pect the other to launch an unwarned attack at
some other moment. Ultimately one or the other must perish, and the
survivor would be the one most skilled in treachery.

But then the pariah planet made a new proposal. It would send a
messenger ship to stop its own fleet's bombardment if Weald would
accept payment of the grain ships and their cargos. It would pay in
ingots of irridium and uranium and tungsten, and gold if Weald wished
it, for all damages Weald might claim.

It would even pay indemnity for the miners of Orede, who had died by
accident but perhaps in some sense through its fault. It would pay.
But if it were bombed, Weald must spout atomic fire and the fleet of
Weald would have no home planet to return to.

This proposal seemed both craven and foolish. It would allow the fleet
of Weald to loot and then betray Dara. But it was Calhoun's idea. It
seemed plausible to the admirals of Weald. They felt only contempt for
blueskins. Contemptuously, they accepted the semi-surrender.

The broadcast waves of Dara told of agreement, and wild and fierce
resentment filled the pariah planet's people. There was almost
revolution to insist upon resistance, however hopeless and however
fatal. But not all of Dara realized that a vital change had come about
in the state of things on Dara. The enemy fleet had not a hint of it.

In menacing array, the invading fleet spread itself about the skies of
Dara, well beyond the atmosphere. Harsh voices talked with increasing
arrogance to the landing-grid staff. A monster ship of Weald came
heavily down, riding the landing-grid's force-fields. It touched
gently. Its occupants were apprehensive, but hungry for the loot they
had been assured was theirs. The ship's outer hull would be sterilized
before it returned to Weald, of course. And there was adequate
protection for the landing-party.

Men came out of the ship's ports. They wore the double, transparent
sag-suits Calhoun had suggested, which had been painstakingly tested,
and which were perfect protection against contagion. They were double
garments of plastic, with air tanks inside the inner flexible
envelope.

Men wearing such sag-suits could walk about on Dara. They could work
on Dara. They could loot with impunity and all contamination must
remain outside the suits, and on their return to their ships they
would simply stand in the airlocks while corrosive gases swirled
around them, killing any possible organism of disease.