"Shields up," Kara said, as a glow of light came from a ship that was still climbing out of the planet's gravity well.

"Laser?" Vinn asked.

"Limited range," Iain said. "I'm going to have to take out the other ships before they get closer. The shields would hold, I'm sure, but I'm not in the mood to take chances."

"I agree," Vinn said.

The saffer beam glowed. One by one the small vessels flared and disintegrated.

"Did anyone pinpoint the launch sites?" Vinn asked.

"All launch sites recorded," Kara said.

"Let's have a look at one."

The optics showed a rapidly closing hole in the surface ice. "Iain," Vinn asked, "can you use the saffer on lower power to melt a neat hole through to the surface just where that missile rested?"

"Consider it done," Iain said.

When the ice was melted and the water evaporated away, a closed, circular hatch was exposed.

"Want a look inside?" Iain asked.

"If you please, sir," Vinn said.

"Takes a delicate touch," Iain said, adjusting the saffer beam.

Metal went molten, sparkled away into the thin air. There was a flare of fire.

"Oxygen atmosphere inside," Iain said.

"Curious," Vinn said. "The spacecraft was unmanned, but came from an oxygen environment."

"We will talk," Sarah said.

"What?" Pete asked.

"Now we will talk," Sarah repeated, her voice flat and unemotional.

"Sarah?" Vinn asked, leaping up to put his hand on her arm.

She looked at Vinn and nodded. "It wants to talk," she said.

A soft gong rang and the computer's monitor came to life. Words formed quickly on the screen.

"Further destruction is not desirable."

Kara's fingers flew. "Who are you?"

"It is not necessary."

"What?" Kara asked.

"It is not necessary."

"It is not necessary for me to use the keyboard?" Kara asked.

"Affirmative."

"Who are you?" Vinn asked.

"I am that which was created."

"By whom?" Vinn asked.

"By the Creators."

"Why have you killed?" Sarah asked. She leaned forward, waiting for the answer to appear on the computer's screen.

"Let them sleep, for when they awaken the universe will tremble."

"You didn't answer my question, damn you," Sarah said. "Why did you kill my family?"

"I watch."

"And murder," Sarah whispered.

"Now we will talk."

"We are ready to talk," Vinn said. "Tell us why it was necessary for you to kill."

"I did not yet know that the time had come."

"What time has come?" Pete asked sharply.

"The time to talk."

The screen flickered. An image of the surface formed and as they watched ice shattered, cracked, parted to reveal a gray metal surface. Like a lens opening a circular cavity appeared. Words were superimposed over the image.

"You will come."

"What happened to the vessel called the Erin Kenner?" Vinn asked.

The image of the local sun, showing a series of flares reaching hungrily into space, appeared on the screen.

"A woman was aboard, a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes."

Vinn's heart pounded as an image of Sheba came to the screen to be consumed instantly by a blast of white.

"Why?" Sarah cried.

The images were in their minds. Among a field of closely crowded starsswam planets that, from a distance, showed the most wonderful color ever seen from the emptiness of space, the blue of a water world. A closer view of one planet showed the brown and green of continents, the feathery pattern of weather systems, the wide blue of oceans. With dizzying swiftness the viewpoint closed to show the graceful towers of a city.

Vehicles crawled along the streets, soared through the sky. It was not possible to distinguish the details of tiny figures on the walks and the streets, but it was apparent that they walked on two legs. The towers were painted in bright, complementary colors, and the architectural styling was delicate.

Suddenly the spires that reached into the sky trembled, crumbled.

Structures twisted, imploded. The crawling vehicles and the tiny figures were buried by falling debris. Flying vehicles fell from the sky to smash into the chaos. A longer view showed a storm of fire consuming the green forests. A pall of dust and smoke hid the world for long seconds and then, events having been obviously accelerated, they saw a barren globe. Even the atmosphere had been burned away. Everything on the surface had been reduced to rubble so small that no tiny piece could give a clue as to its origin.

There were other dead worlds. They were displayed one by one and then there was a moment of silence in the control room of the Crimson Rose.

The computer screen glowed. "I watch to assure that it will never happen again."

"You're right, it's time for us to talk," Vinn said.

"Come, then."

"When our friends came to you, you killed them," Vinn said.

"I did not know then that you were they who will come."

"We'll talk as we are talking," Vinn said. "At least for a while. What you've shown us happened long ago. You are old. Things are not as they once were. We are a peaceful people."

"You go armed."

"Yes, because we've seen the dead worlds," Vinn said. "Yes, because theuniverse is so vast and we know only a miniscule portion of our own galaxy. If we didn't go armed, we'd be dead now at your hands."

"You are not dead. You are they who have come."

"And you are—" Vinn did not put the concept into words. He pictured a core, a regularly spaced grid, and into his mind came corrections. The central storage areas of the Watcher were compact, occupying no more than three cubic yards of space inside a shell of force constructed of shaped gravitational waves. The ganglia of the Watcher's nervous system extended around the globe and were connected not only to the icing units but to hundreds of launch sites occupied by small ships, to an array of sensor and detection instruments. One large area was a blank in the image projected by the Watcher.

"You still have something to hide from us," Vinn said.

"You must know all, for you are they who have come."

Once again the iris opened on the surface. This time a blaze of light flared upward, lighting a metal-lined chamber.

"We have waited. As you have said, I am old."

"We?" Vinn asked.

They saw a dimly lit room that extended away into what seemed to be infinity. Oblong objects with transparent domes lined each wall. They, too, extended forever, perspecting away until walls and domed oblongs merged together at the limit of vision. It was not possible to look into the clear-domed containers. There was movement and it was as if they flew down the center aisle of the room into the distances only to turn and soar through still another long room filled with the same oblongs from which glowed soft, yellow lights.

"Together we will decide if it is time to waken them."

The computer screen was blank. There were no induced images in Vinn's mind. He turned away from the console, his face white. "Waken them?" he whispered.

"Let them sleep," Sarah said, "for when they awaken the universe willtremble."

"Listen," Pete said, "don't fight it. We are they who have come."

"With all due respect," Vinn said, "cynical humor is just a bit out of place."

"Yes, sorry," Pete said. "Look, I'm going down there, whether any of you go with me or not. There's too much at stake. A new source of cheap power. And have you thought that what that thing can do—speaking directly into our minds—just might open up a totally new method of communications?"

"We have assumed that Mom and Pop Webster were lured down to the surface by the high metallic readings," Vinn said, "and that the others went down to reclaim the bodies of their dead. Are we to be lured down by the promise of great wealth and power through new technology?"