love. This can never be. Only
Commander Y'Nor will leave the ship at Vogar, there to select his own
Occupation force, while the men now among us continue directly on to
the Alkorian war from which many of them will never return._

_We must not resent the fact that on this, their last day among us,
these men are forbidden to speak to us or to let us speak to them nor
say that this is unfair when Commander Y'Nor's Occupation troops will
be permitted to associate freely with us. These things are beyond our
power to change. We must accept the inevitable and show only by our
silent conduct the love we have for these warriors whom we shall never
see again._

Kane gulped convulsively, read it again, and hurried back to Larue's
office.

"How long has that last edict been up?" he demanded.

"About twelve hours."

"Then every shift has seen it?"

"Ah ... yes. Why--is something wrong with it?"

"That depends on the viewpoint. I want them removed at once. And tell
that sanctified old weasel that if this last edict of his gets me
hanged, which it probably will, I'll see to it that he gets the same
medicine."

He went back into the plant and made his way through the bare-legged,
soft-eyed girls, looking for Dalon. He overheard a guard say in low,
bitter tones to another: "... _Maybe eight hours on Vogar, and we
can't leave the ship, then on to the battle front for us while Y'Nor
and his home guard favorites come back here and pick out their
harems_--"

He found Dalon and said to him, "Watch your men. They're resentful.
Some of them might even desert--and Y'Nor wasn't joking about that
gallows for us last night."

"I know." Dalon ran his finger around the collar that seemed to be
getting increasingly tighter for him. "I've warned them that the
Occupation troops would get them in the end."

* * * * *

He found Graver at a dial-covered panel. The brown-eyed secretary--her
eyes now darker and more appealing than ever--was just leaving, a
notebook in her hand.

"Since when," Kane asked, "has it been customary for technicians to
need the assistance of secretaries to read a dial?"

"But, sir, she is a very good technician, herself. Her paper work is
now done and she was helping me trace a circuit that was fluctuating."

Kane peered suspiciously into Graver's expressionless face.

"Are you sure it was a circuit that was doing the fluctuating?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did you know that half of Da