wrong diplomatic move, or a
trigger-happy soldier could set it off. And it wouldn't have to be
deliberate. A meteor shower could pass over and their clumsy instruments
could interpret it as an all-out enemy attack."

"Too bad," said Bal. "We'll just have to forget there ever was such a
planet as Earth."

"Could you? Forget so many people?"

"I'm doing it," said Bal. "Just give them a little time and they won't
be here to remind me that I have a conscience."

"My memory isn't convenient," said Ethaniel. "I ask you to look at
them."

* * * * *

Bal rustled, flicking the screen intently. "Very much like ourselves,"
he said at last. "A bit shorter perhaps, and most certainly incomplete.
Except for the one thing they lack, and that's quite odd, they seem
exactly like us. Is that what you wanted me to say?"

"It is. The fact that they are an incomplete version of ourselves
touches me. They actually seem defenseless, though I suppose they're
not."

"Tough," said Bal. "Nothing we can do about it."

"There is. We can give them a week."

"In a week we can't negate their entire history. We can't begin to undo
the effect of the big bomb."

"You can't tell," said Ethaniel. "We can look things over."

"And then what? How much authority do we have?"

"Very little," conceded Ethaniel. "Two minor officials on the way to
Willafours--and we run directly into a problem no one knew existed."

"And when we get to Willafours we'll be busy. It will be a long time
before anyone comes this way again."

"A very long time. There's nothing in this region of space our people
want," said Ethaniel. "And how long can Earth last? Ten years? Even ten
months? The tension is building by the hour."

"What can I say?" said Bal. "I suppose we can stop and look them over.
We're not committing ourselves by looking."

They went much closer to Earth, not intending to commit themselves. For
a day they circled the planet, avoiding radar detection, which for them
was not difficult, testing, and sampling. Finally Ethaniel looked up
from the monitor screen. "Any conclusions?"

"What's there to think? It's worse than I imagined."

"In what way?"

"Well, we knew they had the big bomb. Atmospheric analysis showed that
as far away as we were."

"I know."

"We also knew they could deliver the big bomb, presumably by some sort
of aircraft."

"That was almost a certainty. They'd have no use for the big bomb
with