CHAPTER VI
The three spider ships waited in the late evening darkness. Only a few spectators loitered. The television cameras were quiet. Army sentries patroled the area to keep the starmen inside and the curious out. Norma's heels clicked sharply on the runway as she approached. At the ropes she stopped and showed the guard the entry permit her brother had obtained for her.
"Come under," the guard said, lifting the rope.
"The one called Herb?"
"He's in that one over there."
She moved in the indicated direction. A moment before, the night had been warm. Now an uncomfortably chill breeze whispered around her as she moved into the starship's shadow. The thought of the distance it had come, the countless millions of miles of space its hull had shed, was enough to dwarf her into less than insignificance. She wanted to run back to the guard, and to the protection of the familiar.
The ladder was down, and when she reached it, the door above opened and a starman looked out.
"I'd like to come up."
The starman went away. In a moment, he was back with one of the three who could speak English.