answer a few elementary questions."

Now inside the Hall, all the teams, from Astronomy to Zoology, went
efficiently to work. Everyone now knew what to look for, how to find
it, and how to study it.

"The First Team doesn't need you now too much, does it, Jarve?" Sawtelle
asked.

"Not particularly. In fact, I was just going to get back onto my own
job."

"Not yet. I want to talk to you," and the two went into a long
discussion of naval affairs.

XI

The Stretts' fuel-supply line had been cut long since. Many Strett
cargo-carriers had been destroyed. The enemy would of course have a very
heavy reserve of fuel on hand. But there was no way of knowing how large
it was, how many warships it could supply, or how long it would last.

Two facts were, however, unquestionable. First, the Stretts were
building a fleet that in their minds would be invincible. Second, they
would attack Ardane as soon as that fleet could be made ready. The
unanswerable question was: how long would that take?

"So we want to get every ship we have. How many? Five thousand? Ten?
Fifteen? We want them converted to maximum possible power as soon as we
possibly can," Sawtelle said. "And I want to get out there with my boys
to handle things."

"You aren't going to. Neither you nor your boys are expendable.
Particularly you." Jaw hard-set, Hilton studied the situation for
minutes. "No. What we'll do is take your Oman, Kedy. We'll re-set the
Guide to drive into him everything you and the military Masters ever
knew about arms, armament, strategy, tactics and so on. And we'll add
everything I know of coordination, synthesis, and perception. That ought
to make him at least a junior-grade military genius."

"You can play _that_ in spades. I wish you could do it to me."

"I can--if you'll take the full Oman transformation. Nothing else can
stand the punishment."

"I know. No, I don't want to be a genius that badly."

"Check. And we'll take the resultant Kedy and make nine duplicates of
him. Each one will learn from and profit by the mistakes made by
preceding numbers and will assume command the instant his preceding
number is killed."

"Oh, you expect, then...?"

"Expect? No. I know it damn well, and so do you. That's why we Ardans
will all stay aground. Why the Kedys' first job will be to make the
heavy stuff in and around Ardane as heavy as it can be made. Why it'll
all be on twenty-four-hour alert. Then they can put as many thousan