thesame.
"However, our cell stores are useless if they lack ova to fertilize.On their last attack, Thrayxite ships succeeded in penetrating ourinnermost planetary defenses, and heavily damaged a number of ourcities. Many of our women and young were victims.
"We therefore evacuated our planet's entire female population to anuninhabited world far distant. It was a young world and covered withthick forests, much like the labor planetoid which circles Thrayx, andwe believed our breeders would be quite sufficiently camouflaged."
"Breeders?" Cain broke in.
"Our philosophy concerning women is slightly different than your own,"the alien said. And then he resumed, "But in our haste weunderestimated our enemy's cleverness. Thrayxite scouts located theplanet, destroyed it, our women, and our seeds.
"And that is why you will take us to Earth, Lieutenant. We do not wantyour arms or your men. What we must ask for is--ten thousand of yourwomen!"
II
A Cepheid Variable winked tauntingly at the edge of the Milky Way, theLarge Magellanic Cloud strewn like diamonds in a vast cosmic spumebehind it. It corruscated in glorious display as, far off, a greatsilvery ship of Space and a tiny jot of man-made metal resumed theirheadlong motion through the mighty legion of the stars.
And then for an instant, the Cepheid's bright wink was dulled;eclipsed. A tapering streamlined shape slipped silently across it, andthen was gone in the blackness, and the white dwarf resumed itsbrilliant display.
But the commander of the Cepheid's interruptor had been giving littletime to appreciation of the myriad beauties in the great darkness thathad swallowed her ship. She had trebled her screens and had taxed hercraft's colossal power installation to its limit, forcing it to absorband reconvert every erg of radiant energy possible as it labored tomaintain the awful output necessary to cling to the very edge ofR-Space, barely clear of the E-continuum itself.
She might have been an Amazon of Earth save for the great intelligencebehind the high plane of her forehead, yet she was not without beauty,nor were those of her ship's complement. On their close-fittinguniforms were emblazoned the Planet-and-Circle insignia of theirhomeland, for they were of the galactic hosts of Thrayx.
"They proceed toward a planet on the near side of this galaxy calledEarth," the second officer said. "Their mission is to replenish theirsupply of breeders."
"You are certain of that?"
"I admit it is peculiar, for the breeders they seek are women of thatplanet."
"_Women?_"
"Yes. However, the Earthmens' minds indicated a strong tendency torefuse cooperation."
"I see. Do you think our probe was detected?"
"No. I withdrew it immediately when the Earthmen were taken aboard theIhelian destroyer."
There was a long moment of silence. The commander's eyes stayedunwaveringly on the control sphere mounted in gimbals before her. Theyremained concentrated on it when she spoke again.
"Women, you say. Hardly conceivable, Daleb, unless--unless it was_not_ simply a penal planetoid which we destroyed!"
"A startling thought, Lady!"
"Yes. And the Earthmen, you say, did not have cooperative thoughts?"
"That is correct. They are not taking the Ihelian craft to theirplanet of their own volition."
"That is difficult to understand, Daleb, for the Ihelians are likeourselves in at least one respect. They are not aggressors. And ifthey are refused their strange request, they will leave the planetEarth peacefully. But if they are not refused it, perhaps theEarthman's superiors will cooperate, Daleb! In which case--"
"Whatever their mission, it is our duty to prevent its success, Lady.But to do this without violating the Book, without infecting a foreignarea of the galaxy with our conflict?"
"I think there is a way," the commander said. She twisted the sphereslightly, and again the two tiny pips it held were caught squarely atthe intersection of the curving light traceries within it. "There is away," she said. "Give me a complete description of the clothing theseEarthmen wore, Daleb...."
A tapering, streamlined shape slid shadow-like across the face of anundulating globular cluster, and then was swallowed quickly in thestrange gray void of hyper-space.
* * * * *
Mason and Judith waited outside the towering New United Nationsbuilding in Greater San Francisco, their chauffeured government helioparked on a sky-ramp adjacent to the three hundredth floor.
They waited for Kriijorl; they had been assigned, as Earthmen bestacquainted with the alien, as his official hosts during his stay ontheir planet. Mason had protested, but Judith had kept the protestsfrom reaching the wrong ears.
"You won't make any mistakes. You're home, now!" she had whispered."After all, he's only human!"
It had been the first time Mason had heard a hint of levity in hervoice, and he had liked it, and decided to take the assignmentgracefully. And, the orders said, Sergeant Judith Kent went with theassignment. Without Cain!
He hardly felt nervous at all as they waited for the Ihelian to leavethe General Council chamber.
"Wonder how he made out?" he said idly, offering the girl aself-lighting cigarette. "Been in there for hours...."
"We'll know soon enough," she said. "But I--I personally can'tconceive of it, sir. Of course, the New-UN is very practiced indealing with all kinds of cultures. Remember the time they had withthose awful five-legged things from Canis Major? Wanted to trade allthe tritium we'd need to blow up a planet just for trees; because theyworshipped trees! Any and all kinds of trees...."
Mason smiled. He was good looking when he smiled and the Space-tensionwas gone from his slate colored eyes. "I remember. But it looks asthough they're going to have the toughest time with somebody just likeus--two legs, two arms, oxygen-breathing.... Women, the man said. Justwhat the devil does he expect us to do? Draft 'em? Have aninternational lot drawing?"
* * * * *
She smoked quietly, and her gray eyes were thoughtful. "A matter ofview-point, sir," she said finally. "As it always is. To them, femalesare for breeding only, to keep their war machine well stocked. Fromwhat Kriijorl said, they do not understand love as we do. There'ssimply one purpose...."
"Well, that's why I think the whole thing is--well, as you say,inconceivable from our point of view. Our culture, our women justaren't conditioned for such an existence."
"Think back two centuries, sir."
"You don't have to keep calling me 'sir' like that!" Mason said,feeling a sudden warmth at the back of his neck as he said it. Andthen, "Two centuries back. Yes. After every war, Earth's birth ratewould go crazy. Mother Nature ruled the roost in those days, didn'tshe? Supply and demand, cause and effect. It's a wonder Man ever gotanywhere."
"More wonder some men do--"
Mason looked up. But Judith's face was, as usual, quite calm anddetached. "You say something?"
"I said I'd like to have you get Kriijorl to demonstrate thatteleprobe thing of his for us, if you can, s---- Lance. How did he sayit worked?"
"I still don't get it completely. A peculiar mixture of radio and theelectroencephalograph, I think. He said it replaced radio on Ihelosand Thrayx centuries ago. You can communicate to a group or anindividual with it in language, or in basic thought pictures. That'swhat they use it mostly for, of course, and as such, it's termed amentacom. But he told me that it can also be used as it was on us as ateleprobe when the subject isn't screened. They use a specially tunedcarrier wave of some sort, he said, that impinges on a thought wavepattern, but instead of registering the pattern's electronic impulseequivalents as does the electroencephalograph, it 'reflects' them.Like a basic radar system. And the receiver, it's a tiny thing, breaksthe reflected pattern down into values equivalent to those in whichthe 'listener' thinks; amplifies, and that's it! Mind reading madeeasy, I guess."
Judith squirmed a little uneasily. "I'm glad they're not naturaltelepaths, anyway," she answered. "And even with a gimmick likethat--"
/> And then the conversation was lost as Kriijorl, flanked by two New-UNguides, strode from the building. The stiff breeze at three hundredstories of what had once been called Nob Hill flicked his scarletshort-cape behind him and rippled the broad front of his black andsilver tunic.
He climbed into the helio with a smiled greeting, seated himself toJudith's right as he knew Earth custom demanded, and the craft waslifting slowly over the central area of the ancient city before Masonspoke.
"Well, how did they treat you in there, sir?"
"Not as well as I had hoped," Kriijorl answered.