“I am,” said Red tensely, his lips a thin harsh line. “Very certain, Doc.”

Ward breathed easier after he awoke from the effects of the sedative and found that they had at least gotten outside Earth’s gravity without mishap. Only the Mo-Sanshon to worry about now. That was all, just the potential conquerors of the Solar System. Through the special observation dome into a mind-drowning eternity of devouring blackness, Ward gazed in awe. An expanse dotted with an eternity of coldly-cut, unshimmering dots of light. He wasn’t new to spaceflight, but the spectacle was inexhaustible, a bottomless cup of frigid infinity.

But Red appeared mesmerized. His face stuck to the quartz, he murmured dreamily, “The void ... deadly emptiness and waste ... an uncharted sea without boundaries ... when a guy’s out here, he’s a part of space and time.... God, how I’ve wanted it ... and I never thought I could have it ... my world’s a long way from any of this....” He turned slowly.

“Doc—I’d like to keep right on going, if I could. I’d go right on out beyond the Asteroids, and keep on until Jupiter faded. I’d go on out on the other side of the Life Zone until Uranus was lost. And then—well—what would be better than just to disappear in interstellar space?”

Ward swallowed a protein-vito concentrate and said he could think of a few things that might be more pleasant at the moment.

“This civilization’s bad enough,” said Red. “But the Mo-Sanshon is worse. It’s lifeless, evil and futile.”

“Right,” said Ward. “But I’ve often wondered why they haven’t conquered man before. They have the advantage of reproduction and adaptability. The Earth fly and the Martian trunj can reproduce over twelve trillion in six months. Their adaptability is vastly superior. They’ve been around for a billion years or more on Earth and on Mars probably longer. And their number of species is overwhelming—somewhere close to a million on Earth, on Mars somewhat less. Their only trouble has been their static culture. Permanence. But now—”

“Bugs can have their mutations, too,” finished Red.

Ward said, “That was my starting premise. That mutant intelligence has appeared among the Mo-Sanshon and that their leadership has spread to Earth and has influenced certain species of insects there—mainly ants, termites, and bees. On both worlds, they’re now winning the battle of production. They’ll be able to starve man out by taking his plants away from him and undermine his cities, which 

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