ry to intercept,
the economy of missiles was great. In the battle of the gas-giant
planet, the fleet had fired no more than three or four missiles for
every enemy ship destroyed.

Morgan took Bors aside.

"I'm going to keep Logan here this trip. I'm working on the commanders.
I need him. And our Talent for Detecting Lies,--she was the one who knew
you were in trouble, Gwenlyn tells me--is very necessary. I was hampered
by not having her while Gwenlyn was away. But she did a good job for
you!"

Bors shrugged. He did not like depending upon Talents. He still wasn't
inclined toward acceptance of what he considered the occult. Now he
said, "I'm duly grateful, but it's just as well. My mind doesn't work in
a way to understand these Talents of yours. I admit everything, but I'm
afraid I don't really accept anything."

"It's perfectly reasonable," protested Morgan. "The facts fit together!
I'm no hand at working out theories; I deal in facts. But the facts do
make sense!"

Bors found himself looking at the door of the family room, where Morgan
had taken him. He realized that he was waiting for Gwenlyn to enter. He
turned back to Morgan.

"They don't make sense to me," he said dourly. "You have a precognizer,
you say. He foresees the future. I admit that he has. But the future is
uncertain. It can't be foreseen unless it's pre-ordained, and in that
case we're only puppets imagining that we're free agents. But there
would be no reason in such a state of things!"

Morgan settled himself luxuriously in a self-adjusting chair. He thrust
a cigar on Bors and lighted up zestfully.

"I've been wanting to spout about that," he observed, "even if I'm no
theoretician. Look here! What is true? What is truth? What's the
difference between a false statement and a true one?"

Bors's eyes wandered to the door again. He drew them back.

"One's so and the other isn't," he said.

"No," said Morgan. "Truth is an accordance--an agreement--between an
idea and a fact. If I toss a coin, I can make two statements. I can say
it will come up heads, or I can say that it will come up tails. One
sentence is true and one is false. A precognizer simply knows which
statement is true. I don't, but he does."

"It's still prophecy," objected Bors.

"Oh, no!" protested Morgan. "A precognizer-talent doesn't prophesy! All
he can do is recognize that an idea he has now matches an event that
will happen presently. He can't extract ideas from the futur