practical purposes I own an independent nation. There’s about a thousand humans here, and nearly six thousand Lani. We’re increasing the Lani now, since we found they have commercial possibilities. Up to thirty years ago we merely used them for labor.”      

       Kennon didn’t speculate on what Alexander meant. He knew. For practical purposes, his employer was a slave trader—or would have been if the natives were human. As it was, the analogy was so close that it wasn’t funny.     

       They entered the fortress, passed through a decontamination chamber that would have done credit to an exploration ship, and emerged dressed in tunics and sandals that were far more appropriate and comfortable in this tropical climate.     

       “That’s one of Old Doc’s ideas,” Alexander said, gesturing at the door from which they had emerged. “He was a hound for sanitation and he infected us with the habit.” He turned and led the way down an arched corridor that opened into a huge circular room studded with iris doors.     

       Kennon sucked his breath in with a low gasp of amazement. The room was a gem of exquisite beauty. The parquet floor was inlaid with rare hardwoods from a hundred different worlds. Parthian marble veneer covered with lacy Van tapestries from Santos formed the walls. Delicate ceramics, sculpture, and bronzes reflected the art of a score of different civilizations. A circular pool, festooned with lacelike Halsite ferns, stood in the center of the room, surrounding a polished black granite pedestal on which stood an exquisite bronze of four Lani females industriously and eternally pouring golden water from vases held in their shapely hands. “Beautiful,”        Kennon said softly.     

       “We like it,” Alexander said.     

       “We?”      

       “Oh yes—I forgot to tell you about the Family,” Alexander said grimly. “I run Outworld, and own fifty per cent of it. The Family owns the other fifty. There are eight of them—the finest collection of parasites in the entire galaxy. At the moment they can’t block me since I also control my cousin Douglas’s shares. But when Douglas comes of age they will be troublesome. Therefore I defer to them. I don’t want to build a united opposition. Usually I can get one or more of them to vote with me on critical 

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