We put on helmets that Ritter and Young had made for us. We stepped down the metal ladder.
They were there, waiting for us.
I'd rather have faced a bushmaster or a rhino.
They stood on three legs. They had globe bellies, tiny heads, and no necks. They were of a color I had never seen before. They had two arms with two hands attached to each arm. I suppose they were hands. They were more like claws.
I stood frozen solid. Joe Roane screamed and turned to run back up the ladder. A beam flashed and Joe fell forward, silent and very dead.
After that it was all a blank.
When I came to I was strapped down by metal clasps on a long board made of some kind of marble. I was alone for some time.
I don't remember how long it was before one of them appeared. He stood by my side, looking down at me. His eyes were purple. There were no whites. "You have come a long way," he said.
"You—you speak English?"
"We used a 64-V machine on you. We learned your language, your thoughts, your name. We know about Norbert Marsten. A very enterprising man, it seems."