were in flames. Combat-cars and air jeeps were
diving in to shell and rocket and machine-gun streets and buildings. He
saw six big bomber-lorries move in dignified procession to unload, one
after the other, on a row of buildings along what the Terrans called
South Tenth Street, and on the roofs of buildings a block away, red and
blue flares were burning, and he could see figures, both human and
Ullran, setting up mortars and machine-guns.

Landing on the top stage of Company House, on the island, they were
met by a Terran whom von Schlichten had seen, a few days ago, bossing
native labor at the spaceport, but who was now wearing a major's
insignia. He greeted von Schlichten with a salute which he must have
learned from some movie about the ancient French Foreign Legion. Von
Schlichten seriously returned it in kind.

"Everybody's down in the Governor-General's office, sir," he said.
"Your office, that is. King Kankad's here with us, too."

He accompanied them to the elevator, then turned to a telephone; when
von Schlichten and Paula reached the office, everybody was crowded at
the door to greet them: Themistocles M'zangwe, his arm in a sling;
Hans Meyerstein, the Johannesburg lawyer, who seemed to have even more
Bantu blood than the brigadier-general; Morton Buhrmann, the
Commercial Superintendent; Laviola, the Fiscal Secretary; a dozen or
so other officers and civil administrators. There was a hubbub of
greetings, and he was pleased to detect as much real warmth from the
civil administration crowd as from the officers.

"Well, I'm glad to be back with you," he replied, generally. "And let
me present Colonel Paula Quinton, my new adjutant; Hideyoshi O'Leary's
on duty in the North.... Them, this was a perfectly splendid piece of
work, here; you can take this not only as a personal congratulation,
but as a sort of unit citation for the whole crowd. You've all behaved
above praise." He turned to King Kankad, who was wearing a pair of
automatics in shoulder-holsters for his upper hands and another pair
in cross-body belt holsters for his lower. "And what I've said for
anybody else goes double for you, Kankad," he added, clapping the
Kragan on the shoulder.

"All he did was save the lot of us!" M'zangwe said. "We were hanging
on by our fingernails here till his people started coming in. And
then, after you sent the _Aldebaran_...."

"Where is the _Aldebaran_, by the way? I didn't see her when I came
in."

"Based on