Night was a diamond studded dream from where they sat. The moon was a maiden on wing suggesting amorous flight. Inside the stuffiness of the celluloid-like vehicle there was absolutely no hint of discomfort or absurd misfittings—despite the fact that Threlkeld and his daughter were now shaped out of all proportions to the conveyor itself.

"You seem unusually drawn," Threlkeld suggested from his prone position on the floor of the craft.

Gelerie took a deep, sensual sigh. "It is the pill, I am sure."

"Look at you," Threlkeld muttered, "and look at me—we're perhaps the most unique imitation of humans the galaxy has ever produced."

Again there was a maddening silence ... maddening to Threlkeld. "My daughter," he said at length, disturbed, "I must remind you of the importance of this little mission. My entire career with the inter-star patrol depends on how well we function."

Gelerie was bent in a heap near the tapering nose of the pod-shaped vehicle as it hurtled past the lovely moon, headlong toward a giant green and purple planet below them. Hurtled in a vessel with no manual controls, a vessel grown in a government garden on another world ... catapulted on a very special assignment to a planet that neither grew missiles nor thought of launching them without myriads of mechanical wires, dials and blinker lights.

Now Threlkeld was filled with indignation. "Gelerie, I command you—"

"Yes, Father. You command me," she drawled.

"Unless you remain attentive, my daughter, we may fail. Failing, I must concede that I have finally grown too old for spatial duty, and be sent to the Home. Do you want that?"

Gelerie had acquired all the attributes of a beautiful, buxom Earth girl. She looked up in the soft light that glowed its phosphorous loveliness from the very walls of the seed pod they occupied. Threlkeld muttered, "Such beauty—it is beyond all that the textbooks described."

Now Gelerie butted in, "The trouble, my father, is simple. The transition pills—"

"What about them?"

"They do more than convert us from a six-footed tree-hanging creature of the Alpha Centauri group. They impose upon us the same emotional stress of the human. You know, father, I have been changed into leopards, rhinos and snoquallimie eels before; but always I retained my own natural traits—the love of trees, the desire to return to my native form and habitat as quickly as possible. But this time, I feel demure and attractive and extremely vain and—"

"I warn you, my daughter. I am old. I have seen these Earth types at work. They are a useless breed. Their extra-curricular activities are beyond all reason. Very few of them stick to what is really important. Very few of them understand that achievement of the goal is the only thing there is. Now, I suggest you fight off these emotions. Try not to succumb to human frailties, for we have an important job to do—lest your poor father be put out to pasture."

The sound of empty space beside them was almost unnoticeable. The swish, so familiar for such speeds near their own planetary chain far out in the universe, was now missing.

As they approached the Earth, a thin crescent of daylight appeared to their right.

"Father," Gelerie said, "I cannot help myself. I am in love with this Earth form. I have this—this deep sense of beauty, of love, of desire. I cannot seem to quell it."

Threlkeld tried to help her with logic. "Homekind gave us the pills for a brief mission. I have lived long enough not to desire these human qualities. You are much younger and have much more to learn. Homekind devised these pills for but one purpose—you are to lure a young man of your choosing into our vehicle. He will then be transported home, and your father will have his old job back on the ferry to Betelgeuse. Do not fail me, Gelerie."

A bright, mercury-like flood of daylight appeared, and Threlkeld explained to her that it was light from the Earth's source of life, the solar body they had passed. He explained that Homekind was now selecting by remote control their landing site.

The pod now skittered through the skies, safely avoiding other space craft which Earth might have sent up.

Threlkeld's mind left his daughter and consumed the view below them. A grand chasm of blue-green, an ocean. Strips of sand here and there along a vast continental shelf. Thick vegetation on the continent. An excess of river inlets. All important bearings on their location should they need to call home for help. He observed the scene with satisfaction.

And then they were slowing to a snail's pace, and Homekind was selecting a clearing in the sand along the shore of a river. Then the seed pod, its shape so much like that of the zephyr of Earth, twisted whirlybird fashion to the ground. Threlkeld lifted the rear of the container, and stiffly the two Earth imitations stepped out.

"Now we roll the vehicle into the trees." They carefully gathered sticks and bramble from the water's edge and made a natural pile of debris in front of the pod, so that anyone glancing its way would never see the brownish green vehicle for other than was intended to be seen—a mound of dried clay.

"Now where are we, father?" Gelerie asked, as she stretched herself into shape.

"We are but ten miles from the city harbor. We will skirt the riverbank for a boat. Homekind left nothing untended—which is why you—"

"Why I must not fail," she replied drily. "I know. I must not fail. But I must be allowed to enjoy my Earth form for a while. It is beautiful." She looked him squarely in the eye. "It is beautiful, is it not, father? Am I not more beautiful than you have ever seen me?"

"Homekind makes recordings of our conversations, my daughter ... as it is psychiatrically right that they should. And in their analyses, I do not want them to have to ever say that Threlkeld succumbed to the skin-deep world of the Earth people. I must warn you again, Gelerie," he went on, "that Earth people base nearly all of their existence, their plans, their hopes on how attractive they may be, how young or how old they may look, how withered their skin. For they live chiefly for vanity, very little else."

The way Gelerie sighed told him he had failed. "One thing more, my daughter," he said in another attempt. "Homekind made you that attractive merely for the purpose of luring this male Earth creature into our conveyor. Now can you do it? Will you keep your mind on your task?"

Gelerie said, "Where will you be, father?"

"I will make the selection for you. Then I will transfer my mind into yours, just to make certain you complete your task."

The girl was lost again in self-appraisal. She extended her supple human arms and legs and observed them almost lovingly. "I like the short garments they wear. Such beauty should never be hidden."

"Homekind arranged it that way with a definite purpose in mind. Remember that," he said, now trotting ahead to find some sign of a boat. He was about to give up, afraid to admit Homekind might have erred, when Gelerie shrieked, "Look—over that way. A leafboat."

A warm sense of thanks went out from Threlkeld silently. He led the way to the large blue-green leaf that lay flat upon the water, stiffened with wax, water-resistant, entirely buoyant. They pulled it close and stepped aboard.

There was no need for paddles, since a modified leafboat constructed by Homekind and transported by Homekind always naturally had built-in propulsion. Tiny molecules of water were converted along the underside of the leaf into a moderate amount of energy which shoved them forward under Homekind's magnetic command toward a collection of tall glass spires.

"Remember, Gelerie," Threlkeld said to the dreaming girl who let her hand dangle in the waters of Earth, "my future is at stake. You are a six-footed tree-hanging creature. You will return to your native form the moment our mission is completed. Now I will not warn you again. Another moody spell and we return to the vehicle with only one thing assured—Threlkeld the Great's impending retirement."

But if he expected an assurance out of Gelerie that she would not fail, he was wrong, for she did not respond.

They abandoned the leaf boat as the foot of a sign, which in their compact Earth-translation scheme provided by one milligram of the pill they had taken, said, Forty-second Street. They scaled the elevated structures with almost natural animal precision and carefully dodged the ground vehicles that sped toward them on ramps. Then they were on the premises of their destination. A large white building touching the sky, and beside it a curved, oblong structure which Threlkeld whispered contained Earth's government.

"He is to be a diplomat?" she asked.

"Sh," he said, as people hurried past them, turning to inspect Gelerie's brief toggery.

They ascended a ramp to the glassed foyer. Then they were inside, gaping at the height of the ceiling, at the overhanging balconies. A young woman with Oriental qualities approached them. "May I be of assistance?"

"Oh, Father," Gelerie said, fascinated at the human voice.

"We wish," Threlkeld began guardedly, "to speak with the youngest member of the world government—"

"That would be the Congo, sir."

"Not nation. Individual staff member. Person. Human. Youngest in years," Threlkeld explained.

"Twenty-one is generally as young as anyone is allowed—as clerks and aides, sir. That would be the minimum age. Diplomatic corpsmen are usually considerably older."

"Very well. The nearest and youngest of the aides."

"I can think of Monsieur Joffrion of France or Sahib Masher of Arabia."

Threlkeld was now weeding out difficulties. Homekind had given them access to one language only. "Someone who speaks the language I am speaking."

The girl frowned. "Sir, you do not know what language you speak?"

A bolt of fear shot through Threlkeld's earth stomach. "Of course I know. The point is, do you know?"

"English," the frustrated guide said. "Very well, I will secure Mr. Twitty of the British delegation. Come this way, sir, madam."

Threlkeld forced a deep intake of oxygen. He smiled at Gelerie and they followed the girl to an elevator. When they alighted, they were escorted down a hall to the doorway marked, Delegation of the United Kingdom.

Then the guide turned to Threlkeld and said, "I have instructions to learn the nature of your mission before introducing you, sir."

Threlkeld had hoped it would not come to this. But better to tell the girl than foil the chance now. "I want the young man to fall in love with my daughter. Then I am going to kidnap him and whisk him off to a faraway planet." There, he had said it. Homekind had told him to say it if necessary. The truth would be the one thing the Earthlings would never believe, they had told him.

The Oriental girl laughed and said, "Sir, I admit defeat. Mr. Twitty will have to take it from here." She stuck her head inside the door and whistled softly.

"Pip, pip, Yu-lin," came the juvenile voice of the young man inside. "What's the bother, old girl?"

"A man and his daughter to see you."

"And the nature of their visit?"

"They want you to fall in love with the beautiful girl, and then her father will escort you on a nice honeymoon to some love spot in romantic night sky." As Yu-lin spoke, she turned her bright oriental eyes to Threlkeld and winked.

Threlkeld felt his blood rush hot. In a mental transit to his daughter, he said, "I think it high time I transferred my mind to you. You need all the moral stamina you can get, and I see the power these Earthlings have on the opposite sex. It is not good. Prepare the cavity of your brain," he instructed, and seeing that Gelerie was a million light years away, Threlkeld made the mind-switch alone and aimed his body at a door marked Men's Room. Soon it disappeared.

The young Earthman rushed forward, unconcerned with the internal workings of Threlkeld, fiddling with his frog glasses and blinking as if he did not see well. Gelerie saw that he was thin, tall, sandy-haired and extremely good looking. Her heart pounded and Threlkeld's mind said, "Watch out." The young man smiled and extended his hand to Gelerie. "You'll have to forgive the guide, madam. She sometimes gets carried away. I am Twitty of the U.K. So glad to have you aboard."

A nudge somewhere near Gelerie's brain awakened her. "I am afraid I am here for a very strange reason—the very reason Yu-lin stated. I want you to fall in love with me."

Twitty replaced his glasses. "I think I'll go back and come out again. My dear, you are a lovely creature, but back home I am engaged to a girl who won three local beauty contests on the way to the title of Miss Britain."

"And did she win Miss Britain?"

Twitty's mouth dropped. "What are you trying to say?"

"I am trying to say, sir, leave your Miss Britain who did not quite make it and fly away with me to Alpha Centauri—"

"Oh, come now," Twitty said laughing. "In that brief toggery you expect me to believe you are some moon maiden from a midsummer night's dream and go wandering with you through loveland in the sky? Go back to your fairy tale, Miss—"

"Gelerie."

"Gelerie what?"

"Gelerie is all they gave me in the Alpha Centauri group. We have a home-grown vehicle waiting in the woods. And a leafboat at the foot of Forty-second Street to carry us under its own power to the site of the vehicle. We covered the vehicle with driftwood to protect it lest some Earthling should swipe it and Homekind be forced to grow us another."

Twitty called over his shoulder. "Brighton? Take over for a little while. I shall return by and by." But the allure of the woman creature in short pants was drawing him near. "May I see this thing in the woods?"

"Of course," she said, and she could feel the mental smile of Threlkeld inside her brain as it seemed to take a deep, relieved breath.

They descended the elevator and come out at the main exit. Twitty bolted forward and grabbed a guard by the arm. "Sir, I wish you to arrest this woman on suspicion as an alien from outer space or a candidate for Bellevue."

A burly guard with a kind face looked into Gelerie's eyes. Now her father's brain was at anxiety's peak, calling the plays. "Go ahead, double your fingers into a fist, shove it forward, now, under his jaw—"

"But—" Gelerie was stammering.

"No buts!" Threlkeld's internal instructions poured. "When Homekind made you beautiful, my dear, they also made you big. You are an Amazon."

"Amazon?"

"No time to explain," he said. "Let the bruiser have one!"

Gelerie shrugged and took a swing. The arms of the guard shot skyward, and the big, hulking body in uniform fell backwards and plopped against the floor. As he rose up, shouting, Gelerie grabbed the slim Mr. Twitty around the waist, lifted him bodily and ran like a sudden gale through the lobby, out the door, down the ramp and to the river. With an Olympic leap, she made it to the stable, sturdy leafboat.

On orders from Homekind the craft quietly slid toward the trysting place. Gelerie was aware of a flood of congratulations from her father in her brain.

Twitty was red with humiliation. "You know, of course, they will be flying over us momentarily. You'll be courtmartialed, or whatever it is they do to the American kidnapers of international diplomatic corps persons."

"You don't like me," Gelerie pouted. "I came all the way from Alpha Centauri to take you home with me and you don't even as much as like me."

The young Englishman lifted Gelerie's chin and studied her tears. "By jove, they are not crocodilian. I believe you are serious. You are innocent and serious... strong, of course, but innocent."

"I love you. I want no one but you," she said.

"I can see there would be an advantage in a fellow my size having a wife your size," he said reflectively. "But Babs would never approve."

Gelerie shrugged her broad shoulders. She hugged herself lovingly. "Babs can always get another fellow. I'll never be able to get another guy."

"Why? Are you planning to resign from the human race?"

"That's exactly it," she agreed. "However, if I get you to come back with me, Homekind may consent to my staying in the human form and living with you the rest of my life."

Twitty laughed. "Boys, come and get me," he muttered at the sky. Threlkeld stayed on guard mentally, and Gelerie depressed into a morose, human activity known as sinking one's head into one's knees.

The U.K. man's laugh turned abruptly to awe when he saw the helicopter flutter over them and land on a spot of riverbank just ahead. Vaguely he could see military pilots, and two civilians hop out and run for the woods. He watched with disturbed concern as the leafboat made a sharp right turn of its own volition and headed for the bank.

Now Gelerie arose, picked him up by the waist and carried him bodily toward the gathering. The militia were uncovering the seed pod.

"Twitty," one of the men called. "What in heaven's name is she doing to you?"

"You'll never guess," he fumed. "She's taking me to Alpha Centauri."

"You don't mean it!" his crony replied. "Whatever will Babs think?"

The military men ran back to the group. "Cadogan, sir. I believe you'd better come look. That clay mound behind all the rubble. It is just like the old man said it would be."

Gelerie looked and saw her father at the vehicle. She raced forward with Twitty scratching and kicking.

Cadogan said, "We found the old man wandering aimlessly. We asked him to show us where he came from. He kept pointing until we landed here. He has an excellent memory, but something has control of him. Something very sinister and weird, Twitty."

Inside, Gelerie was getting a strong command from Threlkeld. "Get close, much closer. How can I effect a transit until you come within the required distance?"

She thought-replied, "Well, get out of the pod so I can see you."

"No! Get inside quickly. Homekind is ready whenever we are. Bring Twitty in with you and we'll be away!"

Now the military men and Cadogan were clearing away the debris, half stumbling, half confused. "Get the girl. Don't let her get in that thing. No matter how absurd their story, don't let her get aboard that—that seed pod!"

"Amazon," Threlkeld yelled. "Amazon, Amazon, Amazon! Gelerie—"

At that, Gelerie dropped Twitty and began swinging with both fists. She laid out two helicopter pilots and a civilian. She retrieved Twitty and her father said, "Now, get the devil in this pod so I can transfer back to the body! Then we can revert to type. I said get the devil in the pod so—"

"No!"

"Gelerie," his voice stormed, shattering her peace of mind.

"No. If we go back to Alpha," she said, "I'll be a six-legged amphibian and Twitty will be a handsome human. He won't even know me!"

Twitty looked at her. "Wh-who are you addressing?"

From inside the voice thundered on. "Think of your father, who has worked all his life for you! Just one more assignment with inter-star patrol. Even ferry duty will suffice. Please let me have my specimen and my body. Gelerie! Please go inside the seed pod. Homekind will kill me in hours if I fail."

Gelerie held Twitty at a distance. "I can't do it. I can't leave him."

"Then bring him with you. What I keep telling you we came for—"

"Not as human-animal versus animal-animal," she said. "I love him. I can't harm him."

"In the ship, Gelerie! For your old Daddy. Inside, girl. In—"

Gelerie was now close enough to permit her father's mind to transit. From inside he spoke aloud, "Well, thank Homekind for that! Now get in and we'll be off."

"What about one of the others?" she said, now pointing at the three men who lay unconscious at her feet.

"That would be fine," Threlkeld replied. "Just toss Twitty in the drink and bring Cadogan. He looks like good stock."

Twitty was suddenly stricken with fright. If he never believed before, he believed now. "No. Cadogan has a wife and children. Don't take him—take me, I'm unmarried."

"Well," Threlkeld said, "now it's all solved. Get on board, Gelerie."

"No, father. If I do that, I still become less than Twitty. Homekind does not respect love affairs between separate types."

"Nor does it allow its missionaries to remain in the arena after the battle is won. Gelerie, face it if you stay here you'll revert to type the instant I leave."

Gelerie turned Twitty loose. She bent low and looked through the opening of the vehicle at her father. "Do you think Homekind would do that other thing?" She said it so Twitty would not guess right off.

"Nonsense. It would defeat the whole purpose of the mission," Threlkeld said. "They want a human specimen. Taking him home and turning him into one of us would not give them any new thing to study. You'll have to do better than that."

"I meant here. Make him one of our kind and let him stay here."

Threlkeld said, "Only if you can produce some human to take his place."

Gelerie thought a moment. "What is the time limit on this mission?"

"A year, Earth time. Two years at the outside."

"And the period of human gestation?"

"Nine months, ten days and—what gives?"

"I shall marry Twitty, give Homekind a human specimen—my own—in nine months and ten days. You tell Homekind of my plan. Let them hear the recording. Then return and be with me. I shall, one hour very soon, invite Twitty to sojourn with me on the completion of this mission, father. I guarantee you, Homekind be with me, he will not want to see me go the rest of the way alone."

Threlkeld said, "My daughter's mind is full of strange logic, but it makes good sense. But be extremely careful my dear. The human is a deceitful thing. He will kiss your lips while stabbing your back."

Gelerie turned to Twitty and said, "How would you like to have six legs and swing from the tree by your tail?"

She turned and spoke, "See, father? He faints so readily. He will be quite easily handled." But her human eyes had not adjusted perfectly to Earth's thick atmosphere. She suddenly did not see the vehicle containing her father. Then, far beyond the clouds of sunset, she detected a small dot sailing off into the deep blue, its side reflecting gold. "Farewell for now, my father," she whispered.

Turning to the helicopter, she carried three subdued men and placed them aboard. Then she lifted Twitty softly to her shoulders and muttered. "Homekind, fly me to their quarters. I am weary for the moment and do not feel like operating the controls."

The copter lifted silently, swinging out over the East River. Though cramped, Gelerie found a place beside her for Twitty.

When he had stopped shaking, she whistled softly as the Oriental girl had and kissed him as an Amazon might.