c) that it did not need to be
acknowledged.

The aliens always let other races fight their wars of conquest.

Forential knew that his own personal existence might well hinge on the
outcome of the next few hours. None of the aliens knew how much
knowledge Julia possessed. Unlike the other mutants, she had not been
kept in ignorance of the basic laws of nature. How dangerous she might
be, they could only guess. Was _she_ capable of attacking them?

Forential was physically ill; he wanted to flee. If he had had a ship
capable of traveling interstellar distances, he would have embarked
without delay. But the huge interstellar ship of his race would not be
back for another thirty years. There was no escape from the space
station; there was no place to go.

And if the earthlings were not destroyed, if the invasion of Earth
failed, retaliation from the planet would not be long coming. Once the
Earth located the space station (and Earth would, once Earth realized
its existence) even human normals would be able to destroy it--one
rocket with an atomic war head would do--long before the interstellar
ship returned.

Walt could not fail; the invasion could not fail.

**Let's try to make peace with the earthings,** one of the aliens
thought. **It's better than ... than exposing _ourselves_ to physical
violence!**

**That would be suicide: once they realized what we had been planning to
do to them.**

**I don't trust them.**

**Let Forential send down _all_ his charges to kill the female!**

**Don't be hysterical!** the Elder thought hysterically.

Forential knew that to send down his charges first might alert Earth to
the danger of invasion: twenty-seven saucer-ships would not go
unnoticed. But even if they would, even if Earth remained unaware, such
a course would completely disrupt the plan of conquest.

**She hasn't realized the menace yet,** the Elder thought. **Walt will
kill her. Walt will kill her, won't he, Forential?**

**Yes.** If only one of us went to make sure, Forential thought. To help
him ... no.... None of us would risk it. It's too dangerous.

The aliens did not have any equipment to make their single person ships
invisible. It took bulky distortion machinery; the single person ships
were too large to cover with mental shielding.

Twenty years ago, yes (Forential thought) we could have risked it. But
now the radar screens around all the major countries are too tight. We
could not, like Walt, dest