ine, was an unusual specimen of his race.

* * * * *

MacMaine took the congratulations of the Kerothi officers with a look
of pleasure on his face, and when they had subsided somewhat, he
grinned and said:

"Let's get a little work done around here, shall we? We have a planet
to reduce yet."

They laughed. Reducing a planet didn't require strategy--only
fire-power. The planet-based defenses couldn't maneuver, but the energy
reserve of a planet is greater than that of any fleet, no matter how
large. Each defense point would have to be cut down individually by the
massed power of the fleet, cut down one by one until the planet was
helpless. The planet as a whole might have more energy reserve than the
fleet, but no individual defense point did. The problem was to avoid
being hit by the rest of the defense points while one single point was
bearing the brunt of the fleet's attack. It wasn't without danger, but
it could be done.

And for a job like that, MacMaine's special abilities weren't needed.
He could only watch and wait until it was over.

So he watched and waited. Unlike the short-time fury of a space battle,
the reduction of a planet took days of steady pounding. When it was
over, the blaster-boats of the Kerothi fleet and the shuttles from the
great battle cruisers landed on Houston's World and took possession of
the planet.

* * * * *

MacMaine was waiting in his cabin when General Hokotan brought the news
that the planet was secured.

"They are ours," the HQ spy said with a superior smile. "The sniveling
animals didn't even seem to want to defend themselves. They don't even
know how to fight a hand-to-hand battle. How could such things have
ever evolved intelligence enough to conquer space?" Hokotan enjoyed
making such remarks to MacMaine's face, knowing that since MacMaine was
technically a Kerothi he couldn't show any emotion when the enemy was
insulted.

MacMaine showed none. "Got them all, eh?" he said.

"All but a few who scattered into the hills and forests. But not many
of them had the guts to leave the security of their cities, even though
we were occupying them."

"How many are left alive?"

"An estimated hundred and fifty million, more or less."

"Good. That should be enough to set an example. I picked Houston's
World because we can withdraw from it without weakening our position;
its position in space