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How does one set up A barrier against mental attack? Lucky had the desire to resist, but there were no uard he could throw up, no way he could return violence Heall those impulses that flooded his mind which he could not surely tell to be his own

And how could he tell which were his own? What did he himself wish to do? What did he hi entered hisHe had not come up here without a plan

Up here?

Then he had coinally, he had been down

Far down in the recesses of his ht, That&039;s it

He was in a ship It had come up from the sea bottom It was on the surface of the water now Good What next?

Why at the surface? Dimly he could remember it was safer underneath

He bent his head with great difficulty, closed his eyes and opened thehts were very thick

He had to get word so

He had to get word

Get word

And he broke through! It was as though so shoulder to a door and it had burst open There was a clear flash of purpose, and he reotten

Ship&039;s radio and the space station, of course

He said, huskily, "You haven&039;t got me Do you hear that? I re"

There was no answer

He shouted aloud, incoherently Hisan overdose of a sleeping drug Keep the

In his case, he had to keep hisDo soet you

He continued shouting, and sound became words, "I&039;ll do-it I&039;ll do it" Do what? He could feel it slipping froain

Feverishly, he repeated to himself, "Radio to station radio to station" but the sounds were beco now His body turned cluh his joints ood and nailed in place, but it was turning He faced the radio He saw it clearly for a y He bent his ain He could see the transle and the frequency condensers He could recall and understand its workings

He took a dragging step toward it and a sensation as of red-hot spikes boring into his teered and fell to his knees, then, in agony, rose again

Through pain-hazed eyes, he could still s moved, then another

The radio seemed a hundred yards away, hazy, surrounded by a bloodyin Lucky&039;s head increased with each step

He fought to ignore the pain, to see only the radio, to think only of the radio He forced his legs tothe him down

Finally, he put out his arers were still six inches away from the ultrawave, Lucky knew that his endurance was at an end Try as he ht, he could drive his exhausted body no closer It was all over It was ended

The Hilda was a scene of paralysis Evans lay unconscious on his cot; Bigh Lucky reertips were the only sign of life in him

The cold voice in Lucky&039;s ain in its even, inexorable monotone: "You are helpless, but you will not lose consciousness as did your companions You will suffer this pain until you decide to sube your ship, tell us ish to know, and end your life We can wait patiently There is no way you can resist us There is no way you can fight us No bribe! No threat!"

Lucky, through the endless torture, felt a striving within his sluggish, pain-soakednew

No bribe? No threat?

No bribe?

Even through the ht fire

He abandoned the radio, turned his thoughts away, and instantly the curtain of pain lifted a fraction Lucky took a faltering step away from the radio, and it lifted a bit more He turned away completely

Lucky tried not to think He tried to act auto on preventing his reaching the radio They er they faced The pitiless enemy must not deduce his intentions and try to stop him He would have to act quickly They must not stop him

They must not!

He had reached the first-aid wall chest and flung open its door He could not see clearly, and he lost precious seconds in fu

The voice said, "What is your decision?" and the fierceness of pain began to cla councilman once more

Lucky had it-a squat jar of bluish silicone His fingers groped through what see cotton for the little catch that would shut off the paranetic ht

He scarcely felt the little nudge as one fingernail caught the catch He scarcely saw the lid move to one side and fall off He scarcely heard it hit the floor with the sound of ainst metal Fuzzily, he could see that the jar was open, and hazily, he lifted bis arm toward the trash ejector

The pain had returned in all its fury

His left arht ar

His arer see A red haze covered everything

He felt his arm and the jar it held strike the wall He pushed, but it would ers on his left hand inched down fro of the trash ejector, and touched the jar

He daren&039;t drop it now If he did, he would never in his life find the strength to pick it up again

He had it in both hands, and together both hands pulled at it It inched upward, while Lucky hovered closer and closer to the edge of unconsciousness

A nd then the jar was gone!

A million miles away, it seemed, he could hear the whistle of compressed air, and he knew the jar had been ejected into the warm Venusian ocean