"This," came the thought, "is an instrument used to extract information from enemies. It will serve as a means of communication."
"Why did you fire on us?" thought Barden.
"You are alien. We are at war; in fact have been at war with the devils from that star—" and here came a mixed-impression of a distorted constellation that was not familiar to Barden, who was not too familiar with astronomy anyway, and so he passed it over. He stopped the alien momentarily, to send one of the men to tell Jerry Brandt to return to within a light-year or so of Procyon.
"But," continued the alien, "you are not using—that?"
"Not exactly," said Barden.
"No, for that means death."
"We were going to try it out," was Barden's calm thought.
"On—NO!" came the terrified reply.
"Well," returned Barden, "we're never pleased with red-hots who shoot at us!"
"But an entire system?" came the pleading exclamation.