extension of his controls, all his attention was directed toward
matching the velocities of the high-flying clouds, staying among them,
becoming a part of them.

Ger remained rigidly in one of the two shapes alloted to Detectors. He
fed data into the Camouflage Unit, and the descending ship slowly
altered into an alto-cumulus.

There was no sign of activity from the enemy planet.

Ilg located an atomic power source, and fed the data to Pid. The Pilot
altered course. He had reached the lowest level of clouds, barely a
mile above the surface of the planet. Now his ship looked like a fat,
fleecy cumulus.

And still there was no sign of alarm. The unknown fate that had
overtaken twenty previous expeditions still had not showed itself.

Dusk crept across the face of the planet as Pid maneuvered near the
atomic power installation. He avoided the surrounding homes and
hovered over a clump of woods.

Darkness fell, and the green planet's lone moon was veiled in clouds.

One cloud floated lower.

And landed.

"Quick, everyone out!" Pid shouted, detaching himself from the ship's
controls. He assumed the Pilot's Shape best suited for running, and
raced out the hatch. Ger and Ilg hurried after him. They stopped fifty
yards from the ship, and waited.

Inside the ship a little-used circuit closed. There was a silent
shudder, and the ship began to melt. Plastic dissolved, metal
crumpled. Soon the ship was a great pile of junk, and still the
process went on. Big fragments broke into smaller fragments, and
split, and split again.

Pid felt suddenly helpless, watching his ship scuttle itself. He was
a Pilot, of the Pilot caste. His father had been a Pilot, and his
father before him, stretching back to the hazy past when the Grom had
first constructed ships. He had spent his entire childhood around
ships, his entire manhood flying them.

Now, shipless, he was naked in an alien world.

* * * * *

In a few minutes there was only a mound of dust to show where the ship
had been. The night wind scattered it through the forest. And then
there was nothing at all.

They waited. Nothing happened. The wind sighed and the trees creaked.
Squirrels chirped, and birds stirred in their nests. An acorn fell to
the ground.

Pid heaved a sigh of relief and sat down. The twenty-first Grom
expedition had landed safely.

There was nothing to be done until morning, so Pid began to make
plans. They had lan