 Why is Peter's status so important when he wakes up?
I do not think it was what Peter called an emotion; and yet it had nothing to do with logic, either. I did not even wish that Peter were not dead, for reason had told me that he had to die. He could see, too, the level on level of laboratories and storerooms that filled its interlocking segments; the meteor deflectors, the air renewal system, the mighty engines at the stern—all the children of his brain. The order was made public early this morning by R. Stein, Secretary of the Council, who said in part: "The reason for this ... order must be apparent to all civilized peoples. "The peoples of the world, then, know what they are, and know that we face the most momentous struggle in our history. They have treated us precisely as we, in less enlightened days, might have treated a newly-discovered race of lower animals. Not only our individual lives are threatened, but our existence as a race. Peter took it in fifteen seconds, running, and stumbled to a halt in front of the door marked "Radiation." It was a street scene in the Science City of Manhattan, flooded by the warm spring sunshine. "There will be panics and suicides, and they know it; but they have to do it. This isn't like a war, where the noncombatants' morale has to be kept up.
 He's a scientist. Scientists are part of the last hope as people who could potentially piece together how to fight the aliens.
 He's one of the few people to have survived an encounter with the aliens.  He's a scientist. Scientists are part of the last hope as people who could potentially piece together how to fight the aliens.  He's a scientist. Scientists are part of the last hope as people who could lead a new life in the underground.  He's one of the few survivors of the new world. They need every healthy person they can get.