tried to contact you, but since you had not
developed subspace radio, we were of course not successful. Our
englobement was just a routine quarantine. With your total lack of
information about us, what you did was more than the height of folly. It
was madness."

"Could we have done anything else that would have kept you from landing
on Earth and taking us over?" asked Crownwall.

"Would that have been so bad?" said Ggaran. "We can't tolerate wild and
warlike races running free and uncontrolled in the Galaxy. Once was
enough for that."

"But what about my question? Was there any other way for us to stay
free?"

"Well, no. But you didn't have enough information to realize that when
you acted so precipitously. As a matter of fact, we didn't expect to
have much trouble, even after your surprising action. Of course, it took
us a little time to react. We located your planet quickly enough, and
confirmed that you were a new race. But by the time we could try to set
up communications and send ambassadors, you had already organized a not
inconsiderable defense. Your drones blew up our unmanned ships as fast
as we could send them down to your planet. And by the time we had
organized properly for war against you, it was obvious that we could not
conquer you. We could only destroy you."

"That old fool on Sunda, the Emperor, decided that we should blow you
up, but by that time I had decided," said His Effulgence, "that you
might be useful to me--that is, that we might be useful to each other. I
traveled halfway across the Galaxy to meet him, to convince him that it
would be sufficient just to quarantine you. When we had used your radio
system to teach a few of you the Universal Galactic tongue, and had
managed to get what you call the 'planet-buster' down into the largest
of your oceans, he figured we had done our job.

"With his usual lack of imagination, he felt sure that we were safe from
you--after all, there was no way for you to get off the planet. Even if
you could get down to the bottom of the ocean and tamper with the bomb,
you would only succeed in setting it off, and that's what the Sunda had
been in favor of in the first place.

"But I had different ideas. From what you had already done, I suspected
it wouldn't be long before one of you amazing Earthlings would dream up
some device or other, head out into space, and show up on our planet. So
I've been waiting for you, and here you are."

"It was the thinking