efore. One word from Douglas and she had become a zombie--a mindless
muscle preparation that existed only to obey. Anger filled him--anger
that one he loved could be ordered by someone who wasn't worth a
third of her--anger that she obeyed--anger at his own impotence and
frustration. It wasn't a clean anger. It was a dark, red-splashed thing
that struggled and writhed inside him, a fierce unreasoning rage that
seethed and bubbled yet could not break free. For an instant, with
blinding clarity, Kennon understood the feelings of the caged male Lani
on Otpen One. And he sympathized.

"Follow me," he said and started around the ship.

"Stay--no--go ahead," Douglas said, "but remember, I'm right behind
you."

Kennon walked straight up to the pit and pointed down at the dark bulk
of the Egg., concealed in the shadows of the bottom.

"That's it," he said.

"What? I don't see anything," Douglas said suspiciously.

"Here--I'll shine a light." Kennon reached for his belt.

"No you don't! I know that trick. You're not going to blind me. Take
that torch loose carefully--that's it--now hand it to me." Douglas' hand
closed over the smooth plastic. Cautiously he turned on the beam and
directed it downward.

"A spacer!" he gasped. "How did that get here?" He leaned forward to
look into the pit as a dark shadow materialized behind him.

Kennon choked back the involuntary cry of warning that rose in his
throat. Copper! His muscles tensed as her arm came up and down--a
shadow almost invisible in the starlight. The leaning figure of Douglas
collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been suddenly released. The
torch dropped from his hand and went bouncing and winking down the wall
of the pit, followed by Douglas--a limp bundle of arms and legs that
rotated grotesquely as he disappeared down the slope. Starlight gleamed
on the Burkholtz lying on the lip of the crater, where it had fallen
from his hand.

"I told you that not even Man Alexander could order me since I gave my
love to you," Copper said smugly as she peered over the edge of the pit,
a chunk of lava gripped in one small capable hand. "Maybe this proves
it."

"Douglas isn't Alexander," Kennon said slowly as he picked up the
blaster, "but I believe you."

"Didn't I act convincingly?" she said brightly.

"Very," he said. "You fooled me completely."

"The important thing was that I fooled Douglas."

"You did that all right. Now let's get him out of that pit."

"Wh