"I think it best that you be paralyzed now."
Ivy still could not move. There was in all this a dreamlike quality which she could not believe. Within her mind she slowly retreated.
The old man opened the door. Two men who had been waiting came quickly in, clutched her, injected her. In a moment she lay on the floor, the drug hanging heavily on her wildly pulsing heart.
The first old man stood over her, pulled out a small notebook.
"You are lucky," he said, with an ironic smile, "I think I will breed you myself."
He bent down and touched her. The white eyes grew dark at the edges.
"I think I will breed you tomorrow," he said.
The scout ship of the Galactics hung in a hole in space several feet in the air above Main Street. The bending mechanism was on, light rays were diverted around it. It was invisible, unapproachable, although it admitted enough light so that it itself could see. Kunklin and Prule, who were for a while similarly almost nonexistent, floated down from the ship and walked away curiously in the middle of the street. They adjusted themselves to solidity in the alley behind Web's hotel. The power necessary to maintain the bender was enormous, and had to come from portable power sources, and they decided that it would be best to save power for emergencies. Prule searched for a moment through a small, voluted lens. He found Web.
"What's he doing?"