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"A brain would be of absolutely no use to it. So even if it originally possessed reasoning powers they would be gone by now. Symbiotes or parasites that live internally like this always degenerate to an absolute minimum of functions." "Tell me about it. What is this thing?" Ulv broke in, prodding the soft form of the brain-symbiote.
Lea's thoughts spun around this fact and chewed at the fringes of the logic. Brion could sense her concentration and absorption. He did nothing to break the mood. Her hands were clenched, her eyes staring unseeingly at the wall as her mind raced. Brion and Ulv were quiet, watching her, waiting for her conclusions. The pieces were falling into shape at last.
Brion watched the spacer become a pinpoint in the sky and vanish. He tried to shake off the feeling that this was the last time he would see any of them. "Let's get out of here fast," he told Ulv, picking up the radio, "before anyone comes around to see why the ship landed." "What will you do?" Ulv asked as they went down the street towards the desert.
Time was running out and the nightmare stumbling through the darkness continued. "More caves ahead," Ulv said, "Go quietly." They came cautiously to the crest of a hill, as they had done so many times already, and looked into the shallow valley beyond.
Sound and seismic waves were slow, and the flare of atomic explosions couldn't be seen here. If the bombs had been dropped at twelve they wouldn't know it at once. A distant rumble filled the air. A moment later the ground heaved under them and the lights in the cavern flickered. Fine dust drifted down from the roof above. Ulv turned to him, but Brion looked away.
The Disan poised above him had the short-handled stone hammer raised to strike a skull-crushing blow. Ulv was clutching the man's wrist, fighting silently to keep the hammer from falling. Neither combatant said a word, the rasp of their calloused feet on the sand the only sound. Brion backed away from the struggling men, his gun centered on the stranger.
"They are going to bomb Nyjord now, just as Nyjord bombed Dis. That machine will hurl the bombs in a special way to the other planet." "Will you stop them?" Ulv asked. He had his deadly blowgun in his hand and his face was an expressionless mask. Brion almost smiled at the irony of the situation. In spite of everything he had done to prevent it, Nyjord had dropped the bombs.
In the cavern the magter saw the destruction of their plans, and the cave mouth from which the bullets had come. Silently they rushed to kill their enemy a concerted wave of emotionless fury. Brion and Ulv fought back. Even the knowledge that he was doomed no matter what happened could not resign Brion to death at the hands of the magter. To Ulv, the decision was much easier.
A tiny wriggling object was finally disclosed which the girl instantly swallowed. She then began working on the next pod. Ulv put down his clay bowl and belched. "I brought you to the city as I told you I would," he said. "Have you done as you said you would?" "What did he promise?" Gebk asked. "That he would stop the war. Have you stopped it?" "I am trying to stop it," Brion said.
"Will I see you again? How can I reach you?" "We will find you if we wish to talk to you," was all Ulv said. If they decided he was lying he would never see them again. There was nothing he could do about it. "I have made up my mind," Gebk said, rising to his feet and drawing his cloth up until it covered his shoulders. "You are lying and this is all a lie of the sky people.
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