entually forced to drop the bombs, we shall
never forget that your organization did everything possible to
avert the disaster."

Once again Brion was caught off balance. For an instant he wondered
if Krafft was being insincere, then recognized the baseness of this
thought. The completeness of the man's humanity was obvious and
compelling. The thought passed through Brion's mind that now he had
an additional reason for wanting the war ended without destruction
on either side. He very much wanted to visit Nyjord and see these
people on their home grounds.

Professor Krafft waited, patiently and silently, while Brion pulled
his thoughts together and answered. "I still hope that this thing
can be stopped in time. That's what I wanted to talk to you about.
I want to see Lig-magte and I thought it would be better if I had
a legitimate reason. Are you in contact with him?"

Krafft shook his head. "No, not really in contact. When this trouble
started I sent him a transceiver so we could talk directly. But he
has delivered his ultimatum, speaking for the magter. The only terms
he will hear are unconditional surrender. His receiver is on, but
he has said that is the only message he will answer."

"Not much chance of him ever being told that," Brion said.

"There was--at one time. I hope you realize, Brion, that the
decision to bomb Dis was not easily arrived at. A great many
people--myself included--voted for unconditional surrender.
We lost the vote by a very small margin."

Brion was getting used to these philosophical body blows and he
rolled with the punches now. "Are there any of your people left on
this planet? Or do you have any troops I can call on for help? This
is still a remote possibility, but if I do find out where the bombs
or the launchers are, a surprise raid would knock them out."

"We have no people left in Hovedstad now--all the ones who weren't
evacuated were killed. But there are commando teams standing by here
to make a landing if the weapons are detected. The Disans must
depend on secrecy to protect their armament, since we have both
the manpower and the technology to reach any objective. We also
have technicians and other volunteers looking for the weapon sites.
They have not been successful as yet, and most of them were killed
soon after landing."

Krafft hesitated for a moment. "There is another group you should
know about; you will need all the factors. Some of our people are in
the desert ou