"You were seeing with my eyes. Your people have invented machines to
do that--the X-ray machine, the fluoroscope. They are crutches. They
cannot do half so well as the eye alone!"
"But it's impossible!" he burst out.
She shook her head. "No. Consider the facts. Even in the densest solid,
there is more space than matter. Every atom is like a miniature solar
system. There is an infinity of space in that bulkhead but only a drop
of matter no bigger than a grain of sand. Is it not true?"
Joel nodded.
Tamis giggled. "You know that, and yet you let the grain of sand
obstruct your view!"
"But why hide yourselves?" he burst out. "With powers like that...."
"I didn't destroy the wall," she interrupted. "I recognized its
transparent qualities. That is all. We have no weapons, no science that
can destroy. We can only hide!"
"But why hide?" he persisted.
She regarded him sadly. "Your people are a hard grasping
race--ruthless. What has happened to the dominant life forms of Mars
and Venus? They are extinct!
"We don't propose to be driven into extinction. We have hidden
ourselves, waiting for a weapon to free Asgard. And now the Republic
itself has given us one!"
"The Republic has given you a weapon!"
"Yes. The maladjusted. The misfits. They are being organized. They are
our weapon!"
"Very interesting!" drawled a low voice from the doorway to the
fo'cs'le.
Tamis gave a startled gasp. Her face paled. Joel sprang to his feet.
Professor Gustav Liedl stood just inside the doorway. He held a small
poisoned needle automatic trained unwaveringly at Joel's belly.