in san francisco they looked at the rockets in utter amaze hearing could be one of our missiles you could be right honey i don't think we have anything this big gotten too close to it there was no trace of either then or jack the colonel ordered continuous guard duty around the spaceship and decided to set up a temporary military headquarters at the sheriff's office in town by the next day colonel caldwell had the situation well in hand he had called washington and received his orders from the highest possible of the already he was to maintain tight security and to await the arrival of a doctor bradford who had been on assignment at the job role bank radio observatory in england upon arrival bradford was to take complete charge of the operation it was the world's leading authority on space emissions and had worked out a series of systems that might lead to communication with other forms of light when as and they were contacted martin was outraged by the government's intellectual approach to a monster that had already killed and caused the disappearance of his two close friends caldwell tended to agree with him but stated he had to follow his orders one of those orders was to suppress the news of the death of ben and yet martin was appointed temporary sheriff and all news intended for public more from them the dr himself would not enter the rocket until the arrival of certain equipment from his discussion it was apparent that the doctor considered this situation a magnificent opportunity for mankind he felt that if he could communicate with the creatures it might be possible to advance human knowledge by years or even centuries this place ship alone signified an intellectual development far in advance of anything on him how he intended to protect themselves from the creature redbird said not to worry that he hadn't come here to be victimized either by his own or the creatures  you should try now it would do wonders for barney and martin had been bachelor buddies for years but now that martin was settling down to marriage they were slowly drifting apart and barney naturally was still dating all the girls in town and he couldn't understand why brett and martin didn't pal around with him more than they did he couldn't comprehend that married life brought with it not only new problems and beauties but the necessary to governess a husband and wife as well despite brett's most tactful considerations such as inviting them over to dinner quite often barney was growing resentful of her or at least she felt that he was since time began this change in relationship has probably happened to all buddies in similar circumstances life has its way of making boys grow up and with marriage martin this time had come his life was now brett a life that he never only enjoyed within forty eight hours dr brad bird had closely examined the creature and the spaceship and reached a number of conclusions he was sure the creature had come from beyond our solar system because it adapted to our environment so quickly and  planet or dead star near us as conditions similar to the earth of special interest to him was the whole of the ship it was composed of an alloy unlike anything human science had ever encountered the d had run a number of tests on the metal but its molecular structure remained a mystery because there was no food on board bradford presume the creature had been in a state of suspended animation particularly because it had survived the trials  impact without apparent harm so far he had no success in communicating with it but he had not yet exhausted all possibilities on a more subjective basis he had the curious feeling that the creature did not want to communicate with him such a confession on the part of this eminent scientist made martin feel quite apprehensive her husband and grandson had gone fishing long overdue barney was instructed to organize a search party locally and to report the results to mark because of security regulations he was not to come near the area of the space hunch martin decided to see for himself at the monster it was still there it was brad bird had installed t v cameras inside the spaceship and was testing the creatures reactions to sound light electricity color and air pressure namely that the creature might be a product of engineering the same engineering that built the spaceship what he didn't understand was why some form of communication had not been built into the creature when martin  bradford dismissed martin's fear is by pointing out that the creature was not exhibiting any signs of violence and besides it was firmly secured by the harness that afternoon creep our neighbors got together in response to a multiple missing persons report martin and barney searched the countryside for the group of picnickers the only trace they found up them was the remains of a guitar one of them carried this wholesale disappearance of a large group of people coupled with earlier missing persons reports led martin to only one conclusion there must be another monster and it was on the lo the colonel listened to martin's area and after consulting with bradford decided to call washington he was told to follow his own good judgment but under no circumstances was he to alarm the populace the colonel decided to organize a county wide search martin's assignment was to search the north end of the county while martin and brett were engaged by the sword the monster was moving toward the community d while martin and brett were taking a break from the search a call came through which confirmed martin scary colonel caldwell told them of the monsters attack at the dance hall his troops now had orders to destroy the monster and he asked for martin's assistance markley said he would join the colonel as quickly as possible the monster next appeared in lover's lane anyone who experienced that catastrophe and survived would never go there again when markings party arrives an offer to help the colonel told them enough lives were being endangered they were simply part of the second line of defense to be used only if necessary tried to help the doctors but that was no time bradford told marking why he had just confirmed that these monsters were highly specialized test animals they were in fact mobile laboratories that consumed human beings in order to analyze them chemically undoubtedly to detect weaknesses in the human species he told martin that the information fed into a computer in the spacecraft further he added now that both monsters were dead the computer would activate a transmitter to send the results into outer space mark and you'll what he had to do has the transmitter stopped martin felt sick evidently all the information had been transmit on martin's return he confessed is that years he slowly asked bradford what was in store for humanity bradford was pessimistic but implied that maybe all was not lost after all he told them about ask this of the universe is incredible if these monsters had come from its outer limits their home might even no longer exist or if they do come again perhaps men will have advanced enough to cope with those who made them only god knows for sure where bradford's last words to anyone on this