“You did,” said the big, rawboned man at whom he was staring. “The first is my daughter Sally.”
It was only then that Ben noticed how small and slender was the figure of the one next to Murchison. Even the girl’s loose robe, similar to that of the men, could not quite conceal her femininity. Her hair was cut short, her hands toil hardened.
“Carson didn’t tell me,” Ben muttered. He grinned at Murchison. “I expected to find you and two assistants, but I didn’t know one would be your daughter.”
“Expected—?” Hope glinted in five pairs of eyes. Above them there was a shouted command to get to work, and a cylinder was waved threateningly.
“I’ll explain as we go along,” Ben said hastily. “Show me what to do.”
Bannon, a short, thickset man with a mop of unruly black hair shoved a pair of tongs into Ben’s hands and quickly explained how to hold the rivets with which the group was working. In effect they were constructing a huge cylinder. Looking down, Ben saw that it descended into the bowels of Teris.
The others were pressing Ben for his explanation but he insisted that they tell their stories first. The same thing had happened to them as to him. Within some thousands of miles of Teris they had felt a force pull them toward it. Then they had passed out and awakened to find themselves prisoners.
“I know all that,” Ben said. “But in all the time you’ve been here you must have found out a good deal. What goes on here? Why are they taking prisoner every one who approaches the planet? Why do they conceal its existence from our system?”
Murchison paused between blows of his hammer, as though to wipe sweat from his brow.
“Since you seem in a hurry,” he said, “I will tell it in brief. You are in the center of a planet whose evil people are engaged in one enterprise: the conquering and subjugating of our universe.”