"Now," said the Nantan officer, "withdraw the Star."
Karlovic said, "Jubb will do so—"
"No," said Durham suddenly, "Jubb will not. Look there!"
Shining with a furious light, the Star had torn itself away from the clustering shadows that hung around it.
Durham's heart congealed with a foretaste of icy death. The face of the Nantan officer paled, and Karlovic said in a voice that was not like his voice at all, "I must talk to Jubb."
He reached out to shift their single screen, and the Nantan officer said, "Wait, he is speaking on our alternate. I can adjust the scanner—"
The picture flopped, blurred, and cleared again, showing now in addition to the officer a part of the Nantan's alternate-channel screen. Jubb was speaking, and it seemed to Durham that the Senyan's strange face was clearly, humanly alarmed.
He said, "I cannot withdraw the Star. No, this is not a lie, a trick—hold your fire, you idiots! I'm the only hope you have now. The Star has profited by the lesson of its docility a thousand years ago, when it let itself be led back into captivity. Now it has grown, too much. It cannot be brought back to any world."
Durham looked out at the beautiful deadly thing blazing so splendidly in the void. "Can it be destroyed?"