e
matter. From our protected areas in North America a strong but
democratic government can spread to cover the world. That government can
be extended easily enough to include Mars and Venus. But Gharlane, who
is to operate as Roger, who has already planted, in the Adepts of North
Polar Jupiter, the seeds of the Jovian Wars...._"

"_Your visualization is sound, youth. Think on._"

"_Those interplanetary wars are of course inevitable, and will serve to
strengthen and to unify the government of the Inner Planets ... provided
that Gharlane does not interfere.... Oh, I see. Gharlane will not at
first know; since a zone of compulsion will be held upon him. When he or
some Eddorian fusion perceives that compulsion and breaks it--at some
such time of high stress as the Nevian incident--it will be too late.
Our fusions will be operating. Roger will be allowed to perform only
such acts as will be for Civilization's eventual good. Nevia was
selected as Prime Operator because of its location in a small region of
the galaxy which is almost devoid of solid iron and because of its
watery nature; its aquatic forms of life being precisely those in which
the Eddorians are least interested. They will be given partial
neutralization of inertia; they will be able to attain velocities a few
times greater than that of light. That covers the situation, I think?_"

"_Very good, Eukonidor," the Elders approved. "A concise and accurate
summation._"

_Hundreds of Tellurian years passed. The aftermath. Reconstruction.
Advancement. One world--two worlds--three worlds--united, harmonious,
friendly. The Jovian Wars. A solid, unshakeable union._

_Nor did any Eddorian know that such fantastically rapid progress was
being made. Indeed, Gharlane knew, as he drove his immense ship of space
toward Sol, that he would find Tellus inhabited by peoples little above
savagery._

_And it should be noted in passing that not once, throughout all those
centuries, did a man named Kinnison marry a girl with red-bronze-auburn
hair and gold-flecked, tawny eyes._

BOOK THREE

TRIPLANETARY

CHAPTER 7

PIRATES OF SPACE

Apparently motionless to her passengers and crew, the Interplanetary
liner _Hyperion_ bored serenely onward through space at normal
acceleration. In the railed-off sanctum in one corner of the control
room a bell tinkled, a smothered whirr was heard, and Captain Bradley
frowned as he studied the brief message upon the tape of th