"No," said Durham suddenly, "Jubb will not. Look there!"
* * * * *
Shining with a furious light, the Star had torn itself away from the
clustering shadows that hung around it.
Durham's heart congealed with a foretaste of icy death. The face of the
Nantan officer paled, and Karlovic said in a voice that was not like
his voice at all, "I must talk to Jubb."
He reached out to shift their single screen, and the Nantan officer
said, "Wait, he is speaking on our alternate. I can adjust the
scanner--"
The picture flopped, blurred, and cleared again, showing now in
addition to the officer a part of the Nantan's alternate-channel
screen. Jubb was speaking, and it seemed to Durham that the Senyan's
strange face was clearly, humanly alarmed.
He said, "I cannot withdraw the Star. No, this is not a lie, a
trick--hold your fire, you idiots! I'm the only hope you have now. The
Star has profited by the lesson of its docility a thousand years ago,
when it let itself be led back into captivity. Now it has grown, too
much. It cannot be brought back to any world."
Durham looked out at the beautiful deadly thing blazing so splendidly
in the void. "Can it be destroyed?"
"The darkbirds can destroy it," said Jubb. "If they will."
The Nantan officer, speaking from lips the color of ashes, said to the
image of Jubb on the screen, "You have one minute to get it out of here
before I fire."
Jubb turned his face away and spoke, to something they could not see.