SPACE WAR!

 The Sirian's lips stretched into a humorless smile. "In recent weeks Earth hascalled an interstellar conference to consider what they chose to call our invasionof their territory. You will testify thatEarth attacked first!"

 "I cannot testify to what is not the truth,"Lucky Starr answered.

 The Sirian's eyes narrowed to slits. "Ithink you will. You have been studiedclosely by our agents, and we know of the Council of Science's sentiment forthe weak. Testify or your engineer willdie!"

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 ISAAC ASIMOV

 writing as Paul French

 LUCKY STARR

 andTHE RINGS OF SATURN

 FAWCETT CREST   •   NEW YORK

 LUCKY STARR AND THE RINGS OF SATURN

 THIS BOOK CONTAINS THE COMPLETE TEXT OFTHE ORIGINAL HARDCOVER EDITION.

 Published by Fawcett Crest Books, a unit of CBS Publications,the Consumer Publishing Division of CBS Inc., byarrangement with Doubleday and Company, Inc.

 Copyright © 1958 by Doubleday and Company, Inc.Preface Copyright©1978 by Isaac Asimov   ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDISBN: 0-449-23462-2

 All the characters in this book are fictitious, and anyresemblance to actual persons living or dead is purelycoincidental.

 Printed in the United States of America11   10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3

 CONTENTS

 1       The Invaders                                                    9

 2       Pursuit                                                            17

 3       Death in the Rings                                         29

 4       Between Jupiter and Saturn                           39

 5       Skimming Saturn's Surface                            49

 6       Through the Gap                                            59

 7       On Mimas                                                       69

 8       To Titan                                                          79

 9       The Enemy                                                     91

 10       Servicemen and Robots                                103

 11                Bigman against All                                        115

 12       Surrender                                                       125

 13                Prelude to Vesta                                            135

 14                On Vesta                                                       145

 15       The Conference                                             155

 16       Biter Bit                                                        165

 DEDICATION

 To the memory ofHenry Kuttner

 andCyril Kombluth

 Preface

 Back in the 1950s, I wrote a series of six derring-donovels about David "Lucky" Starr and his battlesagainst malefactors within the Solar System. Each of the six took place in a different region of the system,and in each case I made use of the astronomicalfacts—as they were then known.

 Now, a quarter-century later, Fawcett is bringingout the novels in new editions; but what a quarter-century it has been! More has been learned aboutthe worlds of our Solar System hi this last quarter-century than in all the thousands of years that wentbefore.

 LUCKY STARR AND THE RINGS OFSATURNwas written in 1957, but in 1967, aFrench astronomer, Audouin Dollfus, discovered a tenth satellite of Saturn, one that was closer to theplanet than any of the others, 22,000 miles closerto Saturn than Mimas is. This new satellite has beennamed Janus.

 If I were writing the book today, I would certainlymention that satellite and I might have used it insteadof Mimas.

 Moreover, it was not until 1977 that astronomersdiscovered that Saturn was not the only ringed planet.Uranus, it turns out, also has rings. They are verythin rings and very faint ones—but they're there. I

 8                           

 would surely have mentioned that in this book if Iwere writing it today.

 I hope my Gentle Readers enjoy the book anyway,as an adventure story, but please don't forget thatthe advance of science can outdate even the most conscientious science-fiction writer and that my astronomical descriptions are no longer accurate in allrespects.

 isaac asimov

 1

 The Invaders

 The Sun was a brilliant diamond in the sky, just large enough to the naked eye to be made out as somethingmore than a star; as a tiny white-hot pea-sized globe.

 Out here in the vastness of space, near the secondlargest planet of the Solar System, the Sun gave outonly one per cent of the light it cast on man's homeplanet. It was still, however, the brightest object inthe sky, as four thousand full Moons would be.

 Lucky Starr gazed thoughtfully at the visiplatewhich centered the image of the distant Sun. JohnBigman Jones watched with him, an odd contrast toLucky's tall and rangy figure. When John BigmanJones stretched himself to his full height, he stood fivefoot two exactly. But the little man did not measurehimself in inches and he allowed people to call him by his middle name only: Bigman.

 Bigman said, "You know, Lucky, it's nearly ninehundred million miles away. The Sun, I mean. I'venever been out this far."

 The third man in the cabin, Councilman Ben Wes-silewsky, grinned over his shoulder from his place atthe controls. He was another large man, though notas tall as Lucky, and his shock of yellow hair topped

 10                        

 a face that had grown space-brown in the service ofthe Council of Science.

 He said, "What's the matter, Bigman? Scared wayout here?"

 Bigman squawked, "Sands of Mars, Wess, you getyour hands off those controls and say that again."

 He had dodged around Lucky and was making forthe Councilman, when Lucky's hands came downon Bigman's shoulders and lifted him bodily. Big-man's legs still pumped, as though carrying himtoward Wess at a charge, but Lucky put his Mars-bornfriend back in his original position.

 "Stay put, Bigman."

 "But, Lucky, you heard him. This long cobber
thinks there's moretoa man just because there's
moreofhim. If that Wess is six feet tall, that just
means there's an extra foot of flab----"

 "All right, Bigman," said Lucky. "And, Wess, let'ssave the humor for the Sirians."

 He spoke quietly to both, but there was no questioning his authority.

 Bigman cleared his throat and said, "Where'sMars?"

 "On the other side of the Sun from us."

 "Wouldn't you know," said the little fellow disgustedly. Then, brightening, "But hold on, Lucky,we're a hundred million miles below the plane ofthe Ecliptic. We ought to be able to see Mars belowthe Sun; peeking out from behind, sort of."

 "Uh-huh, we should. Actually, it's a degree or soaway from the Sun, but that's close enough for itto be drowned out in the glare. You can make outEarth, though, I think."

 11

 Bigman allowed a look of haughty disgust to crosshis face. "Who in space wants to see Earth? Thereisn't anything there but people; mostly groundhogswho've never even been a hundred miles off the surface. I wouldn't look at it if that were all there was in the sky to look at. You let Wess look at it That'shis speed."

 He walked moodily away from the visiplate.

 Wess said, "Hey, Lucky, how about getting Saturnon and taking a good look at it from this angle?Come on, I've been promising myself a treat."

 "I don't know," said Lucky, "that the sight ofSaturn these days is exactly what you might call a treat."

 He said it lightly, but for a moment silence felluneasily within the confined pilot room ofThe Shooting Starr.

 All three felt the change in atmosphere. Saturnmeant danger. Saturn had taken on a new face of doom to the peoples of the Terrestrial Federation.To six billion people on Earth, to additional millions on Mars, the Moon, and Venus, to scientific stationson Mercury, Ceres, and the outer moons of Jupiter,Saturn had become something newly and unexpectedly deadly.

 Lucky was the first to shrug off that moment ofdepression, and, obedient to the touch of his fingers,the sensitive electronic scanners set into the hull ofThe Shooting Starrrotated smoothly on their universal gimbals. As that happened, the field of vision inthe visiplate shifted.

 The stars marched across the visiplate in steady

 12                          

 procession, and Bigman said with a curl of hatred inhis upper lip, "Any of those things Sirius, Lucky?"

 "No," said Lucky, "we're working through theSouthern Celestial Hemisphere and Sirius is in theNorthern. Would you like to see Canopus?"

 "No," said Bigman. "Why should I?"

 "I just thought you might be interested. It's thesecond brightest star and you could pretend it wasSirius." Lucky smiled slightly. It always amused himthat the patriotic Bigman should be so annoyed because Sirius, home star of the great enemies of theSolar System (though themselves descendants of Earth-men), was the brightest star in Earth's heavens.

 Bigman said, "Very funny. Come on, Lucky, let's see Saturn, and then when we get back to Earth youcan get on some comedy show and panic everybody."

 The stars kept their smooth motion, then slowedand stopped. Lucky said, "There it is—unmagnified, too."

 Wess locked the controls and twirled in the pilot'sseat so that he might see also.

 It was a half-moon in appearance, somewhatbulging into more than half, just large enough to beseen as such, bright with a soft yellow light that wasdimmer in the center than along the edges.

 "How far away are we?" Bigman asked in astonishment.

 Lucky said, "About a hundred million miles, Ithink."

 "Something's wrong," Bigman said. "Where arethe rings? I've been counting on a good look."

 The Shooting Starrwas high above the south pole of

                                                                                13

 Saturn. From that position it should see the ringsbroad on.

 Lucky said, "The rings are blurred into the globeof the planet, Bigman, because of the distance.Suppose we magnify the image and take a closerlook."

 The spot of light that was Saturn expanded and stretched in every direction, growing. And the half-moon that it had seemed to be broke up into threesegments.

 There was still a central globe, half-mooned.Around it, however, touching the globe at no point, was a circularly curved ribbon of light, divided intotwo unequal halves by a dark line. As the ribboncurved about Saturn and entered its shadow, it was cut off in darkness.

 "Yes, sir, Bigman," said Wess, lecturing, "Saturnitself is only seventy-eight thousand miles in diameter.At a hundred million miles, it would just be a dot of light, but count in the rings and there are nearly twohundred thousand miles of reflecting surface fromone end to the other."

 "I know all that," said Bigman indignantly.

 "And what's more," continued Wess, unheeding,"at a hundred million miles, the seven-thousand-milebreak between Saturn's surface and the innermostportion of the rings just couldn't be seen; let alonethe twenty-five-hundred-mile break that divides the rings in two. That black line is called Cassini's division, you know, Bigman."

 "I said I know," roared Bigman. "Listen, Lucky,that cobber is trying to make out I didn't go toschool. Maybe I didn't get much schooling, but there

 14                         

 isn't anything he has to tell me about space. Say theword, Lucky; say you'll let him stop hiding behindyou and I'll squash him like a bug."

 Lucky said, "You can make out Titan."

 At once Bigman and Wess said in chorus,"Where?"

 "Right there." Titan showed as a tiny half-moonabout the size, under current magnification, that Saturn and its ring system had appeared to be without magnification. It was near the edge of the visiplate.

 Titan was the only sizable moon in the Sarurniansystem. But it wasn't its size that made Wess stare atit with curiosity and Bigman with hate.

 It was, instead, that the three were almost certainthat Titan was the only world in the Solar Systempopulated by men who did not acknowledge the over-lordship of Earth. Suddenly and unexpectedly it hadbeen revealed as a world of the enemy.

 It brought the danger suddenly closer. "When dowe get inside the Saturnian system, Lucky?"

 Lucky said, "There's no real definition as to whatis the Saturnian system, Bigman. Most people considera world's system to include all the space out to thedistance where the farthermost body is moving underthe gravitational influence of that world. If that's so,we're still outside the Saturnian system."

 "The Sirians say, though----" began Wess.

 "To Sun-center with the Sirian cobbers!" roaredBigman, slapping his high boots in anger. "Who careswhat they say?" He slapped his boots again as thoughevery Sirian in the system were under the force of his blows. His boots were the most truly Martianthing about him. Their raucous coloring, orange and

 15

 black in a curving checkerboard design, was the loudproclamation that their owner had been born andbred among the Martian farms and domed cities.

 Lucky blanked out the visiplate. The detectors onthe ship's hulls retracted, leaving the ship's outer skin smooth, gleaming, and unbroken except for the bulgethat ringed the stern and heldThe Shooting Starr'sAgrav* attachment.

 Lucky said, "We can't allow ourselves the luxuryof the who-cares-what-they-say attitude, Bigman. At the moment the Sirians have the upper hand. Maybewe'll get them out of the Solar System eventually, butright now the only thing we can do is to play it theirway for the while."

 Bigman muttered rebelliously, "We're in our ownsystem."

 "Sure, but Sirius is occupying this part of it and,pending an interstellar conference, there isn't anything Earth can do about it, unless it's willing to start a war."

 There was nothing to be said to that. Wessreturned to his controls, andThe Shooting Starr,withminimum expenditure of thrust, making use ofSaturn's gravity to the maximum, continued to sinkrapidly toward the polar regions of the planet.

 Down, down, deeper into the grip of what was now a Sirian world, its space swarming with Sirian shipssome fifty trillion miles from then* home planet and only seven hundred million miles from Earth. In one giant step Sirius had covered 99.999 per cent of the distance between itself and Earth and established amilitary base on Earth's very doorstep.

 *Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter,

 16                          

 If Sirius were allowed to remain there, then in onesudden moment Earth would sink to the status of second-class power at Sirius's mercy. And the interstellar political situation was such that for the moment all of Earth's giant military establishment, all of her mighty ships and weapons were helpless todeal with the situation.

 Only three men in one small ship, on their own initiative and unauthorized by Earth, were left to try,by skill and craft, to reverse the situation, knowingthat if they were caught they could be executed outof hand as spies—in their own Solar System by invaders of that Solar System—and that Earth couldnot do a solitary thing to save them.

 2

 Pursuit

 As little as a month ago there had been no thought of the danger, no barest notion, until it exploded in theface of Earth's government. Steadily and methodically the Council of Science had been cleaning up the nestof robot spies that had riddled Earth and its possessions and whose power had been broken by LuckyStarr on the snows of Io.*

 It had been a grim job and, in a way, a frighteningone, for the espionage had been thorough and efficient and, moreover, had come within an ace of succeedingand damaging Earth desperately.

 Then, at the moment when the situation seemedcompletely in the clear at last, a crack appeared in thehealing structure, and Hector Conway, Chief Councilman, awakened Lucky in the small hours one night.He showed signs of hurried dressing, and his fine whitehair was in rumpled disarray.

 Lucky, blinking sleep out of his eyes, offeredcoffee and said in amazement, "Great Galaxy, Uncle Hector" (Lucky had called him that since his earlyorphaned days, when Conway and Augustus Henree

 *Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter.

 17

 18                         

 had been his guardians), "are the visiphone circuitsout?"

 "I dared not trust the visiphone, my boy. We're ina dreadful mess."

 "In what way?" Lucky asked the question quietly,but he removed the upper half of his pajamas andbegan washing.

 Bigman came in, stretching and yawning. "Hey,what's all this Mars-forsaken noise about?" Recognizing the Chief Councilman, he snapped into wakeful-ness. "Trouble, sir?"

 "We've let Agent X slip through our fingers."

 "Agent X? The mysterious Sirian?" Lucky's eyesnarrowed a bit. "The last I heard of him, the Councilhad decided he didn't exist."

 "That was before the robot spy business turned up.
He's been clever, Lucky, darned clever. It takes a
clever spy to convince the Council he doesn't exist.
I should have put you on his track, but there always
seemed something else you had to do. Anyway-----"

 "Yes?"

 "You know how all this robot spy business showedthere must be a central clearing agency for the information being gathered and that it pointed to a positionon Earth itself as the location of the agency. That gotus on the trail of Agent X all over again, and one ofthe strong possibilities for that role was a man namedJack Dorrance at Acme Air Products right here in International City."

 "I hadn't known this."

 "There were many other candidates for the job. Butthen Dorrance took a private ship off Earth and blasted right through an emergency block. It was a stroke

                                                                                 19.

 of luck we had a Councilman at Port Center who took the right action at once and followed. Once the report of the ship's block-blasting reached us, it took onlyminutes to find that of all the suspects only Dorrancewas out of surveillance check. He'd gotten past us. Afew other matters fit in then and—anyway, he's AgentX. We're sure of it now."

 "Very well, then, Uncle Hector. Where's the harm?He's gone."

 "We know one more thing now. He's taken a personal capsule with him, and we have no doubt thatthat capsule contains information he has managed tocollect from the spy network over the Federation, and,presumably, has not yet had time to deliver to hisSirian bosses. Space knows exactly what he has, butthere must be enough there to blow our security topieces if it gets into Sirian hands."

 "You say he was followed. He has been broughtback?"

 "No." The harassed Chief Councilman turned pettish. "Would I be here if he had been?"

 Lucky asked suddenly, "Is the ship he tookequipped to make the Jump?"

 "No," cried the ruddy-faced Chief Councilman, andhe smoothed his silvered thatch of hair as though ithad risen in horror at the very thought of the Jump.

 Lucky drew a deep breath of relief too. The Jumpwas, of course, the leap through hyperspace, a movement that carried a ship outside ordinary space andbrought it back again into a point in space many light-years away, all in an instant.

 In such a ship Agent X would, very likely, get away.

 Conway said, "He worked solo; his getaway was

 20                          

 solo. That was part of the reason he slipped through our fingers. And the ship he took was an interplanetary cruiser designed for one-man operation."

 "And ships equipped with hyperspatials don't comedesigned for one-man operation. Not yet, anyway. But,Uncle Hector, if he's taken an interplanetary cruiser,then I suppose that's all he needs."

 Lucky had finished washing and was dressing himself rapidly. He turned to Bigman suddenly. "And howabout you? Snap into your clothes, Bigman."

 Bigman, who was sitting on the edge of the couch,virtually turned a somersault getting off it.

 Lucky said, "Probably, waiting for him somewherein space, is a Sirian-manned ship that is equipped with hyperspatials."

 "Right. And he's got a fast ship, and with his start
and speed, we may not catch him or even get within
weapons range. And that leaves---"

 "The Shooting Starr.I'm ahead of you, UncleHector. I'll be on theShooterin an hour, and Bigman with me, assuming he can drag his clothes on. Just getme the present location and course of the pursuingships and the identifying data on Agent X's ship andwe'll be on our way."

 "Good." Conway's harried face smoothed out a bit."And, David"—he used Lucky's real name, as healways did in moments of emotion—"youwillbe careful?"

 "Did you ask that of the personnel on the other ten ships too, Uncle Hector?" Lucky asked, but his voicewas soft and affectionate.

 Bigman had one hip boot pulled up now and theother in his hand. He patted the small holster on the

                                                                                21

 velvety inner surface of the free boot. "Are we on our way, Lucky?" The light of action glowed in his eyes,and his puckish little face was wrinkled in a fierce grin.

 "We're on our way," said Lucky, reaching out totousle Bigman's sandy hair. "We've been rusting onEarth for how long? Six weeks? Well, that's longenough."

 "And how," agreed Bigman joyfully, and pulled onthe other boot

 They were out past the orbit of Mars before theymade satisfactory sub-etheric contact with the pursuing ships, using the tightest scrambling.

 It was Councilman Ben Wessilewsky on the T.S.S.Harpoonwho answered.

 He shouted, "Lucky! Are you joining us? Swell!"His face grinned out of the visiplate and he winked."Got room to squash Bigman's ugly puss into a corner of your screen? Or isn't he with you?"

 "I'm with him," howled Bigman as he plunged between Lucky and the transmitter. "Think Councilman Conway would let this big lunk go anywhere withoutme to keep an eye on him so's he doesn't trip over his big feet?"

 Lucky picked Bigman up and tucked him, squawking, under one arm. He said, "Seems to be a noisy connection, Wess. What's the position of the ship we'reafter?"

 Wess, sobering, gave it. He said, "The ship'sTheNet of Space.It's privately owned, with a legitimate record of manufacture and sale. Agent X must havebought it under a dummy name and prepared foremergency a long time ago. It's a sweet ship and it's

 22                          

 been accelerating ever since it took off. We're fallingbehind."

 "What's its power capacity?"

 "We've thought of that. We've checked the manufacturer's record of the craft, and at the rate he's expending power, he can't go much farther without eithercutting motors or sacrificing maneuverability once hereaches destination. Wre counting on driving himinto that exact hole."

 "Presumably, though, he may have had the sense torev up the ship's power capacity."

 "Probably," said Wess, "but even so he can't keep this up forever. The thing I worry about is the possibility that he might evade our mass detectors by asteroid-skipping. If he can get the breaks in the asteroidbelt, we may lose him."

 Lucky knew that trick. Place an asteroid between yourself and a pursuer, and the pursuer's mass detectors locate the asteroid rather than the ship. When asecond asteroid comes within reach, the ship shiftsfrom one to the other, leaving the pursuer with his instrument still fastened on the first rock.

 Lucky said, "He's moving too fast to make the maneuver. He'd have to decelerate for half a day."

 "It would take a miracle," agreed Wess frankly, "butit took a miracle to put us on his trail, and so I almost expect another miracle to cancel the first."

 "What was the first miracle? The Chief said something about an emergency block."

 "That's right." Wess told the story crisply, and itdidn't take long. Dorrance, or Agent X (Wess calledhim by either name), had slipped surveillance by usingan instrument that distorted the spy-beam into useless-

                                                                                23

 ness. (The instrument had been located, but its workings were fused and it could not even be determinedif it was of Sirian manufacture.) He reached his getaway ship,The Net of Space,without trouble. He was ready to take off with this proton micro-reactor activated, his motor and controls checked, clear spaceabove—and then a limping freight ship, meteor-struckand unable to radio ahead, had appeared in the stratosphere, signaling desperately for a clear field.

 The emergency block was flashed. All ships in portwere held fast. Any ship in the process of take-off,unless it was already in actual motion, had to abandontake-off procedure.

 The Net of Spaceought to have abandoned take-off,but it did not. Lucky Starr could well understandwhat the feelings of Agent X aboard must have been.The hottest item in the Solar System was in his possession, and every second counted. Now that he had madehis actual move he could not rely on too long a timebefore the Council would be on his heels. If he abandoned take-off it would mean an untold delay whilea riddled ship limped down and ambulances slowlyemptied it. Then, when the field was cleared again,it would mean reactivation of the micro-reactor and another controls check. He could not afford the delay.

 So his jet blasted and up he went.

 And still Agent X might have escaped. The alarmsounded, the port police put out wild messages toTheNet of Space,but it was Councilman Wessilewsky,serving a routine hitch at Port Center, who took properaction. He had played his part in the search forAgent X, and a ship that blasted off against an emergency block somehow smelled wildly of just enough

 24                          

 desperation to mean Agent X. It was the wildest possible guess, but he acted.

 With the authority of the Council of Science behindhim (which superseded all other authority exceptthat contained in a direct order from the President ofthe Terrestrial Federation, he ordered ships into space,contacted Council Headquarters, and then boarded the T.S.S.Harpoonto guide the pursuit. He had already been in space for hours before the Council as awhole caught up with events. But then the messagecame through that he was indeed pursuing Agent X andthat other ships would be joining him.

 Lucky listened gravely and said, "It was a chancethat paid off, Wess. And the right thing to do. Goodwork."

 Wess grinned. Councilmen traditionally avoidedpublicity and the trappings of fame, but the approvalof one's fellows in the Council was something greatly to be desired.

 Lucky said, "I'm moving on. Have one of your shipsmaintain mass contact with me."

 He broke visual contact, and his strong, finelyformed hands closed almost caressingly on his ship's controls—hisShooting Starr,which in so many wayswas the sweetest vessel in space.

 The Shooting Starrhad the most powerful protonmicro-reactors that could be inserted into a ship of its size; reactors almost powerful enough to accelerate a battle cruiser at fleet-regulation pace; reactors almost powerful enough to manage the Jump through hyper-space. The ship had an ion drive that cut out most ofthe apparent effects of acceleration by acting simul-

                                                                                25

 taneously on all atoms aboard ship, including thosethat made up the living bodies of Lucky and Bigman.It even had an Agrav, recently developed and stillexperimental, which enabled it to maneuver freely inthe intense gravitational fields of the major planets.

 And nowThe Shooting Starr'smighty motorshummed smoothly into a higher pitch, just heard, andLucky felt the slight pressure of such backward dragas was not completely compensated for by the iondrive. The ship bounded outward into the far reachesof the Solar System, faster, faster, still faster....

 And still Agent X maintained his lead, andTheShooting Starrgained too slowly. With the main bodyof the asteroid belt far behind, Lucky said, "It looksbad, Bigman."

 Bigman looked surprised. "Well get him, Lucky."

 "It's where he's heading. I was sure it would be a Sirian mother-ship waiting to pick him up and makethe Jump homeward. But such a ship would be eitherway out of the plane of the Ecliptic or it would behidden in the asteroid belt. Either way, it could counton not being detected. But Agent X stays in the Ecliptic and heads beyond the asteroids."

 "Maybe he's just trying to shake us before he headsfor the ship."

 "Maybe," said Lucky, "and maybe the Sirians havea base on the outer planets."

 "Come on, Lucky." The small Martian cackled hisderision. "Right under our noses?"

 "It's hard to see under our noses sometimes. Hiscourse is aimed right at Saturn."

 Bigman checked the ship's computers, which were

 26                        

 keepingconstant tab on the other's course. He said,"Look, Lucky, the cobber is still on a ballistic course.He hasn't touched his motors in twenty million miles.Maybe he's out of power."

 "And maybe he's saving his power for maneuversin the Saturnian system. There'll be a heavy gravitational drag there. At least Ihopehe's saving power.Great Galaxy, I hope he is." Lucky's lean, handsomeface was grave now and his lips were pressed togethertightly.

 Bigman looked at him with astonishment. "Sandsof Mars, Lucky, why?"

 "Because if there is a Sirian base in Saturn's system,we'll need Agent X to lead us to that base. Saturn hasone tremendous satellite, eight sizeable ones, and dozens of splinter worlds. It would help to know exactly where it was."

 Bigman frowned. "The cobber wouldn't be dumb enough to lead us there."

 "Or maybe to let us catch him. . . . Bigman, calculate his course forward to the point of intersection withSaturn's orbit."

 Bigman did so. It was a routine moment of workfor the computer.

 Lucky said, "And how about Saturn's position atthe moment of intersection? How far will Saturn befrom Agent X's ship?"

 There was the short pause necessary for getting theelements of Saturn's orbit from the Ephemeris, andthen Bigman punched it in. A few seconds of calculation and Bigman suddenly rose to his feet in alarm."Lucky! Sands of Mars!"

 Lucky did not need to ask the details. He said, ''I'm

                                                                                2?

 thinking that Agent X may have decided on the oneway to keep from leading us to the Sirian base. If hecontinues on ballistic course exactly as he is now, he will strike Saturn itself—and sure death."

  

 3

 Death in the Rings

 There came to be no possible doubt about it as thehours passed. Even the pursuing guard ships, far behindThe Shooting Starr,too far off to get completelyaccurate fixes on their mass detectors, were perturbed.

 Councilman Wessilewsky contacted Lucky Starr."Space, Lucky," he said, "where's he going?"

 "Saturn itself, it seems," said Lucky.

 "Do you suppose a ship might be waiting for him onSaturn? I know it has thousands of miles of atmosphere with million-ton pressures, and without Agrav

 motors they couldn't---Lucky! Do you suppose they

 haveAgrav motors and forcefield bubbles?"

 "I think he may be simply crashing to keep us from catching him."

 Wess said dryly, "If he's all that anxious to die, whydoesn't he turn and fight, force us to destroy him andmaybe take one or two of us with him?"

 "I know," said Lucky, "or why not short-circuithis motors, leaving Saturn a hundred million miles offcourse? In fact, it bothers me that he should be attracting attention to Saturn this way." He fell into a thoughtful silence.

 29

 30                          

 Wess broke in! "Well, then, can you cut himoff, Lucky? Space knowswe'retoo far away."

 Bigman shouted from his place at the control panel,"Sands of Mars, Wess, if we rev up enough ion beamto catch him, well be moving too fast to maneuverhim away from Saturn."

 "Dosomething."

 "Space, there's an intelligent order," said Bigman."Real helpful. 'Do something'."

 Lucky said, "Just keep on the move, Wess. I'll dosomething."

 He broke contact and turned to Bigman. "Has heanswered our signals at all, Bigman?"

 "Not one word."

 "Forget that for now and concentrate on tapping his communication beam."

 "I don't think he's using one, Lucky."

 "He may at the last minute. He'll have to take a chance then if he has anything to say at all. Meanwhile we're going for him."

 "How?"

 "Missile. Just a small pea-shot."

 It was his turn to bend over the computer. WhileThe Net ofSpace moved in an unpowered orbit, it required no great computation to direct a pellet at theproper moment and velocity to strike the fleeing ship.

 Lucky readied the pellet. It was not designed to explode. It didn't have to. It was only a quarter of aninch in diameter, but the energy of the proton micro-pile would hurl it outward at five hundred miles asecond. Nothing in space would diminish that velocity,and the pellet would pass through the hull ofThe Net of Spaceas though it were butter.

                                                                                31

 Lucky did not expect it would, however. The pelletwould be large enough to be picked up on its quarry'smass detectors.The Net of Spacewould automatically correct course to avoid the pellet, and that wouldthrow it off the direct course to Saturn. The time lostby Agent X in computing the new course and correcting it back to the old one might yet allowThe ShootingStarrto come close enough to make use of a magneticgrapple.

 It all added up to a slim chance, perhaps vanishinglyslim, but there seemed no other possible course of action. Lucky touched a contact. The pellet sped outin a soundless flash, and the ship's mass-detectorneedles jumped, then quieted rapidly, as the pelletreceded.

 Lucky sat back. It would take two hours for thepellet to make (or almost make) contact. It occurredto him that Agent X might be completely out of power;that the automatic procedures might direct a coursechange which could not be followed through; thatthe pellet would penetrate, blow up the ship, perhaps, and in any case leave its course unchanged and stillmarked for Saturn.

 He dismissed the idea almost at once. It would beincredible to suppose that Agent X would run out ofthe last bit of power at the moment his ship took onthe precise collision course. It was infinitely more likelythat some power was left him.

 The hours of waiting were deadly. Even Hector Gonway, far back on Earth, grew impatient with the periodic bulletins and made direct contact on the sub-ether.

 32                          

 "But where in the Saturnian system do you supposethe base might be?" he asked worriedly.

 "If there is one," said Lucky cautiously, "If whatAgent X is doing is not a tremendous effort to mislead us, I would say the most obvious choice is Titan. It's Saturn's one really large satellite, with three timesthe mass of our own Moon and over twice the surfacearea. If the Sirians have holed up underground, tryingto dredge all of Titan for them would take a longtime."

 "It's hard to believe that they would have dared dothis. It's virtually an act of war."

 "Maybe so, Uncle Hector, but it wasn't so long agothey tried to establish a base on Ganymede."*

 Bigman called out sharply, "Lucky, he's moving."

 Lucky looked up in surprise. "Who's moving?"

 "The Net of Space.The Sirian cobber."

 Lucky said hastily, "I'll get in touch with you later,Uncle Hector," and broke contact. He said, "But hecan't be moving, Bigman. He can't possibly have detected the pellet yet."

 "Look and see for yourself, Lucky. I tell you he'smoving."

 Lucky, in one stride, was at the mass detectors ofThe Shooting Starr.For a long time now it had hada fix on the fleeing quarry. It had been adjusted forthe ship's unpowered motion through space, and theblob that represented the detectable mass had been asmall bright star mark on the screen.

 But now the mark was drifting. It was a short line.

 Lucky's voice was softly intense. "Great Galaxy,of course!Now it makes sense. How could I think his

 *Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids.

                                                                                33

 first duty would be merely to avoid capture? Big-

 man-----

 "Sure, Lucky. What?" The little Martian was readyfor anything.

 "We're being outmaneuvered. We've got to destroyhim now even if it means crashing into Saturn ourselves." For the first time since the ion-beam jets hadbeen placed aboardThe Shooting Starrthe year before,Lucky added the emergency thrusts to the main drive. The ship reeled as every last atom of power it carriedwas turned into a giant thrust backward that all butburned it out.

 Bigman struggled for breath. "But what's it allabout, Lucky?"

 "It's not Saturn he's headed for, Bigman. He wasjust making use of the full power of its gravitationalfield to help him keep ahead of us. Now he's cuttingaround the planet to get into orbit. It's the rings he'sheaded for. Saturn's rings." The young Councilman'sface was drawn with tension. "Keep after that communication beam, Bigman. He'll have to talk now.Now or never."

 Bigman bent over his wave analyzer with a quickening heartbeat, though for the life of him he could notunderstand why the thought of Saturn's rings should so disturb Lucky.

 The Shooting Starr'spellet came nowhere near itsmark, not within fifty thousand miles. But now itwasThe Shooting Starritself that was a pellet, strivingfor junction; and it, too, would miss.

 Lucky groaned. "We'll never make it. There's not enough room left to make it."

 Saturn was a giant in the sky now, with its rings a

 34                          

 thin gash across its face. Saturn's yellow globe wasalmost at the full asThe Shooting Starrburned towardit from the direction of the Sun.

 And Bigman suddenly exploded, "Why, the dirty cobber! He's melting into the rings, Lucky. Now I see what got you about the rings."

 He worked furiously at the mass detector, but it washopeless. As a portion of the rings came into focus,each of the countless solid masses that composed themformed its own star mark on the screen. The screen turned pure white andThe Net of Spacewas gone.

 Lucky shook his head. "That's not an insolubleproblem. We're close enough to get a visual fix now. It's something else that I'm sure is coming."

 Lucky, pale and engrossed, had the visiplate undermaximum telescopic enlargement.The Net of Spacewas a tiny metal cylinder obscured but not hidden bythe material of the rings. The individual particles in the rings were no larger than coarse gravel and were only sparkles as they caught and threw back the light of the distant Sun.

 Bigman said, "Lucky! I've got his communicationsbeam.... No, no, wait now.... Yes, I have it."

 There was a wavering voice crackling in the control room now, obscured and distorted. Bigman's deft fingers worked at the unscrambler, .trying to fit it betterand ever better with the unknown characteristics ofthe Sirian scrambling system.

 The words would die out, then come back. Therewas silence except for the faint hum of the recordertaking down permanently whatever came through.

 ". . . not . . . wor . . . hither . . ." (Quite a pausewhile Bigman fought frantically with his detectors.)

                                                                                35

 "... on trail and ... couldn't shake . . . done for and Imust transmit...rn's rings in normal orb . . . dylaunch . . . sties of or...follow . .. co-ordinate readthus..."

 It broke off altogether at that precise point; thevoice, the static, everything.

 Bigman yelled, "Sands of Mars, something's blown!"

 "Nothing here," said Lucky. "It'sThe Net ofSpace"

 He had seen it happen two seconds after transmission ceased. Transmission through the sub-ether was at virtually infinite velocity. The light that he sawthrough the visiplate traveled at only 186,000 miles asecond.

 It took two seconds for the sight of it to reachLucky. He saw the rear end ofThe Net of Spaceglowa cherry-red, then open and spatter into a flower ofmelting metal.

 Bigman caught the tail end of it, and he and Luckywatched wordlessly until radiation cooled the spectacle.

 Lucky shook his head. "That close to the rings,even though you're outside the main body of them,space has more than its share of speeding material.Maybe he had no further power to run the ship outof the way of one of those bits. Or maybe two piecesconverged at him from slightly different directions. In any case, he was a brave man and clever enemy."

 "I don't get it, Lucky. What was he doing?"

 "Don't you see even now? While it was importantfor him not to fall into our hands, it wasn't enough forhim to die. I should have seen that earlier myself. His most important task was to get the stolen informationin his possession to Sirius. He didn't dare risk the

 36                          

 sub-ether for reeling off what may have been thousandsof words of information—with ships in pursuit and possibly tapping his beam. He had to restrict his message to the briefest essentials and see to it that thecapsule was placed bodily in the grip of the Sirians."

 "How could he do that?"

 "What we caught of his message contains the syllable "orb"—probably for "orbit"—and "dy launch,"meaning "already launched."

 Bigman caught at Lucky's arms, his small fingerspinching tightly on the other's sinewy wrists. "Helaunched the capsule into the rings; is that it, Lucky?It'll be a piece of gravel along with a zillion other pieces, like—a pebble on the Moon—or a water dropin an ocean."

 "Or," said Lucky, "like a piece of gravel in Saturn'srings, which is worst of all. Of course he was destroyedbefore he could give the co-ordinates of the orbit hehad chosen for the capsule, so the Sirians and westart even, and we had better make the most of thatwithout delay."

 "Start looking? Now?"

 "Now! If he was ready to give the co-ordinates,knowing I was hot after him, he must also have knownthe Sirians were close by....Contact the ships, Bigman, and give them the news."

 Bigman turned to the transmitter but never touched it. The reception button was glowing with intercepted radio waves. Radio! Ordinary etheric communication!Obviously someone was close by (certainly withinthe Saturnian system), and someone, moreover, feltnot the least desire for secrecy, since a radio beam, un-

                                                                                37

 like sub-etheric communication, was childishly simpleto tap.

 Lucky's eyes narrowed. "Let's receive, Bigman."

 The voice came through with that trace of accent,that broadening of vowels and sharpening of consonants. It was a Sirian voice.

 It said, "—fy yourselves before we are forced toplace a grapple on you and take you into custody. Youhave fourteen minutes to acknowledge reception."There was a minute's pause. "By authority of the Central Body, you are ordered to identify yourself before we are forced to place a grapple on you and take you into custody. You have thirteen minutes to acknowledge reception."

 Lucky said coldly, "Reception acknowledged. ThisisThe Shooting Starrof the Terrestrial Federation, orbiting peacefully in the spatial volume of the Terrestrial Federation. No authority other than that ofthe Federation exists in these spaces."

 There was a second or two of silence (radio wavestravel with only the speed of light) and the voiceretorted, "The authority of the Terrestrial Federation is not recognized on a world colonized by theSirian peoples."

 "Which world is that?" asked Lucky.

 "The uninhabited Saturnian system has beentaken possession of in the name of our governmentunder the interstellar law that awards any uninhabited world to those who colonize it."

 "Not any uninhabited world. Any uninhabitedstellar system."

 There was no answer. The voice said stolidly,

 38                          

 "You are now within the Saturnian system and youare requested to leave forthwith. Any delay in acceleration outward will result in our taking you intocustody. Any further ships of the Terrestrial Federation entering our territory will be taken into custody without additional warning. Your acceleration out ofthe Saturnian system must begin within eight minutes or we will take action."

 Bigman, his face twisted with unholy glee, whispered, "Let's go in and get them, Lucky. Let's showthem the oldShootercan fight."

 But Lucky paid no attention. He said into thetransmitter, "Your remark is noted. We do not acceptSirian authority, but we choose, of our own will, toleave and will now do so." He snapped off contact.

 Bigman was appalled. "Sands of Mars, Lucky! Arewe going to run from a bunch ofSirians?Are wegoing to leave that capsule in Saturn's rings for the Sirians to pick up?"

 Lucky said, "Right now, Bigman, we have to." His head was bent and his face was pale and strained, butthere was something in his eyes that was not quitethat of a man backing down. Anything but that.

 4

 Between Jupiter and Saturn

 The ranking officer in the pursuing squadron (notcounting Councilman Wessilewsky, of course) wasCaptain Myron Bernold. He was a four-striper, stillunder fifty, and with the physique of a man ten yearsyounger. His hair was graying, but his eyebrows werestill their original black and his beard showed blueabout his shaven chin.

 He stared at the much younger Lucky Starr withundisguised scorn."And you backed away?"

 The Shooting Starr,having headed inward toward the Sun again, had met the ships of the squadron approximately halfway between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. Lucky had boarded the flagship.

 He said now quietly, "I did what was necessary tobe done."

 "When the enemy had invaded our home system,retreat can never be necessary. You might have beenblown out of space, but you would have had time towarn us and we would have been there to take over."

 "With how much power left in your micro-pileunits, Captain?"

 The captain flushed. "Nor would it matter if we

 39

 40                         

 got blasted out of space. That couldn't have beendone before we had, in our rum, alerted home base."

 "And started a war?"

 "They'vestarted the war. The Sirians....It isnow my intention to move on to Saturn and attack."

 Lucky's own rangy figure stiffened. He was tallerthan the captain, and his cool glance did not waver."As full Councilman of the Council of Science, Captain, I outrank you and you know it. I will give noorders to attack. The orders I give you are to return to Earth."

 "I would sooner-------" The captain was visibly

 struggling with his temper. His fists clenched. Hesaid in a strangled voice, "May I ask the reason forthe order, sir?" He emphasized the syllable of respectwith heavy irony. "If, sir, you would be so good as to explain the excellent reason you no doubt have,sir. My own reasoning is based on a small traditionthat the fleet happens to have. A tradition, sir, that thefleet does not retreat, sir."

 Lucky said, "If you want my reasons, Captain, sitdown and I'll give them to you. And don't tell methe fleet does not retreat. Retreat is a part of themaneuver of war, and a commanding officer whowould rather have his ships destroyed than retreathas no business in command. I think it's only youranger that's speaking. Now, Captain, are we readyto start a war?"

 "I tell you they have already started. They haveinvaded the Terrestrial Federation."

 "Not exactly. They've occupied an unoccupiedworld. The trouble is, Captain, that the Jump through hyperspace has made travel to the stars so simple that

                                                                                41

 Earthmen have colonized the planets of other stars long before ever colonizing the remoter portions ofour own Solar System."

 "Terrestrials have landed on Titan. In the
year-----"

 "I know about the flight of James Francis Hogg. Helanded on Oberon in the Uranian system also. But that was just exploration, not colonization. TheSaturnian system was left empty, and an unoccupiedworld belongs to the first group that colonizes it."

 "If," said the captain heavily, "that unoccupiedplanet or planetary system is part of an unoccupiedstellar system. Saturn isn't that, you'll admit. It's partof our Solar System, which, by the howling devils ofspace, is occupied."

 "True, but I don't think there is any official agreement to that effect. Perhaps it may be decided thatSirius is within its rights in occupying Saturn."

 The captain brought his fist down upon his knee. "I don't care what the space lawyers say. Saturn isours, and any Earthman with blood in him will agree.We'll kick the Sirians off and let our weapons decidethe law."

 "But that's exactly what Sirius would want us todo!"

 "Then let's give her what she wants."

 "And we will be accused of aggression. . . . Captain, there are fifty worlds out there among the starswho never forget that they were our colonies once.We gave them their freedom without a war, but theyforget that. They only remember we are still the mostpopulous and most advanced of all the worlds. IfSirius shouts we have committed unprovoked aggres-

 42                          

 sion, she'll unite them against us. It is just for thatreason that she is trying to provoke us to attack now,and it is just for that reason that I refused the invitation and came away."

 The captain bit at his lower lip and would haveanswered, but Lucky drove on.

 "On the other hand, if we do nothing, we canaccuse the Sirians of aggression and we'll split publicopinion in the outer worlds wide open. We canexploit that and bring them to our own side."

 "The outer worlds toourside?"

 "Why not? There isn't a stellar system in existence that doesn't have hundreds of unoccupied worlds of all sizes. They won't want to set up a precedent thatwould set every system to raiding every other systemfor bases. The only danger is that we will stampedethem into opposition to us by making it look as if weare powerful Earth throwing our weight about against our former colonies."

 The captain rose from his seat and strode thelength of his quarters and then back. He said,"Repeat your orders."

 Lucky said, "Do you understand my reason forretreat?"

 "Yes. May I have my orders?"

 "Very well. I order you to deliver this Capsule Inow give you to Chief Councilman Hector Conway.You are not to discuss anything that has happenedduring this pursuit with anyone else, either on the sub-ether or in any other fashion. You are to take nohostile action—repeat, no hostile action—against any Sirian forces, unless directly attacked. And if you goout of your way to meet such forces, or if you de-

                                                                                 43

 liberately provoke attack, I shall see you court-martialed and convicted. Is all clear?"

 The captain stood frozen-faced. His lips moved asthough they were carved out of wood and badlyhinged. "With all due respect, sir, would it bepossible for the Councilman to take over command ofmy ships and deliver the message himself?"

 Lucky Starr shrugged slightly and said, "You arevery obstinate, Captain, and I even admire you forit. There are times in battle when this kind of bull-doggedness can be useful....It is impossible for meto deliver this message, since it is my intention toreturn toThe Shooting Starrand blast off for Saturnagain."

 The captain's military rigidity came unstuck."What? Howling space,what?"

 "I thought my statement was plain, Captain. I haveleft something undone there. My first task was to seeto it that Earth was warned of the terrible politicaldanger we are facing. If you will take care of thatwarning for me, I can carry on where I now belong—back in the Saturnian system."

 The captain was grinning broadly. "Well, now,that's different. I would like to come along with you."

 "I know that, Captain. Sheering away from a fightis the harder task for you, and I'm asking you todo it because I expect you are used to hard tasks.Now I want each of your ships to transfer some oftheir power into the micro-pile units ofThe Shooting Starr.There'll be other supplies I'll need from yourstores."

 "You need only ask."

 44                          

 "Very good. I will return to my ship and I will ask Councilman Wessilewsky to join me in my mission."

 He shook hands briefly with the now thoroughlyfriendly captain, and then Councilman Wessilewskyjoined him as Lucky stepped into the inter-ship tubethat snaked between the flagship andThe ShootingStarr.

 The inter-ship tube was at nearly its full extension,and it took several minutes to negotiate its length.The tube was airless, but the two Councilmen couldmaintain space-suit contact easily and sound waveswould travel along the metal to emerge squawkily but distinctly enough. And, after all, no form ofcommunication is quite as private as sound waves overshort range, so it was in the air tube that Lucky wasable to speak briefly to the other.

 Finally Wess, changing the subject slightly, said,"Listen, Lucky, if the Sirians are trying to start trouble, why did they let you go? Why not have harassedyou till you were forced to turn and fight?"

 "As for that, Wess, you listen to the recording ofwhat the Sirian ship had to say. There was a stiffnessabout the words; a failure to threaten actual harm,only magnetic grappling. Fm convinced it was arobot-piloted ship."

 "Robots!" Wess's eyes widened.

 "Yes. Judge from your own reaction what Earth'swould be if that speculation got about. The fact is that those robot-piloted ships could have done no harm to a human-piloted ship. The First Law ofRobotics—that no robot can harm a human—would

                                                                                45

 have prevented it. And that just made the dangergreater. If I had attacked, as they probably expectedme to, the Sirians would have insisted that I had madea murderous and unprovoked assault on defenseless vessels. And the outer worlds appreciate the facts ofrobotics as Earth does not. No, Wess, the only way Icould cross them was to leave, and I did."

 With that, they were at the air-lock ofThe Shooting Starr.

 Bigman was waiting for them. There was the usual
grin of relief on his face at meeting Lucky again
after even the smallest separation.                     

 "Hey," he said. "What do you know? You didn't

 fall out of the inter-ship tube after all and------What's

 Wess doing here?"

 "He's coming with us, Bigman."

 The little Martian looked annoyed. "What for?This is a two-man ship we've got here."

 "We'll manage a guest temporarily. And now we'dbetter get set to drain power from the other ships and receive equipment along the tube. After that we make ready for instant blast-off."

 Lucky's voice was firm, his change of subject definite. Bigman knew better than to argue.

 He muttered, "Sure thing," and stepped across into the engine room after one malignant scowl in the direction of Councilman Wessilewsky.

 Wess said, "Now what's eating him? I haven't said a word about his size."

 Lucky said, "Well, you have to understand thelittle fellow. He's not a Councilman officially, althoughhe is one for all practical purposes. He's the only one

 46                          

 who doesn't realize that. Anyway, he thinks that because you're another Councilman we'll get chummyand cut him out; have our little secrets from him."

 Wess nodded. "I see. Are you suggesting then that
we tell him------"

 "No."The stress on the word was soft, but emphatic. "I'll tell him what has to be told. You say nothing."

 At that moment Bigman stepped into the pilotroom again and said, "She's sopping up the power,"then looked from one to the other and growled,"Well, sorry I'm interrupting. Shall I leave the ship,gentlemen?"

 Lucky said, "You'll have to knock me down first,Bigman."

 Bigman made rapid sparring motions and said,"Oh boy, what a difficult task. You think an extra foot of clumped fat makes it any job?"

 With blinding speed he was inside Lucky's arm asit was thrown out laughingly toward him, and hisfists landed one-two, thwackingly, in Lucky's mid-section.

 Lucky said, "Feel better?"

 Bigman danced back. "I pulled my punch becauseI didn't want Councilman Conway bawling me out for hurting you."

 Lucky laughed. "Thank you. Now listen, I've gotan orbit for you to calculate and send on to CaptainBernold."

 "Sure thing." Bigman seemed quite at ease now,any rancor gone.

 Wess said, "Listen, Lucky, I hate to act the wetblanket, but we're not very far from Saturn. It seemsto me that the Sirians will have a fix on us right now

                                                                                 47

 and know exactly where we are, when we leave,and where we go."

 "I think so too, Wess."

 "Well, then, how in space do we leave the squadronand head back for Saturn without their knowingexactly where we are and heading us off too far fromthe system for our purposes?"

 "Good question. I was wondering if you'd guesshow. If you didn't, I was reasonably certain the Sirianswouldn't guess either, and they don't know the details of our system nearly as well as we do."

 Wess leaned back in his pilot's chair. "Let's notmake a mystery of it, Lucky."

 "It's perfectly plain. All the ships, including ourselves, blast-off in tight formation, so that, consideringthe distance between the Sirians and ourselves, we'll register as a single spot on their mass detectors. Wemaintain that formation, flying on almost the minimum orbit to Earth, but just enough off course tomake a reasonable approach to the asteroid Hidalgo,which is now moving out toward aphelion."

 "Hidalgo?"

 "Come on, Wess, you know it. It's a perfectly legitimate asteroid and known since the primeval days before space travel. The interesting thing about it is thatit doesn't stay in the asteroid belt. At its closest to theSun it moves in as close as the orbit of Mars, but atits farthest it moves out almost as far as Saturn's orbit.Now when we pass near it, Hidalgo will register on theSirian mass-detection screens also, and from thestrength with which it will register they'll know it tobe an asteroid. Then they'll spot the mass of our shipsmoving on past Hidalgo toward Earth and they won't

 48                         

 spot the less than ten per cent total decrease in ship'smass that will result whenThe Shooting Starrturns and heads back out from the Sun in Hidalgo's shadow. Hidalgo's path isn't directly toward the presentposition of Saturn by any means, but after two daysin its shadow we can head well out of Ecliptic towardSaturn and rely on not being detected."

 Wess raised his eyebrows. "I hope it works, Lucky."He saw the strategy. The plane in which all theplanets and commercial space-flight routes lay wasthe Ecliptic. One practically never looked for anything moving well above or below that zone. It was reasonable to suppose that a space ship moving on the orbit being planned by Lucky would evade Sirian instruments. Yet there was still the look of uncertainty onWess's face.

 Lucky said, "Do you think we'll make it?"

 Wess said, "Maybe we will. But even if we do get

 back-----Lucky, I'm in this and I'll do my part, but

 just let me say this once and I'll never say it again. Ithink we're as good as dead!"

 5

 Skimming Saturn's Surface

 And soThe Shooting Starrflashed alongside Hidalgoand then out on the flight beyond the Ecliptic and upagain toward the southern polar regions of the SolarSystem's second largest planet.

 At no time in their still short history of space adventure had Lucky and Bigman remained in space forso long a period without a break. It had been nearly amonth now since they had left Earth. However, the small bubble of air and warmth that wasThe ShootingStarrwas a bit of Earth that could keep itself sofor an almost indefinite period to come.

 Their power supply, built to maximum by the donation of the other ships, would last nearly a year, barringa full-scale battle. Their air and water, recirculated byway of the algae tanks, would last a lifetime. The algaeeven provided a food reserve in case their more orthodox concentrates ran out.

 It was the presence of the third man that made forthe only real discomfort. As Bigman had pointed out,The Shooting Starrwas built for two. Its unusual concentration of power, speed, and armaments was madepossible partly by the unusual economy of its living

 49

 50                                   

 quarters. So turns had to be taken in sleeping on a quilt in the pilot room.

 Lucky pointed out that any discomfort was madeup for by the fact that four-hour watches at the controls could now be set up rather than the usual six-hour watches.

 To which Bigman replied hotly, "Sure, and whenI'm trying to sleep on this doggone blanket and Fat-face Wess is at the controls, he keeps flashing everysignal light right in my face."

 "Twice each watch," said Wess patiently, "I checkthe various emergency signals to make sure they'rein order. That's protocol."

 "And," said Bigman, "he keeps whistling throughhis teeth. Listen, Lucky, if he gives me one morechorus of 'My Sweet Aphrodite of Venus'—just once more—I'll up and break off his arms halfway betweenshoulder and elbow, then beat him to death with thestumps."

 Lucky said gravely, "Wess, please refrain fromwhistling refrains. If Bigman is forced to chastise you,he will get blood all over the pilot room."

 Bigman said nothing, but the next time he was atthe controls, with Wess asleep on the blanket and snoring musically, he managed somehow to step on thefingers of Wess's outstretched hand as he made for the pilot's stool.

 "Sands of Mars," he said, holding up both hands,palms forward, and rolling his eyes at the other's sudden, tigerish yell. "I did think I felt something undermy heavy Martian boots. My, my, Wess, was it your little thumbikins?"

 "You better stay awake from now on," yelled Wess

                                                                                51

 in furious agony. "Because if you go to sleep whileI'm in the control room, you Martian sand rat, I'llsquash you like a bug."

 "I'm so frightened," said Bigman, going into a paroxysm of mock weeping that brought Lucky wearily out of his bunk.

 "Listen," he said, "the next one of you two whowakes me trails theShooterin his suit at the end of acable for the rest of the trip."

 But when Saturn and its rings came into near view,they were all in the pilot room, watching. Even as seenin the usual manner, from an equatorial view, Saturnwas the most beautiful sight in the Solar System, andfrom a polar view...

 "If I recall correctly," said Lucky, "even Hogg's exploratory voyage touched this system only at Japetusand Titan, so that he saw only an equatorial view of Saturn. Unless the Sirians have done differently, we'rethe first human beings ever to see Saturn this closefrom this direction."

 As with Jupiter, the soft yellow glow of Saturn's"surface" was really the reflected sunlight from theupper layers of a turbulent atmosphere a thousandmiles or more in depth. And, as with Jupiter, the atmospheric disturbances showed up as zones of varying colors. But the zones were not the stripes theyappeared to be from the usual equatorial view. Instead,they formed concentric circles of soft brown, lighter yellow, and pastel green about the Saturnian pole as acenter.

 But even that faded to nothing compared to therings. At their present distance, the rings stretched

 52                          

 over an arc of twenty-five degrees, fifty times the widthof Earth's full Moon. The inner edge of the rings wasseparated from the planet by a space of forty-five minutes of arc in which there was room to hold an objectthe size of the full Moon loosely enough to allow it to rattle.

 The rings circled Saturn, touching it nowhere fromthe viewpoint ofThe Shooting Starr.They were visiblefor about three fifths of their circle, the rest being cutoff sharply by Saturn's shadow. About three fourthsof the way toward the outer edge of the ring was the black separation known as "Cassini's division." It wasabout fifteen minutes wide, a thick ribbon of blackness, dividing the rings into two paths of brightness ofunequal width. Within the inner lip of the rings was ascattering of sparkle that shimmered but did not forma continuous whiteness. This was the so-called "crepe ring."

 The total area exposed by the rings was more thaneight times as great as that of the globe of Saturn. Furthermore, the rings themselves were obviouslybrighter, area for area, than Saturn itself, so that on thewhole at least ninety per cent of the light reaching themfrom the planet came from its rings. The total light reaching them was about one hundred times that ofEarth's full Moon.

 Even Jupiter as seen from that startling nearness of Io was somehow nothing like this. When Bigman finally spoke, it was hi a whisper.

 He said, "Lucky, how come the rings are so bright?It makes Saturn itself look dim. Is that an opticalillusion?"

 "No," said Lucky, "if s real. Both Saturn and the

                                                                                53

 rings get the same amount of light from the Sun, butthey don't reflect the same amount. What we're seeingfrom Saturn is the light reflected from an atmospheremade up of hydrogen and helium, mainly, plus somemethane. That reflects about sixty-three per cent ofthe light that hits it. The rings, however, are mostlysolid chunks of ice, and they send back a minimum of eighty per cent, which makes them that much brighter. Looking at the rings is like looking at a field of snow."

 Wess mourned, "And we've got to find one snow-flake in the field of snow.

 "But adarksnowflake," said Bigman excitedly.
"Listen, Lucky, if all the ring particles are ice and
we're looking for a capsule that's metal-----"

 "Polished aluminum," said Lucky, "will reflect evenmore light than will ice. It will be just as shiny."

 "Well, then"—Bigman looked despairingly at therings half a million miles away, yet so tremendous inarea even at that distance— "this thing is hopeless."

 "We'll see," said Lucky noncommittally.

 Bigman sat at the controls, adjusting orbit in short,quiet bursts of the ion drive. The Agrav controls hadbeen connected so thatThe Shooting Starrwas farmore maneuverable in this volume of space, so closeto the mass of Saturn, than any Sirian ship couldpossibly be.

 Lucky was at the mass detector, the delicate probeof which scoured space for any matter, fixing its position by measuring its response to the gravitationalforce of the ship, if it were small, or the effect of itsgravitational force upon the ship, if it were large.

 Wess had just awakened and entered the pilot room,

 54                          

 and all was silence and tension as the ship sank towardSaturn. Bigman watched Lucky's face out of the corner of his eye. Lucky had grown more and moreabstracted as Saturn came near, abstracted and uncommunicative. Bigman had witnessed this before.Lucky was uncertain; he was gambling on poor odds , and he would not talk of it.

 Wess said, "I don't think you have to be sweatingover the mass detector so, Lucky. There'll be no shipsup here. It's when we get down to the rings that we'll find the ships. Plenty of them, probably. The Sirianswill be looking for the capsule too."

 "I agree with that," said Lucky, "as far as it goes."

 "Maybe," said Bigman gloomily, "those cobbers have found the capsule already."

 "Even that's possible," admitted Lucky.

 They were turning now, beginning to edge along thecircle of Saturn's globe, maintaining an eight-thousand-mile distance from its surface. The far half ofthe rings (or at least the portion that was in the sunlight) melted into Saturn as its inner edge was hiddenby the giant planetary bulge.

 In the case of the half rings on the near side of the planet, the inner "crepe ring" became more noticeable.

 Bigman said, "You know, I don't make out anyend to that inside ring."

 Wess said, "There isn't any end, probably. The innermost part of the main rings is only six thousandmiles above Saturn's apparent surface, and Saturn'satmosphere may stretch out that far."

 "Six thousand miles!"

 "Just in wisps, but enough to supply friction forthe nearest bits of gravel and make them circle a bitcloser to Saturn. Those that move in closer form the

                                                                                 55

 crepe ring. Only the closer they move, the more friction there is, so that they must move still closer. Thereare probably particles all the way down to Saturn, withsome burning up as they hit the thicker layer of theatmosphere."

 Bigman said, "Then the rings aren't going to lastforever."

 "Probably not. But they'll last millions of years.Long enough for us." He added somberly, "Too long."

 Lucky interrupted, "I'm leaving the ship, gentlemen."

 "Sands of Mars, Lucky. What for?" Bigman cried.

 "I want an outside look," Lucky answered curtly. He was pulling on his space suit.

 Bigman glanced quickly at the automatic record of the mass detector. No ships in space. There were occasional jogs, but nothing important. They were onlythe kind of drifting meteorites that were picked upanywhere in the Solar System.

 Lucky said, "Take over at the mass detector, Wess. Let it take a round-the-clock sweep." Lucky put hishelmet on and clicked it into place. He checked thegauges on his chest, the oxygen pressure, and movedtoward the air lock. His voice now emerged from the small radio receiver on the control board. "I'll be usinga magnetic cable, so make no sudden power thrusts."

 "With you out there? Think I'm crazy?" said Bigman.

 Lucky came into view at one of the ports, the magnetic cable snaking behind him in coils that, in theabsence of gravity, did not form a smooth curve.

 A small hand reactor in his gauntleted fist shot outits small jet stream, which became faintly visible in

 56                          

 the weak sunlight as a cloud of tiny ice particles thatdispersed and vanished. Lucky, by the law of actionand reaction, moved in the opposite direction.

 Bigman said, "Do you suppose something's wrongwith the ship?"

 "If there is," said Wess, "it doesn't show up anywhere on the control board."

 "Then what's the big lug doing?"

 "I don't know."

 But Bigman shot a suspicious glare at the Council
man, then turned again to watch Lucky. "If you think,"
he muttered, "because I'm not a Councilman-----"

 Wess said, "Maybe he just wanted to get outsiderange of your voice for a few minutes, Bigman."

 The mass detector, on automatic sweep control, was moving methodically across the volume about them,square degree by square degree, the screen blankingout into pure white whenever it edged too far in thedirection of Saturn itself.

 Bigman scowled and lacked heart to respond toWess's thrust. "I wish something would happen," hesaid.

 And something did.

 Wess, eyes returning to the mass detector, caught asuspicious pip on the recorder. He fixed the instrumenton it hurriedly, brought up the auxiliary energy detectors, and followed it for two minutes.

 Bigman said excitedly, "It's a ship, Wess."

 "Looks like it," said Wess reluctantly. Mass alonemight have meant a large meteorite, but there was ablast of energy being emitted from that direction thatcould come only from the micro-pile engines of a ship;the energy was of the right type and in the right quantities. It was as identifiable as a fingerprint. One could

                                                                                57

 even detect the slight differences from the energy pattern produced by Terrestrial ships and identify thisobject unmistakably as a Sirian ship.

 Bigman said, "It's heading for us."

 "Not directly. Probably it doesn't dare take chanceswith Saturn's gravitational field. Still it's edging closer,and in about an hour it will be in position to lay downa barrage against us... .What in space are you sopleased about, you Martian farm boy?"

 "Isn't it obvious, you lump of fat? This explainswhy Lucky's out there. He knew the ship was comingand he's laying a trap for it."

 "How in space could he tell a ship was coming?"demanded Wess in astonishment. "There was no indication on the mass detector till ten minutes ago. Itwasn't even focused in the proper direction."

 "Don't worry about Lucky. He has a way of knowing." Bigman was grinning.

 Wess shrugged, moved to the control panel, andcalled into the transmitter, "Lucky! Do you hear me?"

 "Sure I hear you, Wess. What's up?"

 "There's a Sirian ship in mass-detection range."

 "How close?"

 "Under two hundred thousand and getting closer."

 Bigman, watching out the port, noticed the flash ofLucky's hand reactor, and ice crystals swirled awayfrom the ship. Lucky was returning.

 "I'm coming in," he said.

 Bigman spoke at once, as soon as the helmet was'lifted off Lucky's head to reveal his brown shock ofhair and his clear brown eyes. Bigman said, "You knew that ship was coming, didn't you, Lucky?"

 "No, Bigman. I had no idea. In fact, I don't under-

 58                          

 stand how they discovered us so quickly. It's asking toomuch of coincidence to suppose they just happenedto be looking in this direction."

 Bigman tried to mask his chagrin. "Well, then, dowe blast him out of space, Lucky?"

 "Let's not go through the political dangers of attack again, Bigman. Besides, we have a mission herethat's more important than playing shooting gameswith other ships."

 "I know," said Bigman impatiently. "There's the
capsule we've got to find, but----"

 He shook his head. A capsule was a capsule and heunderstood its importance. But then, a good fight wasa good fight, and Lucky's political reasoning aboutthe dangers of aggression did not appeal to him if itmeant ducking a fight. He muttered, "What do I dothen? Stay on course?"

 "And accelerate. Make for the rings."

 "If we do," said Bigman, "they'll just take outafter us."

 "All right. We'll race."

 Bigman drew back the control rod slowly, and theproton disintegrations in the micro-pile increased totop fury. The ship hurtled along the bulging curve ofSaturn.

 At once the reception disk was alive with the impingement of radio waves.

 "Shall we go into active reception, Lucky?" askedWess.

 "No, we know what they'll say. Surrender or bemagnetically grappled."

 "Well?"

 "Our only chance is to run."

 6

  Through the Gap

 "From one rotten ship, Lucky?" wailed Bigman.

 "Time enough to fight later, Bigman. First thingsfirst."

 "But it just means we've got to leave Saturn again."

 Lucky smiled humorlessly. "Not this time, Bigman. This time we establish a base in this planet's system—and just as fast as we can."

 The ship was hurtling toward the rings at blinding velocity. Lucky nudged Bigman away from the controls and took over.

 Wess said, "More ships showing."

 "Where? What satellite are they nearest to?"

 Wess worked quickly. "They're all in the ring region."

 "Well," muttered Lucky, "then they're still huntingfor the capsule. How many ships are there?"

 "Five so far, Lucky."

 "Any between us and the rings?"

 "A sixth ship has shown. We aren't being stymied, Lucky. They're all too far to shoot with any accuracy,but they're going to track us down eventually unlesswe leave the Saturnian system altogether."

 59

 60                          

 "Or unless our ship is destroyed in some other fashion, eh?" said Lucky grimly.

 The rings had expanded in size till they filled thevisiplate with snowy white, and still the ship careened onward. Nor did Lucky make any move todecelerate.

 For one horrified moment Bigman thought Luckywas going to crash the ship among the rings deliberately. He let out an involuntary "Lucky!"

 And then the rings disappeared.

 Bigman was dazed. His hands went to the visiplatecontrols. He cried, "Where are they? What happened?"

 Wess, sweating it out over the mass detectors andrumpling his yellow hair with occasional restless yanks,called over his shoulder, "Cassini division."

 "What?"

 "The division between the rings."

 "Oh." Some of the shock was wearing off. Bigmanswiveled the visiplate eyepiece on the ship's hull, andthe snowy whiteness of the rings flashed back into view.He maneuvered it more carefully.

 First there was one ring. Then space, black space.Then another ring, somewhat dimmer. The outer ringwas a trifle less thickly strewn with icy gravel. Backto the space between the rings. Cassini's division. Nogravel there. Just a wide black gap.

 "It's big," said Bigman.

 Wess wiped the perspiration from his forehead and looked at Lucky. "Are we going through, Lucky?"

 Lucky kept his eyes fixed on the controls. "We'regoing through, Wess, in a matter of minutes. Hold yourbreath and hope."

 Wess turned on Bigman and said curtly, "Sure the

                                                                                61

 division is big. I told you it was twenty-five hundredmiles wide. Plenty of room for the ship, if that'swhat's scaring you."

 Bigman said, "You sound kind of nervous yourself for a fellow six feet tall on the outside. Is Luckymoving too fast for you?"

 Wess said, "Look, Bigman, if I took it into my head
to sit down on you-----"

 "Then there'd be more brains where you're sittingon than in your head," and Bigman burst out into a delighted squawk of laughter.

 Lucky said, "In five minutes we'll be in the division."

 Bigman choked off and turned back to the visiplate.He said, "There's a kind of twinkle every once in awhile inside the gap."

 Lucky said, "That's gravel, Bigman. The Cassini
division is clear of it, compared with the rings them
selves, but they're not a hundred per cent clear. If
we hit one of those bits on the way through---"

 "One chance in a thousand," broke in Wess, shrugging it off.

 "One chance in a million," said Lucky coolly, "butit was that one chance in a million that got Agent XinThe Net of Space....We're about at the boundaryof the division proper." His hand held firmly at thecontrols.

 Bigman drew a deep breath, tensing for the possible puncture that would rip the hull and perhaps shortthe proton micro-pile into a spreading blaze of redenergy. At least it would be over before...

 Lucky said, "Made it."

 Wess let out his breath noisily.

 62                          

 Bigman said, "Are we through?"

 "Of course we're through, you dumb Martian," saidWess. "The rings are only ten miles thick, and howmany seconds do you think it takes us to make tenmiles?"

 "And we're on the other side?"

 "You bet. Try to find the rings on the visiplate."

 Bigman veered the view one way, then back hi theother direction, then over and over again in continuously longer sweeps. "Sands of Mars, there's a kindof shadowy outline there."

 "And that's all you'll see, little pal. You're on the shadow side of the rings now. The Sun's lighting upthe other side, and the light doesn't seep through tenmiles of thick gravel. Say, Bigman, what do they teachfor astronomy in the Martian schools, anyway—Twinkle, twinkle, little star'?"

 Bigman's lower lip thrust out slowly. "You know,lardhead, I'd like to have you one season on the Martian farms. I'd render some of the fat off you and getdown to what meat you have, about ten pounds of it—and all of it in your big feet."

 Lucky said, ''I'd appreciate it, Wess, if you andBigman would put a bookmark in that argumentyou're having and save it for later. Would you checkon the mass detector, please?"

 "Sure thing, Lucky. Hey, it's way off kilter. Howsharply are you changing course?"

 "As sharply as the ship will take. We're stayingunder the rings all the distance we can."

 Wess nodded. "Okay, Lucky. That knocks out their mass detection."

 Bigman grinned. It worked out perfectly. No mass

                                                                                63

 detector could spotThe Shooting Starrbecause of theinterference of the mass of Saturn's rings, and evenvisual detection was unlikely through the rings.

 Lucky's long legs stretched out, and the musclesof his back moved smoothly as he stretched and flexed some of the tension out of his arms andshoulders.

 "I doubt," said Lucky, "that any of the Sirian shipswill have the nerve to follow us through the gap.They don't have Agrav."

 "Okay," said Bigman, "so far, so good. But wheredo we go now? Will anyone tell me?"

 "No secret," said Lucky. "We're heading for Mimas. We hug the rings till we're as close to Mimas as we canget, then make the dash across the intervening space.Mimas is only thirty thousand miles outside the rings."

 "Mimas? That's one of the moons of Saturn, right?"

 "Right," said Wess, breaking in. "The nearest one to the planet."

 Their course had flattened out now, andThe Shooting Starrwas still moving around Saturn, but west toeast now, in a plane parallel with the rings.

 Wess sat down on the blanket, legs crossed underhim like a tailor, and said, "Would you like to learna little more astronomy? If you can find a little roomin that walnut you have in your hollow skull, I can tell you why there's a division in the rings."

 Curiosity and scorn battled in the small Martian.He said, "Let's see you make up something fast, youignorant cobber. Go ahead, I call your bluff."

 "No bluff," said Wess haughtily. "Listen and learn.The inner parts of the two rings rotate about Saturn infive hours. The outermost parts make the rotation in

 64                          

 fifteen hours. Right where Cassini's division is, thering material, if there were any there, would go aroundat an intermediate rate, twelve hours per circuit."

 "So what?"

 "So the satellite Mimas, the one we're heading for,travels around Saturn in twenty-four hours."

 "Again, so what?"

 "All the particles in the ring are pulled this way andthat by the satellites as they and the satellites moveabout Saturn. Mimas does most of the pulling becauseit is the closest. Mostly the pulls are in one directionnow and in another direction an hour from now, sothat they cancel out. If there were gravel in Cassini'sdivision, however, every second time it completed itsrotation it would find Mimas in the same spot in the sky, pulling in the same old direction. Some of thegravel is constantly pulled ahead, so that it spirals outward into the outer ring; and some of it is pulled back,so that it spirals inward into the inner ring. Theydon't stay where they are; a section of the ring emptiesof particles and bingo—you have Cassini's divisionand two rings."

 "Is that so?" said Bigman weakly (he felt reasonably certain Wess was giving him the correct story)."Then how come thereissome gravel in the division?Why isn't it all moved out by now?"

 "Because," said Wess with a lofty air of superiority,"some is always being pushed in or pulled in by random gravitational effects of the satellites, but none ofit ever stays long. . . . And I hope you're takingnotes on all this, Bigman, because I may ask questions on this later."

                                                                                65

 "Go fry your skull in a mesonic blast," mutteredBigman.

 Wess returned to his mass detectors again, smiling. He fiddled with them a moment, then with no trace ofthe preceding banter left on his leathery face, he bentdown closely.

 "Lucky!"    

 "Yes, Wess?"

 "The rings aren't masking us."

 "What?"

 "Well, look for yourself. The Sirians are getting closer. The rings aren't bothering them at all."

 Lucky said thoughtfully, "Why, how can that be?"

 "It can't be blind luck that's converging eight shipson our orbit. We've made a right-angle bend andthey've adjusted their orbits to suit. Theymustbe detecting us."

 Lucky stroked his chin with his knuckles. "If they'redoing it, then, Great Galaxy, they're doing it. There'sno use in reasoning out the fact that they can't do it.It might mean that they have something we don'thave."

 "No one ever said the Sirians were dummies," saidWess.

 "No, but sometimes there's a tendency among us toact as though they were; as though all scientific advance comes out of the minds of the Council ofScience and that unless the Sirians steal our secretsthey have nothing. And sometimes I fall into that particular trap too. . . . Well, here we go."

 "Where do we go?" demanded Bigman sharply.

 "I told you already, Bigman," said Lucky. "Mimas."

 "But they're after us."

 66                          

 "I know. Which just means we've got to get therefaster than ever. . . . Wess, can they cut us off beforewe get to Mimas?"

 Wess worked quickly. "Not unless they can accelerate at least three times faster than we can, Lucky."

 "All right. Giving the Sirians all the credit in theworld, I can't believe they can have that much more power than theShooter.So we'll make it."

 Bigman said, "But, Lucky, you're crazy. Let's fightor get out of the Saturnian system altogether. We can'tland on Mimas."

 Lucky said, "Sorry, Bigman, we have no choice.We've got to land on Mimas."

 "But they've got us spotted. They'll just follow usdown to Mimas and we'll have to fight then, so whynot fight now while we can maneuver with our Agravand they can't?"

 "They might not bother to follow us down toMimas."

 "Why shouldn't they?"

 "Well, Bigman, did we bother to go into the ringsand pull out what was left ofThe Net of Space?"

 "But that ship blew up."

 "Exactly."

 There was silence in the control room.The Shooting Starrstreaked through space, curving slowly awayfrom Saturn, then more quickly, slipping out fromunder the outermost ring and into open space. Aheadof it now lay Mimas, a glittering world seen in tiny crescent. It was only 320 miles in diameter.

 Still far away were the converging ships of theSirian fleet.

 Mimas grew in size, and finallyThe Shooting Starr's

                                                                                67

 forward thrust burst into action and the ship began adeceleration.

 But to Bigman it seemed incredible that the space-wise Lucky could have so miscalculated. He saidtightly, "Too late, Lucky. We'll never slow up enoughfor a landing. We'll have to go into a spiral orbit untilwe lose enough velocity."

 "No time for spiraling Mimas, Bigman. We're heading straight in."

 "Sands of Mars, we can't! Not at this speed!"

 "That's what I hope the Sirians will decide."

 "But, Lucky, they'd be right."

 Wess put in slowly, "Hate to say it, Lucky, but Iagree with Bigman."

 "No time to argue or explain," said Lucky. He bentover the controls.

 Mimas expanded crazily in the visiplate. Bigmanlicked his lips. "Lucky, if you think it's better goingout this way than letting the Sirians get us, okay. Ican go along. But, Lucky, if we're going to go, can'twe go out fighting? Can't we maybe get one of thecobbers first?"

 Lucky shook his head and said nothing. His armswere moving quickly now, so that Bigman could notmake out exactly what he was doing. Decelerationwas still proceeding too slowly.

 For a moment Wess extended his hands as thoughto remove Lucky forcibly from the controls, but Bigman placed his hand quickly on the other's wrist.Bigman might be convinced they were going to theirdeath, but his stubborn faith in Lucky somehow remained.

 They were slowing, slowing, slowing, in what would

 68                          

 have been body-crushing deceleration in any shipother thanThe Shooting Starr,but with Mimas fillingthe visiplate now and hurtling at them, the slowingwas not enough.

 Flashing down at deadly speed,The Shooting Starrstruck the surface of Mimas.

 7

 On Mimas

 And yet didn't.

 Instead, there was a keening hiss that was familiarto Bigman. It was that of a ship striking atmosphere.

 Atmosphere?

 But that was impossible. No world the size ofMimas could possibly have an atmosphere. He lookedat Wess, who was suddenly sitting back on the blanket,looking worn and pale but somehow satisfied.

 Bigman strode up to Lucky, "Lucky-----"

 "Not now, Bigman."

 And suddenly Bigman recognized what it was thatLucky was doing at the controls. He was manipulatingthe fusion beam. Bigman ran back to the visiplate andfocused it dead ahead.

 There was no doubt of it, now that he finallygrasped the idea. The fusion beam was the mostmagnificent "heat ray" ever invented. It was designedmainly as a weapon at close range, but surely no onehad ever used one as Lucky was using it now.

 The jet of deuterium, snaking out forward of theship, was pinched in by a powerful magnetic field and,at a point miles ahead, was heated to nuclear ignition by a surge of power from the micro-piles. Maintained

 69

 70                          

 for any length of time, the power surge necessarywould have bankrupted the ship; but a fraction of amillionth of a second sufficed. After that the deuteriumfusion reaction was self-sustaining and the incrediblefusion flame that resulted burned in a heat of three hundred million degrees.

 That spot of heat ignited before the surface ofMimas was touched and bored into the body of thesatellite as though it were not there, puncturing a tunnel into its vitals. Into that tunnel whizzedTheShooting Starr.The vaporized substance of Mimas wasthe, atmosphere that surrounded them, helping to decelerate them, but bringing the temperature of theship's outer skin to dangerous redness.

 Lucky watched the skin-temperature dial and said,"Wess, put more punch in the vaporization coils."

 "It will take all the water we have," Wess said.

 "Let it. We need no water of our own onthisworld."

 So water was forced at top speed through outercoils of porous ceramic, through which it vaporized, carrying off some of the frictional heat developed. Butthe water flashed away as fast as it could be pumped into the coils. The skin temperature still rose.

 But more slowly now. Ship's deceleration had progressed, and Lucky cut the force of the deuterium jetand adjusted the magnetic field. The spot of fusing deuterium grew smaller and smaller still. The whistleof atmosphere descended in pitch.

 Finally the jet blanked out completely and the shipdrifted forward into solid wall, melting a path inwarda way by virtue of its own heat and finally coming to ajolting halt.

                                                                                71

 Lucky sat back at last "Gentlemen," he said, "I'msorry I couldn't take time to explain, but it was a last-minute decision and the control board took all myenergies. Anyway, welcome to the interior of Mimas."

 Bigman pumped a deep breath into his lungs andsaid, "I never thought you could use a fusion jet tomelt a way into a world ahead of a speeding ship."

 "You couldn't ordinarily, Bigman," said Lucky. "Itjust so happens that Mimas is a special case. And sois Enceladus, the next satellite out."

 "How come?"

 "They're just snowballs. Astronomers have knownthat since even before space travel. Their density is lessthan water and they reflect about eighty per cent ofthe light that hits them, so it's quite obvious theycould only be snow, plus some frozen ammonia, andnot too tightly packed at that."

 "Sure," said Wess, chiming in. "The rings are iceand these first two satellites are just collections of icethat were too far out to make up part of the rings.That's why Mimas melted so easily."

 Lucky said, "But we've got a good deal of work todo. Let's start."

 They were in a natural cavern formed by the heatof the fusion jet and closed in on all sides. The tunnelthey had formed as they entered had closed as they passed, the steam condensing and freezing. The massdetector yielded figures that indicated them to be aboutone hundred miles below the surface of the satellite.The mass of ice above them, even under Mimas'sfeeble gravity, was slowly contracting the cavern.

 SlowlyThe Shooting Starrburrowed outward once

 72                          

 more, like a hot wire poking into butter, and whenthey had reached a point within five miles of the surface, they stopped and set up an oxygen bubble.

 As a power supply was laid in along with algaetanks and a food supply, Wess shrugged resignedlyand said, "Well, this is going to be home for me for awhile; let's make it comfortable."

 Bigman had just awakened from his sleeping period. He screwed his face into a look of bitter condemnation.

 Wess said, "What's the matter, Bigman? All weepybecause you're going to miss me?"

 Bigman snarled and said, "I'll manage. In two, threeyears I'll make it a point to whizz by Mimas and dropyou a letter." Then he burst out, "Listen, I heard youtalking while you thought I was safely asleep. What's the matter? Council secrets?"

 Lucky shook his head uneasily. "All in good time,Bigman."

 Later, when Lucky was alone with Bigman in theship, the Councilman said, "Actually, Bigman, there's no reason you can't stay behind with Wess."

 Bigman said grumpily, "Oh, sure. Two hourscooped up with him and I'd just chop him into cubesand put him on ice for his relatives." Then he said, "Are you serious, Lucky?"

 "Rather serious. What's coming may be more dangerous for you than for me."

 "So? What do I care about that?"

 "If you stay with Wess then, whatever happens tome, you'll be picked up within two months."

 Bigman backed away. His small mouth twistedand he said, "Lucky, if you want to order me to stayhere because there's something for me to do here,

                                                                                73

 okay. I'll do it, and when it's done I'll join you. Butif you just want me to stay here to be safe while yougo off into danger, we're finished. I'll have nothingmore to do with you; and without me, you overgrowncobber, you won't be able to do a thing, you knowyou won't." The Martian's eyes blinked rapidly.

 Lucky said, "But, Bigman-----"

 "All right, I'll be in danger. Do you want me to signa paper saying it's my own responsibility and notyours? All right, I will. Does that satisfy you, Councilman?"

 Lucky seized Bigman's hair affectionately andtugged his head back and forth. "Great Galaxy, trying to do you a favor is like shoveling water."

 Wess came into the ship and said, "The still is allset up and working."

 Water from the ice substance of Mimas itselfpoured intoThe Shooting Starr'sreservoirs, fillingthem and replacing the water lost in cooling the ship'sskin during the boring into Mimas. Some of the separated ammonia was carefully neutralized and stored in a skin compartment where it would beavailable to the algae tanks as nitrogenous fertilizer.

 And then the bubble was done and the three ofthem looked about at the neatly curving ice and atthe almost comfortable quarters held within.

 "Okay, Wess," Lucky said at last, shaking handsfirmly. "You're all set, I think."

 "As far as I can tell, Lucky, I am."

 "You'll be taken off within two months, no matter what. You'll be taken off much sooner if things breakright."

 "You're assigning me this job," said Wess coolly,

 74                          

 "and it will be done. You concentrate on yours and,by the way, take care of Bigman. Don't let him fallout of his bunk and hurt himself."

 Bigman shouted, "Don't think I don't follow all this
big-shot mystery talk. You two have a deal on and
you're not telling me------"

 "Into the ship, Bigman," said Lucky, picking the Martian up bodily and moving him forward, whileBigman squirmed and tried to call out an answer.

 "Sands of Mars, Lucky," he said, once they wereaboard. "Look what you did. It's bad enough you'rekeeping your darned Council secrets, but you also let the cobber have the last word."

 "He's got the hard job, Bigman. He's got to stayput while we go out and stir up trouble, so let himhave the satisfaction of the last word."

 They nudged out of Mimas at a spot from whichneither Sun nor Saturn was visible. The dark sky heldno object larger than Titan, low on one horizon andonly a quarter of the apparent diameter of Earth'sMoon.

 Its globe was half lit by the Sun, and Bigman lookedsomberly at its image in the visiplate. He had notregained his ebullience. He said, "And that's where the Sirians are, I suppose."

 "I think so."

 "And where do we go? Back to the rings?"

 "Right."

 "And if they find us again?"

 It might have been a signal. The reception diskglowed to life.

                                                                                75

 Lucky looked disturbed. "They find us with toolittle trouble."

 He threw in contact. This time it was no deadrobotic voice counting off the minutes. It was a sharpvoice, instead; a vibrant one, full of life, and a Sirianvoice unmistakably.

 "—rr, please answer. I am trying to make contact
with Councilman David Starr of Earth. Will David
Starr please answer? I am trying-----"

 Lucky said, "Councilman Starr speaking. Who areyou?"

 "I am Sten Devoure of Sirius. You have ignored therequest of our automated ships and returned to our planetary system. You are therefore our prisoner."

 Lucky said, "Automated ships?"

 "Robot-run. Do you understand that? Our robotscan handle ships quite satisfactorily."

 "So I have found," said Lucky.

 "I think you have. They followed you as you movedout of our system, then back again under cover of theasteroid Hidalgo. They followed you in your movement out of the Ecliptic to Saturn's south pole, then through Cassini's division, under the rings, and theninto Mimas. You never once slipped our watch."

 "And what made your watch so efficient?" demanded Lucky, managing to keep his voice flat andunconcerned.

 "Ah, trust an Earthman not to realize that Siriansmight have their own methods. But never mind thatWe've waited days for you to come out of your Mimashole after your so clever entry by hydrogen fusion. Itamused us to let you hide. Some of us have even made bets on how long it would take you to poke your nose

 76                          

 outagain.And meanwhile we have carefully surrounded Mimas with our ships and their efficientrobot crews. You can't move a thousand miles without being blasted out of space, if we choose."

 "Surely not by your robots, which cannot inflictharm on humans."

 "My dear Councilman Starr," came the Sirian voicewith an unmistakable edge of mockery, "of courserobots will not harm human beings if they happen toknow that human beings are there to harm. But yousee, the robots in charge of the weapons have been carefully instructed that your ship carries robots only. They have no compunction about destroying robots.Won't you surrender?"

 Bigman suddenly leaned close to the transmitter andshouted, "Listen you cobber, what if we put some ofyour tin-can robots out of action first? How wouldyou like that?" (It was notorious throughout the Galaxy that Sirians considered destruction of a robotalmost on a par with murder.)

 But Sten Devoure was not shaken. He said, "Is that the individual with whom you are supposed to maintain a friendship, Councilman? A Bigman? If so, Ihave no desire to engage in talk with him. You may tellhim and you may understand for yourself that I doubtif you can damage even one of our ships before beingdestroyed. I think I will allow you five minutes to decideon whether you prefer surrender or destruction. Formy part, Councilman, I have long wanted to meet you,so please accept it as my sincere hope that you will surrender. Well?"

 Lucky stood silent for a moment, the muscles of hisjaw bunching.

                                                                                 77

 Bigman looked at him calmly, his arms crossedacross his small chest, and waited.

 Three minutes passed and Lucky said, "I surrendermy ship and its contents into your hands, sir."

 Bigman said nothing.

 Lucky broke off contact and turned to the little
Martian. The Councilman bit his lower lip in discom
fort and embarrassment. "Bigman, you'll have to
understand. I------"

 Bigman shrugged. "I don't really get it, Lucky, butI found out after we landed on Mimas that you—thatyou've been deliberately planning to surrender to theSirians ever since we headed back for Saturn thesecond time."

 8

 To Titan

 Lucky raised his eyebrows. "How did you find thatout, Bigman?"

 "I'm not so dumb, Lucky." The little Martian wasgrave and deadly serious. "Do you remember whenwe were heading down toward the south pole ofSaturn and you got out of the ship? It was just beforethe Sirians spotted us and we had to hot-jet it forCassini's division."

 "Yes."

 "You had a reason for doing that. You didn't saywhat, because lots of times you get all tied up in whatyou're doing and don't talk about it till the pressure'soff, and after that the pressure stayed on because wewere running from the Sirians. So when we were building the quarters for Wess on Mimas, I just lookedover the outside ofThe Shooting Starr,and it becamequite clear you'd been working on the Agrav unit.You've got it fixed so that you could blow the wholething by touching the all-shift contact on the controlpanel."

 Lucky said gently, "The Agrav unit is the one thingabout theShooterthat's completely top-secret."

 "I know. I figured if you'd counted on fighting

 79

 80                          

 you'd have knownThe Shooting Starrwouldn't quittill it and we were blasted out of space. Agrav unit andall. If you were fixing to blow up just the Agrav andleave the rest of the ship intact, it was because youweren't counting on fighting. You were going tosurrender."

 "And is this why you've been brooding since welanded on Mimas?"

 "Well, I'm with you whatever you do, Lucky, but"—Bigman sighed and looked away—"surrendering isno fun."

 "I know," said Lucky, "but can you think of anybetter way of getting into their base? Our business,Bigman, isn't always fun." And Lucky touched theall-shift contact on the control panel. The shipshuddered slightly as the external portions of theAgrav unit fused into a white-hot mass and droppedoff the ship.

 "You mean you're going to bore from within? Isthat the reason for the surrender?""Part of it."

 "Suppose they blast us down as soon as they getus?"

 "I don't think they will. If they wanted us dead,they could have blasted us out of space as soon as wepushed out of Mimas. I have a notion they can use us alive. . . . And if we're kept alive, we now have Wesson Mimas as a kind of backstop. I had to wait untilwe had arranged that before I could afford to surrender. That's why we had to risk our necks to get onMimas."

 "Maybe they know about him too, Lucky. Theyseem to know about everything else."

                                                                                81

 "Maybe they do," said Lucky thoughtfully. "ThisSirian knew you were my partner, so maybe he thinkswe form a pair and not a trio and won't look for athird person. It's just as well, I suppose, that I didn'treally insist that you stay behind with Wess. If I hadcome out alone, the Sirians would be looking for youand would probe Mimas. Of course if they found youand Wess and I could be certain they wouldn't shoot

 you out of hand-----No, with myself in their hands

 and before I could set things up so that----" He was

 talking to himself toward the end, in a whisper, andnow he fell completely silent.

 Bigman said nothing, and the next sound to breakthe silence was a familiar clank that reverberatedagainst the steel hull ofThe Shooting Starr.Amagnetic line had made contact, connecting their ship with another.

 "Someone's coming aboard," said Bigman tone-lessly.

 Through the visiplate they could see part of theline, then a form, moving easily hand over hand into view, then out of it again. It hit the ship thunderously,and the air-lock signal lit up.

 Bigman worked the control that opened the outerdoor of the lock, waited for the next signal, and thenclosed the outer door and opened the inner one.

 The invading figure moved in.

 But it wore no space suit, for it was not human. Itwas a robot.

 There were robots in the Terrestrial Federation, including a number of quite advanced ones, but for themost part they were engaged in highly specialized oc-

 82                          

 cupations that did not bring them into contact withhuman beings other than those who supervised them.So although Bigman had seen robots, he had not seenmany.

 He stared at this one. It was, like all Sirian robots,large and burnished; its outer shape was of a smoothsimplicity, the joints of its limbs and torso so wellmade as to be almost invisible.

 And when it spoke, Bigman started. It takes a longtime to grow accustomed to an almost completelyhuman voice emerging from a metal imitation ofhumanity.

 The robot said, "Good day. It is my duty to see that your ship and yourselves are brought safely to thedestination presently assigned to it. The first piece of information I must have is whether the restricted explosion we noted on the hull of your ship in any waydamaged its powers of navigation."

 Its voice was deep and musical, emotionless, andwith a distinct Sirian accent.

 Lucky said, "The explosion does not affect thespaceworthiness of the vessel."

 "What caused it then?"

 "I caused it."

 "For what reason?"

 "That I cannot tell you."

 "Very well." The robot abandoned the subject instantly. A man might have persisted, threatened force.A robot could not. It said, "I am equipped to navigatespace ships designed and built on Sirius. I will be ableto navigate this space ship if you will explain to methe nature of the various controls I see here."

                                                                                 83

 "Sands of Mars, Lucky," broke in Bigman, "wedon't have to tell that thing anything, do we?"

 "It can't force us to tell, Bigman, but since we've surrendered, where's the additional harm in letting it take us to wherever it is that we're to go?"

 "Let's find out where we're to go." Bigman suddenlyaddressed the robot in sharp tones: "You! Robot!Where are you taking us?"

 The robot turned its glowing red, unblinking gazeupon Bigman. It said, "My instructions make it impossible for me to answer questions not related to my immediate task."

 "But, look." The excited Bigman shook off Lucky'srestraining hand. "Wherever you take us, the Sirianswill harm us; kill us, even. If you don't want us to behurt, help us get away, come with us.... Aw, Lucky,let me talk, will you?"

 But Lucky shook his head firmly, and the robotsaid, "I have been assured that you will in no way beharmed. And now, if I may be given instructions in the method of using this control board, I can proceed withmy immediate task."

 Step by step Lucky explained the control board.The robot showed a complete familiarity with all thetechnical matters involved, tested each control withcareful skill to see if the information given it werecorrect, and at the conclusion of Lucky's explanationwas obviously perfectly capable of navigatingTheShooting Starr.

 Lucky smiled and his eyes were lit with frank admiration.

 Bigman pulled him off to their cabin. "What areyou grinning for, Lucky?"

 84                          

 "Great Galaxy, Bigman, it's a beautiful machine.We've got to hand the Sirians credit for that. Theycan turn out robots that are works of art."

 "Okay, but quiet, I don't want it to hear what I'mgoing to say. Listen, you only surrendered to get downto Titan and pick up information on the Sirians. Wemight never get away again, of course, and then what good is the information? But we've got this robot now.If we can get it to help us get away right now, thenwe've got what we want. The robot must have tons ofinformation about the Sirians. We'll have more thisway than if we land on Titan."

 Lucky shook his head. "It sounds good, Bigman.But how do you expect to argue the robot into joiningus?"

 "First Law. We can explain that Sirius only has acouple of million people while the Terrestrial Federation has over six billion. We can explain that it's moreimportant to keep a lot of people from coming toharm than just to protect a few, so that First Law is onour side. See, Lucky?"

 Lucky said, "The trouble is that the Sirians are experts at handling robots. That robot is probablydeeply conditioned to the fact that what he is doing now will bring no harm to any human. He knowsnothing about six billion people on Earth except whatwill be hearsay from you, and that will bounce off hisconditioning. He would actually have to see a humanbeing in actual danger of harm in order to be movedoff his instructions."

 "I'm going to try."

 "All right. Go ahead. The experience will do yougood."

                                                                                85

 Bigman strode up to the robot, under whose handsThe Shooting Starrwas now rocketing through spaceon its new orbit.

 He said, "What do you know of Earth, of theTerrestrial Federation?"

 "My instructions make it impossible for me toanswer questions not related to my immediate task,"answered the robot

 "I order you to ignore your previous instructions."

 There was a momentary hesitation before theanswer came. "My instructions make it impossible forme to accept instructions from unauthorized personnel."

 "My orders are given you in order to prevent harm to human beings. They must therefore be obeyed,"Bigman said.

 "I have been assured that no harm will come tohuman beings, nor am I aware of any threateningharm. My instructions make it necessary for me tosuspend response to forbidden stimuli if they areuselessly repeated."

 "You better listen. Thereisharm intended." Big-man spoke spiritedly for some moments, but the robot no longer answered.

 Lucky said, "Bigman, you're wasting effort."

 Bigman kicked at the robot's gleaming ankle. He might as well have kicked the hull of the ship, for allthe effect it had. He came toward Lucky, face red withanger. "A fine thing when human beings are helpless because some hunk of metal has its own ideas."

 "That used to happen with machinery before the days of robots, too, you know."

 "We don't even know where we're heading."

 86                          

 "We don't need the robot for that. I've been checking the course, and we're obviously heading for Titan."

 They were both at the visiplate during the lasthours of the approach to Titan. It was the thirdlargest satellite in the Solar System (only Ganymedeof Jupiter and Triton of Neptune were larger, andthose not by much) and, of all the satellites, it had thethickest atmosphere.

 The effect of its atmosphere was obvious even froma distance. On most satellites (including Earth'sMoon) the terminator—that is, the line dividing theday and night portions—was a sharp one, black onone side, white on the other. But it was not so in thiscase.

 Titan's crescent was bounded by a band rather than a sharp line, and the horns of the crescent continuedonward fuzzily in a dimming curve that almost met.

 "It has an atmosphere almost as thick as Earth's,Bigman," said Lucky.

 "Not breathable?" said Bigman.

 "No, not breathable. It's mainly methane."

 Other ships were crowding in now, becoming visibleto the naked eye. There were at least a dozen, herdingthem down the spaceways to Titan.

 Lucky shook his head. "Twelve ships to spare forthis one job. Great Galaxy, they must have been herefor years, building and preparing. How can we ever getthem off again, short of war?"

 Bigman attempted no answer.

 Again the sound of atmosphere made its unmistakable way into the ship, .the high-pitched keening ofthin wisps of gas whipping past the streamlined hull.

                                                                                87

 Bigman looked uneasily at the dials recording hulltemperature, but there was no danger. The robot atthe controls was sure-handed. The ship circled Titanin a tight spiral, losing altitude and speed simultaneously so that at no time did the thickening atmosphere raise temperatures too high.

 Again Lucky glowed with admiration. "It will manage it without fuel at all. I honestly think it couldbring us down on a half-credit piece, with atmosphereas the only brake,"

 Bigman said, "What's good about that, Lucky? Ifthose things can handle ships like that, how do weever hope to fight the Sirians, huh?"

 "We'll just have to learn to build our own, Bigman.These robots are a human achievement. The humansthat did the achieving are Sirians, yes, but they arehuman beings, too, and all other humans can sharepride in the achievement. If we fear the results of theirachievement, let's match it ourselves or more thanmatch it. But there's no use denying them the worth of their accomplishment."

 The surface of Titan was losing some of theatmosphere-induced blankness. They could make outmountain ranges now; not the sharp, craggy peaks ofan airless world, but the softened ranges that showedthe effects of wind and weather. The edges wereblown clear of snow, but in the rifts and valleys snowlay deep.

 "Not snow, really," said Lucky, "frozen ammonia."

 All was desolate, of course. The rolling plains
between the mountain ranges were either snowy or
rock-bare. No life of any kind appeared. No rivers or
lakes. And then------

 88                          

 "Great Galaxy!" said Lucky.

 A dome had made its appearance. A flattened domeof a type familiar enough on the inner planets. Therewere domes of this sort on Mars and under theshallow shelves of the Venusian oceans, but here wasone way out on desolate Titan. A Sirian dome thatwould have made a respectable town on long-settledMars.

 "We've slept while they've built," said Lucky.

 "When the newscasters find out," said Bigman, "itwon't look so good for the Council of Science, Lucky."

 "Unless we break this thing, it won't. And theCouncil doesn't deserve better. Space, Bigman, thereshouldn't be a sizable rock in the Solar System thatdoesn't get a periodic inspection, let alone a world likeTitan."

 "Who would have thought----"

 "The Council of Scienceshouldhave thought. Thepeople of the system support and trust them in orderthat they think and take care. And I should have thought too."

 The voice of the robot broke in upon them. "Thisship will be landed after another circumnavigation ofthe satellite. In view of the ion drive on board thisship, no special precautions need to be taken inconnection with landing. Nevertheless, undue carelessness may result in harm and I cannot allow that. Imust therefore request you to lie down and strapyourselves in."

 Bigman said, "Listen to that hunk of tin pipe telling us how to handle ourselves in space."

 "Just the same," said Lucky, "you'd better lie down.

                                                                                89

 He's likely to force us down if we don't. It's his jobnot to allow harm to come to us."

 Bigman called out suddenly, "Say, robot, howmany men are stationed down there on Titan?"

 There was no answer.

 Ground came up and up and swallowed them,tunneling them downward.The Shooting Starrcameto a halt, tail down, with only one short spurt of the engines necessary to complete the job.

 The robot turned away from the controls. "Youhave been brought safely and without harm to Titan.My immediate task is done and I will now turn youover to the masters."

 "To Sten Devoure?"

 "That is one of the masters. You may step out ofthe ship freely. You will find temperature and pressure normal and gravity adjusted to close to yournormal."

 "May we step out now?" asked Lucky.

 "Yes. The masters are waiting."

 Lucky nodded. Somehow he could not quite suppress the beginning of an odd excitement. Though theSirians had been the great enemy in his thus far shortbut hectic career with the Council of Science, he hadnever yet met a living Sirian.

 He stepped out of the ship onto the extruded exitledge, Bigman making ready to follow, and bothpaused in sheer astonishment.

 9

 The Enemy

 Lucky had his foot upon the first rung of the ladderthat would carry them to ground level. Bigman peeredover his large friend's shoulder. Both were open-mouthed.

 It was as though they were stepping out upon the surface of the Earth. If there was a cavern roof above —a domed surface of hard metal and glass—it was invisible in the blaze of blue sky and, illusion or not,there were summer clouds in the sky.

 Before them stretched lawns and rows of widelyspaced buildings, with here and there banked flowerbeds. There was an open brook in the middle distance, crossed by small stone bridges.

 Robots by the dozens were hurrying, each on hisown way, each on his own business, with machinelikeconcentration. Several hundred yards off, five beings—Sirians!—stood in a cluster and watched curiously.

 A voice broke in sharply and peremptorily onLucky and Bigman. "You up there. Come down.Come down, I say. No dawdling."

 Lucky looked down. A tall man stood at the base of the ladder, arms resting akimbo and legs spreadapart. His narrow olive-complexioned face looked up

 91

 92                         

 at them arrogantly. His dark hair was cropped into amere fuzz in the Sirian fashion. In addition, his face bore a trim and well-kept beard and a thin mustache.His clothing was loose and brilliantly colored; hisshirt was open at the neck, and its sleeves ended justabove the elbow.

 Lucky called, "If you're in a hurry, sir, certainly."

 He swung about and dropped down the ladder,hands only, his lithe body twisting with effortlessgrace. He pushed himself away from the hull anddropped the final twelve rungs, twisting as he did soto land face to face with the man on the ground. Ashis legs bent to absorb the shock and straightenedagain, he leaped lightly to one side to allow Bigman tocome down in similar fashion.

 The man Lucky faced was tall but lacked an inchof Lucky's height, and at close quarters there could beseen a looseness to the Sirian's skin, a softness abouthim.

 He scowled and his upper lip lifted in a grimaceof contempt. "Acrobats! Monkeys!"

 "Neither, sir," said Lucky with quiet good humor."Earthmen."

 The other said, "You are David Starr, but you arecalled Lucky. Does that mean in the Earthman lingo what it means in our language?"

 "It means 'fortunate.'"

 "You are not fortunate any longer, apparently. I amSten Devoure."

 "I had assumed that."

 "You seemed surprised at all this, eh?" Devoure'sbare arm swung out across the landscaped grounds."It is beautiful."

                                                                                93

 "It is, but isn't it an unnecessary waste of energy?"

 "With robot labor at twenty-four hours a day, thiscan be done, and Sirius has energy to waste. YourEarth hasn't, I think."

 "We have what is necessary, you'll find," saidLucky.

 "Will I? Come, I will speak with you in myquarters." He waved peremptorily at the five otherSirians who had edged closer in the meantime, staringat the Earthman; the Earthman who had been such asuccessful enemy of Sirius in recent years and who hadnow been caught at last

 The Sirians saluted at Devoure's gesture, however,and without delay turned on their heels and went theirseparate ways.

 Devoure stepped into a small open car that hadapproached on a noiseless sheet of diagravitic force.Its flat undersurface, without wheels or other materialdevice, remained six niches above the ground. Anothercar moved up toward Lucky. Each was handled, ofcourse, by a robot.

 Lucky entered the second car. Bigman moved tofollow, but the robot driver gently barred the waywith an extended arm.

 "Hey-----" began Bigman.

 Lucky interrupted, "My friend is coming with me,

 sir."

 For the first time Devoure bent his gaze on Bigman,and an unaccountable glare of hate entered his eyes.He said, "I will not concern myself with that thing.If you wish its company, you may have it for a while,but / do not wish to be troubled with it"

 94                          

 Bigman stared, white-faced, at the Sirian. "You'll
be troubled with me right now, you cob-----"

 But Lucky seized him and whispered earnestly inhis ear. "You can't do anything now, Bigman. GreatGalaxy, boy, let it go for now and let things workout."

 Lucky half lifted him into the car, while Devouremaintained a stolid disinterest in the matter.

 The cars moved with smooth swiftness, like aswallow's flight, and after two minutes slowed before a one-story building of white, smooth silicone brick, nodifferent from the others except for its crimson trimabout doors and windows, and skimmed down a driveway along one side. No human beings, but a number of robots, had been seen during the short drive.

 Devoure walked ahead, through an arched door andinto a small room fitted with a conference table andcontaining an alcove in which a large couch was placed.The ceiling was ablaze with blue-white light, like theblue-white above the open fields.

 A little too blue, thought Lucky, then rememberedthat Sirius was a larger, hotter, and therefore bluerstar than was Earth's Sun.

 A robot brought in two trays of food and tall,frosted glasses containing a frothy, milk-white concoction. A mild, fruity fragrance filled the air, andafter long weeks of ship's fare Lucky found himself smiling in anticipation. A tray was placed before him,another before Devoure.

 Lucky said to the robot, "My friend will have thesame."

 The robot, after the briefest glance at Devoure, wholooked away stonily, left and came back with another

                                                                                95

 tray. Nothing was said during the meal. Earthmanand Martian ate and drank heartily.

 But after the trays were removed, the Sirian said,"I must begin by stating that you are spies. You entered Sirian territory and were warned to leave. Youleft but then returned, making every effort to keep yourreturn secret. Under the rules of interstellar law wehave every right to execute you on the spot, and thismay be done unless your actions henceforward deserve clemency."

 "Actions such as what?" asked Lucky. "Let me have an example, sir."

 "With pleasure, Councilman." The Sirian's darkeyes livened with interest. "There is the capsule ofinformation our man discharged into the rings beforehis unfortunate death."

 "Do you think I have it?"

 The Sirian laughed. "Not a chance in all space.We never let you get near the rings at anything lessthan half light-speed. But come—you are a veryclever Councilman. We have heard so much of youand your deeds, even on Sirius. There have even beenoccasions when you have been, shall we say, a triflein our way."

 Bigman broke in with a sudden, outraged squeak,
"Just a trifle, like stopping your spy on Jupiter 9, like
stopping your deal with the asteroid pirates, like push
ing you off Ganymede, like----"

 Sten Devoure said in a blaze of anger, "Will youquiet it, Councilman? I am irritated by the shrillingof what is with you."

 "Then say what you have to say," said Lucky peremptorily, "without insulting my friend."

 96                          

 "What I want, then, is to have you help me find thecapsule. Tell me, out of your great ingenuity, how youwould go about it." Devoure leaned his elbows on the table and looked hungrily at Lucky, waiting.

 Lucky said, "What information do you have tobegin with?"

 "Only what I imagine you picked up. The lastsentences of our man."

 "Yes, we picked that up. Not all of it, but enough to know he did not give the co-ordinates of the orbit inwhich he launched the capsule, and enough to knowthat he did launch it."

 "Well?"

 "Since the man evaded our own agents for a longtime and nearly got away with a successful mission,I assume he is intelligent."

 "He was a Sirian."

 "That," said Lucky with grave courtesy, "is notnecessarily the same thing. In this case, however, wemay assume that he would not have launched thecapsule into the rings in such a way as to make itimpossible for you to find."

 "And your further reasoning, Earthman?"

 "And if he placed the capsule in the rings themselves, itwouldbe impossible to find."

 "You think so?"

 "I do. And the only alternative is that he sent itinto orbit within Cassini's division."

 Sten Devoure leaned his head back and laughedringingly. He said, "It is refreshing to hear LuckyStarr, the great Councilman, expend his ingenuity ona problem. One would have thought you would havecome up with something amazing, something com-

                                                                                97

 pletely striking. Instead, just this. Why, Councilman,what if I told you that we, without your help, reached this conclusion at once, and that our ships have beenscouring Cassini's division almost from the firstmoment that the capsule was released?"

 Lucky nodded. (If most of the human complement of the Titan base were in the rings, supervising thesearch, that would account in part for the dearth of humanity on the base itself.) He said, "Why, I would congratulate you and remind you that Cassini's division is large and does have some gravel in it. Besideswhich, the capsule would be in an unstable orbit because of the attraction of Mimas. Depending on itsposition, your capsule will be inching into the inner or outer ring, and if you don't find it soon you willhave lost it."

 "Your attempt to frighten me is foolish and useless.Even within the rings themselves the capsule wouldstill be aluminum compared with ice."

 "The mass detectors could not distinguish aluminumfrom ice."

 "Not the mass detectors ofyourplanet, Earthman.Have you asked yourself how we tracked you downdespite your clumsy trick with Hidalgo and your riskierone with Mimas?"

 Lucky said stonily, "I have wondered."

 Devoure laughed again. "You were right to wonder.Obviously Earth does not have the selective mass detector."

 "Top-secret?" asked Lucky politely.

 "Not in principle, no. Our detecting beam makesuse of soft X rays, which are scattered differently byvarious materials, depending on the mass of its atoms.

 98                          

 Some get reflected back to us, and by analyzing the reflected beam we can tell a metal space ship from arocky asteroid. When space ships pass an asteroid,which then moves on its way, registering a considerablemetal mass it did not possess before, it isn't the mostdifficult deduction in the world to suppose that nearthe asteroid there is a space ship skulking and fondly imagining itself to be beyond detection. Eh, Councilman?"

 "I see that."

 "Do you see that, no matter how you tried to maskyourself by Saturn's rings or by Saturn itself, yourmetal mass gave you away each time? There is no metal at all in the rings or in the outer ten thousand milesof Saturn's surface. Even within Mimas you weren'thidden. For some hours we thought you were donewith. We could detect metal under the ice of Mimas, and that might have been the remains of your splintered ship. But then the metal started moving and we knew you were still with us. We guessed your fusiontrick and had only to wait."

 Lucky nodded. "So far the game is yours.""And now do you think we won't find the capsule, even if it wanders into the rings or was placed in therings in the first place?"

 "Well, then, how is it you have not found it yet?"For a moment Devoure's face darkened, as though he suspected sarcasm, but before Lucky's appearanceof polite curiosity he could only say with half a snarl, "We will. It is only a matter of time. And since youcan't help us further in this, there is no reason to postpone your execution."

                                                                                99

 Lucky said, "I doubt that you really mean whatyou have just said. We would be very dangerous to youdead."

 "If your danger alive is any measure, I can't believeyou to be serious."

 "We are members of Earth's Council of Science. Ifwe are killed, the Council will not forget it or forgive. Nor would retaliation be directed so much againstSirius as against you, individually. Remember that."

 Devoure said, "I think I know more about this than you think. That creature with you is not a member ofyour Council."

 "Not officially, perhaps, but------"

 "And you, yourself—if you will allow me to finish—are rather more than a mere member. You are theadopted son of Hector Conway, the Chief Councilman,and you are the pride of the Council. So perhaps youare right." Devoure's mustached lips stretched into a humorless smile. "Perhaps there are conditions, cometo think of it, that would make it convenient for youto remain alive."

 "What conditions?"

 "In recent weeks Earth has called an interstellar conference of nations to consider what they choose to call our invasion of their territory. Perhaps you don't knowthat."

 "I suggested such a conference when I was firstmade aware of the existence of this base."

 "Good. Sirius has agreed to this conference, andthe meeting will take place shortly on your asteroid,Vesta. Earth, it seems"—Devoure smiled more broadly—'"is in a hurry. And we will humor them, since we

 100                        

 have no fears as to the outcome. The outer worlds, generally, have no love for Earth and ought to havenone. Our own case is ironbound. Still, we couldmake it so much more dramatic if we could show the exact extent of Earth's hypocrisy. They call a conference; they say they wish to solve the matter by peaceful means; but at the same time they send a warvessel to Titan with instructions to destroy our base."

 "Those were not my instructions. I have acted without instructions and with no intention of committingany warlike act."

 "Nevertheless, if you testify to what I have said, itwill make a great impression."

 "I cannot testify to what is not the truth."

 Devoure disregarded that. He said harshly, "Letthem see that you are neither drugged nor probed.Testify of your own free will as we will direct you.Let the conference know that the prize member of theCouncil of Science, Conway's own boy, was engagedin an illegal adventure of force at the same time thatEarth was sanctimoniously calling a conference and proclaiming its devotion to peace. It would settle matters once and for all."

 Lucky drew a deep breath and stared at the other'scoldly smiling face. He said, "Is that it? False testimony in exchange for life?"

 "All right. Put it that way. Make your choice."

 "There is none. I would not bear false witness in acase like this.''

 Devoure's eyes narrowed to slits. ''I think you will. You have been studied closely by our agents, Councilman, and we know your weak point. You may prefer your own death to co-operation with us, but you

                                                                               101

 have the Earthman's sentiment for the weak, the deformed, the monstrous. You would do it to prevent"—and the Sirian's soft and pudgy hand extended suddenly, one finger pointing rigidly at Bigman—"itsdeath."

 10

 Servicemen and Robots

 "Steady, Bigman," murmured Lucky.

 The little Martian hunched low in his seat, his eyeswatching Devoure hotly.

 Lucky said, "Let's not be childish in our attemptsto frighten. Execution is not easy on a world of robots.The robots can't kill us, and I'm not sure that you oryour colleagues would be willing to kill a man in cold blood."

 "Of course not, if you mean by killing the choppingoff of a head or the blasting in of a chest. But thenthere's nothing frightening in a quick death. Suppose,though, that our robots prepared a stripped-down ship.Your—uh—companion could be chained to a bulkhead on that ship by robots who will, of course, be careful not to hurt him. The ship can be fitted with anautomatic pilot that will take it on an orbit away fromyour Sun and out of the Ecliptic. There isn't a chance in a quadrillion that it would ever be spotted by anyone from Earth. It will travel on forever."

 Bigman broke in, "Lucky, it doesn't matter whatthey do to me. Don't you agree to anything."

 Devoure said, unheeding, "Your companion willhave plenty of air and there'll be a tube of water with-

 103

 104                        

 in reach if it's thirsty. Of course it will be alone andthere will be no food. Starvation is a slow death, and starvation in the ultimate loneliness of space is a horrible thing to contemplate."

 Lucky said, "That would be a dastardly and dishonorable way of treating a prisoner of war."

 "There is no war. You are merely spies. And in anycase, there is no need for it to happen, eh, Councilman? You need only sign the necessary confession that you intended to attack us and agree to confirmthis in person at the conference. I am sure you will heed the beggings of the thing you have befriended."

 "Beggings!"Bigman leaped, crimson-faced, to hisfeet.

 Devoure raised his voice abruptly. "That thing is tobe taken into custody. Proceed."

 Two robots materialized silently at either side, andeach seized an arm. For a moment Bigman writhed, and his body lifted off the floor with the intensity of his effort, but his arms were held motionless.

 One of the robots said, "The master will please not resist, as otherwise the master may harm himself despite all we can do."

 Devoure said, "You'll have twenty-four hours tomake up your mind. Plenty of time, eh, Councilman?"He looked at the illuminated figures on the strip ofdecorative metal that encircled his left wrist. "And meanwhile, we will prepare our stripped ship. If wedon't have to use it, as I expect we won't, why, what's labor to robots, eh, Councilman? Sit where you are;there is no use in trying to help your companion. He will not be hurt for the while."

                                                                               105

 Bigman was carried out of the room bodily whileLucky, half risen out of his seat, watched helplessly.

 A light flashed on a small box on the conferencetable. Devoure leaned over to touch it, and a luminoustube sprang into being just above the box. The imageof a head appeared. A voice said, "Yonge and I havethe report that you have the Councilman, Devoure.Why were we told only after his landing?"

 "What difference does that make, Zayon? You knownow. Are you coming in?"

 "We certainly are. We wish to meet the Councilman."

 "Come then to my office."

 Fifteen minutes later, two Sirians arrived. Both were as tall as Devoure; both were olive-skinned (the greater ultraviolet radiation of Sirius produced a dark skin,Lucky realized), but they were older. The cut hairof one was grizzled to steely gray. He was thin-lippedand spoke with rapid precision. He was introduced asHarrig Zayon, and his uniform made it clear he wasa member of the Sirian Space Service.

 The other was going somewhat bald. There was a long scar on his forearm and he had the keen look ofone who had grown old in space. He was Barrett Yonge, also of the Space Service.

 Lucky said, "Your Space Service is, I think, somewhat the equivalent of our Council of Science."

 "Yes, it is," said Zayon gravely. "In that sense weare colleagues, though on opposite sides of the fence."

 "Serviceman Zayon, then. Serviceman Yonge. Is Mr.
Devoure-----"

 106                        

 Devoure broke in, "I am not a member of the SpaceService. It is not necessary that I be. Sirius can beserved outside the Service too."

 "Particularly," said Yonge, one hand resting on thescarred forearm as though to hide the mark, "if oneis nephew of the director of the Central Body."

 Devoure rose. "Was that meant as sarcasm, Serviceman?"

 "Not at all. It was meant literally. The relationshipmakes it possible for you to do Sirius more service thanotherwise."

 But there was a dry quality to his statement, and Lucky was not unaware of the flash of hostility between the two aging Servicemen and the young andundoubtedly influential relative of Sirius's overlord.

 Zayon tried to deflect the direction things had taken by turning to Lucky and saying mildly, "Has our proposition been offered you?"

 "You mean the suggestion that I lie at the interstellar conference?"

 Zayon looked annoyed and a bit puzzled. He said,"I mean to join us, to become a Sirian."

 "I don't think we had quite reached that point, Serviceman."

 "Well, then consider this. Our Service knows you well and we respect your abilities and accomplishments. They are wasted on an Earth that must lose someday as a matter of biologic fact."

 "Biologic fact?" Lucky frowned. "The Sirians, Serviceman Zayon, are descended from Earthmen."

 "So they are, but not from all Earthmen; onlyfrom some, from the best, from those with the initiative and strength to reach the stars as colonists. We

                                                                               107

 have kept our descent pure; we have not allowedthe weaklings in, or those with poor genes. We have weeded out the unfit from among ourselves so that weare now a pure race of the strong, the fit, and thehealthy, while Earth remains a conglomerate of thediseased and deformed."

 Devoure broke in, "We had an example here a while
ago, the Councilman's companion. It infuriated and
nauseated me merely to be in the same room with
him; a monkey, a five-foot travesty of a human being,
a lump of deformity-----"

 Lucky said slowly, "He is a better man than you,Sirian."

 Devoure rose, fist drawn back, trembling. Zayonmoved toward him rapidly, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Devoure, sit down, please, and let me go on.This is not the time for extraneous quarrels." Devoureshook the other's hand off roughly but sat down allthe same.

 Serviceman Zayon went on earnestly, "To the outerworlds, Councilman Starr, Earth is a terrible menace,a bomb of sub-humanity, ready to explode and contaminate the clean Galaxy. We don't want that to happen; we can't allow it to happen. It's what we'refighting for: a clean human race, composed of the fit."

 Lucky said, "Composed of thoseyouconsider fit. But fitness comes in all shapes and forms. The great men of Earth have come from the tall and the short,from all manner of head shapes, skin colors, and languages. Variety is our salvation and the salvation ofall mankind."

 "You are simply parroting something you have beentaught. Councilman, can't you see you are really one

 108                       

 of us? You are tall, strong, built like a Sirian; you have the courage and daring of a Sirian. Why combine withthe scum of Earth against men like yourself, just because of the accident of your birth on Earth?"

 Lucky said, "The upshot of all this, Serviceman, isthat you wish me to come to the interstellar conferenceon Vesta and deliver statements designed to helpSirius."

 "To help Sirius, yes, but true statements. You havespied on us. Your ship was certainly armed."

 "But you waste your time. Mr. Devoure has alreadydiscussed the matter with me."

 "And you have agreed to be the Sirian you reallyare?" Zayon's face lit up at the possibility.

 Lucky cast a side glance at Devoure, who was inspecting the knuckles of his hands with an indifferentair.

 Lucky said, "Why, Mr. Devoure advanced the proposition in another fashion. Perhaps he did not inform you of my arrival sooner than he did in order to havetime to discuss the matter with me alone and to usehis own methods. Briefly, he simply said that I was toattend the conference on Sirian terms or else my friendBigman was to be sent out in a stripped space ship todie of starvation."

 Slowly the two Sirian Servicemen turned to look atDevoure, who merely continued the contemplation ofhis knuckles.

 Yonge said slowly, speaking directly to Devoure,
"Sir, it is not in the Service tradition------"

 Devoure exploded in sudden flaming anger. "I amnot a Serviceman and I don't give a half-credit piecefor your tradition. I'm in charge of this base, and its

                                                                               109

 security is my responsibility. You two have been appointed to accompany me as delegates to the conference on Vesta so that the Service will be represented,but I am to be chief delegate, and the success of the conference is also my responsibility. If this Earthmandoes not like the type of death reserved for his monkeyfriend, he need only agree to our terms, and he will agree to them a lot faster with that as stimulus thanyour offer of making a Sirian out of him.

 "And listen further." Devoure rose from his seat,
paced angrily to the far end of the room, and then
turned to glare at the frozen-faced Servicemen who
listened with disciplined self-control. "I'm tired of your
interference. The Service has had enough time to make
headway against Earth and has a miserable record in
that regard. Let this Earthman hear me say this. He
should know it better than anyone. The Service has a
miserablerecord, and it is I who have trapped this
Starr and not the Service. What you gentlemen need
is a little more guts, and that I intend to supply-------"

 It was at this moment that a robot threw open the
door and said, "Masters, I must be excused for enter
ing without orders from you, but I have been instructed
to tell you this concerning the small master who has
been taken into custody----"

 "Bigman!" cried Lucky, jumping to his feet. "Whathas happened to him?"

 After Bigman had been carried out of the room bythe two robots he had thought furiously. Not, really,of possible ways of escaping. He was not so unrealistic as to think he could make his way through a hordeof robots and, singlehanded, get away from a base as

 110                        

 well organized as this one, even if he hadThe Shooting Starrat his disposal, which he had not.

 It was more than that.

 Lucky was being tempted to dishonor and betrayal,and Bigman's life was the bait.

 Either way, Lucky must not be subjected to this. Hemust not have to save Bigman's life at the cost of becoming a traitor. Nor must he have to save his honorby sacrificing Bigman and carry the guilt with him forthe rest of his life.

 There was only one way to prevent both alternatives. Bigman faced that coldly. If he were to die insome way with which Lucky had nothing to do, thebig Earthman could bear no blame, even in his ownmind. And there would no longer be a live Bigmanwith which to bargain.

 Bigman was forced into a small diagravitic car andtaken for another two-minute drive.

 But those two minutes were enough to crystallizematters firmly in his mind. His years with Lucky hadbeen happy, exciting ones. He had lived a full lifetime in them and had faced death without fear. Hecould face death now, also without fear.

 And a quick death would not be so quick as to prevent him from evening a tiny bit of the score withDevoure. No man in his lifetime had insulted him sowithout retaliation. He could not die and leave thescore unevened. The thought of the arrogant Sirian so filled Bigman with anger that for a moment he couldnot have told whether it was friendship for Lucky orhatred of Devoure that was driving him.

 The robots lifted him out of the diagravitic car, andone passed its huge metal paws gently and expertly

                                                                               111

 down the sides of the Martian's body in a routinesearch for weapons.

 Bigman felt a moment of panic and strove uselesslyto knock aside the robot's arm. "I was searched onthe ship before they let me get off," he howled, butthe robot completed the search without paying attention.

 The two seized him again, made ready to take him into a building. The time, then, was now. Once he wasin an actual cell, with force planes cutting him off,his task would be much harder.

 Bigman kicked his feet desperately forward andturned a somersault between the robots. He was keptfrom turning completely around only by the robots'hold of his arms.

 One said, "It distresses me, master, that you haveplaced yourself in what must be a painful position. Ifyou will hold yourself motionless so that you willnot interfere with our assigned task, we will hold youas lightly as we can."

 But Bigman kicked again and then shrieked piercingly,"My arm!"

 The robots knelt at once and deposited Bigmangently on his back. "Are you in pain, master?"

 "You stupid cobbers, you've broken my arm.Don't touch it! Get some human being who knowshow to take care of a broken arm, or get some robotwho can," he ended in a moan, his face twisted inagony.

 The robots moved slowly backward, eyes upon him. They had no feelings, could have none. Butinside them were the positronic brain paths whoseorientation was controlled by the potentials and

 112                         

 counter-potentials set up by the Three Laws of Robotics. In the course of their fulfillment of one law,the Second—that they obey an order, in this case an order to lead a human being to a specific spot—theyhad broken a higher law, the First: that they neverbring harm to. a human being. The result in theirbrains must have been a kind of positronic chaos.

 Bigman cried out sharply, "Get help---------Sands

 of Mars—get------"

 It was an order, backed by the power of the FirstLaw. A human being was hurt. The robots turned,started away—and Bigman's right arm flashed downto the top of his hip boot and snaked inside. He rosenimbly, with a needle gun wanning the palm of hishand.

 At the sound of that, one of the robots turnedback, voice blurred and thickened as a sign of theweakening hold of the confused positronic brain."Ith the mathter not in pain, then?" The second robotturned back too.

 "Take me back to your Sirian masters," Bigmansaid tightly.

 It was another order, but the First Law was nolonger reinforcing it. A human being had not, afterall, been harmed. There was no shock or surprise atthis revelation. The nearest robot simply said, in avoice that had sharpened once more, "As your armis not, indeed, damaged, it becomes necessary for usto carry out our original order. Please come withus."

 Bigman wasted no time. His needle gun flashednoiselessly, and the robot's head was a gout of melting metal. What was left of it collapsed.

                                                                              113

 The second robot said, "It will not help to destroyour functioning," and walked toward him.

 Self-protection was the Third Law only. A robotcould not refuse to carry out an order (Second Law)on the basis of the Third alone. So it was bound towalk into a pointing needle gun. And other robots werecoming from all directions, summoned, no doubt, bysome radioed call at the moment when Bigman hadfirst pretended the broken arm.

 They would all walk into a needle gun, but therewould be enough to survive his pumping shots. Thosewho would survive would then overpower him and carry him into imprisonment. He would be deprivedof the quick death he needed, and Lucky would still be faced with the unbearable alternative.

 There was only one way out. Bigman put the needlegun to his temple.

 11

 Bigman Against All

 Bigman cried out piercingly, "Not one step nearer. Any closer and I'll have to shoot. You'll kill me."

 He nerved himself for the possible shot. If nothingelse could be done, it would have to be that

 But the robots stopped. Not one moved. Bigman'seyes moved slowly to right and left. One robot was onthe ground, headless, a useless lump of metal. Onewas standing, arms half reaching out toward him.One was a hundred feet away, caught in mid-stride.

 Slowly Bigman turned. A robot was coming out ofa building. It was caught on the threshold. Still otherswere farther off. It was as though a freezing blighthad struck them all, struck them with instant paralysis.

 He was not really surprised. It was the First Law.All else had to take second place: orders, their ownexistence, everything. They could not move if motionmeant harm to a human being.

 Bigman said, "Every robot but that one"—he pointedto the one facing him, the nearest, the companion ofthe one he had destroyed—"leave now. Back to yourimmediately previous task and forget me and what hasjust happened. Failure to obey at once will mean my death."

 115

 116                  .     

 So all but one had to leave. This was dealing withthem harshly, and Bigman, grim-faced, wondered ifthe potential being set up to drive the positronsmight not be intense enough to harm the platinum-indium sponge that made up the delicate roboticbrains.

 He had the Earthman's distrust of robots and herather hoped that was so.

 All the robots but one were gone now. The muzzleof the needle gun was still against Bigman's temple.

 He said to the remaining robot, "Take me back toyour master." (He wanted to use a harsher termbut what would a robot understand of the insultimplied. With difficulty he forced it down.)

 "Now," he said, "and quickly. Do not allow anymaster or robot to interfere with us on our way. Ihave this needle gun and shall use it on any masternear us, or on myself if I have to."

 The robot said hoarsely (the first signs of posi-tronic malfunction, Lucky had once told Bigman,showed up in the timbre of the voice), "I will followorders. The master may be certain that I shall donothing that will harm him or another master."

 It turned and led the way into the diagravitic car.Bigman followed. He was half prepared for trickeryon the way back, but there was none. A robot wasa machine following inescapable rules of action. He had to remember that. Only human beings could lieand cheat.

 When they stopped at Devoure's office, Bigmansaid, "I'll wait in the car. I won't leave. You go in andtell the master Devoure that the master Bigman is

                                                                               117

 free and waiting for him." Bipman struggled withtemptation and this time succumbed. He was tooclose to Devoure to resist successfully. He said, "Tellhim he can take me on with needle gun or fists, Idon't care which. Tell him that if he's too saffron-spined to do either, I'll come in and kick him fromhere to Mars."

 Sten Devoure stared at the robot in disbelief, hisdark face scowling and his angry eyes peering outfrom under hunched eyebrows.

 "Do you mean he's out there free? And armed?"

 He looked at the two Servicemen, who stared backwith blank astonishment. (Lucky muttered "GreatGalaxy!" under his breath. The irrepressible Bigmanwould rum everything—and lose his life as well.)

 Serviceman Zayon rose heavily to his feet. "Well,Devoure, you don't expect the robot to be lying, doyou?" He stepped across to the wall phone andpunched the emergency combination. "If we have anEarthman on base, armed and determined, we had better take action."

 "But how does he come to be armed?" Devourehad still not wiped away the traces of confusion,but now he made for the door. Lucky followed him,and the Sirian whirled at once. "Get back, Starr."

 He turned to the robot. "Stay with this Earthman.He is not to leave this building under any circumstances."

 And now he seemed to have come to a decision.He rushed from the room pulling out a heavy blasteras he did so. Zayon and Yonge hesitated, cast a quick

 118                        

 look at Lucky, then at the robot, made their owndecision, and followed Devoure.

 The area before Devoure's offices was wide andbathed in the artificial light that reproduced Sirius'sfaintly bluish tinge. Bigman stood alone in the center,and at a hundred yards' distance were five robots.Others were approaching from another direction.

 "Come and get that," roared Devoure, gesturing to the nearer robots and pointing to Bigman.

 "They won't come any closer," roared back Bigman."If they make a move toward me I shall burn yourheart out of your chest, and they know I'll do it. Atleast they can't take the chance I won't." He stood thereeasily, mockingly.

 Devoure flushed and lifted his blaster.

 Bigman said, "Now don't hurt yourself with thatblaster. You're holding it a little close to your body."

 His right elbow was resting in the palm of his left hand. His right fist squeezed gently as he spoke, andfrom the muzzle of the needle gun just protrudingfrom between second and third fingers, a jet ofdeuterium pulsed out under the guidance of a momentarily established magnetic field. It took skill ofthe highest order to adjust the squeeze and thumbposition correctly, but Bigman had that. No man inthe system had more.

 The muzzle tip of Devoure's blaster was a tinywhite spark, and Devoure yelled his surprise anddropped it.

 Bigman said, "I don't know who you other twocobbers are, but if either of you makes a move that

                                                                              119

 looks like a blaster is at the end of it, you'll neverfinish that move."

 All froze. Yonge finally said carefully, "How doyou come to be armed?"

 "A robot," said Bigman, "is no smarter than thecobber who runs him. The robots who searched meon the ship and out here were instructed by someonewho didn't know a Martian uses his boots for more than something to put his legs into."

 "And how did you break away from the robots?"

 Bigman said coolly, "I had to destroy one."

 "You destroyed a robot?"A kind of electric horrorstunned the three Sirians.

 Bigman felt increasing tension. He did not concernhimself with the robots standing about, but at anymoment another human Sirian might appear andshoot him in the back from a safe distance.

 The spot between his shoulders prickled as hewaited for the shot. Well, it would be a flash. Hewould never feel it. And after that they would have losttheir hold on Lucky and, dead or not, Bigman wouldbe the winner.

 Only, he wanted a chance at Devoure first, at that soft Sirian cobber who had sat across the table fromhim and said things no man in the universe could say and be left standing.

 Bigman said, "I could shoot you all. Shall we makean arrangement?"

 "You won't shoot us," said Serviceman Yongequietly. "A shooting would simply mean that anEarthman has opened hostilities on a Sirian planet.It could mean war."

 120                        

 "Besides," roared Devoure, "if you make anyattack it will release the robots. They'll defend threehumans rather than one. Throw down that needlegun and put yourself back in custody."

 "All right, send the robots away, and I'll surrenderto you."

 "The robots will handle you," said Devoure. Hemade as though to turn nonchalantly toward the otherSirians. "My skin crawls at having to talk to thisdeformed humanoid."

 Bigman's needle gun flashed at once, the small fireball exploding a foot before Devoure's eyes. "Saysomething like that again and I'll blind you for good.If the robots make a move, all three of you get itbefore they reach us. It may mean war, but youthree won't be here to see if it does. Order the robotsaway and I'll surrender to Devoure, if he can takeme. I'll toss my needle gun to one of you other twoand surrender."

 Zayon said stiffly, "That sounds reasonable, Devoure."

 Devoure was still rubbing his eyes. "Take his gunthen. Go over there and take it."

 "Wait," said Bigman, "don't move yet. I want yourword of honor that I won't be shot down or given tothe robots. Devoure has to take me."

 "Myword of honor toyou?"exploded Devoure.

 "To me. But not from you. The word of one of theother two. They're wearing the uniform of the SirianService and I'll take their word. If I give them theneedle gun, will they stand by and let you, Devoure,come and take me with your bare hands?"

 "You have my word," saidZayon.

                                                                               121

 "And mine," added Yonge.

 Devoure said, "What is this? I have no intention oftouching the creature."

 "Afraid?" asked Bigman softly. "Am I too big foryou, Devoure? You've called me names. Do you want to put your muscles where your cowardly mouth is?Here's my needle gun, Servicemen."

 He tossed the gun suddenly in Zayon's direction.Zayon reached out a hand and caught it neatly.

 Bigman waited. Now for death?

 But Zayon put the needle gun in his pocket.

 Devoure called out,"Robots!"and Zayon calledout with equal vigor,"Leave us, robots!"

 Zayon said to Devoure, "He has our word. You'llhave to take him into custody yourself."

 "Or do I come after you?" Bigman called out inshrill mockery.

 Devoure snarled wordlessly and strode hastily toward Bigman. The small Martian waited, slightlycrouched, then took a small side step to avoid the armreaching out forhim and uncoiled like a tightlywound spring.

 His fist struck the other's face with the dull impactof a mallet hitting a head of cabbage, and Devourestaggered back, stumbling into a sitting position. Hestared at Bigman in stunned amazement. His rightcheek had reddened and a trickle of blood made itsslow way out of the corner of his mouth. He put hisfinger to it, drew it away, and looked at the bloodwith an almost comical disbelief.

 Yonge said, "The Earthman is taller than he looks."

 Bigman said, "I'm not an Earthman, I'm aMartian.. .. Stand up, Devoure. Or are you too soft?

 122                        

 Can't you do anything without robots to help you? Dothey wipe your mouth when you're done eating?"

 Devoure yelled hoarsely and jumped to his feet butdid not rush Bigman. He circled him instead, breathing hard, watching out of inflamed eyes.

 Bigman wheeled also, watching that panting body, soft with good living and robot help, watching the unskillful arms and clumsy legs. The Sirian, Bigmanwas sure, had never fought fist to fist before.

 Bigman stepped in again, caught the other's armwith a sure and sudden motion, and twisted. With ahowl Devoure flipped and fell prone.

 Bigman stepped back. "What's the matter? I'mnot a he; I'm just an it. What's your trouble?"

 Devoure looked up at the two Servicemen withsomething deadly hi his eyes. He rose to his kneesand groaned as he put a hand to his side where it hadhit the ground.

 The two Sirians did not make any move to helphim. They watched stolidly as Bigman cut him downagain and then again.

 Finally Zayon stepped forward. "Martian, you willhurt him seriously if you continue. Our agreement wasto let Devoure take you with his bare hands, and actually I think you have what you really wanted when you made the agreement. That's all. Surrender quietlyto me now or I'll have to use the needle gun."

 But Devoure, panting noisily, gasped, "Get away.Get away,Zayon,It's too late for that. Step back, Isay."

 He called out in a high-pitched yell,"Robots! Comehere!"

 Zayon said, "He'll surrender to me."

                                                                               123

 "No surrender," said Devoure, Ms swollen face
twitching with physical pain and intense fury. "No sur
render. Too late for that____You, robot, the closest

 one—I don't care what your serial number is—you.Take it—take that thing." His voice rose to a screamas he pointed to Bigman."Destroy it! Break it! Breakeach piece of it!"

 Yonge shouted, "Devoure! Are you mad? A robotcan't do a thing like that."

 The robot remained standing. It did not move.

 Devoure said, "You can't harm a human being, robot. I'm not asking you to do so. But this is not ahuman being."

 The robot turned to look at Bigman.

 Bigman shouted, "It won't believe that. You mayconsider me non-human, but a robot knows better."

 Devoure said, "Look at it, robot. It talks and has ahuman shape, but so do you and you're no human. Ican prove it's not human. Did you ever see a full-grownhuman so small? That proves it's not human. It's ananimal and it is—it is harming me. You must destroyit."

 "Run to Mamma Robot," yelled Bigman mockingly.

 But the robot took the first step toward Bigman.

 Yonge stepped forward and moved between the robot and Bigman. "I can't allow this, Devoure. A robotmust not do such a thing, even if for no other reasonthan that the stress of potential involved will ruin it."

 But Devoure said in a hoarse whisper, "I'm yoursuperior. If you make one move to stop me, I'll haveyou out of the Service by tomorrow."

 The habit of obedience was strong. Yonge fell back,

 124                        

 but there was a look of intense distress and horror onhis face.

 The robot moved more quickly, and now Bigmanfell back a cautious step. "I'm a human being," he said.

 "It is not human," cried Devoure madly. "It is nothuman. Break every piece of it. Slowly."

 A chill fell over Bigman and left his mouth dry. Hehad not counted on this. A quick death, yes, butthis....

 There was no room to retreat, and he was withoutthe escape his needle gun afforded. There were otherrobots behind, and all were hearing the word that hewas not human.

 12

 Surrender

 There was a smile on Devoure's puffed and bruisedface. It must have hurt him, for one lip was split andhe dabbed absently at it with his handkerchief, but hiseyes were fixed on the robot moving toward Bigmanand he seemed aware of nothing else.

 The small Martian had only another six feet inwhich to retreat, and Devoure made no effort to hasten the approaching robot or to move up those in therear.

 Yonge said, "Devoure, for Sinus's sake, man, thereis no need of this."

 "No comments, Yonge," said Devoure tensely."That humanoid has destroyed a robot and probablydamaged others. We'll need checkups on every robot who has been affected by the sight of his use of violence. He deserves death."

 Zayon put out a restraining hand toward Yonge,
but the latter slapped it impatiently away. Yonge
said, "Death? All right. Then ship him back to Sirius
and have him tried and executed according to the
processes of law. Or set up a trial here at the base and
have him decently blasted. But this is no execution.
Simply because he beat----"

 125

 126                        

 Devoure cried in sudden fury, "That's enough! Youhave interfered once too often. You're under arrest.Zayon, take his blaster and toss it over to me."

 He turned briefly, loath to take his eyes off Bigmanfor even a moment. "Do it, Zayon, or by all the devilsof space I'll break you too."

 With a bitter, wordless frown Zayon held out hishand to Yonge. Yonge hesitated, and his fingers curledabout the butt of bis blaster, half drawing it in anger.

 Zayon whispered urgently, "No, Yonge. Don't givehim the excuse. He'll lift arrest when his madness isover. He'll have to."

 Devoure called out, "I want that blaster."

 Yonge ripped it out of its holster with a hand thattrembled and thrust it butt-first at Zayon. The lattertossed it at Devoure's feet and Devoure picked it up.

 Bigman, who had been maintaining an agonized silence as he watched futilely for a chance to dodge, tobreak away, now cried out, "Don't touch me, I'm amaster," as the robot's monstrous hand closed over biswrist.

 For a moment the robot hesitated, and then his griptightened. The other hand reached for Bigman's elbow. Devoure laughed, a high-pitched titter.

 Yonge turned on his heel and said in a suffocatedtone, "At least I don't have to watch this cowardlycrime." And as a result he did not observe what happened next

 With an effort Lucky remained calm when the threeSirians left. From a purely physical standpoint, hecould not possibly beat down the robot with his barehands. Somewhere in the building there might con-

                                                                              127

 ceivably be a weapon he could use to destroy the robot;he could then get out and might even shoot down thethree Sirians.

 But he would not be able to leave Titan, nor winout against the entire base.

 Worse still, if he were killed—and in the end hewould be—his deeper purposes would be lost, and hecould not risk those.

 He said to the robot, "What happened to the master Bigman? State the essentials quickly."

 The robot did, and Lucky listened with a tense andpainful attention. He heard the robot's occasional slurring and lisping of words, the thickening of speech asit described Bigman's doubled forcing of the robots by pretending or threatening harm to a human.

 Lucky groaned within. A robot dead. The force ofSirian law would be extended to the full against Bigman. Lucky knew enough about the Sirians' culture and their regard for their robots to know that therecould be no extenuating circumstances against robot-icide.

 How to save the impulsive Bigman now?

 Lucky remembered his own halfhearted attempt tokeep Bigman on Mimas. He had not foreseen this ex actly, but he had feared Bigman's temper in the delicate circumstances now surrounding them. He shouldhave insisted on Bigman's staying behind, but whatwas the use? Even as he thought this, he realized that he needed Bigman's company.

 But then he had to save him. Somehow he had tosave him.

 He walked rapidly toward the opening of the building, and the robot stepped stolidly into his path. "Ac-

 128                        

 cor'ing to my instructions, the master's not to leavebuilding under any thircumstances."

 "I am not leaving the building," said Lucky sharply. "I am merely going to the door. You have no instructions to prevent that."

 For a moment the robot was silent, then it said,"Ac-cor'ing to my instructions, the master's not to leave building under any circumthantheth."

 Desperately Lucky tried to push it aside, was seized,held motionless, then pushed back.

 Lucky bit his lip impatiently. A whole robot, hethought, would have interpreted its instructions broadly. This robot, however, had been damaged. It was reduced to the bare essence of robotic understanding.

 But he had to see Bigman. He whirled toward theconference table. In its center there had been a trimen-sional image reproducer. Devoure had used it when thetwo Servicemen had called him.

 "You. Robot!" called Lucky.

 The robot lumbered to the table.

 Lucky said, "How does the image reproducer work?"

 The robot was slow. Its speech was continuing tothicken. It said, "The controlth are'n thith retheth."

 "Which recess?"

 The robot showed him, moving a panel aside clumsily.

 "All right," said Lucky. "Can I focus on the area,just outside this building? Show me. Do it."

 He stepped aside. The robot worked, fumbling at the knobs. "It ith done, mathter."

 "Let me see, then." The area outside was in smallimage above the table, the figures of men smaller

                                                                               129

 still. The robot had moved away and stared dully elsewhere.

 Lucky did not call him back. There was no sound, but as he groped for what must be the sound control,his attention was caught by the fight that was going on. Devoure was fighting Bigman.Fighting Bigman!

 How had the small imp managed to persuade thetwo Servicemen to stand to one side and allow this tohappen? For of course Bigman was cutting his opponent to ribbons. Lucky could extract no joy from it.

 This could end only in Bigman's death, and Lucky knew that Bigman realized that and didn't care. The Martian would court sure death, take any chance, toavenge an insult. . . . Ah, one of the Servicemen wasstopping it now.

 With that, Lucky found the sound control. Wordsshot out of the image reproducer: Devoure's frenzied call for robots and his shouted order that they breakBigman.

 For a split second Lucky was not sure he had heardcorrectly, and then he beat both fists desperately againstthe table and whirled about in near despair.

 He had to get out, but how?

 There he was, alone with a robot containing onlyone instruction buzzing in what was left of its posi-tronic brain paths: to keep Lucky immobilized at allcosts.

 Great Galaxy, was there nothing that would take precedence over that order? He lacked even a weapon with which to threaten suicide or kill the robot.

 His eyes fell on the wall phone. He had last seenZayon at it, something about emergency when the newsabout Bigman broke.

 130                                

 Lucky said, "Robot. Quickly. What has been donehere?"

 The robot approached, looked at the glowing combination of knobs in faint red, and said with tantalizing slowness, "A mathter hath indicated all robotth to prepare battle thathionth."

 "How would I indicate that all robots are actuallyto proceed to battle stations at once? Supersedingall current orders?"

 The robot stared at him, and Lucky, in almost a frenzy, seized the robot's hand and pumped it. "Tellme. Tell me."

 Could the thing understand him? Or did its ruinedbrain paths still have impressed upon them some remnant of instructions that prevented it from giving thisinformation?"

 "Tell me! Or do it, do it."

 The robot, not speaking, reached a finger towardthe apparatus in an uneven movement and slowly depressed two buttons. Then its finger lifted an inch andstopped.

 "Is that all? Are you done?" demanded Lucky desperately.

 But the robot merely turned and with an uneventread (one foot dragging perceptibly) walked to thedoor and marched out.

 In space-devouring strides Lucky dashed after him,out of the building and across the hundred yards separating him from Bigman and the three Sirians.

 Yonge, having turned in horror from what he expected would be the bloodcurdling destruction of ahuman being, did not hear the scream of agony he

                                                                               131

 expected. Instead there was a startled grunt fromZayon and a wild cry from Devoure.

 He turned back. The robot that had been holdingBigman was holding him no more. He was moving away ini a heavy run. All the robots in sight werehastening away.

 And the Earthman, Lucky Starr, was now at Big-man's side, somehow.

 Lucky was bending over Bigman, and the small
Martian, rubbing his left arm vigorously, was shaking
his head. Yonge heard him say, "One minute later,
Lucky; just one minute later and----"

 Devoufe was shouting hoarsely and uselessly at therobots, and then a loud-speaker arrangement suddenly filled the air with clamor:

 COMMANDER DEVOURE, INSTRUCTIONSPLEASE. OUR INSTRUMENTS INDICATE NOSIGN OF ENEMY. EXPLAIN BATTLE STATIONS ORDER. COMMANDER DEVOURE . . .

 "Battle stations," muttered Devoure, stunned. "No

 wonder the robots----" His eyes fell on Lucky."You

 did that."

 Lucky nodded. "Yes, sir."

 Devoure's puffy lips set and he said hoarsely, "Theclever, resourceful Councilman! You've saved yourmonkey for the moment." His blaster pointed firmly atLucky's midriff. "Get into my offices. Every one of you.You too, Zayon. All of you."

 The image receiver on his desk was buzzing madly.Obviously it was the failure to get Devoure at hisoffice that had forced his distracted underlings to theloud-speakers.

 Devoure flipped on the sound but left the image

 132                        

 blind. He barked, "Cancel battle stations order. It was an error."

 The man at the other end spluttered something, andDevoure said sharply, "There's nothing wrong withthe image. Get on the ball. Everyone back on routine."But almost against his will his hand hovered betweenhis face and the place where the image ought to be, asthough he feared that somehow the other might penetrate to vision anyhow and see to what his face hadbeen reduced— and wonder about it.

 Yonge's nostrils flared as he watched, and he slowlyrubbed his scarred forearm.

 Devoure sat down. "The rest of you stand," hesaid, and stared sullenly from face to face. "ThisMartian will die, maybe not by robot or in a strippedspace ship. I'll think of something; and if you thinkyou saved him, Earthman, be sure I'll think of something more amusing still. I have an excellentimagination."

 Lucky said, "I demand that he be treated as a prisoner of war."

 Devoure said, "There is no war. He is a spy. He deserves death. He is a roboticide. He deserves deathtwice." His voice trembled suddenly. "He lifted hishands against me. He deserves death a dozen times."

 "I'll buy my friend," said Lucky in a whisper.    "He is not for sale:"

 "I can pay a high price."

 "How?" Devoure grinned ferociously. "By bearing witness at the conference as you have been requested?It is too late for that. It is not enough."

 "I couldn't do that in any case," said Lucky. "I

                                                                               133

 will not lie against Earth, but there is a truth I cantell; a truth you do not know."

 Bigman said sharply, "Don't bargain with him,Lucky."

 "The monkey is right," Devoure said. "Don't bargain. Nothing you can tell me will buy him. Iwouldn't sell him for all Earth in my hand."

 Yonge interrupted sharply, "I would for muchless. Listen to the Councilman. Their lives may beworth the information they have."

 Devoure said, "Don't provoke me. You are underarrest."

 But Yonge lifted a chair and let it drop with acrash. "I defy you to arrest me. I'm a Serviceman.You can't execute me out of hand. You dare not, nomatter how I provoke you. You must reserve me fortrial. And at any trial I have things to say."

 "Such as?" demanded Devoure with contempt

 All the dislike of the aging Serviceman for theyoung aristocrat was suddenly out in the open. "Suchas what happened today: how a five-foot Terrestrialtore you apart until you howled and Zayon had to stepin to save your life. Zayon will bear witness. Every man jack at the base will remember that you dared notshow your face for days after this date—or will you have the nerve to show that torn face before it heals?"

 "Be quiet!"

 "I can be quiet. I need say nothing—if you willstop subordinating the good of Sinus to your privatehatreds. Listen to what the Councilman has to say."He turned to Lucky. "I guarantee you a fair deal."

 Bigman piped up, "What fair deal? You and Zayonwill wake up one morning and find yourselves dead

 134                        

 by accident and Devoure will be so sorry and sendyou lots of flowers, only after that there'll be no oneto say how he needs robots to hide behind when aMartian is after his filthy skin. Then we'll go any wayhe likes. So why bargain?"

 "There'll be nothing like that," said Yonge stiffly, "because I will give the complete story to one of therobots within an hour of my leaving here. He won'tknow which one, and he won't find out. If either Zayon or myself dies of anything but natural causes,the story will be relayed to the public sub-etherics in full; otherwise, not. I rather think Devoure will beanxious to see that nothing happens to Zayon ormyself."

 Zayon shook his head. "I don't like this, Yonge."

 "You've got to like it, Zayon. You witnessed hisbeating. Do you think he wouldn't do his worst foryou if you didn't take precautions? Come, I'm weary of sacrificing the honor of the Service to the nephewof the director."

 Zayon said unhappily, "Well, what is your information, Councilman Starr?"

 Lucky said in a low voice, "It's more than information. It's surrender. There is another Councilmanon what you call Sirian territory. Agree to treat myfriend as a prisoner of war and safeguard his life byforgetting the roboticide incident and I'll take you tothis other Councilman."

 13

 Prelude to Vesta

 Bigman, who, to the end, had been certain thatLucky had some stratagem on hand, was appalled.He called out in a heartbroken wail, "No, Lucky! No!I don't want to be pulled out that way."

 Devoure was openly astonished. "Where? No shipcould have penetrated our defenses. It's a lie."

 "I'll take you to the man," said Lucky wearily,"if we come to an arrangement."

 "Space!" growled Yonge. "It's an arrangement."

 "Wait," said Devoure angrily. "I admit this couldbe of value to us, but is Starr suggesting that he willopenly testify to the conference on Vesta that thisother Councilman invaded our territory and thatStarr voluntarily revealed his hiding place?"

 "It's the truth," said Lucky. "I will so testify."

 "The word of honor of a Councilman?" sneeredDevoure.

 "I have said I will testify."

 "Well, then," said Devoure, "since our Servicemenwillhave it so, you may have your lives hi exchange."His eyes suddenly sparked fury. "On Mimas. Is that it, Councilman? Mimas?"

 "That is correct."

 135

 136                        

 "By Sinus!" Devoure rose to his feet in agitation."We almost missed it. Nor did this occur to theService."

 Zayon said with thought, "Mimas?"

 "The Service still doesn't get it," said Devourewith a malignant scowl. "Three men were onTheShooting Starr,obviously. Three entered Mimas; twoleft; one stayed behind. It was your report, Yonge, Ibelieve, which stressed the fact that Starr alwaysworked with his companion in a party of two."

 "He always had," said Yonge.

 "And was there no flexibility left in you to considerthe possibility of a third? Shall we go then to Mimas?"Devoure seemed to have lost his mad passion forrevenge in the stress of this new development, almostto have regained the mocking irony he had displayedwhen the two Terrestrials had first landed on Titan."And you will give us the pleasure of your company,Councilman?"

 "Certainly, Mr. Devoure," said Lucky.

 Bigman moved away, face averted. He felt worsenow, he thought, than even in that last moment ofrobotic advance when the metal limbs were on his arm,ready to smash.

 The Shooting Starrwas in space again, but not asan independent ship. It was caught in firm magneticgrapple and moved according to the impulses ofthe engines of the accompanying Sirian ship.

 The trip from Titan to Mimas took the better partof two days, and it was a hard time for Lucky, abitter, suspenseful time.

 He missed Bigman, who had been taken from him

                                                                               137

 .

 and placed on the Sirian ship. (The two on separateships, Devoure had pointed out, were hostages for eachother's good behavior.)

 It was the Sirian Serviceman, Harrig Zayon, whomade the second on the ship. There was a stiffnessabout him. He made no effort to repeat his original attempt to convert Lucky Starr to Sirian views, andLucky could not resist taking the offensive in thematter. He asked if Devoure were an example, inZayon's eyes, of the superior race of human beings thatinhabited the Sirian planets.

 Zayon said reluctantly, "Devoure has not had thebenefit of Service training and Service discipline. He isemotional."

 "Your colleague, Yonge, seems to consider it morethan that. He makes no secret of his low opinion ofDevoure."

 "Yonge is—is a representative of an extreme viewamong the Servicemen. That scar on his arm was received during some internal troubles that attendedthe rise of the present director of the Central Body topower."

 "Devoure's uncle?"

 "Yes. The Service was on the side of the previousdirector, and Yonge followed orders with Serviceman's honor. As a result he was passed over forpromotion under the new regime. Oh, they send himout here and appoint him to the committee whichwill represent Sirius at Vesta, but in actual fact he is under Devoure."

 "The director's nephew."

 "Yes. And Yonge resents it. Yonge cannot bringhimself to understand that the Service is an organ

 138                        

 of the state and does not question its policies or haveanything to do with the question of which individualor group is to govern it. He is an excellent Serviceman,otherwise."

 "But you have not answered the question as towhether you found Devoure a satisfactory representative of the Sirian elite."

 Zayon said angrily, "What about your Earth?Have you never had unsatisfactory rulers? Or even vicious ones?"

 "Any number," admitted Lucky, "but we are amiscellaneous lot on Earth; we vary. No ruler canstay in power very long if he doesn't represent a compromise among us. Compromising rulers may not bedynamic, but neither are they tyrannical. On Siriusyou have developed a sameness among yourselves,and a ruler can go to extremes along the lines of thatsameness. For that reason autocracy and force inpolitics are not the exceptional interlude that they areon Earth, but are the rule with you."

 Zayon sighed, but it was long hours before hespoke to Lucky again. It was not until Mimas waslarge in the visiplate and they were decelerating toland.

 Zayon said, "Tell me, Councilman. I ask you onyour honor. Is this a trick of some sort?"

 Lucky's stomach tightened, but he said calmly,"What do you mean by a trick?"

 "Is there really a Councilman on Mimas?"

 "Yes, there is. What do you expect? That I have aforce knot concealed on Mimas designed to blow usall to nothingness?"

 "Perhaps something like that."

                                                                               139

 "And what would I gain? The destruction of oneSirian ship and a dozen Sirians?"

 "You would gain your honor."~ Lucky shrugged. "I have made a bargain. We havea Councilman down there. I will go and get him andthere will be no resistance."

 Zayon nodded. "Very well. I suppose you wouldnot make a Sirian after all. You had better stay anEarthman."

 Lucky smiled bitterly. That, then, was the sourceof Zayon's ill humor. His stiff Serviceman's sense ofhonor objected to Lucky's behavior even when hebelieved Sirius to be benefiting by it

 Back at Port Center, International City, Earth,Chief Councilman Hector Conway waited to leavefor Vesta. He had not heard directly from LuckysinceThe Shooting Starrhad moved into the shadowof Hidalgo.

 The capsule brought in by Captain Bernold hadbeen specific enough in its curt way and had beenmarked by Lucky's usual hard common sense. Acall for a conferencehadbeen the only way out. ThePresident had seen that at once, and though somemembers of the cabinet were bellicose about matters,they had been overruled.

 Even Sirius (quite as Lucky had predicted) hadadopted the notion eagerly. It was, obviously, exactlywhat the Sirian government wanted, a conferencethat was sure to fail, followed by a war on their ownterms. To all outward appearances, they had all thecards.

 It was that very fact that had made it so necessary

 140                        

 to keep as much as possible from the public. If alldetails were put on the sub-ether without careful preparation, an indignant public might howl Earth'sgovernment irresistibly into war against all theGalaxy. The call for a conference would only makematters worse, since it would be interpreted as acowardly sell-out to the Sirians.

 And yet complete secrecy was impossible, too, andthe press was angry and rebellious at being feddiluted government reports. Things were worseningdaily.

 The President would have to hold out somehowuntil the conference could take place. And yet, ifthe conference failed, the present situation would be honey-sweet compared to that which would come.

 In the general indignation that would follow,there would be not only war, but the Council ofScience would be completely discredited anddestroyed, and the Terrestrial Federation would loseits most powerful weapon just when it needed it most.

 It had been weeks since Hector Conway had sleptwithout pills, and for the first time in his career hethought earnestly that he should be retiring.

 He rose heavily and made his way forward to theship now being readied for the launching. In a weekhe would be on Vesta for preliminary discussions withDoremo. That old pink-eyed statesman would beholding the balance of power. There was no doubting that. The very weakness of his small world was whatmade him powerful. He was the nearest thing to anhonest and disinterested neutral in the Galaxy, andeven the Sirians would listen to him.

 If Conway could get his ear to begin with . . .

                                                                               141

 He was scarcely aware of the man approaching tostop him until there was a near collision.

 "Eh? What is this?" demanded Conway in annoyance.

 The man touched the brim of his hat. "Jan Dieppeof Trans-sub-etheric, Chief. I wonder if you wouldanswer a few questions?"

 "No, no. I'm ready to board ship."

 "I realize that, sir. It's the very reason Fm stoppingyou. I won't get another chance. You're heading out for Vesta, of course."

 "Yes, of course."

 "To see about the outrage on Saturn."

 "Well?"

 "What do you expect the conference to do, Chief?Do you suppose Sirius will listen to resolutions andvotes?"

 "Yes, I think Sirius will."

 "Do you think the votes will go against her?"

 "I'm sure they will. Now may I pass?"

 "I'm sorry, sir, but there's something very important just now that Earth's people must know about."

 "Please. Don't tell me what you think they mustknow. I assure you that the good of Earth's people is close to my heart."

 "And is that why the Council of Science is willingto allow foreign governments to vote on whether ornot the Terrestrial Federation's territory has been invaded? A question that should be reserved to our owndecision alone?"

 Conway could not fail to note the undercurrent ofthreat in the other's outwardly polite but persistentquestioning. He looked over the reporter's shoulder

 142                        

 and could see the Secretary of State talking to a groupof other newsmen at a point closer to the ship.

 He said, "What are you getting at?"

 "The public is questioning the good faith of theCouncil, I'm afraid, Chief. And in that connection,Trans-sub-ether has picked up a Sirian news broadcast that it has not yet made public. We need yourcomments on it."

 "No comments. A Sirian news broadcast designedfor home consumption is not worth comment."

 "This report was quite circumstantial. For instance,where is Councilman David Starr, the legendary Lucky,himself? Where is he?"

 "What?"

 "Come on now, Chief. I know the Council's agentsdislike publicity, but has Councilman Starr been sentto Saturn on a secret mission?"

 "Now if that were so, young man, would you expectme to talk about it?"

 "Yes, if Sirius were already talking about it. It's no secret to them. They say Lucky Starr invaded the Sa-turnian system and was captured. Is that true?"

 Conway said stiffly, "I do not know the presentwhereabouts of Councilman David Starr."

 "Does that mean hemightbe in the Saturnian system?"

 "It means that I do not know his whereabouts."

 The reporter's nose wrinkled. "All right. If youthink it sounds better to have the Chief of the Councilof Science deny that he knows the whereabouts of oneof his important agents, that's your business. But thegeneral mood of the public is increasingly anti-Council. There is considerable talk of the Council's

                                                                               143

 inefficiency in letting Sinus get to Saturn in the firstplace and its interest in whitewashing the whole affairfor the sake of their political skins."

 "You are being insulting. Good day, sir."

 "The Sirians are quite definite that Lucky Starr hasbeen captured in the Saturnian system. Any commenton that?"

 "No. Let me pass."

 "The Sirians say that Lucky Starr will be at theconference."

 "Oh?" For a moment Conway could not conceala spasm of interest.

 "That seems to get you, Chief. The only catch isthat the Sirians say he'll be testifying forthem."

 Conway said with difficulty, "That remains to beseen."

 "Do you admit he'll be at the conference?"

 "I know nothing about that."

 The reporter stepped aside. "All right, Chief. It'sjust that the Sirians say that Starr has already giventhem valuable information and that the Sirians willbe able to convict us of aggression on the basis of it. I mean, what's the Council doing? Fighting with usor against us?"

 Conway, feeling unbearably harried, muttered, "Nocomment," and started to pass by.

 The reporter called after him. "Starr is your adoptedson, isn't he, Chief?"

 For a moment Conway turned back. Then, without a word, he hastened on to the ship.

 What was there to say? Whatcouldhe say exceptthat ahead of him lay an interstellar conference morecrucial for Earth than any meeting of any sort in its

 144                        

 history? That this conference was weighted heavily onthe side of Sinus. That chances were almost intolerably great that peace, the Council of Science, the Terrestrial Federation would all be destroyed.

 And that only the thin shield of Lucky's efforts protected them.

 Somehow, what depressed Conway more than anything else—more, even, than a lost war—was thethought that if the Sirian news report were true and ifthe conference nevertheless failed despite Lucky'soriginal intentions, Lucky would go down in historyas Earth's arch-traitor! And only a few would everknow better.

 14

 On Vesta

 The Secretary of State, Lament Finney, was a careerpolitician who had served some fifteen years in the legislature and whose relations with the Council ofScience had never been overwhelmingly friendly. He was aging now, not in the best of health, and inclinedto be querulous. Officially he headed the Terrestrial delegation to Vesta. In actuality, though, Conway un derstood quite well that he, himself, as head of theCouncil, must be prepared to take full responsibility for failure—if there was failure.

 Finney made that clear even before the ship, one ofEarth's largest space liners, took off.

 He said, "The press is almost uncontrollable. You'rein a bad spot, Conway."

 "All Earth is."

 "You,Conway."

 Conway said gloomily, "Well, I am under no illusions that if things go badly the Council can expectsupport from the government."

 "I'm afraid not." The Secretary of State was strapping himself in with meticulous care against the rigorsof take-off and making certain that his bottle of anti-space-sickness pills were handy. "Government sup-

 145

 146                        

 port for you would only mean the downfall of the government, and there will be enough troubles with a war emergency. We can't afford political instability."

 Conway thought: He has no confidence in the outcome of the conference at all. He expects the war.

 He said, "Listen, Finney, if the worst does come to
the worst, I will need voices on my side to help pre
vent Councilman Starr's reputation from------"

 Finney lifted his gray head momentarily from the hydraulic cushion and stared at the other out of fading,troubled eyes. "Impossible. Your Councilman wentinto Saturn on his own, asked no permission, receivedno orders. He was willing to take the risks. If thingsturn out badly, he is done. What else can we do?"

 "Youknowhe-----"

 "Idon'tknow," said the politician violently. "Iknow nothing officially. You've been in public lifelong enough to know that under certain conditionsthe people need a scapegoat and insist on one. Councilman Starr will be the scapegoat."

 He leaned back again, closed his eyes, and Conwayleaned back beside him. Elsewhere in the ship otherswere in their places, and the far thunder of the enginesstarted up and rose in pitch as the ship raised itselfslowly from the launching pad and lifted toward thesky.

 The Shooting Starrhovered a thousand miles above Vesta, caught in its feeble gravity and circling it slowlywith engines blocked. Grappled to it was a smalllifeboat from the Sirian mother ship.

 Serviceman Zayon had leftThe Shooting Starrtojoin the Sirian delegation on Vesta, and a robot re-

                                                                               147

 mained behind in his place. In the lifeboat was Big-man, and with him Serviceman Yonge.

 Lucky had been surprised when Yonge's face firststared out at him in the receiver. He said, "What areyou doing out in space? Is Bigman with you?"

 "He is. I'm his guard. I suppose you expected arobot."

 "Yes, I did. Or won't they trust Bigman with arobot after last time?"

 "No, this is just Devoure's little way of seeing to itthat I don't attend the conference. It's a slap at theService."

 Lucky said, "Serviceman Zayon will be there."

 "Zayon," Yonge sniffed. "He is an adequate man,but he's a follower. He can't realize that there'smore to the Service than blindly obeying orders fromabove; that we owe it to Sinus to see to it that sheis ruled according to the inflexible principles of honor that guide the Service itself."

 Lucky said, "How is Bigman?"

 "Well enough. He seems unhappy. It's strange thatsuch an odd-looking person should have a sternersense of duty and honor than a person like yourself."

 Lucky clamped his lips together. There was little
time left, and it worried him whenever either Service
man began speculating about Lucky's loss of honor.
From that it was a step to wondering if Lucky might
by some chance have retained his honor, and then they
might wonder what his intentions really were, and
after that------

 Yonge shrugged. "Well, I called only to make sureall was well. I am responsible for your welfare until,in good time, we get you down before the conference."

 148                        

 "Wait, Serviceman. You performed a service for me
back on Titan-----"

 "I did nothing for you. I followed the dictates ofduty."

 "Nevertheless, you saved Bigman's life and mine,too, perhaps. It may so happen that when the conference is over you may consider your life in danger."

 "Mylife?"

 Lucky said carefully, "Once I have given evidence,Devoure may for one reason or another decide to getrid of you despite the risk of having Sirians find outabout his fight with Bigman."

 Yonge laughed bitterly. "He wasn't seen once on thetrip out here. He was waiting in his cabin for his faceto heal. I'm safe enough."

 "Just the same, if you consider yourself in danger,approach Hector Conway, Chief Councilman ofScience. My word on it that he will accept you as a political exile."

 "I suppose you mean that kindly," said Yonge, "butI think that after the conference it will be Conwaywho will have to seek political asylum." Yonge brokeconnections.

 And Lucky was left to look down at gleaming Vestaand to think sadly that, after all, the chances wereheavily in favor of Yonge's being right

 Vesta was one of the largest of the asteroids. It was not the size of Ceres, which was more than five hundred miles in diameter and a giant among asteroids,but its 215-mile span put it into the second class,where only two other asteroids, Pallas and Juno, competed with it.

                                                                               149

 As seen from Earth, Vesta was the brightest of theasteroids because of the chance that had composed its outermost shell so largely of calcium carbonate ratherthan the darker silicates and metallic oxides that madeup the other, asteroids.

 Scientists speculated on this odd divergence inchemical constitution (which had not been suspecteduntil an actual landing was made upon it; before that the ancient astronomers had wondered if Vesta lay under a coat of ice or frozen carbon dioxide) but hadcome to no conclusion. And the feature writers tookto calling it the "world of marble."

 The "world of marble" had been converted into anaval base in the first days of the fight with the spacepirates of the asteroid belt. The natural caverns under its surface had been enlarged and made airtight, andthere had been room to store a fleet and house twoyears of provisions for it.

 Now the naval base was more or less obsolete, butwith small changes the caverns could be (and hadbeen) made a most suitable meeting ground for delegates from all over the Galaxy.

 Food and water supplies had been laid down, andluxuries which naval men had not required wereadded. As one passed the marble surface and entered the interior, there was little to distinguish Vesta froman Earthside hotel.

 The Terrestrial delegation as the hosts (Vesta wasTerrestrial territory; not even the Sirians could disputethat) assigned the quarters and saw to it that the delegates were comfortable. This meant the adjustmentof the various quarters to the slight difference in gravity and atmospheric conditions to which the delegates

 150                       

 might beaccustomed. Those from Warren, for instance, had the quarters air-conditioned to a moderatechill to allow for the frigid climate of their homeplanet.

 It was not an accident that greatest pains were takenfor the delegation from Elam. It was a small worldcircling a red dwarf star. Its environment was such that one would not have supposed human beings could flourish there. Yet the very deficiencies were turnedinto account by the restless ingenuity of the humanspecies.

 There was not enough light to allow Earth-typeplants to grow properly, so artificial lights were usedand special breeds were cultivated, until Elamite grainsand agricultural products generally were not merelyadequate but of superior quality that could not beduplicated elsewhere in the Galaxy. Elamite prosperity rested on her agricultural exports in a way thatother worlds more favored by nature could not match.

 Probably as a result of the poor light of Elam's sun,there was no biological favoring of skin pigmentation.The inhabitants were fak-skinned almost to extremes.

 The head of the Elamite delegation, for instance,was almost an albino. He was Agas Doremo, for morethan thirty years the recognized leader of the neutralist forces in the Galaxy. In every question thatarose between Earth and Sinus (which, of course, represented the extreme anti-Terrestrial forces of the Galaxy) he held the balance even.

 Conway counted on him to do so in this case too. He entered the quarters assigned to the Elamite withan air of friendship. He took care to keep from beingovereffusive and shook hands warmly. He blinked in

                                                                              151

 the low-pitched, red-tinged light and accepted a glassof native Elamite brew.

 Doremo said, "Your hair has grown white sincelast I saw you, Conway—as white as mine."

 "It has been many years since we last met, Doremo."

 "Then it hasn't grown white just these last fewmonths?"

 Conway smiled ruefully. "It would have, I think,if it had been dark to begin with."

 Doremo nodded and sipped his drink. He said,"Earth has let itself be placed in a most uncomfortable position."

 "So it has, and yet by all the rules of logic, Earth isin the right."

 "Yes?" Doremo was noncommittal.

 "I don't know how much thought you've given this
matter----"

 "Considerable."

 "Or how willing you are to discuss the matter in
advance-----"

 "Why not? The Sirians have been at me."

 "Ah. Already?"

 "I stopped off at Titan on the way in." Doremoshook his head, "They've got a beautiful base there, asI could see once they supplied me with dark glasses—it's the horrible blue light of Sinus that spoils things,of course. You have to give them credit, Conway; theydo things with a splash."

 "Have you decided that they have a right to colonize Saturn?"

 Doremo said, "My dear Conway, I have decidedonly that I want peace. A war will do no one any good.The situation, however, is this: The Sirians are in the

 152                        

 Saturnian system. How can they be forced out of itwithout war?"

 "There is one way," said Conway. "If the otherouter worlds were to make it clear that they consideredSirius to be an invader, Sirius could not face the enmity of all the Galaxy."

 "Ah, but how are the outer worlds to be persuadedto vote against Sirius?" Doremo said. "Most of them, if you'll forgive me, have a traditional suspicion of Earth, and they will tell themselves that the Saturnian systemwas, after all, uninhabited."

 "But it has been a settled assumption since Earthfirst granted independence to the outer worlds, as aresult of the Hegellian Doctrine, that no smaller unitthan a stellar system is to be considered capable of independence. An unoccupied planetary system meansnothing unless the stellar system of which it is a partis unoccupied as a whole."

 "I agree with you. I admit that this has been theassumption. However, the assumption has never been put to the test. Now it will be."

 "Do you think," said Conway softly, "that it wouldbe wise to destroy the assumption, to accept a new principle that would allow any stranger to enter a system and colonize such unpopulated planets or planetoids as he may come across?"

 "No," said Doremo emphatically, "I donotthink so.
I think it to the best interests of all of us that stellar
systems continue to be considered as indivisible,
but------"

 "But?"

 "There will be passions aroused at this conferencethat will make it difficult for delegates to approach

                                                                               153

 matters logically. If I may presume to advise
Earth------"

 "Go ahead. This is unofficial and off the record."

 "1 would say, count on no support at this conference. Allow Sirius to remain on Saturn for the present. She will overplay her hand eventually and thenyou can call a second conference with higher hopes."

 Conway shook his head. "Impossible. If we failhere, there will be passions aroused on our side; they are aroused already."

 Doremo shrugged. "Passions everywhere. I am verypessimistic about this."

 Conway said persuasively, "But if you yourself believe that Sirius ought not to be on Saturn, could you not make an effort to persuade others of this? You area person of influence who commands the respect ofthe Galaxy. I don't ask you to do anything but stickby your own belief. It may make all the difference between war and peace."

 Doremo put his glass aside and dabbed at his lip with a napkin. "It is what I would very much like todo, Conway, but I don't even dare to try at this conference. Sirius has matters so entirely its own way thatit might be dangerous for Elam to stand against them. We are a small world. . . . After all, Conway, if youcalled this conference in order to reach a peacefulsolution, why did you simultaneously send war vesselsinto the Saturnian system?"

 "Is that what the Sirians told you, Doremo?"

 "Yes. They showed me some of the evidence theyhad. I was even shown a captured Earth ship in flightto Vesta under the magnetic grapple of a Sirian vessel. I was told that no less a person than Lucky Starr,

 154                        

 of whom even we on Elam have heard somewhat, wason board. I understand Starr is circling off Vesta now, waiting to testify."

 Slowly Conway nodded.

 Doremo said, "Now if Starr admits to warlike actions against the Sirians—and he will, otherwise it isinconceivable the Sirians will allow him to testify—then it will be all the conference needs. No arguments will stand against it. Starr, I believe, is an adopted sonof yours."

 "In a way, yes," muttered Conway.

 "That makes it worse, you see. And if you say that
he acted without Earth's sanction, as I suppose you
must-----"

 "It's true that he did," said Conway, "but I am notprepared to say what we will claim."

 "If you disown him, no one will believe you. Yourown son, you see. The outer-world delegates will setup the cry of 'perfidious Terrestria,' of Earth's sup posed hypocrisy. Sirius will make the most of it, and1*11 be able to do nothing. I will not even be able to cast my personal vote in favor of Earth.... Earth had better give in now."

 Conway shook his head. "Earth cannot."

 "Then," said Doremo with infinite sadness, "it willmean war, with all of us against Earth, Conway."

 15

 The Conference

 Conway had finished his drink. Now he rose to go,shaking hands with a look of settled melancholy onhis face.

 He said, almost as an afterthought, "But you know,we haven't heard Lucky's testimony yet. If the effectsaren't as bad as you think, if his testimony shouldeven prove harmless, would you work then on behalfof peace?"

 Doremo shrugged. "You are grasping at straws.Yes, yes, in the unlikely case that the conference isnot stampeded past recall by your foster son's words,I will do my bit. As I told you, I am really on yourside."

 "I thank you, sir." They shook hands again.

 Doremo stared after the departing Chief Councilman with a sad little shake of his head. Outside thedoor, however, Conway paused to catch his breath.It was really quite as much as he had expected. Nowif only the Sirianswouldpresent Lucky.

 The conference opened on the stiff and formal noteto be expected. Everyone was painfully correct, andwhen Earth's delegation entered to take their posts in

 155

 156                        

 the front and at the extreme right of the hall, all thedelegates already seated, even the Sirians in the front and extreme left, rose.

 When the Secretary of State, representing the hostpower, rose to make a welcoming speech, he spoke ingeneralities about peace and the door it opened to thecontinuing expansion of mankind through the Galaxy,of the common ancestry and brotherhood of all men, of the grievous disaster war would be. He carefullymade no mention of the specific points of issue, did not refer to Sirius by name, and, above all, made nothreats.

 He was graciously applauded. Then the conferencevoted Agas Doremo into the chair to preside (he wasthe only man on whom both sides could agree), and the chief business of the conference began.

 The conference was not open to the public, butthere were special booths for reporters from the various worlds represented. They were not to interviewindividual delegates but were allowed to listen andsend out uncensored reports.

 The proceedings, as was customary in such interstellar gatherings, were carried on in Interlingua, thelanguage amalgam that served throughout the Galaxy.

 After a short speech by Doremo extolling the virtuesof compromise and begging no one to be so stubbornas to risk war where a slight yielding might insure peace, he recognized Earth's Secretary of State oncemore.

 This time the Secretary was a partisan, presentinghis side of the dispute forcefully and well.

 There was, however, no mistaking the hostile atti-

                                                                               157

 tude of the other delegates. It hung like a fog over theassembly hall.

 Conway sat next to the orating Secretary, with hischin digging into his chest. Ordinarily it would be amistake for Earth to present its major speech at thevery start. It would be a case of shooting off the bestammunition before the nature of the target wasknown. It would give Sinus the opportunity for a crushing rebuttal.

 But in this case, however, this was exactly whatConway wanted.

 He whipped out a handkerchief, passed it over hisforehead, then put it hastily back and hoped he hadnot been noticed. He did not want to seem worried.

 Sirius reserved its rebuttal and, undoubtedly by arrangement, representatives of three of the outer worlds,three that were notoriously under Sirian influence, roseto speak briefly. Each avoided the direct problem butcommented forcefully on the aggressive intentions ofEarth and on its ambitions to reimpose a galactic government under its own rule. They set the stage forthe eventual Sirian display and, having done so, therewas a lunch recess.

 Finally, six hours after the conference had beencalled to order, Sten Devoure of Sirius was recognizedand rose slowly to his feet. He stepped forward with quiet deliberation to the rostrum and stood there, looking down upon the delegates with an expression ofproud confidence on his olive-skinned face. (Therewas no sign of his misadventure with Bigman.)

 There was a stir among the delegates that quieted

 158                        

 only after a number of minutes during which Devoure made no effort to begin speaking.

 Conway was certain that every delegate knew thatLucky Starr would be testifying soon. They werewaiting for this complete humiliation of Earth withexcitement and anticipation.

 Devoure began his speech at last, very quietly. Hisintroduction was historical. Going back to the dayswhen Sirius was a Terrestrial colony, he rehearsedonce again the grievances of that day. He brushedover the Hegellian Doctrine, which had establishedthe independence of Sirius as well as that of the othercolonies, as insincere, and one by one cited the supposed efforts of Earth to re-establish domination.

 Coming down to the present, he said, "We are nowaccused of having colonized an unoccupied world. Weplead guilty to that. We are accused of having takenan empty world and made it a beautiful habitation forhuman beings. We plead guilty to that. We are accusedof extending the range of the human race to a world suitable for it that had been neglected by others. Weplead guilty to that.

 "We have not been accused of offering violence toanyone in the process. We have not been accused of making war, of killing and wounding, in the course of our occupation. We are accused of no crime at all. Instead, it is merely stated that not quite a billion milesaway from the world we now so peacefully occupythere is another occupied world named Earth.

 "We are not aware that this has anything to do with our world, Saturn. We offer no violence to Earth, andthey accuse us of none. We ask only the privilege of

                                                                               159

 being left to ourselves, and in return for that weare glad to offer to leave them to themselves.

 "They say Saturn is theirs. Why? Have they occupied its satellites at any time? No. Have they showninterest in it? No. For the thousands of years duringwhich it was theirs for the taking, did they want it?No. It was only after we landed on it that they suddenly discovered their interest in it.

 "They say Saturn circles about the same Sun thatEarth does. We admit that, but we also point out thatthe fact is irrelevant. An empty world is an empty world, regardless of the particular route it travelsthrough space. We colonized it first and it is ours.

 "Now I have said that Sirius occupied the Saturniansystem without force of any kind and without thethreat of force; that we are actuated in all we do by a desire for peace. We do not speak much of peace, asEarth does, but we at least practice it. When Earthcalled for a conference, we accepted at once, for thesake of peace, even though there is no shadow of anysort on our title to the Saturnian system.

 "But what of Earth? How does it backitsviews?They are very fluent in their talks on peace, but theiractions match their words very poorly. They called forpeace and practiced war. They demanded a conference and at the same time outfitted a war expedition.In short, while Sirius risked its interests for the sake ofpeace, Earth, in return, made unprovoked war uponus. I can prove this from the mouth of a member ofEarth's own Council of Science."

 He raised his hand as he spoke the last sentence,his first gesture of any sort, and pointed dramaticallyto a doorway upon which a spot of light had been

 160                        

 allowed to fall. Lucky Starr was standing there, talland defiantly straight. A robot flanked him on eitherside.

 Lucky, on being brought down to Vesta, finally saw Bigman again. The little Martian ran to him, while Yonge looked on with dour amusement froma distance.

 "Lucky," pleaded Bigman. "Sands of Mars,Lucky, don't go through with it. They can't make yousay a word if you don't want to, and it doesn't reallymatter what happens to me."

 Slowly Lucky shook his head. "Wait, Bigman.Wait one more day."

 Yonge came up and took Bigman by the elbow. "Sorry, Starr, but we need him till you're through.Devoure has a great sense of hostage, and at thispoint I rather think he's right. You're going to haveto face your own people, and dishonor will bedifficult."

 Lucky nerved himself for just that when he finallystood hi the doorway and felt the eyes upon him, thesilence, the caught breaths. In the spotlight himself, Lucky saw the delegates to the conference as nothingbut a giant black mass. It was only after the robotsled him into the witness box that faces swam out ofthe crowd at him, and he could see Hector Conwayin the front row.

 For a moment Conway smiled at him with wearyaffection, but Lucky dared not smile back. This wasthe crisis and he must do nothing that, even at thislate moment, might warn the Sirians.

 Devoure stared at the Earthman hungrily, savoring

                                                                               161

 his coming triumph. He said, "Gentlemen. I wish temporarily to convert this conference into something approaching a court of law. I have a witness here whomI wish all the delegates to hear. I well rest my caseon what he says—he, an Earthman and an important agent of the Council of Science."

 He then said to Lucky with sudden sharpness,"Your name, citizenship, and position, please."

 Lucky said, "I am David Starr, native of Earth,and member of the Council of Science."

 "Have you been subjected to drugs, to psychicprobing, or to mental violence of any sort to induce you to testify here?"

 "No, sir."

 "You speak voluntarily, and will tell the truth?"

 "I speak voluntarily and will tell the truth."

 Devoure turned to the delegates. "It may occur tosome of you that Councilman Starr has indeed beenhandled mentally without his knowledge or that hemay be denying mental harm as the very result ofthat mental harm. If so, he may be examined by anymember of this conference with medical qualification—I know there are a number of such—if anyone demands such examination."

 No one made the demand, and Devoure went on, addressing Lucky, "When did you first become awareof the Sirian base within the Saturnian system?"

 Curtly, unemotionally, eyes staring stonily forward,Lucky told of the first entry into the Saturnian systemand the warning to leave.

 Conway nodded slightly at Lucky's completeomission of the capsule or of Agent X's spying activities. Agent X might have been merely a Ter-

 162                        

 restrial criminal. Obviously Sirius wanted no mentionof its own spying at this time and, as obviously,Lucky was satisfied to go along with them in this.

 "And did you leave after being warned?"

 "I did, sir."

 "Permanently?"

 "No, sir."

 "What did you do next?"

 Lucky described the ruse with Hidalgo, the approach to Saturn's south pole, the flight through thegap in the rings to Mimas.

 Devoure interrupted, "Did we at any time offerviolence to your ship?"

 "No, sir."

 Devoure turned to the delegates again. "There isno need to rely only upon the word of the Councilman. I have here telephotos of the pursuit of theCouncilman's ship to Mimas."

 While Lucky remained in the spotlight the rest ofthe chamber was darkened, and in the three-dimensional imagery the delegates watched scenes ofThe Shooting Starrspeeding toward the rings and disappearing into a gap which, at the angle of photography,could not be seen.

 It was next shown racing headlong into Mimas anddisappearing in a flash of ruddy light and vapor.

 At this time Devoure must have felt the growth of a furtive admiration for the daring of the Earthman,for he said with a touch of annoyed haste, "Ourinability to overtake the Councilman was the resultof his ship's equipment with Agrav motors. Maneuvers in the neighborhood of Saturn were moredifficult for us than for him. For that reason we our-

                                                                               163

 selves had not previously approached Mimas and were not psychologically ready for his doing so."

 If Conway had dared he would have shouted aloudat that. The fool! Devoure would pay for that mo ment of jealousy. Of course by mentioning Agrav hewas trying to stir up the outer worlds' fears of Earth's scientific advances, and that might be a mistake too.The fears might grow too strong.

 Devoure said to Lucky, "Now then, what happenedonce you left Mimas?"

 Lucky described his capture, and Devoure, having hinted at Sirius's possession of advanced mass-detection devices, said, "And then, once on Titan, did yougive us further information concerning your activitieson Mimas?"

 "Yes, sir. I told you that another Councilmanwas still on Mimas, and then I accompanied youback to Mimas."

 This the delegates had apparently not known.There was a furor, which Devoure shouted down. Hecried, "I have a complete telephoto of the removal ofthe Councilman from Mimas, where he was sentto establish a secret war base against us at the verytime that Earth called this conference, allegedly forpeace.''

 Again the darkening and again the three-dimensional image. In full detail the conference watchedthe landing on Mimas, saw the surface melted down,watched Lucky disappear into the tunnel formed andCouncilman Ben Wessilewsky brought up and on board ship. The last scenes were those taken withinWess's temporary quarters under the surface ofMimas.

 164                        

 "A fully equipped base, as you see," said Devoure.Then, turning to Lucky, he said, "May your actionsthroughout all this be considered to have the officialapproval of Earth?"

 It was a leading question and there was no doubt asto the answer that was desired and expected, but hereLucky hesitated, while the audience waited breathlessly and a frown gathered on Devoure's face.

 Finally Lucky said, "I will tell the precise truth. Idid not receive direct permission to re-enter Saturn asecond time, but I know that in everything I did Iwould have met with the full approval of the Councilof Science."

 And at that admission there was wild commotionamong the reporters and a hubbub on the floor. Theconference delegates were rising in their seats, andcries of "Vote! Vote!" could be made out.

 To all appearances the conference had ended and Earth had lost.

 16

 Biter Bit

 Agas Doremo was on his feet, banging the traditionalgavel for silence with complete ineffectuality. Con-way plowed forward through a host of threateninggestures and catcalls and pulled the circuit breaker,thus sounding the old pirate warning. A shrill rising-falling rasp of sound squealed above the disorder and beat the delegates into surprised silence.

 Conway shut it off, and in the sudden quiet Doremosaid quickly, "I have agreed to recognize ChiefCouncilman Hector Conway of the Terrestrial Federation that he might cross-examine Councilman Starr."

 There were shouts of "No, no," but Doremo continued obdurately, "I ask the conference to play fair in this respect. The Chief Councilman assures me hiscross-examination will be brief."

 Amid rustling and a tide of whispering, Conwayapproached Lucky.

 He smiled but spoke with an air of formality, saying,"Councilman Starr, Mr. Devoure did not question youas to your intentions in all this. Tell me, why did youenter the Saturnian system?"

 "In order to colonize Mimas, Chief."

 "Did you feel you had the right to do so?"

 165

 166                        

 "It was an empty world, Chief."

 Conway turned so as to face a suddenly puzzledand quiet group of delegates. "Would you repeat that,Councilman Starr?"

 "I wished to establish human beings on Mimas, anempty world that belongs to the Terrestrial Federation, Chief."

 Devoure was on his feet, calling out furiously,"Mimas is part of the Saturnian system."

 "Exactly," said Lucky, "as Saturn is part of Earth's Solar System. But byyourinterpretation Mimas ismerely an empty world. A while ago you admittedthat Sirian ships had never approached Mimas before my ship landed on it."

  Conway smiled. Lucky had caught that error onDevoure's part too.

 Conway said, "Councilman Starr was not here, Mr.Devoure, when you made your introductory speech.Let me quote a passage from it, word for word: 'An empty world is an empty world, regardless of theparticular route it travels through space. We colonizedit first and it is ours.'"

 The Chief Councilman turned toward the delegatesand said with great deliberation, "If the viewpoint of the Terrestrial Federation is correct, then Mimas isEarth's, because it circles a planet that circles our Sun. If the viewpoint of Sinus is correct, then Mimasis still Earth's, because it was empty and we colonized it first. By Sirius's own line of reasoning, the fact thatanother satellite of Saturn was colonized by Sirius had nothing to do with the case.

 "In either event, by invading a world belonging tothe Terrestrial Federation and removing therefrom

                                                                                                         167

 our colonist, Sirius has committed an act of war andhas shown its true hypocrisy, since it refused to allowothers the rights it claimed for itself."

 And now again there was a confused milling about,
and it was Doremo who spoke next. "Gentlemen, I
have something to say. The facts, as stated by Council-
men Starr and Conway, are irrefutable. This demon
strates the complete anarchy into which the Galaxy
would be thrown if the Sirian view were to prevail.
Every uninhabited rock would be a source of conten
tion, every asteroid a threat to peace. The Sirians,
by their own action, have shown themselves
insincere------"

 It was a complete and sudden change-about.

 Had time been allowed, Sirius might yet have ralliedits forces, but Doremo, an experienced and skilled parliamentarian, maneuvered the conference into a votewhile the pro-Sirians were still completely demoralizedand before they had a chance to consider whetherthey dared go against the plain facts as suddenlyrevealed.

 Three worlds voted on the side of Sirius. They werePenthesileia, Duvarn, and Mullen, all small and allknown to be under Sirius's political influence. Therest of the Council, better than fifty votes, was on the side of Earth. Sirius was ordered to release the Earth-men it had taken prisoner. It was ordered to dismantle its base and leave the Solar System within amonth.

 The orders could not be enforced except by war, ofcourse, but Earth was ready for war and Sirius wouldhave to face it now without the help of the outer

 168                        

 worlds. There wasn't a man on Vesta who expectedher to fight under those conditions.

 Devoure, panting and his face contorted, saw
Lucky once more. "It was a foul trick," he said. "It
was a device to force us into-----"

 "You forcedme,"said Lucky quietly, "by the threatto Bigman's life. Do you remember? Or would youlike the details of that published?"

 "We still have your monkey friend," began Devoure
malignantly, "and conference vote or not----"

 Chief Councilman Conway, also present, smiled.
"If you're referring to Bigman, Mr. Devoure, you
don't have him. He is in our hands, together with a
Serviceman named Yonge, who told me that Council
man Starr had assured him safe-conduct in case of
need. He apparently feels that in your present mood it
would be unsafe for himself to accompany you back to
Titan. May I suggest that you consider whether it
might be unsafe for you to go back to Sirius? If you
wish to apply for asylum-----"

 But Devoure, speechless, turned his back and left.

 Doremo was all a-grin as he bade farewell to Con-way and Lucky.

 "You'll be glad to see Earth again, I dare say,young man."

 Lucky nodded his agreement. "''I'm going home byliner within the hour, sir, with the poor oldShooterbeing towed along behind, and frankly, there's nothingthat could please me more just now."

 "Good! And congratulations on a magnificent pieceof work. When Chief Conway asked me to allow himtime for cross-examination at the beginning of the

                                                                                                         169

 session, I agreed, but thought he must be mad. Whenyou were done testifying and he signaled for recognition, I wassurehe was mad. But obviously all this wasplanned in advance."

 Conway said, "Lucky had sent me a message outlining what he hoped to do. Of course it wasn't till thelast hour or two that we were sure it had worked out."

 "I think you had faith in the Councilman," saidDoremo. "Why, hi your first conversation with me, youasked if I would come out on your side if Lucky'sevidence failed of effect. I didn't see what you could mean then, of course, but I understood when the time came."

 "I thank you for throwing your weight to our side."

 "I threw it on the side of what had obviously beendemonstrated to be justice. . . . You're a subtleopponent, young man," he said to Lucky.

 Lucky smiled. "I merely counted on Sirius's lack ofsincerity. If they had really believed in what theyclaimed was their point of view, my Councilman colleague would have been left on Mimas and all wewould have had for our pains was a small satellite ofice and a difficult war to fight."

 "Quite. Well, no doubt there'll be second thoughtswhen the delegates get back home, and some will become angry with Earth and with me and even withthemselves, I suppose, for having let themselves bestampeded. In cold blood, though, they'll realize thatthey have established a principle here, the indivisibility of stellar systems, and I think they'll also realize thatthe good of this principle will outweigh any hurt totheir pride or their prejudices. I really think this conference will be looked back on by historians as something important and as something that contributed a

 170                        

 great deal to the peace and welfare of the Galaxy. I'm quite pleased."

 And he shook hands with both, most vigorously.

 Lucky and Bigman were together again, and though the ship was large and the passenger complement numerous, they kept to themselves. Mars was behindthem (Bigman spending the better part of an hour observing it with great satisfaction) and Earth not veryfar ahead.

 Bigman finally managed to voice his embarrassment."Space, Lucky," he said, "I never saw what you were

 doing, not once. I thought----Well, I don't want to

 say what I thought. Only, Sands of Mars, I wish youhad warned me."

 "Bigman, I couldn't. That was the one thing Icouldn't do. Don't you see? I had to maneuver theSirians into hijacking Wess off Mimas without lettingthem see the implications. I couldn't show them Iwantedthem to do it or they'd have seen the trap atonce. I had to work it so that it would seem I wasbeing forced into it bitterly against my will. At thestart, I assure you, I didn't know exactly how I wasgoing to do it, but I did know one thing—ifyouknew about the plan, Bigman, you'd have given the showaway."

 Bigman was outraged. ''I'd give it away? Why, youEarthslug, a blaster couldn't have forced it out of me."

 "I know. No torture could have forced it out of you,Bigman. You'd just give it away, free. You're a miserable actor and you know it. Once you got mad, itwould come spilling out, one way or another. That's why I half wanted you to stay on Mimas, remember?

                                                                               171

 I knew I couldn't tell you the planned course of actionand I knew you'd misunderstand what I was doing and be miserable about it. As it was, though, youturned out a godsend."

 "I did? For beating up that cobber?"

 "Indirectly, yes. It gave me the opportunity to make it look as though I were sincerely swapping Wess'sfreedom for your life. It took less acting to do thatthan to give Wess away under any conditions I could have dreamed up in your absence. In fact, as it was,I didn't have to act at all. It was a good swap."

 "Aw, Lucky."

 "Aw, yourself. Besides, you were so heartbrokenabout it that they never suspected a trick. Anyonewatching you would have been convinced I was reallybetraying Earth."

 "Sands of Mars, Lucky," said Bigman, stricken, "Ishould have known you wouldn't do anything likethat. I was a nitwit."

 "I'm glad you were," said Lucky fervently, and he ruffled the little fellow's hair affectionately.

 When Conway and Wess joined them at dinner,Wess said, "This isn't going to be the kind of homecoming that fellow Devoure can expect. Ship's sub-ether is full of the stuff they're printing on Earth aboutus; about you especially, of course."

 Lucky frowned. "That's nothing to be thankfulabout. It just makes our job harder in the future. Publicity! Stop and think what they would be saying ifthe Sirians had been just one inch smarter and hadn'tfallen for the bait or had pulled out of the conference at the last minute."

 172                       

 Conway shuddered visibly. "I'd rather not. Butwhatever it would be, that's what Devoure is getting."

 Lucky said, "I guess he'll survive. His uncle will pull him through."

 "Anyway," said Bigman, "we're through with him."

 "Are we?" said Lucky somberly. "I wonder."

 And they ate in silence for a few moments.

 Conway, in an obvious attempt to alter the sud
denly darkened atmosphere, said, "Of course, in a
sense the Sirians could not afford to leave Wess on
Mimas, so we didn't really give them a fair chance.
After all, they were looking for the capsule in the
rings, and for all they know, Wess, only thirty thou
sand miles outside the rings, might---"

 Bigman dropped his fork, and his eyes were likesaucers."Blasting rockets!"

 What's the matter, Bigman?" asked Wess kindly."Did you accidentally think of something and sprainyour brain?"

 "Shut up, leather-head," said Bigman. "Listen,Lucky, in all this mess we forgot about Agent X's capsule. It's still out there in the rings unless the Sirianshave found it already; and it they haven't, they stillhave a couple of weeks to do it in."

 Conway said at once, "I've thought of that, Bigman. But frankly, I consider it lost for good. Youcan't find anything in the rings."

 "But, Chief, hasn't Lucky told you about the special
X-ray mass detectors they have and----"

 By then, though, all were staring at Lucky. He had a queer look on his face, as though he couldn't makeup his mind whether to laugh or to swear. "GreatGalaxy," he cried. "I forgot about it completely."

                                                                               173

 "The capsule?" said Bigman. "You forgot it?"

 "Yes. I forgot I had it. Here it is." And Luckybrought something metallic and about an inch in diameter out of his pocket and put it on the table.

 Bigman's nimble fingers were on it first, turningit over and over, then the others snatched at it too,and took their turns.

 Bigman said, "Is that the capsule? Are you sure?"

 "I'm reasonably sure. We'll open it, of course, andmake certain."

 "But, when, how, where----" They were all about

 him, demanding.

 He fended them off. "I'm sorry. I really am....Look, do you remember the few words we picked upfrom Agent X just before his ship blew up? Remember the syllables 'normal orb,' which we decided meant'normal orbit'? Well, the Sirians made the natural assumption that 'normal' meant 'usual,' that the capsulewould be put into the kind of orbit usual for ringparticles, and looked in the rings for it.

 "However, 'normal' also means perpendicular. The rings of Saturn move directly west to east, so the capsule in a normal orbit to the rings would move directlynorth to south, or south to north. This made sense,because then the capsule would not be lost in therings.

 "Now any orbit about Saturn moving directly northand south must pass over the north and south poles,no matter how else that orbit varies. We approachedSaturn's south pole and I watched the mass detectorfor anything that seemed to be in the proper type oforbit. In polar space there were hardly any particles,so I felt I ought to be able to spot it if it were there.

 174                        

 I didn't like to say anything about it, though, becausethe chances were small, I thought, and I hated torouse false hopes.

 "But something registered on the mass detectors,and I took the chance. I matched velocities and then left the ship. As you guessed later, Bigman, I seizedthe opportunity to gimmick the Agrav attachment atthat time in preparation for the later surrender, but I also picked up the capsule.

 "When we landed in Mimas I left it among the air-conditioning coils in Wess's quarters. Then, when wecame back to get him and surrender him to Devoure,I picked up the capsule and put it in my pocket. I wasroutinely searched for weapons when I embarked onthe ship, I recall, but the robot searcher did not interpret an inch sphere as a weapon. . . . There are serious drawbacks to using robots. Anyway, that's thewhole story."

 "But why didn't you tell us?" howled Bigman.Lucky looked confused. "I meant to. Honestly. But after I first picked up the capsule and got back to the ship, we had already been spotted by the Sirians, remember, and it was a question of getting away. Afterthat, in fact, if you'll think back, there was never one moment when something wasn't popping. I just— somehow—never got around to remembering to tellanyone."

 "What a brain," said Bigman contemptuously. "Nowonder you don't like to go anywhere without me."

 Conway laughed and slapped the small Martian onthe back. "That's it, Bigman, take care of the big lugand make sure he knows which way is up."

                                                                                                         175

 "Once," said Wess, "you get someone to tellyouwhich way is up, of course."

 And the ship swirled down through Earth's atmosphere toward landing.