"I'm finished," said Thompson, "but wait before you blast. The Little Man seems to want me to confer with him for a moment."
Thompson's ship took off. Toralen Ki emerged from his stateroom with the instrument. He planted it on a table, turned it on, and strapped the plate to his forehead. He offered the other one to Thompson.
Thompson understood. He knew that the Little People had a means of mental communication that augmented their speech. He accepted the plate and strapped it on his own head.
"Now," said Toralen Ki, "I may at last converse with you and your race."
"What is the machine?" asked Thompson.
"The others—they are all right?"
Thompson nodded. "They are destroying the machine. Tell me, what is it?"
Toralen Ki nodded in agreement. "Tell them to destroy it and then to return, for I must speak with them through this, now that the machine is stopped and I may. But destroy it, for the Loard-vogh may have remote control and if they have, it may be started again at any moment."
"Before I blast any alien machine," said Thompson, "I must know what it is. You insist that it be destroyed. How do I know that the machine is not benign?"