give himself away with anything so trivial?

"Tell me, Captain," Briggan asked, "what chance do we have of getting through this alive?"

"We're armed; we have transportation; we—"

"And the natives will risk everything to stop us. They have to. This attack on the Nevada station was the beginning of the revolution. If they plan the rest of it as carefully, they stand a good chance of throwing us off the Earth."

"No!" Tynia cried. "Now that they know the civilized galaxy exists, they'll build space ships and come after us. With our weapons—"

"Plus their fanaticism," Tchassen put in, "the galaxy doesn't stand a chance."

"But we invaded the Earth to prevent that; we came here to teach them to live civilized lives."

"How much teaching have we actually done in the compounds?" the Sergeant demanded. "How many Earth people have listened to us?"

"They're human beings; they have brains like ours. Surely when we have explained our ways to them logically and sanely—"

"The trouble is," Tchassen said thoughtfully, "it's our logic, not theirs. If you look at this from the point of view of an Earthman, you see us as savage invaders of their world."

"Our purpose makes it different."

"We say that, but the Earth people wouldn't understand us."

"It's very strange," Sergeant Briggan said quietly, "that you understand the Earthman's point of view so well, Captain Tchassen. Let's see. You've been here—how many days?"

"Five."

"But you set yourself up as an authority on these people."

"Come now, Sergeant. I didn't say that. I'm simply trying to understand them reasonably."

"To think like an Earthman: that's rather difficult for us to do, Captain." Briggan paused briefly before he snapped out a rapid question, "Where were you stationed before you came here, Captain?"

"At security headquarters."

"Assigned to what staff?"

 Prev. P 13/23 next