You shake the boy. He stirs, opens an eye and then slowly gets to his feet.

"My name is Ingmar," he says. "I'm glad to see you. You're the first new Earth person in over fifty years. How were you captured?"

"I was on an airplane, and I saw this huge spaceship coming, and then, somehow, they took me aboard."

"It was the same with me," says Ingmar. "Only it happened more than three centuries ago, long before airplanes were invented on Earth. I was working on my father's farm in Sweden. There was a tremendous thunder-and-lightning storm. I ran for the barn. The next thing I knew—here I was!"

"Three hundred years! Has anyone escaped in all that time?" you ask.

Ingmar puts a hand on your shoulder. "I'm afraid not. This ship is controlled by the U-TY masters. They collect specimens of the most in-telligent species in the galaxy. This is the chamber of the Earth people. Other chambers contain creatures from other planets."

"Is there any way to see the rest of the ship?"

"Sometimes we can move about, but we can never be sure when. You may find that you can do things here with your mind that you could only do with your hands on Earth. Or, if you have the right kind of mind, and you stand by the for-ward wall, and you think hard enough, you may gain entrance to the chamber beyond it. But what would happen to you, I cannot say. I have never been willing to take the chance."

~ If you try to get to the nextchamber,

< GO TO CHAPTER 13 >

~ If you try to wake up the girl, U - TY,

< GO TO CHAPTER 14 >