"I will do it. I promise you."
Bud said intently, "You must promise, I must know."
"I promise."
"Nothing will happen to her? She's all I have left. All. Child of my beloved mother."
Tension accumulated between Bud and the starman. Norma realized that her brother was no longer sane.
The car slowed and stopped. Still Norma did not move. She was too terrified. They came to her door and opened it.
George pulled her roughly from the seat. She moaned but she did not open her eyes. His hard muscles against her were deadly and threatening, and her knees were so weak that, had she wanted to, she could not have supported herself.
She heard a starman's feet on the steel ladder that descended from the spider ship. She felt herself scooped up and dropped over his shoulder. In the background she heard her brother's voice, "Child of...." The agony of the voice was almost unendurable. "You must tell her what I did to save her."
And she was jolted harshly upon the starman's shoulder as he swung her up the ladder.
George's feet clanged behind her on the steel, and she heard the sharp, laboring hiss of the breath of the man carrying her.