ing myself and the Rangers."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. In that case, I'd like to borrow the best
magic teacher available; I won't be much real good until I can control
the power I accidentally burned Captain Chavvorth with."

The Emperor frowned. "I saw the record tape of that, Jim. We don't
have any teachers who can give you control of that much power without
limiting it--the only ones who might even come close are the Sandemans,
and they're not likely to want to help an Imperial."

"In that case, I'd like the fastest small ship available--something on
the order of a courier--with a volunteer crew, to take me to Sandeman
territory. I'll tape everything I know about them on the way, so
you'll have that information whatever happens to me."

"What do you plan to do?"

"I don't know, exactly," Medart admitted. "That depends a lot on
exactly how closely these Sandemans parallel the ones in Alpha Prime--and
on how they feel about some incidents that took place there. But I
do know, as I told Captain Chavvorth, that I can't do anything at long
range that your people can't do at least as well. The only thing I
have that they don't is over a hundred and a quarter years of
friendship with Sandemans."

"That long?" The Emperor looked concerned. "Just how old are you,
Ranger Medart?"

"A hundred and seventy-five, Your Majesty--but the anti-agathics are
still working fine; I have the same physical abilities I did when I
started them at eighteen."

"Understood. All right, Ranger; you were on full duty, and you
obviously know more about them than we do, so I can't reasonably order
you to stay away, however dangerous a situation I believe you're going
into."

"It is dangerous, Your Majesty--I don't have any illusions about that.
I fought them before I brought them into our Empire, and they scared
the stuffing out of me then. These have an extra century and a quarter
of development, a hell of a lot bigger civilization, and magic, so they
scare me even worse. But the only chance I see for your Empire is
going in, so I have to do it." He paused. "I was brought here with no
chance to inform Alpha Prime's Emperor Kennard. If I'm able to return,
I can explain things myself; if I can't, for whatever reason, I'd
appreciate it if you'd notify my Sovereign of the circumstances."

"I'll see to it, Ranger. Is there anything else?"

"Just one thing, if I can indulge my curiosity."

The Emperor chuckled. "A weakness