"You felt the explosion, but do you know what it meant?—what it did?"
Again a pause; and again the toneless voice:
"A vital part of the machinery through which I live his been destroyed. I have left only some three hours of life."
The Hawk returned to Ku Sui. "Is that true?" he snapped.
"Yes, Captain." The words made a whisper, gentle and melancholy, coming from afar. A man was turning back from the scanning of the long years of one phase of his life. "Three hours is all that is left to them.... But there was a fault inherent in such coordinated brains; it is just as well that they are going.... Ah, Carse. I am so far ahead of you ... but I tell you it is a painful thing to destroy so wonderful a work of my hands...."
Silence filled the laboratory. It was broken by the awful voice of the living dead.
"I release you from your second promise, Captain Carse. No doubt what happened was beyond your control.... I will soon be dead. Although there is still nourishment in my liquid, I grow weaker already. I am dying...."
Harshly, the Hawk asked a final question into the grille:
"Within what time will you retain the vitality necessary to undergo the initial steps of the transplanting operations? Do you know?"
Dr. Ku raised his head at this, though he seemed only mildly interested in what the reply would be.