ng through green fields.

Seven minutes left. Where were the warships? She looked anxiously
through the viewport and the sky was empty.

Desperately she closed the voice toggle again. "Send them quickly!" she
cried. "You must not let me land!"

No reply came from the speaker. Her auto-shuttle began to circle a large
city which lay at the southern tip of an inland lake. Three minutes
more. The ship nosed toward the spaceport.

"Why don't you do something?" Mryna screamed. "What are you waiting
for?"

The shuttle settled into a metal rack. The lock hissed open. Mryna
shrank back against the wall, looking out at what she would
destroy--what she had already destroyed. A dignified, portly man came
panting up the ramp toward her.

"No!" she whispered. "Don't come in here."

"I am Senator Brieson," he said shortly. "For ten years Dr. Jameson has
been telling us from the Guardian Wheel that we should adopt a different
educational policy toward Rythar. Your scare broadcast was clever, but
we're used to Jameson's tricks. He'll be removed from office for this,
and if I have anything to say about it--"

"You didn't believe me?" Mryna gasped.

"Of course not. If a plague carrier escaped from Rythar, we would have
heard about it long before this. The trouble with you scientists is you
don't grant the rest of us any common sense. And Jameson's the worst of
the lot. He's always contended that the sociologists should determine
our Rytharian policy, not the elected representatives of the people."

Mryna broke down and began to cry hysterically. The senator put his hand
under her arm--none too gently. "Let's have no more dramatics, please.
You don't know how fortunate you are, young lady. If the politicians
were as addle-witted as you scientists claim we are, we might have
believed that nonsense and blasted your ship out of the sky. You
scientists have to give up the notion that you're our guardians; we're
quite able to look out for ourselves."

[Illustration: FIN]

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