Part 21 (2/2)

Ill.u.s.trated by BERRY

_What has gone before: The crew of the stars.h.i.+p Orion found themselves in the middle of a great s.p.a.ce war between the creatures called Stretts and the lost android servants of their own human ancestors. Helped by the androids, the Earthmen formed themselves into the powerful telepathic linkage called ”peyondix” to invade the Strett planet itself. As their minds joined they heard the android Tuly cry out, ”Good....” And then their minds were out in interstellar s.p.a.ce._

VIII

Hilton did not have to drive the peyondix-beam to the planet Strett; it was already there. And there was the monstrous First Lord Thinker Zoyar.

Into that mind his multi-mind flashed, its every member as responsive to his will as his own fingers--almost infinitely more so, in fact, because of the tremendous lengths of time required to send messages along nerves.

That horrid mind was scanned cell by cell. Then, after what seemed like a few hours, when a s.h.i.+eld began sluggishly to form, Hilton transferred his probe to the mind of the Second Thinker, one Lord Ynos, and absorbed everything she knew. Then, the minds of all the other Thinkers being screened, he studied the whole Strett planet, foot by foot, and everything that was on it.

Then, mission accomplished, Hilton snapped his attention back to his office and the multi-mind fell apart. As he opened his eyes he heard Tuly scream: ”... Luck!”

”Oh--you still here, Tuly? How long have we been gone?”

”Approximately one and one-tenth seconds, sir.”

”WHAT!”

Beverly Bell, in the haven of Franklin Poynter's arms, fainted quietly.

Sandra shrieked piercingly. The four men stared, goggle-eyed. Temple and Teddy, as though by common thought, burrowed their faces into brawny shoulders.

Hilton recovered first. ”So _that's_ what peyondix is.”

”Yes, sir--I mean no, sir. No, I mean yes, but ...” Tuly paused, licking her lips in that peculiarly human-female gesture of uncertainty.

”Well, what _do_ you mean? It either is or isn't. Or is that necessarily so?”

”Not exactly, sir. That is, it started as peyondix. But it became something else. Not even the most powerful of the old Masters--n.o.body--ever did or ever could _possibly_ generate such a force as that. Or handle it so fast.”

”Well, with seven of the best minds of Terra and a ...”

”Chip-chop the chit-chat!” Karns said, harshly. ”What I want to know is whether I was having a nightmare. Can there _possibly_ be a race such as I thought I saw? So utterly savage--ruthless--merciless! So devoid of every human trace and so h.e.l.l-bent determined on the extermination of every other race in the Galaxy? G.o.d d.a.m.n it, it simply doesn't make sense!”

Eyes went from eyes to eyes to eyes.

All had seen the same indescribably horrible, abysmally atrocious, things. Qualities and quant.i.ties and urges and drives that no words in any language could even begin to portray.

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