sly. But they never think how much more
work it makes for me. Now I have to patch these two idiots up and try
to find room for them in the ward." He stalked away, irritated and
annoyed as always. Jason usually laughed at the doctor's irascible
state, but not today.

Today, and for some days past, he had found himself living with a
persistent feeling of irritation, that had arrived at the same time as
his discovery that it is far easier to fight a war than to administer
a peace. The battle at the perimeter still continued, since the massed
malevolence of the Pyrran life forms were not going to call a truce
simply because the two warring groups of humans had done so. There was
battle on the perimeter and a continual feeling of unrest inside the
city. So far there had been very little traffic between the city
Pyrrans and those living outside the walls, and what contact there had
been usually led to the kind of violence he had just witnessed. The
only minor note of hope in this concert of discord was the fact that
no one had died--as yet--in any of these fearsome hand-to-hand
conflicts. In spite of the apparent deadliness of the encounters all
of the Pyrrans seemed to understand that, despite past hatreds, they
were all really on the same side. A distant rumble from the clouded
sky broke through his thoughts.

"There is a ship on the radar," Meta said, coming out of the
ground-control office and squinting up at the overcast. "I wonder if
it is that ecology expedition that Brucco arranged--or the cargo ship
from Ondion?"

"We'll find out in a few minutes," Jason said, happy to forget his
troubles for the moment in frank admiration, since just looking at
Meta was enough to put a golden edge on this gloom-filled day.
Standing there, head back searching the sky, she managed to be
beautiful even in the formless Pyrran coverall. Jason put his arms
around her waist and exacted a great deal of pleasure from kissing the
golden length of her up-stretched throat.

"Oh, Jason ... not now," she said in exasperation. Pyrran minds, by
necessity, run along one track at a time, and at the present moment
she was thinking about the descending spaceship. With a quick motion,
scarcely aware of her action, she pulled his hands from her and pushed
him away, an easy enough thing for a Pyrran girl to do. But in doing
so she half fractured one of his wrists, numbed the other, and knocked
Jason to the ground.

"Darling ... I'm sorry," she gasp