The Kzinti, desperate to know how to access the hidden setting, threaten Jason's wife in an attempt to get him to divulge it, but he refuses. Her life is spared when the device, which is intelligent (and loyal to its long-extinct Tnuctipun masters), begins to speak. The Kzinti converse with the weapon, believing that they are getting knowledge of how to access the setting. However, the weapon, believing itself to have fallen into the possession of an enemy, tricks the Kzinti into activating a self-destruct mechanism. The Kzinti are killed, but the humans survive, in part thanks to technology used by the Kzinti to restrain them as prisoners, inadvertently protecting them from the blast and impact. Nessus then frees the humans and the three of them leave the planet.