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Fifty ran Biryuzov could see the Red Recall plainly as he and his five comrades orbited Mars in the three ships of the First Soviet People&039;s Expedition For Tigran, Earth and the Wanderer were two bright planets about as far apart as adjoining stars in the Pleiades Even in airless space, their crescent shapes were not quite apparent to the Communist spaceman&039;s unaided eye

Radio communications from home had stopped with the Wanderer&039;s appearance, and for two days the sixon in the next orbit sunward The projected surface landing on Mars, scheduled for ten hours ago, had been postponed

Their telescopes showed theh - the capture and destruction of the moon, the weird surface patterns of the Wanderer - but that was all

Not only was the Red Recall plainly visible to Tigran, but also its dark red visual echoes froht side of Earth He started to note down, "Krasniya molniya - " and then broke off to beat his cheeks with his knuckles in a fury of frustrated curiosity and to think, Red lightning! Mother of Lenin! Blood of Marx! What next? What next?

The saucer students had ly lio had finished answering the, and the swiftly-sinking tide had uncovered , even a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway

Hixon suot saucers, which we knew And they got energy guns&039;ll shoot rays that can chop up ot three-D TV a lot better than ours, which er, which doesn&039;t! Why should they be in danger?"

Ann said brightly: "Maybe there&039;s another planet after the but that, Annie, please," Wojtowkz protested comically "One weird planet is all I can stand"

At that htened, and Clarence Dodd, who alone of the noise, as if he&039;d tried to cry out and choked on the cry, and he hunched away from the east and at the same time pointed his hand in that direction above thethere, between the Wanderer and the serrated eastern horizon, was a gibbous shape half again as wide as the Wanderer, all an unvarying, bright steely gray except for one glittering highlight o felt, Now the sky&039;s too heavy - it ht, And a voice like a trumpet spoke and the Lamb opened another seal and anotherand anotherand another

Wojtowicz yelled softly: "My God, Ann was right It is another planet"

"And it&039;s bigger" That was Mrs Hixon

"But it&039;s not round," Hixon protested, alrily

"Yes, it is," Hunter contradicted, "only it&039;s partly in shadow, more than the Wanderer is It&039;s as much in shadow as the moon would be if it were there"

"It&039;s at least seven Wanderer-diameters down the sky from the Wanderer," the little Man pronounced, so quickly recovered fro out his notebook "That&039;s fifteen degrees An hour" He uncapped his pen and studied his wrist watch

Raht&039;s the reflection of the sun Its surface must be like a dull mirror"

Ann said, "I dont like the new planet, Moolden and lovely, but this one&039;s in arainst her waist, but kept her eyes on the new planet as she said ringingly: "I think the gods are at war The stranger devil has coht the devil we know"

The Little Man, already jotting notes, said eagerly: "Let&039;s call it the Stranger - that&039;s a good enough naht, Or you could call it Wolf - no, that ht confuse it with the Jaws

Mrs Hixon snarled at them: "Oh, for Christ&039;s sake, spare us the poetry! A new planet h it all Ray Hanks was calling querulously fro about? I can&039;t see it fro Harry McHeath was thinking how glad he was to be here and alive, hoonderful it was to have been born to these sights, how miserable for those who missed theh to him He vaulted up on the back of the truck, laid his hand on a mirror, and held it so that Hanks could see the reflection of the Stranger in it

Wanda and Ida and the Raether Now Wanda siround where she was and put her face in her hands andto have another heart attack"

But Ida pounded on the Ra, "What is it, Charlie? What&039;s its real naer with a tortured expression and finally said, in a voice that, though defeated-sounding, had a strange undertone of relief and of opening doors: "I don&039;t know, Ida I just don&039;t know The universe is bigger thanout froer and traveled to the Wanderer, in the tick of a wrist watch, and passed it one in front and one behind, and then went on seeht as if draith a ruler and a penful of luminous blue ink But where the blue line passed in front of the Wanderer there was an eruption of white coruscations alht

One of the lines ca faintly the black crescent with blue, revealing its shape and the sphericity of the entire body

"Jesus, it is war" Again Wojtoas the quickest to respond vocally

"Lasers," said the Little Man "Bea - it&039;s al the sides," Hunter put in awestruck, "the leakage Suppose you had to look one of those in the face A million suns!"

"A hundred, anyway," said the Little Man "If one of those beams should point even for a moment at Earth"

Blue and steel touched off an intuition in Hixon&039;s mind "I tell you what," he said excitedly, "the new planet&039;s police! It&039;s co us"

"Bill, you&039;re nuts," Mrs Hixon yelled across at hiht! I hope they kill each other!" Pop yelled shrilly, his whole body tre as he shook his clenched fists at theuts out!"

"I sure don&039;t," Wojtowicz told hi around in an odd little circle as he stared at the sky "What&039;s to keep us froht across your back yard? You like being a sitting duck for stray shots?"

Hunter said rapidly: "I don&039;t think the near bea the ht," the Little Man said coolly Those bea the Wanderer look more to me like a shot over the bows"

Hixon heard that "Like I said, arrest," he pointed out eagerly "You know - &039;Don&039;t ht blue beath as swiftly as they had first shot out They left behind two yellow afteri with the eyes that saw Yet the two original blue bea shorter and fainter, could still be seen crawling away beyond the Wanderer like straight blue worht they&039;d never quit They must have fired for two minutes"

"Seventeen seconds," the Little Man infor up from his wrist watch "It&039;s a proven fact that in a crisis tiree on alot to watch out for"

"That&039;s right, Doddsy, we got to keep our heads," Wojtowicz agreed loudly, al around in his little circle now, his voice quite gay "They keep throwing surprises at us, and all we can do is keep taking them Whee-yoo! It&039;s like the front line - it&039;s like sitting out a boer, there ca from all around thean to rock The springs of the Corvette and the truck whined and groaned Ray Hanks whi over hi pitched out

To a floating observer, everyone would have see Wojtowicz in his eerie circular dance andone One of the women screamed, but Mrs Hixon cursed obscenely, and Ann cried: "Moo heard that and looked up the slope where she and Hunter had been, and saw boulders descending it in fantastic bounds - aiant&039;s coffin on which they&039;d spread the blanket Unslowed by the weird gust of guilt that went through her, she pulled the momentum pistol out of her jacket and thrust out with her other hand to steady herself against the Corvette, but there was no steadiness there, only a greater rocking The boulders ca to her and shouted: "Is the arrow pointing toward the ed like bounding gray beasts, she pointed theto keep on her feet, claer-button

As the earthquake shocks themselves lessened and damped out, the boulders coincidentally slowed in their wild, sray pillows, slowly rolled instead of bounding, rolled slower yet, and stopped iant&039;s coffin lying where the edge of the truck&039;s shadow had been

Hunter pulled her finger off the button and looked at the scale on the grip There was no more violet

He looked down the quarter hway and for a wonder it looked free of new slides and with the water all gone - though it was sloshing wildly in the farther distance Just across the highway brightly glea, while across froate

Overhead shone the Wanderer and the Stranger, the for into the three-spot - the half-hour stage between the serpent-egg and the mandala - the latter as coldly serene as if its gravity had nothing whatever to do with the earthquake just triggered

In the resounding silence Ida wasvoice: "What do we do now? What&039;s next on the show?"

Mrs Hixon was snarling at hi to do, you clown! It&039;s the end!"

Hunter pushed Margo into the Corvette and got in himself, then stood up behind the wheel and honked the horn for attention He said loudly: "Get into the cars, everybody! Throw our stuff into the back of the truck if anybody wants to, but be quick about it We&039;re driving into Vandenberg"

The Stranger gavewhich Wanda and Mrs Hixon had voiced - "This is too much This is the end" The more scientifically er was near enough to the Wanderer - only about forty thousand miles away if it were the saravity would largely augreat tides the Wanderer had been raising