damage as they call it nor can we, I've come to believe, let them escape."

"The only alternative," said Starr, "is to change them."

"Possibly. If we can figure out how this can be done and what is to be done. I heard the phrase long ago that war is merely a methodology for getting along with people. If so, it's a non-productive methodology. There has to be a better way," Xtery said.

"I don't think you're going to get your better way anyway," said Ted. He had been staring out the window. There was nothing in view but vast distances and purple mountains in those distances with a few white clouds. Shadows from the clouds danced over the rolling hills in an atmospheric ballet.

"I see nothing," Xtery said.

"Wasn't talking about the view," said Ted. "Me and some of the guys rigged up a few sensor devices down below. Must be half an army, some of them loaded for bear hunting, slowly climbing this direction."

"You're right," said Xtery. "I should have noticed them. Guess I've been a little busy watching other things."

"Don't think they're Vacht," Ted said.

Chuck immediately went to the window and adjusted it to show the men cutting through the catclaw and the cactus. Two were just now coming around from behind a boulder.

"Some kind of amateur militant group I think," Chuck said. "A couple of them have missile launchers. Nothing serious."

"The Vacht know we have a deadly weapon," Xtery said.

"I can adjust it," Ted said. "Reverse the polarity and it sucks up energy from whatever you target instead of condensing energy into a force and kicking it out at something."

"I would assume," said Starr, "that those people coming up the mountain are supposed to get killed."

"But those people down there probably don't know that," Xtery pointed out. "Just in case, Ted, I would be grateful if you and the others would reverse the polarity on your weapons."

"Okay. Tell me if you wish otherwise," Ted said.

Xtery nodded his head at Starr and grinned; he hoped it was a pleasant grin. Grinning was still so new to him that he had no idea whether or not he was doing it correctly. But he was pleased that she had figured that out about the people climbing up through the cactus far below on the slopes of the mountain. It was obviously a Vacht ploy. A situation to create negative opinion and bad headlines.

The information that Chuck and Dorothy had proffered about the Vacht was that they did nothing themselves. They were more prone to persuade others to do their dirty work. In this particular situation, they were probably trying to create a disturbance that would induce the real military to step in. Or the federal government. Or the police.

"I could have a flying saucer buzz by. Fire a couple of laser shots into the ground. Scare them off," said Ted.

"In this case, perhaps it's better to let them just forget what they're doing," Starr said.

Ted looked at her with great curiosity.

"You can do that?" he asked.

"He can," she said, pointing in the direction of Xtery. "Especially if you drained them of some of their energy."

"Yes," Xtery said. "She's right. I'm not sure that they would ever find us anyway, without help. But the Vacht would probably help. So, perhaps it's best just to cloud their minds. However, have one of your army go outside and fire a broadband at them. I assume that this reverse polarity situation will drain them of a great deal of their desire to do much of anything."

Ted nodded and the girl walked outside. A couple of minutes later, she came back, nodded, continued to drink her lemonade.

Ted and Chuck watched as one of the men several thousand feet below at the foot of the mountain paused and looked around. He appeared to be puzzled. Then, slowly, he slung his rifle over his shoulder and started back down the slope, staggering as if under an enormous burden. Another guy lowered his rifle to the ground and left it there, then walked away. In just a few minutes, all of the men had turned around and started back. One started off across the slope south, but after a hundred yards one of his comrades caught up with him, grabbed his shoulder, and got him going the right direction back toward the highway. All of them acted just as if they'd been on a long, long hike. They had parked a couple of miles up the highway behind a shoulder of the hill. Once they reached their jeeps and pickups, they climbed aboard and headed back toward El Paso. By the time they reached the Huecos, a low range of mountains on the outskirts of town, they would be singing and laughing and planning a picnic the next weekend in Ysidro, but the singing would be weak and perhaps off key.

Just then, as Chuck and Ted still watched at the window, three fighter jets swept in from the north and launched explosive missiles at the peak of El Capitan. There was a huge flash, but by then Xtery had sealed the doorway and reduced the glare of the explosion with a screen.

"Wow!" Ted said.

"Can they hurt us here?" asked Chuck.

"No," said Xtery. "Tell me, Chuck, where you ever at the ranch?"

"I don't think so. Certainly I was never there while wearing the Colt. I never wore it until, well, Misma was kidnapped. Before that, it stayed most of the time in a drawer at the house. I'm positive about this fact."

"Good," said Xtery.

"Uh oh," said Ted. "There's a big bomber heading this way from the east. It's about fifty miles out."

"Got it," said Xtery.

"The big one?" asked Ted.

"Yes."

"This is nonsense," Ted said. "May I use the communicator?"

"Of course."

A four-star general suddenly appeared in the window. Ted explained things to him briefly about the attack by the fighter jets and now a bomber loaded with an atomic bomb out of the Ft. Worth area.

The general picked up a telephone on his desk and made a phone call.

"He's ordering the bomber back to the SAC base in Fort Worth," Ted said.

"Sort of glad about that," said Chuck.

Ted checked the window.

"The bomber isn't turning around," he said. "Orders from headquarters didn't mean much."

"Don't worry about it," Xtery said. "They aren't going to bomb anything."

"How can you be sure?" Chuck asked.

"Your gun is still here," Starr said to Chuck before Xtery could explain. "Those missiles from the fighter jets a few minutes ago missed us more than a hundred feet. They were meant only to frighten us."

"Wouldn't have hurt anything anyway," Xtery said. "The Vacht must be aware of the shield I've installed. But I'm rather distressed that they would go thus far. Misma must really have them shook up. They're overstepping even their own rules of protocol."

"I think these guys probably make up the rules as they go along," Ted said. "That bomber is getting pretty close."

"It's just a threat," said Xtery.

"A very, very good one," Ted said. He stared questioningly at Xtery. Then back to the window where far in the distance could be seen a B-52 bomber plowing a con-trail through the eastern sky.

And then Xtery performed the first irrational act of his life.

"Keep an eye on that bomber and let me know what happens," he told Ted.

He walked into the kitchen and took the gunbelt on the table still in its plastic wrapping and put it into a pot on the stove and poured scalding tea over it. Then replaced the lid on the pot and turned on the stove under it. As high as he could turn the flame.

Ted burst into the kitchen on a run.

"The bomber has turned back," he announced.

"Now go watch the moon," Xtery told him.

Ted ran out of the kitchen toward the main room of the citadel.

Miles, faithfully, had been talking to the gun. Now he stood up from the table, aghast. He watched as vapor quickly began to seep around the edges of the lip on the pot.

Mdudd and Buduud flew wildly about the room, then settled on the table near Miles.

"I was right!" said Starr.

Xtery laughed. "In a way. It was certainly you who gave me this idea."

"What kind of idea is it when you try to cook a gunbelt?" Bdudd wanted to know angrily.

"He has been behaving very strange," Muduud said in agreement with Bdudd.

He lifted the pot from the stove and sat it on the kitchen counter.

"You mean I've been negotiating with the wrong thing?" asked Miles.

"I'm sure the gun heard you loud and clear," said Xtery. "You did a good job, Miles. I have the feeling you're an outstanding peacemaker. And in a situation that didn't concern the Vacht, you would have achieved a solution."

"It's just that with the Vacht," said Starr, "there was no optimum solution except absolute victory."

"And I couldn't let them win," said Xtery.

Xtery opened the pot on the stove and poured the boiling water into the kitchen sink. With a fork, he lifted out the soaked and steaming gunbelt and also placed it in the sink to cool.

Chuck went over to look at it.

"Funny," said Chuck, "but it still looks like a gunbelt."

"Right," said Starr. "Because it's just a gunbelt."

"I'm beginning to think I don't understand you guys from Tarrmell very well," said Chuck. "Where's all of the logic that I heard about? Or is this supposed to be a decent example of it?"

Ted Atkins came back into the kitchen, but only stayed just long enough to remark:

"You were right about the moon," he told Xtery. "Looks as if the moon is having a dust storm."

"And now," said Xtery said loudly, "I want Misma returned and she'd better be unharmed."

Xtery put on some more water to boil for tea. He did this with a certain flair in his movement, quite aware that everyone in the room was watching him closely.

"Who're you talking to now?" asked Bdudd.

"The gun," said Xtery.

"Strange," said Muduud. "Strange, strange, strange."

"I think we ought to inform Xtarso," said Bdudd.

"Why bother him?" Starr asked. "Right now, he's trying to milk a cow at the ranch."

Ah, hah!" said Xtery, with a grin that said he'd finally figured out a few things.

"What's ah hah about milking a cow?" Bdudd wanted to know.

"Just ah hah," said Xtery, but to Starr he said, "Now I know where my coffee came from the other morning."

"You'd be amazed at all of the tricks I've learned," Starr said, hands on hips.

"Women!" said Xtery with a laugh.

Bdudd whirled to face Muduud. "What does he mean by that?"

"I don't know."

The two Verdidiuns conferred together.

"I think he has become dangerous," said Bdudd. "Cooking a leather belt. What next?"

The Verdidiun shrugged and flapped his wings furiously.

"Dangerous. Yes," his mate said.

"You go tell Xtarso about it," she said. "I'll stay here just in case anyone tries to escape."

"No one's going to escape," said Xtery. "But I would suggest, Miles, that you'll perhaps wish to be more formally attired when you negotiate the exchange of prisoners in a few minutes."

"Ah hah," said Miles.

"And you," Xtery said, gesturing at Bdudd, "might wish to ask Xtarso if he'd like to be at the ceremony."

"Ah hah," said Bdudd, and she immediately popped out of view.

"Should I make some peanutbutter sandwiches for the occasion?" asked Muduud.

"But, of course," said Xtery.

"What's all of this ah hah stuff, I'd like to know," said Ted Atkins.

Xtery placed a hand around Ted's shoulders.

"How would you like to disintegrate a gunbelt?" Xtery asked.

"Seems like a waste to me," said Ted, "but if you'd like to kill a perfectly good gunbelt, I'm willing to do it."

"Not everything's perfect. I'll tell you when," said Xtery. "Meanwhile, Starr, maybe you'd like to place Chuck's gun in a glass box on the coffee table in the main room."

"Certainly," she said.

They strolled back into the main room of the citadel. The window presently showed a milling cloud about the moon. Slowly, the cloud was condensing on the left side of the moon, changing and evolving into something that closely resembled a plate and then into what could be recognized as a flying saucer, but one extremely huge...perhaps the size of an entire city such as Los Angeles. Enormous!

"And Chuck, we need Dorothy here for the ceremony."

"Right," he said. The window changed to show the living room of a typical house and Dorothy stepped directly into the main room of the citadel.

Miles walked into the room just then. He looked splendid and very formal.

"A politician of the first water," said Ted.

"More a negotiator," said Miles dressed in long tails and looking extremely reposed and dignified. "If more politicians were negotiators, this world wouldn't be in the mess it is now."

"I believe you," said Ted.

By the time the Vacht appeared, again in the form and uniform of a general of the United States Army, several others were in the main room. Xtarso, Mindy and her husband, Dorothy in her uniform of a Darsoon dignitary with her husband attired as a U.S. military officer, Starr, the two Verdidiuns, several of Ted's friends from the Little A'Le'Inn in their usual garb that ranged from the hip to the ridiculous, several officers from New 51 standing at ease by the wall as observers rather than actual participants.

Xtery and two four-star generals stood beside Miles facing the Vacht general.

The room had been decorated slightly by Starr and Dorothy. Blue banners were draped over the far walls. Everything else was rather austere.

With great dignity, Miles walked over to the side of a long table that had been "borrowed" from a board room of a corporation in Dallas. There were only two chairs at the table, per the suggestion of Miles. They were directly across from each other.

"I'm Miles of Barwin and I have the great honor today to represent the planet Earth in these negotiations for peace. Will you be seated, general," Miles said.

He gestured at the opposite chair with a gracious wave of his hand.

"I prefer to stand," said the Vacht. He gazed around the room, but Xtery couldn't discern if the Vacht general was impressed or not; he, or it, showed absolutely no emotion.

"As you wish," Miles said.

Chuck Miller quickly stepped forward and withdrew the chair on this side of the table and then, once Miles started to sit, his head lowered slightly, slid the chair under him. Miles placed both hands on the table in front of him before looking up in the direction of the Vacht.

"The infection," said the Vacht general in a chilling tone of voice. "You will remove it immediately."

Miles paused a moment before responding.

"The girl," said Miles. "Here. Now."

Although the tone of Miles wasn't quite as cold as that of the Vacht, Xtery was impressed; Miles obviously meant business.

"The infection," repeated the Vacht.

Miles nodded sagely and without turning his head, asked Ted Atkins to step to the table.

"I have come to the conclusion," said Miles, "that you have underestimated the quality and capability of the citizens of Earth, general."

"You will remove the infection immediately," said the Vacht.

Miles slowly shook his head.

"Ted, will you kindly destroy that gunbelt on the table," said Miles, "and then when I nod my head, also destroy the gun in the glass box that is also on the table. If I nod my head again, destroy the general here. At the next nod, destroy that evil ship hanging out there in the sky."

"Certainly," Ted said.

He stepped close to the table, calmly took his ballpoint pen out of his shirt pocket and pointed it at the gunbelt resting in a plastic bag on the table. There wasn't a sound. But suddenly the gunbelt was gone and a gaping hole was visible in the table where the gunbelt had been.

There was a gasp from both Dorothy and Starr. Even Chuck had trouble with his composure. Xtarso's cart bobbed up and down slightly.

Xtery was also surprised. He wondered, first, how he could have been so wrong about the capabilities of Miles and then, next, how he could have been so wrong in characterizing the elder white-haired man as mild. He had realized that Miles had perseverance and, indeed, probably some very excellent skills at negotiating out of conflict. But this?

The Vacht general showed no facial emotion, but some motes peeled off and darted around his head quickly, briefly, before returning to somewhere near his ear.

"General...."

"Please remain quiet, Mr. Smith," said Miles. "This is entirely between me and the general."

Miles slowly crossed his arms.

Xtery shrugged, said, "I apologize."

Then he, too, crossed his arms.

"Because you are here," said Miles with great solemnity, "I can assume that you're of a race of entities whereby all of the parts are necessary to the whole. You bought no one with you, thus I will also assume that I'm literally conferring with all Vacht. If I may paraphrase, no Vacht is an island unto itself. Each Vacht is a piece of the main...if a clod be washed...."

"Spare me the prose," said the Vacht. "You cannot have the girl until the infection is removed. It is not a harm. It is merely an irritant. But Vacht is hindered. Take it away."

"And if I nod my head, some piece of your flying saucer, which, of course, is comprised of all Vacht and really an island unto itself, will be missing," said Miles. "Maybe a vital part. Maybe not. But I'm willing to make the assumption that it could be a vital part for a long voyage home. The part will be larger and perhaps even more important if I nod my head twice. There is also the very high probability that I will destroy your entire vessel out there in space and none of you will go home. Ever."

"I doubt that you would risk the life of the girl," said the Vacht.

"One of my negotiating assistants," said Miles, "will immediately teleport her to safety. A very simple task for some races who have decided to inhabit this particular planet."

"It's our planet. We were here first."

Miles shook his head.

"I'm afraid that this planet already belongs to people like Mr. Atkins there, the lady Misma Miller whom you made the mistake of kidnapping, Mr. Roberto Garcia, a few others. They have informed me that this planet isn't for sale. Nor for conquering. In the days and weeks to come, we of Barwin, Darsoon, Terrmell and Verdidiun and Cyrreen, among others, will be called upon to do our own negotiating with the people of this planet. For the time being, however, they have informed me that the Vacht are not welcome."

"I could obliterate this planet."

"The possibility would be extremely slim," Miles told the Vacht. "Even now, Mr. Atkins and other have disintegration devices targeting that flying saucer of yours. I believe they would first just nip off a few edges. Carve out a piece of the rim."

"We will give the girl back," said the Vacht and Misma immediately walked through the doorway into the main room.

Dorothy, dressed as a high priest of Darsoon, started toward her adopted daughter.

Miles lifted a hand and said the word, "Stop, please."

Dorothy immediately halted, let her hands fall to her side.

"I'm insulted," Miles told the Vacht. "The Vacht would try a cheap trick such as this? Mr. Atkins, will you please use your device on the gun and this collection of Vacht that looks like a young girl standing here?"

"No!" said the Vacht. His face, once again, didn't change, but several motes, not quite so golden now and quite a few more in number, buzzed around his head as if someone had alarmed a beehive in bright sunlight.

Miles held up his hand to stop Ted Atkins, who had his ballpoint pen aimed directly at the gun in the glass case on the table.

"The girl Misma Miller, if you please," said Miles.

This time, the girl that came through the doorway saw Dorothy as soon as she entered the room. She ran around the table and threw herself into Dorothy's waiting arms.

"That's more like it," said Miles.

The Vacht general, once again back together, and as stoic as usual, said, "How did you know?"

"We're not here to discuss matters of that nature," said Miles. "We're presently convened only to discuss the possibility of the survival of the Vacht."

"Terms? Do we divide Earth?"

"No terms. You're just fortunate that my associates, the citizens of Earth, are still willing to let you leave this planet and this solar system alive."

"Unacceptable," said the Vacht general.

"I will give you one more chance to leave, General."

"No."

Miles slowly rose from the table. He sighed.

"Are you quite sure?"

"Yes."

Miles turned to Xtery.

"Pig's back on the gun?"

Xtery had no idea what Miles intended, but he also realized that Miles wanted him to play along in this game, whatever kind of game it was.

Xtery, therefore, nodded.

Miles turned to Dorothy, who still carried Misma in her arms. He didn't say a word, just looked at the pair.

"Of course," Dorothy said.

I agree," said Xtarso as soon as Miles turned in his direction. He, too, was mystified at what was going on; his cart bobbed in the air.

"It is agreed then," Miles said. He turned slowly back to the Vacht general. "I'm sorry that we have to do this. Ted, will you please shoot the gun with your weapon."

Ted did so. Nothing apparently happened. The gun did not even move.

However, some motes came loose from the top of the Vacht's head, circled, returned quickly.

"Hah!" the Vacht said. "And that's the best weapon you have?"

"You are, of course, now free to go," Miles told the Vacht.

"Free to go? If that's the best you can do," the Vacht said, pointing at the gun on the table, "you're the one who has to go."

"May the great lord of all beings forgive us for this day," said Miles. "We would have preferred a kinder solution."

The Vacht suddenly lost a hand. The motes quickly reformed. But the Vacht now stared in disbelief at his hand.

"What have you done?" demanded the Vacht general.

"You'll find out soon enough," Miles said. He told Starr to take out the gun and present it to the Vacht. "And take that counterfeit whatever it is over there with you. We are tired of Vacht. All Vacht. Please leave these premises immediately."

"What is going to happen?" asked the Vacht.

"It's merely a remedy for pest control," said Miles. "If you thought the infection Misma planted on you was bad, you will not appreciate this particular solution of ours at all."

The Vacht, for the first time of the meeting, revealed emotion. His face began to take on a reddish hue. His eyes shifted upward, physically, on his face. Several motes, pale yellow now, flowed out of his shoulder and began whirling like a small windstorm. A part of his left shoulder about the size of a football was missing momentarily until the motes ceased their crazy dance in the air and settled back into place.

"Vacht want to know!" the Vacht demanded.

"No," said Miles, "you don't want to know. If you leave now, a few of you motes might make it back to your planet. And maybe not. I, for one, would not like to take a wager on your chances of any of you surviving the trip."

Motes literally erupted from the Vacht's arm this time and their dance was even more furious and some of the motes evidently found it difficult to glow; the light of the small storm was very weak now.

"Vacht lose energy!" said the Vacht.

Although the Vacht still resembled the general, his stars were beginning to dissolve. His arms were both quivering, loose, as if the motes that comprised what he was were shifting.

Miles nodded slowly.

"Yes. I know."

"Vacht leave!" said the Vacht. He grabbed at the gun, but it suddenly dissolved into motes that flew for the doorway. The "girl" that had looked like Misma started to run toward the doorway, but flowed into motes and these beat the Vacht general to the doorway with the exception of a slow mote or two.

The doorway that was a window now revealed a flying saucer that seemed to have trouble finding first gear. It started, then balked.

Suddenly, it burst out of the sky into space and almost immediately disappeared.

"Will they make it home?" asked Starr.

"Of course," said Miles.

"I am amazed," Xtery told Miles. "You have surprised me. It is not easy, I've been told over and over, to surprise a Terrmellian. My sincerest compliments, Mr. Davis."

Xtery bowed stiffly at the waist in the direction of the white-haired Barwin.

"I am honored to have been of service," said Miles Davis as he returned Xtery's neat little bow.

"Will someone please tell me what just happened?" Ted asked.

"Miles Davis enjoys, as part of his negotiating skills, the unique capability to attach himself to a subject so that they cannot escape his persuasive powers," said Xtery. "It's actually a psychological attachment syndrome. He once mentioned it to me as like a snake on a pig's back. Instead of himself, he placed the pig's back on that gun."

"When you shot that gun on the table," said Miles, "you put a heavy energy drain on the motes that comprised it. They got back to the ship, which was also comprised of motes and all of the motes began to feel rather tired. Probably spreading by now to other motes. This, of course, in addition to Misma's infection, which is slowly spreading among the motes."

"Of which there were millions upon millions," said Xtery. "So, they'll get back to their planet. But most of them will be pretty sick by then."

"And that whole planet is eventually going to feel rather weak and sick, I'm afraid," said Miles, "because of the pig's back stuff. Take a while. But I don't think the Vacht are going to be much of a problem henceforth."

"Well, if everything's in good shape," said Xtarso, "I'd like to be getting back to my ranch."

"Your ranch?" asked Starr.

"Bought the ranch next to Roberto. Hired me several 12-year-old cowboys. And I bought a cow."

Starr laughed. "Just one cow?"

"We're starting small," Xtarso said.

"Ah hah!" said Miles. "But we haven't negotiated permission yet to remain on Earth, us immigrants."

"I'll work on that situation," said Dorothy. "I'm related by adoption to one of Earth's major leaders."

Bdudd and Muduud immediately flew over to Xtery.

"Is Misma going to be a big leader on Earth?"

"You can't tell," Xtery said.

"We like Earth. We want to stay. Would you like a peanut butter sandwich?" Bdudd and Muduud asked Misma.