"Yes why? Why do you insist in the face of the impossible?"
"Because," he said, facing her deliberately, "when I admit defeat James Forrest Carroll dies!"
"You're not suicidal."
"Madness," he said, "is suicide of the mind!"
Rhinegallis nodded and then looked down. He went to her and lifted her face by placing a hand under her chin.
"Rhinegallis," he said softly, "place yourself in my position. You are a prisoner of a culture that is inimical to your own. You are kept alive as a museum piece, a sample of life that refuses to be swayed by your mind-directing machinery. Of all the people of your race, you are the only one that knows and believes.
"Death—or worse—awaits you and yours at the end of some unknown time. You are in the position of being the only one that can do anything at all. Tell me, Rhinegallis, would you sit quietly and accept it?"
"Since I would be unable to do anything alone," replied Rhinegallis, "I would accept fate."
"Then die!" snapped Carroll. "Do nothing? Try nothing? That is stagnation—and stagnation is death!"
"I think Kingallis knows that," said the alien girl with a flash of recognition.