er ship out there, sent out by the
attorney general's office. Why wasn't it reporting? Probably was--to the
attorney general's office. Fine lot of good E.H.Q. would get out of
that. He was no fool. He knew the attorney general would gladly
sacrifice the whole lot of colonists, if it would give him a weapon to
fight E.H.Q.

Why hadn't E.H.Q. sent along an observer ship also? These cocky E's!
Probably hadn't thought it necessary. Always ready to assume they could
handle the situation by themselves!

He wondered if he dared voice that criticism during the review, get it
on record. He thought about it, and decided in favor of playing it safe.
Maybe that was the trouble. Everybody was too concerned with his own
skin, too willing to play it safe. But an employee of E.H.Q. to make a
public criticism of an E! No, better play it safe.

He sighed heavily, and asked the operator to please see if E McGinnis
would talk to him.

He suspected that E McGinnis would just stand off from the planet and
wait for E Gray to get in touch. Nothing seemed to have happened while E
Gray's cruiser was out in space. It must be something connected with
landing, being on the surface of the planet.

But E Gray could signal to E McGinnis. Those pesky colonists! Why hadn't
they signaled to E Gray? Why hadn't they come out of their bushes and
signaled the danger? Surely they must know what it was. They were alive
and healthy, three of them at least. Why hadn't they used their stupid
heads?

But then, how could they have known E Gray was out in space, or even in
their stratosphere? Well, they had telescopes, didn't they? Or did they?
Sure they did. No matter what happened to the buildings, they must have
all sorts of equipment hidden under the trees, or in caves.

Why hadn't E Gray been more cautious about landing? Rushing in there
like a green school kid, without even rudimentary precautions. That's
what came from sending out a boy to do a man's job. Maybe the attorney
general's office had been right in its attempt to prevent a Junior from
going. What was the use of all that E training, if the boy didn't have
enough sense ...

At least E McGinnis would have enough sense to stand off, not go rushing
in blindly. Grand old man, E McGinnis. Now there was a _real_ product of
E science, the veritable dean of the E's.

E Gray would probably have enough sense to know he'd be followed by a
rescue ship as soon as something went wrong. And between an E o