When he had given the order, I turned to him and motioned towards the television disc.
"Look," I said.
He looked, and when at last he tore his face away from the hood, he seemed ten years older.
"What is it?" he asked in a choked whisper. "Why—they're being wiped out; the whole of that world—"
"True. And some of the seeds of that terrible death might have drifted upward, and found a lodging place upon the surface of our ship. That is why I ordered the emergency speed while we were still within the atmospheric envelope, Barry. To burn away that contamination, if it existed. Now we are safe, unless—"
I pressed the attention button to the station of the chief of the ray operators.
"Your report," I ordered.
"Nine ships disintegrated, sir," he replied instantly. "Five before the city was destroyed, four later."
"You are certain that none escaped?"