didn't hit me when I called you names, because it
made no sense from an adult point of view. Earth doesn't go to war for
the same reason. Thank God, we grew up just before we got into space,
where adult thinking is necessary to survival!"

There had been the kids and their seemingly pointless argument on the
street. There had been the curiously distant respect the Meloans had
shown him, as if they guessed that only his exterior was similar. There
were a lot of things Duke could use to justify believing the director.
It made a fine picture--as it was intended to.

* * * * *

"It must be wonderful to sit here safely, while agents do your
dangerous work, feeling superior to anyone who shows any courage," he
said bitterly. "I suppose every clerk and desk-jockey out there feeds
himself the same type of rationalization. But words don't prove
anything. How do you prove the difference between maturity and timidity
or smugness?"

"You asked for it," Flannery said simply.

The button went down on the control again. The air was suddenly thin
and bitingly cold as they looked down on a world torn with war, where a
hundred ships shaped like half-disks and unlike anything Duke had seen
were mixed up in some maneuver. The button was pushed again, and this
time there was a world below that had a port busy with similar ships,
not fighting now. A third press brought them onto the surface of a
heavy world that seemed to be composed of solid buildings and
factories, where the ships were being outfitted with incomprehensible
goods. A thing like a pipe-stem man looked up from a series of
operations, made a waving motion to them, and abruptly disappeared.

"Did you really think we could be the only adult race in the universe?"
Flannery asked. "You're looking at the Allr, the closest cultural
gestalt to us, and somewhere near our level. Now--"

Something squamous perched on a rock on what seemed to be a barren
world. Before it floated bright points of light that were obviously
replicas of planets, with tiny lines of light between them, and a
shuttling of glints along the lines. The thing seemed to look at them,
briefly. A tentacle whipped up and touched Flannery, who sat with his
hands off the control box. Without its use, they were abruptly back in
their office.

Flannery shivered, and there was strain on his face, while Duke felt
his mind freeze slowly, as if with physical cold. The director c