There was finally something human within Sam Collins that he could not deny. He wanted to live. It wasn't true. He did care what happened.
You do? said somebody.
He does? asked somebody else, surprised, and suddenly he again got the image of wiser, older creatures, a little ashamed because of what they had done to the creature named Doc Candle.
He does, chorused several voices, and Sam Collins cried aloud: "I do! I want to live!" They were just touching lightspeed; he felt it.
This time it was not just a biological response. He really wanted help. He wanted to stay alive.
From the older, wiser voices he got help, though he never knew how; he felt the ship move slipwise under him, and then a crash.
And Doc Candle got help too, the only help even the older, wiser ones could give him.
They pulled him out of the combined wreckage of the spaceship and his house. Both were demolished.
It was strange how the spaceship Sam Collins was on crashed right into his house. Ed Michaels recalled a time in a tornado when Sy Baxter's car was picked up, lifted across town and dropped into his living room.