When It died, an intangible weight lifted from Kent Knight's mind. The intoxication of that feeling of an untrammelled mind mingled with the fiery liquor that still burned in his belly.
"All right, Bob," he said, and he was grinning. "I'll fight you now."
Mallory grinned back. "It's all right, Kent. I'm just beginning to understand. It's hazy, but somehow I feel that I have just escaped some terrible fate. I've been in a daze ever since we challenged the Star Climber. But what happened to me to do that, Kent?"
Kent Knight, his mind exulting, told Mallory of the asteroid, the little fur-ball and the Arkkhans who were seeking to enslave Man.
"But our minds are too strong for them," he pointed out at last. "They can keep us in thrall just so long and then they weaken and die."
A shuffle of feet on the duralloy deck turned their heads. SP guardsmen were pushing their way into the pilot room, and they were laughing.
Their laughter brought a sudden drenching to Knight's high-flying spirits. The Things still lived within these men. The threat to Earth was still alive, so long as the Things held sway within the minds of the crewmen. But we need only to wait, and soon their minds will kill the Thought Conquerors.
Knight looked at Mallory. Mallory nodded and said, "It may take a long time." He reached to the control board and pushed the switch, turning the cycs up to full power.
It was then that the little butterball of fur rolled in from the passageway and scooted across the deck toward Mallory's legs.