out aircraft."

"What's worse is that I now find they also have missiles, range one
thousand miles and upward. They either have or are near a primitive form
of space travel."

"Bad," said Ethaniel. "Sitting there, wondering when it's going to hit
them. Nervousness could set it off."

"It could, and the missiles make it worse," said Bal. "What did you find
out at your end?"

"Nothing worthwhile. I was looking at the people while you were
investigating their weapons."

"You must think something."

"I wish I knew what to think. There's so little time," Ethaniel said.
"Language isn't the difficulty. Our machines translate their languages
easily and I've taken a cram course in two or three of them. But that's
not enough, looking at a few plays, listening to advertisements, music,
and news bulletins. I should go down and live among them, read books,
talk to scholars, work with them, play."

"You could do that and you'd really get to know them. But that takes
time--and we don't have it."

"I realize that."

"A flat yes or no," said Bal.

"No. We can't help them," said Ethaniel. "There is nothing we can do for
them--but we have to try."

"Sure, I knew it before we started," said Bal. "It's happened before. We
take the trouble to find out what a people are like and when we can't
help them we feel bad. It's going to be that way again." He rose and
stretched. "Well, give me an hour to think of some way of going at it."

* * * * *

It was longer than that before they met again. In the meantime the ship
moved much closer to Earth. They no longer needed instruments to see it.
The planet revolved outside the visionports. The southern plains were
green, coursed with rivers; the oceans were blue; and much of the
northern hemisphere was glistening white. Ragged clouds covered the
pole, and a dirty pall spread over the mid-regions of the north.

"I haven't thought of anything brilliant," said Ethaniel.

"Nor I," said Bal. "We're going to have to go down there cold. And it
will be cold."

"Yes. It's their winter."

"I did have an idea," said Bal. "What about going down as supernatural
beings?"

"Hardly," said Ethaniel. "A hundred years ago it might have worked.
Today they have satellites. They are not primitives."

"I suppose you're right," said Bal. "I did think we ought to take
advantage of our physical differences."

"If we could I'd be all for it. But these people are rough and