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One ht Lucky&039;s attention particularly It was Hanley Cook, Dr Peverale&039;s second in co like weary disgust about hied and settled into a cautious blankness

Nevertheless Lucky thought: "I&039;ll have to talk to the man"

And then his attention shifted back to Dr Peverale

Dr Peverale was saying, "The saboteur can&039;t be one of us, of course Dr Mindes tells ated and is sure of that Even without investigation, I am sure that none of us is capable of such crient, since the destruction is too purposeful, too exclusively directed against Project Light, to be the result of chance or of anything nonintelligent Therefore "

Bigman interrupted excitedly "Hey, youthis?"

There was a sudden buzz of confused coman reddened "Well," said the s?"

"Not quite," said Dr Peverale gently

"There is no life of any kind native to Mercury," said one of the astrono we&039;re sure of"

Lucky interposed, "How sure? Has anyone looked?"

The astronomer who had spoken see parties Certainly"

Lucky ss on Mars that no other s on Venus where none had been thought to exist He, for one, was not ready to adence

He said, "How h was each exploration? Has every square mile been searched?"

The astrono his eyebrows as though to say: What&039;s the use?

Bignoood humor

Dr Peverale said, "My dear Starr, explorations have uncovered nothing While we grant that the possibility of Mercurian life is not completely excluded, the probability of its existence is very low Suppose we assuent life in the Galaxy is the human race Certainly, it&039;s the only one we know of"

With the Martian ree with that, but he kept silent and let the old man continue

It was Urteil, little by little having recovered his self-possession, who intervened "What do you think you&039;re getting at," he asked, and it was characteristic of the ?"

Dr Peverale did not answer Urteil directly He looked froressional investigator He said, "The point is, there are humans elsewhere than on Earth There are hue carehite, and his nostrils flared as though he were suddenly overpowered with anger "For instance, there are humans on the planets of Sirius What if they are the saboteurs?"

"Why should they be?" asked Lucky at once

"Why not? They have coainst Earth before"

Sobefore, to repel a Sirian invasion flotilla that had landed on Ganymede, but in that case they had left the Solar Syste matters to a shon Yet, on the other hand, it was a co that rong

Dr Peverale was saying with energy, "I&039;ve been there I&039;ve been to Sirius only five reat deal of red tape because Sirius welcorants nor visitors, but it was a ed to get a visa I was determined to see for myself, and I must say I wasn&039;t disappointed

"The planets of Sirius are thinly populated and they are extremely decentralized They live in isolated individual fay source and services Each has its group of mechanical slaves -there&039;s no other word possible-slaves in the shape of positronic robots, which do the labor The Sirian hu aristocracy Every one of them can handle a space-cruiser They&039;ll never rest till they destroy the Earth"

Bigman shifted restlessly in his seat "Sands of Mars, let them try Let them try, is all I say"

"They hen they are quite ready," said Dr Peverale, "and, unless we do soer, they in What have we got to oppose them? A population in the billions, true, but how many can handle themselves in space? We are six billion rabbits and they are one rows rain froet our et the

"Why, Starr, if Project Light succeeds, Earth will be dependent on space stations for the ets its very sunshine Don&039;t you see how vulnerable thatthe outposts of the Systeht us directly

"And can we do anything to the Sirians are always self-contained and self-sufficient Any of them could continue the war"

The old man was al his sincerity It was as though he were getting so him

Lucky&039;s eye wandered back to Dr Peverale&039;s second, Hanley Cook The e hand His face was flushed, but to Lucky it did not seenation Rather, it seemed one of embarrassment

Scott Mindes spoke up skeptically "What would be the point, Dr Peverale? If they&039;re getting along on Sirius, why should they co they conquer Earth, they would only have to support us- "

"Nonsense!" rapped out the senior astronomer "Why should they? They would want Earth&039;s resources, not Earth&039;s population Get that through your head They&039;d let us starve It would be part of their policy"

"Oh, come," said Gardoma "That&039;s unbelievable"

"Not out of cruelty," said Dr Peverale, "out of policy They despise us They consider us scarcely more than animals The Sirians themselves are very race-conscious Since Earth themselves carefully until they are free of diseases and of various characteristics which they consider undesirable

"They are of uniform appearance, while Earthmen are of all shapes, sizes, colors, varieties The Sirians consider us inferior That&039;s why they won&039;t let us erate to Sinus They wouldn&039;t let overn possible Astronomers from other systems were all welcome but not from Earth