ly. And once when he almost struggled clear, a strong knee
was thrust into his back and forced him down.

At intervals, he could hear Gunnar's voice--and his own--crying, pleading,
threatening.

Then at last it was over. The hands turned Odin upon his back and he lay
there, gasping and hurting, like one who has just come up from deep water.

The lights were so bright that at first he could see nothing. Then his
vision cleared and he knew where he was--in the surgery room of the Nebula.

Ato was standing nearby, trying to reassure him. Beside Odin on another bed
was Gunnar, lying flat on his back and stripped to the waist. Gunnar was
howling curses and kicking like a frog.

A doctor and a nurse were there. And completing the group was Nea holding a
round object in each hand--round things with unkempt, trailing hair. He was
not completely conscious--and for a second she looked like a high priestess
of the Amazon, holding two mummified heads before her--

The pain left him. His mind cleared and he lay there gasping from the
ordeal.

Ato and Nea smiled at them. So cheerfully that he almost expected them to
write out a bill for surgical fees.

"God, that was a close one," Ato said, and wiped his forehead. "Five hours
of it. And it was touch and go all the time."

"What happened?" Odin asked. He remembered something about a glittering
tomb and Maya awakening from her long sleep and Grim Hagen. He even
remembered the Bron carelessly swinging Piper's head by the hair. But
these were mere scenes that flashed before his mind. He could not fit them
together, as yet.

"Tell him, Nea," Ato said.

* * * * *

She smiled proudly. "It was my invention that saved you. You see, I have
two of them now. I told you that they are as near as we can get to making
living things. And I also told you that there is much more to them than
you saw. They are destroyers and they are builders. We found you dead--or
nearly so. Hagen had sent volt after volt through your bodies. You were
electrocuted."

"We hurried you back to the ship. And all this time, while Ato steered
us back into space, the Kalis and I--for that is what I have decided to
call them--have been working over you. You might say that we are master
electronicians, rebuilding circuits, repairing transistors and
condensers--"

"You were plenty rough," Gunnar grumbled.

"We had to be. Do you remember a story about the bush-men dying from a
cur