nt. Our energy and skills are channeled into essentially decadent
pursuits. We re-carve old furniture, worry about rank and status, and in
the meantime the frontier of the distant planets remains unexplored and
unconquered. We ceased long ago to expand. Stability brought the danger
of stagnation, to which we succumbed. We became so highly socialized
that individuality had to be diverted to the most harmless of pursuits,
turned inward, kept from any meaningful expression. I think you have
seen a fair amount of that in your time on Earth?"

"I have. But I never expected to hear the Chief of the Secret Police say
it."

"I'm an unusual man," Dravivian said, with a mocking smile. "And the
Secret Police is an unusual institution."

"It must be very efficient. How did you find out about me?"

"That was really quite simple. Most of the people of Earth are
security-conditioned from childhood. It's part of our heritage, you
know. Nearly all the people you met were able to tell that there was
something very wrong about you. You were as obviously out of place as a
wolf among sheep. People noticed, and reported directly to me."

"All right," Barrent said. "Now what?"

"First I would like you to tell me about Omega."

Barrent told the Police Chief about his life on the prison planet.
Dravivian nodded, a faint smile on his lips.

"Yes, it's very much as I expected," he said. "The same sort of thing
has happened on Omega as happened in early America and Australia. There
are differences, of course; you have been shut off more completely from
the mother country. But the same fierce energy and drive is there, and
the same ruthlessness."

"What are you going to do?" Barrent asked.

Dravivian shrugged his shoulders. "It really doesn't matter. I suppose I
could kill you. But that wouldn't stop your group on Omega from sending
out other spies, or from seizing one of the prison ships. As soon as the
Omegans begin to move in force, they'll discover the truth anyhow."

"What truth?"

"By now it must be obvious to you," Dravivian said. "Earth hasn't fought
a war for nearly eight hundred years. We wouldn't know how. The
organization of guardships around Omega is pure facade. The ships are
completely automatized, built to meet conditions of several hundreds
years ago. A determined attack will capture a ship; and when you have
one, the rest will fall. After that, there's nothing to stop the Omegans
from coming back to Earth; and there'