side the
human ones, and it's a fairly civilized race. The Sakae. The trouble
is--the Sakae aren't human."

Kieran stared at her. "So what? If they're intelligent--"

"You talk as though it was the simplest thing in the world," she
flashed.

"Isn't it? If your Sakae are intelligent and the humans of Sako aren't,
then the Sakae have the rights on that world, don't they?"

She looked at him, not saying anything, and again she had that stricken
look of one who has tried and failed. Then from up forward, without
turning, Webber spoke.

"What do you think now of Vaillant's fine idea, Paula?"

"It can still work," she said, but there was no conviction in her voice.

"If you don't mind," said Kieran, with an edge to his voice, "I'd still
like to know what this Sako business has to do with reviving me."

* * * * *

"The Sakae rule the humans on that world," Paula answered. "There are
some of us who don't believe they should. In the Council, we're known as
the Humanity Party, because we believe that humans should not be ruled
by non-humans."

Again, Kieran was distracted from his immediate question--this time by
the phrase "Non-human".

"These Sakae--what are they like?"

"They're not monsters, if that's what you're thinking of," Paula said.
"They're bipeds--lizardoid rather than humanoid--and are a fairly
intelligent and law-abiding lot."

"If they're all that, and higher in development than the humans, why
shouldn't they rule their own world?" demanded Kieran.

Webber uttered a sardonic laugh. Without turning he asked, "Shall I
change course and go to Altair?"

"No!" she said. Her eyes flashed at Kieran and she spoke almost
breathlessly. "You're very sure about things you just heard about,
aren't you? You know what's right and you know what's wrong, even though
you've only been in this time, this universe, for a few hours!"

Kieran looked at her closely. He thought he was beginning to get a
glimmer of the shape of things now.

"You--all you who woke me up illegally--you belong to this Humanity
Party, don't you? You did it for some reason connected with that?"

"Yes," she answered defiantly. "We need a symbol in this political
struggle. We thought that one of the oldtime space pioneers, one of the
humans who began the conquest of the stars, would be it. We--"

Kieran interrupted. "I think I get it. It was really considerate of you.
You drag a man back from what amounts to d