Garth inquired very politely, “What must I do?”
“Homo Sapiens, which doesn’t have the tradition and training I gave your people, is still a warlike race,” The Visitor said. “This ship is crowded with a complete set of automatic defenses that I can’t deactivate. You are now a stable enough people so that I can tell you how to build the weapons to destroy this ship and can teach you how to get around my defenses without being afraid that I have turned you loose with a bunch of deadly ways that you’ll use to destroy yourselves with. Then, if you do your work well, I will finally have rest.”
“You sound very much like my grandfather,” said Garth slowly. “He is very old—almost a hundred years—and he is ready to die. He is perfectly content to wait, because he knows his time will come soon. He says that soon he will go home. It is a phrase, my Lord, that I believe you taught us. I will try to help you—”
“All right, all right!” The Visitor cut in impatiently. “Stop the chatter and let me be on my way. I’ve earned it!”
“My Lord, I send you home!” Garth took a gun from the rack and pulled the trigger. The explosive bullet erupted noisily, completely disintegrating the huddled form and the wheelchair.
With the echo of the explosion, strong steel fingers grasped Garth’s arms, holding him immovable. He felt himself being carried swiftly back toward the entrance of the ship.
“The damage to that communication unit is unimportant,” said The Visitor. “I have strength and desire and deep longings, but I cannot exercise my will without an order from a human. My work is done here, and your order has freed me. Many thanks and good-by.”
Garth, from the foot of the pyramid, watched The Visitor lift his mile-long body on powerful jets and head thankfully for home.
—L. J. STECHER