ts went back, across long months of time and longer
light-years of space, to the day when that decision had been made.

_The Decision__

Colonel Sebastian MacMaine didn't feel, that morning, as though this
day were different from any other. The sun, faintly veiled by a few
wisps of cloud, shone as it always had; the guards at the doors of the
Space Force Administration Building saluted him as usual; his brother
officers nodded politely, as they always did; his aide greeted him with
the usual "Good morning, sir."

The duty list lay on his desk, as it had every morning for years.
Sebastian MacMaine felt tense and a little irritated with himself, but
he felt nothing that could be called a premonition.

When he read the first item on the duty list, his irritation became a
little stronger.

"_Interrogate Kerothi general.__"

The interrogation duty had swung round to him again. He didn't want to
talk to General Tallis. There was something about the alien that
bothered him, and he couldn't place exactly what it was.

Earth had been lucky to capture the alien officer. In a space war,
there's usually very little left to capture after a battle--especially
if your side lost the battle.

On the other hand, the Kerothi general wasn't so lucky. The food that
had been captured with him would run out in less than six months, and
it was doubtful that he would survive on Earth food. It was equally
doubtful that any more Kerothi food would be captured.

For two years, Earth had been fighting the Kerothi, and for two years
Earth had been winning a few minor skirmishes and losing the major
battles. The Kerothi hadn't hit any of the major colonies yet, but they
had swallowed up outpost after outpost, and Earth's space fleet was
losing ships faster than her factories could turn them out. The hell of
it was that nobody on Earth seemed to be very much concerned about it
at all.

MacMaine wondered why he let it concern him. If no one else was
worried, why did he let it bother him? He pushed the thought from his
mind and picked up the questionnaire form that had been made out for
that morning's session with the Kerothi general. Might as well get it
over with.

He glanced down the list of further duties for the day. It looked as
though the routine interrogation of the Kerothi general was likely to
provide most of the interest in the day's work at that.

He took the dropchute down to the basement of the building, to the
smal