"Yes," Woodward said.
That night, in a hotel room in Washington, Dr. Carl Woodward died of a coronary thrombosis.
Secretary of Science Ridgemont, however, was curious enough about the doctor's story to send a deputation to his home in Pennsylvania. As a simple precaution, one of the men in the party was an armed policeman named Sergeant Kemmer. At the first sight of the blue-skinned man, Kemmer became alarmed enough to draw his gun. Borsu recognized the weapon, and its dangerous potential, from his reading. Frightened, he tried to flee through the front door, and Kemmer misinterpreted his movement as an attack. He fired three times. One of the bullets penetrated Borsu's temple, and killed him instantly.
Three months passed before the next delegation from the aliens appeared on Earth. This time, their arrival was detected, and the visitors were brought safely to the local authorities in the Nebraska community where their vessel landed. Their names were Cor, Basuc, and Stytin. Stytin was a female, lovely in her blue-skinned shapeliness.
A team of scientists were dispatched from Washington, Tokyo, and London to take charge of the alien trio. It was another two weeks before their marvelous facility with language permitted them to talk intelligently to their examiners.
On November 8, 1973, Stytin, the blue female, was found assaulted, mutilated, and murdered in the woods near the town of Ponchi. The brutal slaying shocked the scientists, who tried to assure Cor and Basuc that the episode had not been typical of the behavior of the people of Earth. But Cor and Basuc, who had no memory-record of killing, became terrified, and fled. Cor was shot and killed by a farmer, and Basuc was accidently drowned while forging a stream during his escape.
The death of the four aliens, however, didn't prevent the migration from beginning. Hunger—not for food alone, but for the blessed green promise of the Earth—drove the blue aliens to make the journey before receiving assurance of their welcome. Their tiny two, three, and four-man craft began dotting the heavens, filling the world with fears and panics that were only partially allayed by the repeated assurances of the world's leaders. Despite explanations and pleas for order, the blue people were frequently slain the moment their ships touched Earth. There was never an official estimate of the deaths, but it was certain that well over three thousand of the aliens lost their lives before ever tasting a drop of cool Earth water, or knowing the shade of an Earth tree, the peaceful blue of an Earth sky.
Finally, the killings were over. Less than seven thousand Blues survived the perilous journey, protected upon their arrival by contingents of armed soldiers, sped to the scene of the landings in time to stop the citizens from their slaughter.