eckled skins. What fraction of them were now alive, he could
not guess. He had to remind himself that they were the people who had
burned Eric Blount and Hendrik Lemoyne alive; that two of the three
bombs that had contributed to that column of boiling smoke had been
made in Keegark, by Keegarkans, and that, with a few casual factors
altered, he was seeing what would have happened to Konkrook. Perhaps
every Terran felt a superstitious dread of nuclear energy turned to
the purposes of war; small wonder, after what they had done on their
own world.

For one thing, he thought grimly, the next geek who picks up the idea
of soaking a Terran in thermoconcentrate and setting fire to him will
drop it again like a hot potato. And the next geek potentate who tries
to organize an anti-Terran conspiracy, or the next crazy
caravan-driver who preaches _znidd suddabit_, will be lynched on the
spot. But this must be the last nuclear bomb used on Ullr....

Drunkard's morning-after resolution! he told himself contemptuously.
The next time, it will come easier, and easier still the time after
that. After you drop the first bomb, there is no turning back, any
more than there had been after Hiroshima, four-hundred-and-fifty-odd
years ago. Why, he had even been considering just where, against the
mountains back of Bwork, he would drop a demonstration bomb as a
prelude to a surrender demand.

You either went on to the inevitable catastrophe, or you realized, in
time, that nuclear armament and nationalism cannot exist together on
the same planet, and it is easier to banish a habit of thought than a
piece of knowledge. Ullr was not ready for membership in the Terran
Federation; then its people must bow to the Terran Pax. The Kragans
would help--as proconsuls, administrators, now, instead of
mercenaries. And there must be manned orbital stations, and the
Residencies must be moved outside the cities, away from possible
blast-areas. And Sid Harrington's idea of encouraging the natives to
own their contragravity-ships must be shelved, for a long time to
come. Maybe, in time....

Kankad had a good idea, at that; a most meritorious idea. He was sold
on it, already, and he doubted if it would take much salesmanship with
Paula, either. Already, she was clinging to his arm with obvious
possessiveness. Maybe their grandchildren, and the Kankad of that
time, would see Ullr a civilized member of the Federation....

They paused, as the gun-cutter nuzzl