the
liberties of the planets. Your idea is to destroy peace and make slaves
out of the people of Venus--like these dummies you've got here!" Astro
gestured contemptuously at the men standing on both sides of Lactu. "I
don't want any part of you, so start blasting!" continued the big cadet,
his voice booming out in the big room. "But make it good, 'cause I'm
tough!"

There was a murmur among the men and several put their hands on the
butts of their paralo-ray guns. Even the calm expression in Lactu's eyes
changed.

"You are not afraid of us, are you?" he asked in a low, almost surprised
tone of voice.

"You, nor anything that crawls in the jungle like you!" shouted Astro.
"If you're not happy with the way things are run on Venus, why don't
you take your beef to the Solar Alliance?"

"We prefer to do it our way!" snapped one of the men near Lactu. "And as
for you, a few lashes with a Venusian wet whip will teach you to keep a
civil tongue!"

Astro turned around slowly, looking at each of the men individually. "I
promise you," he said slowly, "the first man who lays a whip on me will
die."

"And who, pray, will do the killing?" snorted a short, stout figure in
the darkest of the green uniforms. "You? Hardly!"

"If it isn't me"--Astro turned to face the man--"it will be any one of a
thousand Space Cadets."

"You have a lot of confidence in yourself and your friends," said Lactu.
"Death apparently doesn't frighten you."

"No more than it does any man of honor," said the cadet. "I've faced
death before. As for my friends"--Astro shrugged and grinned--"touch me
and wait for what happens. And by the stars, mister, you can depend on
it happening!"

"Enough of this, Lactu!" said a man near the end of the group. "We have
important business to conduct. Take this foolish boy out and do away
with him!"

Lactu waved his hand gently. "Observe, gentlemen, here is the true
spirit of Venus. This boy is not an Earthman, nor a Martian. He is a
Venusian--a proud Venusian who has drifted with the tides of space and
taken life where he found it. Tell me honestly, gentlemen, what would
you have thought of Astro, a Venusian, if he had acted any differently
than he has? If he had taken an oath he does not believe and groveled at
our feet? No, gentlemen, to kill this proud, freeborn Venusian would be
a crime. Tell me, Astro, do you have any skills?"

"I can handle nuclear materials in any form."

"We are wasting time, Lactu!" e