nd that the wars had contributed to those losses.)
Some planets had civilized themselves without the intervention of the
Earth government, and, when the Earth government had come along, they
had fought integration with everything they could summon to help them.

Most of the recalcitrant planets had eventually been subdued, but there
were still many "hidden planets" which were organized as separate
governments under a loose confederation. These were the Misfits.

Because of the numerical superiority of the Aristarchy, and because it
operated in the open instead of skulking in the darkness of space, the
Misfits knew where Aristarchy planets were located, while the Aristarchy
was unable to search out every planet in the multimyriads of star
systems that formed the galaxy.

Thus the Misfits had become pirates, preying on the merchantships of the
Aristarchy. Why? No one knew. (Or, at least, The Guesser corrected
himself, _he_ didn't know.) Such a non-sane culture would have non-sane
reasons.

The Aristarchy occupied nearly all the planets of the galaxy that could
be inhabited by Man; that much The Guesser had been told. Just why
Earth-type planets should occur only within five thousand light-years of
the Galactic Center was a mystery to him, but, then, he was no
astrophysicist.

But the Sixer woman said she had heard that the Aristarchy was holding
back facts; that there were planets clear out to the Periphery, all
occupied by Misfits; that the legendary Earth was one of those planets;
that--

A thousand things. All wrong, as The Guesser knew. But she was firmly
convinced that if anyone could get to a Misfit planet, they would be
welcomed. There were no Classes among the Misfits, she said. (The
Guesser dismissed that completely; a Classless society was ridiculous on
the face of it.)

The Guesser had asked the woman why--if her statements were true--the
Misfits had not conquered the Aristarchy long ago. After all, if they
held the galaxy clear out to the Periphery, they had the Aristarchy
surrounded, didn't they?

She had had no answer.

And it had only been later that The Guesser realized that _he_ had an
answer. Indeed, that he himself, was a small, but significant part of
that answer.

The Misfits had no Guessers. That was a fact that The Guesser knew from
personal experience. He had been in space battles with Misfit fleets,
and he had brought the _Naipor_ through those battles unscathed while
wreaking havoc