onic tests to determine whether this charge is
still with you?"

Burl shook his head. "I'll go along with anything you say."

"Very well," the general smiled. "We'll make our purposes clear to you
afterward. But we want to get this over as soon as we can."

Burl left the room in company with three technicians who had come in.
They took him to the medical office at the base and there he was given a
complete check. At the electronics lab, electrodes were attached to him
and careful readings were made of the natural electrical resistance of
his body, and of his apparent physical charge. After an hour of tests,
Burl was brought back to the main council room.

As he entered, he sensed he had interrupted something important. His
father looked at him, and Burl detected in his face a certain curious
mingling of pride and parental concern. What, the young man wondered,
were they all up to?

When he was seated, the company grew silent. The general pursed his
lips, looked directly at Burl, and said, "I think the time has come to
acquaint you with the problem our world is facing. We may ask you to
make a very personal decision, and we think you ought to know what may
hang on it."

He stopped. Every face at the table was grim. Mark Denning, too, was
sober, though Burl detected that he also did not quite know what was to
come.

"It is apparent that some race of beings, some species from outer space,
unknown to us, has begun a process of tapping the power and light of the
Sun for transmission elsewhere. The station on Earth, which you shut
down, was an important one. But ... it was not the only one. There are
others, operating in this solar system." He nodded to Merckmann.

The old astronomer took the cue. "The observatories of the Earth, aided
by the lunar observers, have definitely determined that there is still a
certain amount of light being shifted from the faces of other planets
and diverted. We have detected by telescopic and telethermic
measurements that there are areas of Sun-disturbances on the surfaces of
the planets Mercury and Mars. We suspect the existence of one on Venus.
We believe that this may prove to be true on other planets as well, but
we have no doubt of the first two.

"Measurements of the amount of Sun power being piped away, and of the
effect of the magnetic disturbances used to create and maintain these
stations, have shown that they will have a definite effect on the
structure of the Sun itself.