"Yet, your people reared without controls are dissenters.... I fear they might not accept our guidance, that at some future time their will to power might create an even greater problem to be solved. However, there's no alternative now. We accept the fifteen men of metal, O Terran, but above all we must have the 'Sleeping Ones' whose minds we will study. We Panadurs must guard against a future paradox. Your people," he paused and gazed from Mark to Palanth, "may remain."
The mental rapport was broken, and the furred leader disappeared into the depths of the cavern, leaving Mark and Palanth to retrace their steps to the Stellar Virgin.
For the first time in her highly-trained life, Lucero felt the full impact of loneliness as the Europan night swallowed Mark and Palanth. At last she chose action rather than endure the atavistic emotions that had begun to grip her. And methodically she flitted silently from compartment to luxurious compartment where the scientists dreamt their drugged sleep. Carefully she scanned their faces and was struck by one overwhelming fact—this was no collection of second rate scientists for the solution of routine problems, but an assemblage of the first order, now inert and helpless in the coma of Vanadol, presided over by a sphinx-like robot.
The last compartment was much larger than the preceding ones, and by far more luxurious; during the previous inspection, Mark, Palanth and herself had had no time to come this far, and the girl was startled at its complex magnificence. Equipped for research work, it was a miracle of scientific devices, from energizing cabinets to a bewildering array of surgical apparatus and tools.
Only one man occupied it, and on the raised dais an immobile robot. But the face that Lucero bent over made her gasp with involuntary fear. It was the face of Verdugo, the infamous cerebral surgeon whose gifted fingers could change an entire ego with a few movements of the atomic scalpel.
The sight of the dreaded scientist in their midst was startling enough, but what made the girl turn ashen was the sudden flutter of the surgeon's lids. A painful groan came from his lips, as he trembled and opened his eyes. The sight of Lucero bending over him seemed to reassure him, for he smiled faintly.
Behind Lucero the towering robot glided noiselessly to peer at his awakening master. The girl was unaware it had moved.
"Shall I bring a measure of Thassalian, Master?" The metal man's richly modulated voice rose without the slightest mechanical inflection.
For one shattering instant, the girl felt as if her reason was taking wings. She remained utterly still as if in the grip of paralyzing hysteria. But her training saved her. Slowly she turned and gazed into the strangely human features of the metal giant. At close quarters she noted the smooth beryloid construction of the superb outer shell; the indestructible optics of non-abradable, chemically inert crystal with microscopic adjustments. But most important of all, she sensed that here was a brain which had attained full growth—powerful, experienced and ... organic!