e are different
than on Earth--and they are tough. The natural resources are not the
same. The development of the resulting cultures will be vastly different
from that of Earth. The Galactic Council is very interested in the
outcome--which will not be known with certainty for a thousand years or
so."

"But they come back," Mel repeated. "You bring them back!"

"For each Earthman who goes out, a replacement is sent back. The
replacement is an android supplied by the Council."

"Android!" Mel felt his reason slipping. He knew he was shouting. "Then
Alice--the Alice that died was an android, she was not my wife! My Alice
is still alive! You can take me to her--"

Connemorra nodded. "Alice is still alive, and well. No harm has come to
her."

"Take me to her!" Mel knew he was pleading, but in his anguish he had no
pride.

Connemorra seemed to ignore his plea. "Earth's population is slowly
being diluted by the removal of top people. The androids behave in every
way like the individuals they replace, but they are preconditioned
against the inherent destructiveness of Earthmen."

Blind anger seemed to rise within Mel. "You have no right to separate
me from Alice. Take me to her!"

His rage ignited and he leaped forward.

The small gun in Connemorra's hand spurted twice. Mel felt a double
impact in a moment of great wonder. It couldn't end like this, he
thought. It couldn't end without his seeing Alice once more. Just once
more--

* * * * *

He sank to the floor. The pain was not great, but he knew he was dying.
He looked down at his hand that covered the great wound in his
mid-section. There was something wrong.

He felt the stickiness, but the red blood was not welling out. Instead,
a thick bubble of green ooze moved from the wound and spread over his
clothes and his hand. An alien greenness that was like nothing human.

He had seen it once before.

Alice.

He stared up at Connemorra with wide, wondering eyes.

"Everything went wrong, my poor android," said Connemorra softly. "After
your human was brought back to the ship we were forced to go through
with the usual process of imprinting his mind content upon his android.
But we had to wipe out all memory of the attempted escape from the
Martian Princess. This was not successful. It still clung in the
nightmares you experienced. And the psycho-recovery brought it all back.

"We tried to cover it with an amnesiac condition in