o means the survival of a
world. Guns, ammunition, mines, explosives and such."

Jason choked over a mouthful of food. "Gun-running! What are you doing,
financing a private war? And how can you talk about survival with a
lethal cargo like that? Don't try and tell me they have a peaceful use.
Who are you killing?"

Most of the big man's humor had vanished, he had that grim look Jason
knew well.

"Yes, peaceful would be the right word. Because that is basically all we
want. Just to live in peace. And it is not _who_ are we killing--it is
_what_ we are killing."

Jason pushed his plate away with an angry gesture. "You're talking in
riddles," he said. "What you say has no meaning."

"It has meaning enough," Kerk told him, "but only on one planet in the
universe. Just how much do you know about Pyrrus?"

"Absolutely nothing."

For a moment Kerk sat wrapped in memory, scowling distantly. Then he
went on.

"Mankind doesn't belong on Pyrrus--yet has been there for almost three
hundred years now. The age expectancy of my people is sixteen years. Of
course most adults live beyond that, but the high child mortality brings
the average down.

"It is everything that a humanoid world should not be. The gravity is
nearly twice Earth normal. The temperature can vary daily from arctic to
tropic. The climate--well you have to experience it to believe it. Like
nothing you've seen anywhere else in the galaxy."

"I'm frightened," Jason said dryly. "What do you have--methane or
chlorine reactions? I've been down on planets like that--"

* * * * *

Kerk slammed his hand down hard on the table. The dishes bounced and the
table legs creaked. "Laboratory reactions!" he growled. "They look great
on a bench--but what happens when you have a world filled with those
compounds? In an eye-wink of galactic time all the violence is locked up
in nice, stable compounds. The atmosphere may be poisonous for an oxygen
breather, but taken by itself it's as harmless as weak beer.

"There is only one setup that is pure poison as a planetary atmosphere.
Plenty of H{2}O, the most universal solvent you can find, plus free
oxygen to work on--"

"Water and oxygen!" Jason broke in. "You mean Earth--or a planet like
Cassylia here? That's preposterous."

"Not at all. Because you were born in this kind of environment you
accept it as right and natural. You take it for granted that metals
corrode, coastlines change, and s