She finally got through to the other Oholos. They listened, because the
expected attack had not come.
They came for her and she met their airship in the street. They soared
above the silent city of Denver.
"A _Knoug_!" one said. "Who ever would have thought a _Knoug_ would do
that!"
She tried to explain but they did not listen for they were busy with
other thoughts. She was still crying, but inwardly now. She said,
"Don't you see what he might have _become_ within a few years?"
"Imagine hitting hyperspace without a shield," one Oholo said.
"It must have turned the ship inside out!"
"So the Knougs actually believed it was a weapon that did it!" another
said, pleased.
Lauri said, woodenly, "He was very strong. He was almost as strong as I
am. He would have become even stronger."
"There's no Knoug as strong as one of our best workers, Lauri."
"He was more than a Knoug," she insisted gently. "A Knoug would have
just--just gone on being what he was."
She fell silent, remembering.
"It played hell with this planet," an Oholo said. "It'll take years to
straighten it out."
"Not years," another said, looking down at the night. "No. I think not
years. One of the governments we were primarily concerned with has been
changed. The people finally got the chance to overthrow it, and they
did. That's a good sign. I think our work will be easier now. It's
always easier to rebuild than to change."
_Lauri!_
She froze. "Listen!"
And they listened, high up.
_Lauri!_
"Yes!" she cried.
_Come to me!_
She rushed to the pilot room. She took the controls and spun the ship.
"Did you hear that?" an Oholo said, awed.
"Yes," said another. "... He not only went in unshielded, but he
managed to get back!"
They shook their heads.
And within fifteen minutes she had found his ship, lying below in dying
moonlight.
* * * * *
She brought the aircraft down and within seconds she was running to the
wreckage and pulling his limp body from it.
When the space helmet was off his head, he gasped, "Tore hell out
of my big ship. And ... then I even ... up and ... wrecked this one,
landing.... I'm just ... damned clumsy."
"Get the surgeon!" Lauri cried.
She held his head in her arms while her lips moved soundlessly. Then
she bent to kiss him on the mouth after the Earth fashion, and Parr had
never experienced such a sensation of trust and surrender and promise.
He let his hand move gently down her arm.
"We'll stay here," she whispered. "We'll stay here and help these Earth
people, you and I. You'd like that? To help them?"
"Yes," he said. "It would be nice to ... build instead of destroy. It
would be nice, I think. You and I could help them. I'd like that."
The surgeon came, and they took Parr out of the suit and after a while
the surgeon said, "I don't know much about Knougs. But I'm glad this
one is going to be all right."
Lauri laughed hysterically. The tears were open again. "_I_ couldn't
kill him," she sobbed.
The other Oholos looked puzzled and polite.
"It's a joke!" she said, dizzy with relief. "Of course he'll live,
because even I couldn't kill him!"
Parr smiled up at her.