John and Sola return from the hatchling retrieval field trip to find that some airships have turned up. The Tharks fire on the airships and there is a battle. The end result of the battle is that the airships are destroyed and the Tharks take one of the survivors of the battle prisoner. John is quite surprised to find that the prisoner is a pretty, human looking girl. A very pretty naked girl; Martians seem to be nudists for the most part.

The girl sees him, and thinking that John could be a potential ally, makes some sort of sign at him.