"Nobody is trying that thing again in my lab," said Tom Banning. "Do you think I want a couple of corpses on my hands? Not to mention the droves of police that your screaming will bring down."
"We've got to know," Jim said. "Listen, Tom, I'll tell you where we got this record. Then you can judge for yourself."
Rapidly, he told Tom all that had happened since their first experience with the Prospector. The brain specialist listened impassively until the end of the story.
"So you conclude there's something monstrous on the moon, and this experience you've just had would indicate that it's highly inimical to human life," said Tom.
"That's about it," said Jim.
"What do you expect to do about it?"
"I want to finish what we started here. Then I've got to show the authorities that the moon project has got to stop. We can't go ahead with our moon landings now. If we do, that thing will be stirred out of dormancy into life—and, somehow, it will make its way to earth. I wouldn't be surprised if it could navigate space alone, its own naked being."
Tom turned back to his equipment. "All right, let's go. I want to get a sampling of that before we're through, too."
With a control that he could operate himself, Jim found it endurable. With the control at minimum intensity, he tensed for that first terrible impact of the alien impulses pouring into his own mind.
They were weaker, but still he felt as if the shroud of death had settled over him. He heard a moan from Sam and knew his companion was experiencing the same sensations.