Reuben smiled and shook his head. "I had to come here as soon as I could, and I'm almost broke now as it is."

"Have you ever been in a mental institution, or . . . associated with religious cults, flying-saucer cults?"

Again, no.

"Are you a Forge of Godder?"

"No."

"Then tell me what you have to say."

Reuben's eyes crinkled and he leaned his head to one side, his mouth working. "I'm being given instructions by, I think they're little machines. They were dropped all over the Earth a month ago. You know, like an invasion, but not to invade."

Hicks rubbed his temple with a knuckle. "Go on. I'm listening."

"They're not the same . . . whatever you'd call the things that are going to destroy the Earth. It's hard to put in words all the pictures they show me. They don't show me everything, anyway. They asked me to just come to you and give you something, but I didn't think that was fair. The way they came on to me wasn't fair. I didn't have any choice. So they say, in my head"—he pointed to his forehead with a long, powerful forefinger—"they say, all right, try it your way."

"How do they oppose these enemies?"

"They seek them out wherever they go. They spread out between the . . . stars, I guess. Ships with nothing alive, not like you and me, inside them. Robots. They visit all the planets they can, around stars, and . . . They learn about these things that eat planets. And whenever they can, they destroy them." Reuben's face was dreamy now, his eyes focused on the water glass before him.

"So why haven't they come forward sooner? It may be too late."

"Right," Reuben said, glancing up at Hicks. "That's what they tell me. It's too late to save the Earth. Almost everybody and everything is going to die."

Despite his skepticism, these words hit Hicks hard, slowing his blood, making his shoulders slump.

"It's awful. They came too late. They had to stop off at this moon, this place with water and ice—Europa. They converted it into hundreds of thousands, millions, of themselves, of ships to spread out. They use hydrogen in the water for energy. Fusion.

"It's not just the Earth that's being eaten. The asteroids, too. And really, there was more danger, I guess, of these planet-eaters getting away from the asteroids. Easier to move away from the sun. Something . . . Damn, I wish I knew more about what they're showing me. They fought them in the asteroids. Now they can focus on Earth . . . The trouble is, they can't explain all of it to me in words I understand! Why they chose me, I don't know."

"Go on."

"They can't save the Earth, but they can save some of it. Important animals and plants, germs, some people . . . They tell me maybe one or two thousand. Maybe more, depending on the odds."

The waitress took their order, and Hicks leaned forward. "How?"