Nothing seems to be happening."

It was true, at least on the surface. There were a great number of ships
and men around and near Luscious, but they weren't in view. They were
ready to jump in any direction, at any moment, but they had nothing to
jump at yet. The Commissioner's transmitters hadn't signaled more than
two or three times in the last two days. Even the short communicators
remained mostly silent.

"Cheer up, Doll!" Quillan said. "Something's bound to break pretty
soon."

That evening, a Devagas ship came zooming in on Luscious.

They were prepared for it, of course. That somebody came round from time
to time to look over the local plasmoid crop was only to be expected. As
the ship surfaced in atmosphere on the other side of the planet, four
one-man Scout fighters flashed in on it from four points of the horizon,
radiation screens up. They tacked holding beams on it and braced
themselves. A Federation destroyer appeared in the air above it.

The Devagas ship couldn't escape. So it blew itself up.

They were prepared for that, too. The Devagas pilot was being
dead-brained three minutes later. He didn't know a significant thing
except the exact coordinates of an armed, subterranean Devagas dome,
three days' run away.

The Scout ships that had been hunting for the dome went howling in
toward it from every direction. The more massive naval vessels of the
Federation followed behind. There was no hurry for the heavies. The
captured Devagas ship's attempt to beam a warning to its base had been
smothered without effort. The Scouts were getting in fast enough to
block escape attempts.

"And now we split forces," the Commissioner said. He was the only one,
Trigger thought, who didn't seem too enormously excited by it all.
"Quillan, you and your group get going! They can use you there a whole
lot better than we can here."

For just a second, Quillan looked like a man being dragged violently in
two directions. He didn't look at Trigger. He asked, "Think it's wise to
leave you people unguarded?"

"Quillan," said Commissioner Tate, "that's the first time in my life
anybody has suggested I need guarding."

"Sorry sir," said Quillan.

"You mean," Trigger said, "we're not going? We're just staying here?"

"You've got an appointment, remember?" the Commissioner said.

Quillan and company were gone within the hour. Mantelish, Holati Tate,
Lyad and Trigger stayed at camp.

Luscious looked very lonely.