st, please. We will not blast unless
you fire first. A few minutes, please."

* * *

A group of twelve jet fighters took off practically vertically upward
and climbed with fantastic speed. They leveled off a thousand feet below
the _Pleiades_ and made a flying circle. Up and into the ring thus
formed there lumbered a large, clumsy-looking helicopter.

"We have no record of any planet named 'Tellus'; nor of any such ship as
yours. Of such incredible mass and with no visible or detectable means
of support or of propulsion. Not from this part of the galaxy, certainly
... could it be that intergalactic travel is actually possible? But
excuse me, Captain Garlock, none of that is any of my business; which is
to determine whether or not you four Tellurian human beings are
compatible with, and thus acceptable to, our humanity of Hodell ... but
you do not seem to have a standard televideo testing-box aboard."

"No, sir; only our own tri-di and teevee."

"You must be examined by means of a standard box. I will rise to your
level and teleport one across to you. It is self-powered and fully
automatic."

"You needn't rise, sir. Just toss the box out of your 'copter into the
air. We'll take it from there." Then, to James, "Take it, Jim."

"Oh? You can lift large masses against much gravity?" The alien was all
attention. "I have not known that such power existed. I will observe
with keen interest."

"I have it," James said. "Here it is."

"Thank you, sir," Garlock said to the alien. Then, to Lola: "You've been
reading these--these Hodellians?"

"The officer in the helicopter and those in the fighters, yes. Most of
them are Gunther Firsts."

"Good girl. The set's coming to life--watch it."

The likeness of the alien being became clear upon the alien screen;
visible from the waist up. While humanoid, the creature was very far
indeed from being human. He--at least, it had masculine rudimentary
nipples--had double shoulders and four arms. His skin was a vividly
intense cobalt blue. His ears were black, long, and highly dirigible.
His eyes, a flaming red in color, were large and vertically-slitted,
like a cat's. He had no hair at all. His nose was large and Roman; his
jaw was square, almost jutting; his bright-yellow teeth were clean and
sharp.

After a minute of study the alien said: "Although your vessel is so
entirely alien that nothing even remotely like it is on record, you four
are complet