Gently, the Captain's hands took the rifle away from Templar. They pointed the muzzle at his belly and signalled for him to lie down. When Templar stared uncomprehending, they fired a blast near his cheek. By the time the Captain's hands had finished trussing Templar with his own trousers and belt, the blue-eyed young man had noticed the thing on his Captain's neck—and quietly gone mad.
After binding Hogan's unconscious bulk, it dragged both of them into the spheroid. There it frantically opened drawers, thumbed through illustrations in books and manuals, pulled levers and pressed buttons indiscriminately, as though it was looking for a clue to guide its further actions. It had dropped its net by the control dome. Now it seemed to be searching for some more effective means of taking men alive. The auto-electric gun manual held its attention, especially the circuit diagrams that showed how the deadly stream of electrons might be widened into a stunning spray. Unfortunately there was even a line drawing of a man stunning and tying a venupod. It stared for a long time at the accompanying frequency tables. The setting-numbers on the receiver of the gun, the corresponding numbers on the table, the logic of mathematics made the thing's inability to read words quite immaterial.
When Spencer clambered through the hatch, the diffusion ray stunned him in his tracks. Quickly it leaped out and stunned Ives and Kwatahiri. After the Captain's hands had bound them with climbing ropes, they lay on the floor of the spheroid, their limp bodies gradually stiffening with horror as the effects of the ray wore off. As their voices began to curse and argue and plead, night descended. But it did not need to turn on the lights.
By morning the men were moaning for water, and the thing seemed to notice the Captain's increasing weakness. It freed him to see what he would do to help himself.
The Captain lunged for the water faucet, but, as the cool water trickled before his eyes and the men on the floor cried out for it, the Captain was thinking. Taking down the small bottle of poison intended for zoological specimens, he poured a few drops into a glass; not much, his stomach would throw back a large dose before it had time to take effect. He had seen that Ives had already rubbed his wrist bonds thin. In a few hours Ives would be free to help the others.
As the Captain raised the glass, the thing quivered and forced his arms down. It made him kneel beside Hogan, hold the glass to Hogan's lips. The still-dazed man drank greedily.
While Hogan was dying, a slow process, it savagely punished the Captain's eye. But he welcomed the pain. Even the thing was unable to control the heaving of his chest or the tears coursing from his good eye.
Spencer raised his head: "Captain, if you can hear me, I want you to know that we understand what has happened. We are still with you, if you are there. If you have to kill us to beat this thing, that's all right."
After that, it gave the Captain no more freedom. With much hesitation and quivering it filled a clean glass and gave his four surviving men water. Then it carefully examined the food in the refrigerator. But Ives was the only one who would eat. After a safety-waiting period, it stuffed the Captain's mouth with only those kinds of food that Ives had eaten.
When the sun began to slant into the open hatchway, the Captain felt the thing's body take on a new motion, a slow, regular rolling motion that increased in speed as it sat his body beside Ives and bent his back until the thing touched Ives' neck. When Ives ceased screaming, the Captain's body rose and turned. On Ives' neck clung a tiny replica of the thing.