ke the rest. It makes the sixth, now, that I've
sat through with Candar. You remember he was full of cooperation right
at the start while we were renewing the gold-trade agreement. After
that was settled there was nothing more in it for him except the
chance to make another speech."

Thane looked over at Garth. "I noticed that. But why? There was
certainly plenty of gold splashed over everyone in the Onzar
delegation, but what is it that makes the stuff so important to them?"

Garth looked over in surprise. "You don't know? Well, of course you
wouldn't. You've been working on specialized stuff on the other side
of the Galaxy. I'll give you some of the background on the way back to
Liaison. The sleep-trainer will fill in there."

Garth stopped. Everything stopped as the acceleration began. Both of
them were over-braced for the acceleration was light and even. It was
only 5000 KM to the nearest warp-line.

As acceleration slacked off for the five-minute coast into the warp,
Garth lit another cigar and began. "Onzar was one of those relatively
distant systems which were colonized back in the days when all they
had was the finite drive. Of course, it took them a generation or so
to get out there, at just under the speed of light. And when they got
there, the best guess is that their ship was too damaged for further
flight. Otherwise, considering the planet, they wouldn't have stayed."

Thane flipped through a systems manual to the geographical data for
Onzar IV. He readily agreed that they wouldn't have stayed if it had
been possible for them to get away. Onzar IV was cold, bitterly cold.
Hurricane winds were common. The mountains went up to forty and fifty
kilometers, and the land between them was largely barren desert.

"They couldn't get back into space," Garth continued, "so they stayed
in splendid isolation for about 1500 years. Not another ship touched
the system till the warp-lines were discovered."

Thane looked up. "I suppose they went through the usual reversion of
the orphan systems?"

Garth grunted. "A lot worse than usual. Of course, our version of
their history is largely guesswork because the Onzarians have never
allowed any research. But it's clear that the immigration crew, or
their first-generation descendants, put on a very effective little war
between themselves. By the time they were finished Onzar IV was back
in the age of ox-carts, without the ox."

The intercom sounded again. "Five seconds