, your cells utilize direct solar energy. That
would prevent your tissues from dying while the damaged area of your
body is under repair."

She looked at him in sudden awed realization.

"It would seem, darling, that you're virtually indestructible!" she
said.

Dark laughed.

"Perhaps so," he said. "But I don't hanker to experiment along those
lines any more than necessary. Dying is a very unpleasant experience,
even if I do come to life again."

"Oh, Dark," said Maya, remembering. "I'd like for Qril to see you, and
maybe he'll give us some more information. They came back here three
days ago and, for some reason, have just been hanging around outside,
under the walls. Let me get on a marsuit, and I'll take you to him."

"Here, put on one of these," suggested Dark, picking up the one he had
selected for Old Beard.

Maya wriggled into it. The Martians, she said, were on the other side of
Ultra Vires, so they left the motor pool and walked down one of the long
corridors together, Maya clinging to Dark's arm with one hand and
carrying her marshelmet under her other arm.

They were halfway across the big building when Nuwell Eli appeared
around a corner about thirty feet ahead of them. He stopped, staring, at
the sight of Maya's companion.

"Maya," he began, as they neared him. "Who ...?"

Then he recognized Dark.

With a terrified yelp, Nuwell turned and raced back down the side
corridor at top speed. They heard the clack-clack of his heels on the
stone floor, fading in the distance.

Dark and Maya stopped and looked at each other.

"It must have been quite a shock to him, too, to see you risen from the
dead," she said. "I don't believe he's as happy to see you as I was,
Dark."

"No, his joy seemed considerably mitigated," replied Dark gravely. "But,
Maya, this raises a rather serious question which hadn't occurred to me
before, in the happiness of our reunion."

"What's that, darling?"

"You're a terrestrial agent and, as such, you put me under arrest. It's
true, you tried to free me later. But didn't you tell me that night that
you were engaged to marry this man, Nuwell Eli?"

"Yes," she admitted in a small voice. "But--"

"I haven't had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman before," continued
Dark, still in the same grave tone. "But you and he were going back to
Mars City together, and, for some reason, it occurs to me that you and
he planned to be married as soon as you could get there."

Maya