o, you'll see it shot. And I don't mean
we'll wreck it. They've picked their own doom, against all the advice
we could give them. Care to have a drink sent down while we talk?"

Duke shook his head. "I'd rather cut it short."

"Hotheads," Flannery told the walls thoughtfully, "make the best men
obtainable, once they're tamed. Nothing beats an idealist who can face
facts. And the intelligent ones usually grow up. Captain, I've studied
your strategy against Throm on that last drive after Dayole was killed.
Brilliant! I need a good man, and I can pay for one. If you give me a
chance, I can also show you why you should take it. Know anything about
how Earth got started on its present course?"

"Dumb luck and cowardice, as far as I can see," Duke answered.

When Earth discovered the first inefficient version of the high drive,
she had found herself in a deserted section of the universe, with the
nearest inhabited star system months away. The secret of the drive
couldn't be kept, of course, but the races who used it to build war
fleets found it easier to fight with each other than with distant
Earth. Later, when faster drives were developed, Earth was protected by
the buffer worlds she had rebuilt.

Flannery grinned. "Luck--and experience. We learned something from our
early nuclear-technological wars. We learned more from the interstellar
wars of others. We decided that any planet ruined by such war wouldn't
fight again--the women and children who lived through that hell would
see to it--unless new hatreds grew up during the struggle back. So we
practically pauperized ourselves at first to see that they recovered
too quickly for hate and fear. We also began digging into the science
of how to manipulate relationships--Earth's greatest discovery--to set
up a system that would work. It paid off for us in the long run."

"So what's all that got to do with me?" Duke asked. He'd heard of the
great science of Earth and her ability to manipulate all kinds of
relationships before, spoken of in hush-hush terms when he was still in
college. But he'd quit believing in fairy tales even before then. Now
he was even sicker of Earth's self-justification.

Flannery frowned, and then shrugged. "It's no secret I need a good man
on Throm, and you're the logical candidate, if I can pound some facts
into your head. I've found that sending an Earthman they know as a
competent enemy works wonders. Not at first--there's hostility for a
while-