seized
upon the hexan spheres and drew them ruthlessly into the yawning
open end of that gigantic cone.

Then, in each group of seven, similar great streamers of energy reached
out from fortress to fortress, until each group was welded into one
mighty unit by twenty-one such bands of force. The unit formed, a ray
from each of its seven component structures seized upon a designated
sphere, and under the combined power of those seven tractors, the
luckless globe was literally snapped into the center of mass of the
Vorkulian unit There seven dully gleaming red pressor rays leaped upon
it, backed by all the power of seven gigantic fortresses, held rigidly
in formation by the unimaginable mass of the structures and by their
twenty-one prodigious tractor beams. Under that awful impact, the
screens and walls of the hexan spheres were exactly as effective as so
many structures of the most tenuous vapor. The red glare of the vortex
of those beams was lightened momentarily by a flash of brighter color,
and through the foggy atmosphere there may have flamed briefly a drop or
two of metal that was only liquefied. The red and green beams snapped
out, the peculiar radiance died from the metal walls, and the gigantic
duplex cone of the Vorkuls bored serenely northward--as little marked or
affected by the episode as is a darting swift who, having snapped up a
chance insect in full flight, darts on.

"Great Cat!" Far off in space, Brandon turned from his visiray screen
and wiped his brow. "Czuv certainly chirped it, Perce, when he called
those things flying fortresses. But who, what, why, and how? We didn't
see any apparatus that looked capable of generating or handling those
beams--and of course, when they got started, their screens cut us
off at the pockets. Wish we could have made some sense out of their
language--like to know a few of their ideas--find out whether we can't
get on terms with them some way or other. Funny-looking wampuses, but
they've got real brains--their think-tanks are very evidently full of
bubbles. If they have it in mind to take us on next, old son, it'll be
just ... too ... bad!"

"And then some," agreed Stevens. "They've got something--no fooling. It
looks like the hexans are going to get theirs, good and plenty, pretty
soon--and then what? I'd give my left lung and four front teeth for one
long look at their controls in action."

"You and me both--it's funny, the way those green ray-screens stick to
the