"You're the only one left, Commander. The others didn't get away in time."
Quickly, Carter explained to the dazed officer, who had no recollection of anything that had happened to him since entering the Khethlani's sphere of power.
"That's—that's unbelievable," Gendron said.
"It's all over now." Carter glanced upward. Something bright was circling the planet in a landing orbit.
"What's that?"
"It's a spaceship," Carter said. "Drawn in by your decoy SOS signal—only now it's the real thing."
"Will he see us?"
"He'll see the smoke," Carter said. "He'll rescue us."
There'd be some delay now, he realized, before he got to Ophiuchus VII for that vacation.
In fact, he might never get there, he knew now. He had a big job ahead of him—and he was the only man in the universe qualified to do it, him and his tin skull.