Saxon sat down beside her. "I don't understand it," he said for the hundredth time. "I don't understand any of it."
All at once, his scalp began to prickle its warning and Saxon recognized the alien feel. At the same instant Ileth screamed, leaping to her feet. Saxon felt his mouth go dry, his stomach contract as he stumbled erect beside her.
Not ten yards distant, in the path of the rising sun, a naked man was materializing before their eyes. Saxon could see the grass and the hills and a segment of Alpha Centauri A through the man's body.
A thought struck into Saxon's mind. "So there you are." It emanated from the Alien. "We were afraid you might have gotten clean away."
Saxon realized the man was quite solid now, standing with bare feet planted in the pale green grass. There was an instrument like a watch strapped to his wrist. He was holding a small shiny cylinder.
Saxon caught an echo of Ileth's thought. "Oh Lord, he's naked as a grape!"
The man leveled the cylinder. There was a brief flash.
Saxon felt an instant's giddiness, a rapid dissolution, then nothing.
VIII