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“When do you r-require an answer?”

“We don’t,” grunted Sergeant Madden. “When you make up your minds, send a ship to Varenga III. We’ll give you the information we’ve got. That’s whether you fight with us or independent. You’ll fight, once you meet these characters! We don’t worry about that! Just … we can do better together.” Then he said: “Have you got the co-ordinates for Varenga? I don’t know what you call it in your language.”

“We have them,” said the interpreter, still suspiciously.

“Right!” said Sergeant Madden. “That’s all. We came here to tell you this. Let us know when you make up your minds. Now we’ll go back.”

He turned as if to trudge back to the squad ship. And this, of course, was the moment when the difference between a military and a cop mind was greatest. A military man, with the defenses of the planet smashed–or exhausted–and an apparent overwhelming force behind him, would have tried to get the Cerberus and its company turned over to him either by implied or explicit threats. Sergeant Madden did not mention them. But he had made it necessary for the Huks to do something.

They’d been shocked to numbness by the discovery that humans knew of their presence on Sirene IV. They’d been made aghast by the brisk and competent nullification of their eighty-gee rocket defenses. They’d been appalled by the appearance of a space fleet which–if it had been a space fleet–could have blasted the planet to a cinder. And then they were bewildered that the humans asked no submission–not even promises from them.

There was only one conclusion to be drawn. It was that if the humans were willing to be friendly, it would be a good idea to agree. Another idea followed. A grand gesture by Huks would be an even better idea.

“Wait!” said the interpreter. He turned. A momentary further discussion among the Huks. The interpreter turned back.

“There is a ship here,” he said uneasily. “It is a human ship. There are humans in it. The ship is disabled.”

Sergeant Madden affected surprise.

“Yeah? How come?”

“It ar-rived two days ago,” said the interpreter. Then he plunged. “We br-rought it. We have a mine on what you call Pr-rocyron Three. The human ship landed, because it was disabled. It discovered our ship and our mine there. We wished to keep the mine secret. Because the humans had found out our secret, we br-rought them here. And the ship. It is disabled.”

“Hm-m-m,” said Sergeant Madden. “I’ll send a repair-boat down to fix whatever’s the matter with it. Of course you won’t mind.” He turned away, and turned back. “One of the solar systems we’d like you to take over and defend,” he observed, “is Procyron. I haven’t a list of the others, but when your ship comes over to Varenga it’ll be ready. Talk our repair-boat down, will you? We’ll appreciate anything you can do to help get the ship back out in space with its passengers, but our repair-boat can manage.”

He waved his hand negligently and went back to the squad ship. He got in. Patrolman Willis followed him.

“Take her up,” said Sergeant Madden.

The squad ship fell toward the sky. Sergeant Madden said satisfiedly:

“That went off pretty good. From now on it’s just routine.”

* * * * *

There was a bubble in emptiness. It was a large bubble, as such things go. It was nearly a thousand feet in diameter, and it was made of multipoly plastic which is nearly as anomalous as its name. The bubble contained almost an ounce of helium. It had a three-inch small box at one point on its surface. It floated some twenty-five million miles from the Huk planet, and five million miles from another bubble which was its identical twin. It could reflect detector-pulses. In so doing it impersonated a giant fighting ship.