ONCE the meeting had finished, the Professor and the others walked back to the guesthouse where they were staying. Rex and Morino were there, and after a simple but satisfying meal, Tiger wasted no time in telling his son what he would be doing tomorrow.

Rex nodded. 'I still find it difficult to believe,' he remarked, 'how alike all human races are in the Universe. Not only do we all look nearly the same, we all seem to be affected by the same illnesses.'

Professor Brane nodded vigorously. 'Yes, my boy. One can only conclude that man is more or less the same form on many different planets.'

'But why should that be?' Tiger put the question. 'Surely if everything were left to Nature, different creatures would have ended up as the top dog in different places.'

The Professor shrugged. 'That sounds very reasonable, Group-Captain, and yet it does not seem to be the case. Remember that even on Earth, humans ruled the roost on different continents. When Columbus discovered the New World, he didn't find dinosaurs or giant birds in charge. There were people there to meet him, as leaders of their land.'

Morino stirred. 'We do not speak of this often,' she said quietly, 'but we believe that some Great Force created everything, here and on all the worlds in the Galaxy. We also believe that this Entity chose to produce people such as ourselves everywhere.'

'Goodness me,' interjected the Professor in some excitement. 'This has something I have never learnt before. We have been friends for a long time, Vargo, and I never suspected that you and your race had such ways of thinking.'

Vargo looked surprised. 'Why should we not? Surely every man wonders about the Universe, and how it was formed?'

'Of course,' admitted the Professor, 'yet as I say, you have never mentioned anything like this before. I must confess I had come to the conclusion that Martians and Minoans were totally scientific in their thinking.'

Vargo looked grave. 'Morino is right,' he asserted, 'in saying that normally we do not discuss this. In our ancient history, Professor, our people had very strong beliefs - I gather this is what you call a "religion"?'

The Professor nodded. 'That is correct.'

Vargo spread his hands expressively. 'Unfortunately two different religions, to use your term, arose, each incompatible with the other. The matter seemed so important that the two factions even started fighting with each other, difficult though that may be to believe.'

Tiger snorted. 'That's no different from our Earth history,' he observed, 'except that we are still doing the same thing. But do carry on, Vargo. What happened in this case?'

'The two sides realised the danger of what they were doing,' returned Vargo simply. 'It was decided that strong beliefs were dangerous if they did not allow contrary ways of thinking. Nowadays, therefore, we confine ourselves to the general belief that something made us all, both here, and on other worlds, and made humans the same everywhere.' He looked at Rex and Morino, and smiled a curious smile. 'Take our young friends here. Minoans and Earth people seem to be almost identical, and I would see no reason why they should not produce children in the future.'

Tiger had to stop himself laughing at the expression on Rex's face, then frowned as he carried the thought further. 'That means I would be a grandfather.'

It was Rex’s turn to laugh.

Next morning everyone was awake early. Rex had gone with Morino to sleep at Borron's house, and Tiger was finding this difficult to get used to. 'I suppose it's because we've hardly ever been out of each other's sight for years,' he reflected to Toby. 'It’s inevitable that I'm going to see less of Rex now.'

'I wouldn't concern yourself unduly, Group-Captain,' put in the Professor, overhearing Tiger's remark. 'Once we begin our space explorations Rex will be back with us, and Morino will of course stay here. On Earth also, Rex will be at Glensalich Castle. I would think it is only here that Rex will be away from us.'

Tiger nodded. 'I'm sure you're right, Professor.' He frowned. 'Wait a minute. You mentioned us going into space. I thought that Toby and Rex were going to try penicillin on the people from the saucer, and that we were going to check on the spaceship itself? Nobody said anything about exploring anywhere.'

The Professor looked melancholy. 'That's true, my dear fellow. However, I can't help feeling that we may well end up following the trail of these raiders. Hence my remark.'

Tiger looked stubborn. 'Well, I'm not going to step into the lion's den by going to the raiders' home planet. Apart from anything else, I can't see how it would do any good.'

'The disease may have spread elsewhere', opined Toby. 'If so, I think we should do our best to relieve any suffering it has caused.'

'I think it's too early to decide anything,' suggested Vargo. 'After today, we shall have more information.'

Tiger nodded. 'Well, there is this about it,' he said practically. 'We know that the people who crashed here were ill, and from the fact that the other ship crashed, perhaps they were having trouble, too?'

The Professor frowned. 'What are you saying, Group-Captain?' he inquired.

'I was thinking,' explained Tiger, 'that this disease, whatever it is, may have affected a lot of the raiders. If that's so, we're going to find more crashed ships if we start looking.'

Professor Brane looked startled. 'I hadn't thought of that,' he confessed. 'But if that is the case, we shall have to make sure that we ourselves are protected.'

Tiger nodded. 'That's right. That's another reason for Toby finding out as much as possible about the infection.' He looked into the distance. 'Here comes Rex now.'

In a few minutes, the two parties had formed. Toby, Rex and Rolto donned their spacesuits, ready to go to the healing centre. Tiger, Vargo and the Professor waited until the Tavona touched down lightly beside them. Both groups exchanged handshakes, and then went their respective ways.

Rex felt apprehensive as he walked with his companions to the healing centre. He was carrying some of Toby's equipment, and by the time they all reached the building he was conscious of the weight of his burden. Rolto pressed the locking controls of the centre's door, and it slid open noiselessly, with Rex wondering what they should find.

The building was dark compared with the sunlit day outside, so it took a few seconds for Rex's eyes to adjust. When he could see clearly, he noted with surprise that the medical staff were all sitting around casually, as if there were no crisis at all.

'Strange,' murmured Rolto, evidently having the same thoughts as Rex. 'I wasn't expecting this.' He hailed the nearest man, and asked him what was going on.

The story was simply told. These medical assistants were those unaffected by the disease; through a double set of hermetically sealing doors lay the rooms where the space travellers, and the Martians who had been stricken down, had been isolated. In the last few minutes, however, these last had been seen for just a few seconds, waving and smiling, hence obviously fit and well, as if they had completely recovered. This had happened after Rex and the others had left their quarters, so the doctors at the centre had been unable to radio their news through. Unfortunately they had no similar contact with the people through the doors, so they did not know whether everyone, including the suspected slave raiders, had recovered in the same way. It had been decided not to open the doors to the isolation area, but rather to wait until Toby arrived, so that he could decide upon the next step.

'Things can't be that bad in there,' argued Rex when he had heard all this, 'or we wouldn't be seeing the doctors who have got better.'

Toby narrowed his eyes. 'I'm not quite sure I follow you, Rex.'

'What I mean is,' Rex developed his thoughts, 'either the other people aren't hostile, or else they haven't got better yet. There's no evidence that the medical people have been attacked, or threatened, by the raiders.'

Toby nodded. 'You could be right. Nevertheless, I'm going to take that in with me when I go.' He pointed at his rifle. 'As you know, I very rarely use a gun, but on this occasion I think we're better safe than sorry.'

Silence fell as the locks on the doors were withdrawn, and the doors themselves opened. Rex followed Toby inside, with Rolto just behind him. The doors closed behind them again.

They walked for some yards, following the corridor as it curved to the left. 'This is where the doctors should be,' offered Rolto, 'in this room on the left.' He opened the door as he spoke.

Although he had been hoping that the news was good, Rex still felt surprise as he saw the Martian doctors who had caught whatever strange infection that the visitors had brought. They were all perfectly healthy, and showed no sign of the illness they had previously been suffering. Toby too was surprised, not to mention relieved, that the patients he had been intending to treat, had completely recovered.

'I shall have to find out what affected these fellows, though,' he remarked. 'By the way, what about the people from the spaceship? Have they recovered too?'

The answer to this question was not reassuring. Both of the visitors had died.

Toby looked worried. 'That's awkward,' he said. 'So it looks as if here, we've got a disease that Martians and Minoans can deal with, but which has killed everyone from that ship.'

'What about us?' Rex asked anxiously. 'Will this disease do Earth people any harm?'

Toby shrugged. 'That's what we've got to find out, Rex.' He looked at Rolto. 'Which way to the room where the dead space travellers are?'

Meanwhile, some miles away, the Tavona had just touched down carefully on the roof of the crashed saucer, which, fortunately, had settled only a few degrees from the vertical.

Gator looked at his instruments. 'According to my readings,' he announced, 'the spacecraft may well be in working order. That is, I would think that it was the illness aboard that caused the crash, rather than any mechanical defect.'

'Exactly what we thought,' concurred Tiger. He stood up. 'Okay. Let's get on.'

Everyone dressed in spacesuits. The plan was, if necessary, to sterilise these when leaving the ship, using the device that Tiger had built. In any event, it was hoped that the exploration would yield useful information.

Gator opened the doors, and leaving two crew members in the ship, the others carefully slid down the dome-shaped top of the ship to the entrance steps. The doors opened automatically, another indication that there was power on the stricken vessel.

'Fascinating,' murmured the Professor as they walked into the central chamber of the space raiders' ship, the doors closing behind them. 'Not only does every planet's civilisation builds their spacecraft in much the same way, they even have the same internal layout.'

Vargo smiled briefly. 'Every civilisation discovers the same scientific truths, and then designs the same sort of vessel to exploit them.'

'No,' contradicted Gator, his voice sounding excited. 'As you know, I have been in one of these spaceships before, but the last one was inoperative. This one is fully working, and I would say that there is something new here.’

‘Something new?’ questioned Tiger sharply. ‘Do you mean, something dangerous?’

‘No.’ Gator was looking round the spacecraft as he spoke. ‘I would say that the motive power used in this vessel is in advance of anything I have seen.'

'Goodness me!' said the Professor in some surprise. 'How can you possibly know that?'

Gator smiled apologetically, and pointed at the wall of the spaceship. 'The way that this has been built. It probably does not mean much to you, but to me it is obvious.'

Tiger raised his eyebrows. 'That's all very interesting, but not necessarily the most important thing we need to know at present. Let’s get mobile. Vargo, you went into one of these ships on Krona, and you found a chart, showing that the ship had planned to visit that planet. Can you see anything similar here? I'd like to know whether Mars was the target in this case.'

'Come this way,' requested Vargo. 'As far as I remember, there was a picture of a central planet, and lines radiating out, pointing to possible places to visit. It was on a chart table just like' - he pointed - 'that one.'

The table that Vargo had indicated was empty, but after a few minutes searching, they found another flat surface, more like a desk, with the map they were seeking.

'There's the chart,' breathed the Professor. 'Look.'

Vargo placed a hand on the picture now in front of them, and as if by magic, the map lit up.

‘How did you do that?’ asked Tiger sharply.

Vargo shrugged. ‘I did nothing. The map seemed to know what I wanted.’ He stared at the chart, which now showed about a dozen planets at varying distances from the central world. 'It is interesting that this happened without my intervention. You may be right, Gator. These people do seem to be very advanced.'

‘What a wonderful invention,’ muttered Tiger. ‘I only wish I had been able to navigate with something like that, when I was a pilot.’

'Can you read this map?' asked the Professor. 'That is to say, is Mars one of these planets?'

Vargo shook his head. 'I'm not sure. That is, I don't understand this map.' He moved his hand, and they all involuntarily gasped as the scale of the picture changed, and far more planets became visible.

'That has made things even more difficult to understand,' asserted Vargo in a puzzled voice. 'Now I can identify at least some of these worlds. That triple star, for example, is known to me.

‘The three stars next to one another?’ The Professor looked at the diagram.

‘Yes. The colours – a red star, a yellow one, and a blue one – make the system easily recognisable. Other planets shown here are in the Fourth Region, and therefore a long way from Mars or Mino, but we do know something about a proportion of them.'

'What's the problem?' asked Tiger. 'I was assuming that the chart would show planets that were potential targets for these slave raiders.'

Vargo shook his head. 'That is what I can’t comprehend. Of the planets that I recognise from this map, none of them can be of any such interest. Every one is uninhabited.'

There was a silence, broken at last by the Professor drawing a sharp breath. 'Vargo,' he suggested, 'Would I be correct if I guessed that these planets you know about can support life?'

Vargo looked surprised. 'Why, yes,' he answered, 'that is correct. But how did you know?'

The Professor looked pleased. 'What I was wondering,' he explained, 'was whether this vessel was not, as we had of course assumed, trying to find more slaves, but instead was searching for a new place to found a colony.'

‘But why would it be doing that?' asked Gator.

'It would be logical,' the Professor rejoined, 'if the disease had already been found on the home planet of these people, and was taking hold. The population may well have decided to try their luck elsewhere, by moving to pastures new, so to speak.'

Tiger looked incredulous. 'If that's the case,' he stated, 'the raiders could have a real crisis on their planet. I was thinking that we should be worried about invasion from these travellers; perhaps I was totally wrong.'

'There would be one way to find out,' suggested the Professor.

The others looked at him. 'How?' asked Gator.

'By going to the home planet of these people, and seeing what we find.' The Professor smiled, and produced a paper bag. 'Would anyone like a caramel?’ he asked.