igh and
went to peer morosely at the view of Earth below. Very delicately, he
wiped the tiny trace of blood from the glass. She was a beautiful world,
this Earth. She had spawned them all, as Meikl said--but for this, the
baron could feel only bitterness toward her.

But what of her inhabitants? I'm past feeling anything for them, he
thought, past feeling for any of the life-scum that creeps across the
surface of a world, any world. We'll go down quickly, and take what we
need quickly, and leave quickly. We'll try not to infect them, but
they've already got it in them, the dormant disease, and any infection
will be only a recurrence.

Nevertheless, he summoned a priest to his quarters. And, before going to
the command deck, he bathed sacramentally as if in preparation for
battle.

"_Your hawk's blude was never sae red,
Edward, Edward;
Your hawk's blude was never sae red,
My dear son, I tell thee, O."
"O I hae kill'd my red-roan steed,
Mither, mither;
O I hae kill'd my red roan steed,
That erst was sae fair and free, O._"

--ANONYMOUS

False dawn was in the east when the slivers of light appeared once again
out of the eclipse shadow to rake majestically across the heavens, and
again the children of Earth crowded in teeming numbers from the quiet
gardens to chatter their excitement at the wonder in the sky. But this
time, a message came. The men of the tech clans who tended the newly
activated mechanisms heard it, and the mechanisms memorized it, and
played it again and again for the people, while the linguists puzzled
over the unidentified language used in the transmission.

PROPAUTH EARTH FROM COMMSTRAFEFLEET THREE, SPACE, KLAEDEN COMM,
PRESENTS GREETINGS!

IF YOU HAVE RECORDS, OUR USE OF ANCIENT ANGLO-GERMANIC SHOULD
MAKE OUR IDENTITY CLEAR. HAVE YOU FUELING FACILITIES FOR 720
SHIPS OF THOR-NINE CLASS? IF NOT, WE SHALL DEVELOP FACILITIES
FROM LOCAL RESOURCES, WITH, WE TRUST, YOUR PEACEFUL
COOPERATION. THIS CADRE NOT REIMMIGRATING, BUT EN ROUTE TO
URSAN STARS. REQUEST LANDING SUGGESTIONS, IN VIEW OF OUR
FUELING NEEDS.

REQUEST INTELLIGENCE CONCERNING PRESENT LEVEL OF TERRESTRIAL
CULTURE. OUR ORIBITAL OBSERVATIONS INDICATE A STATIC
AGRARIAN-TECHNICAL COMPLEX, BUT DETAILS NOT AVAILABLE. WE COME
IN ARMS, BUT WITHOUT ENMITY. PLEASE REPLY, IF POSSIBLE.

ERNSTLI BARON VEN KLAEDEN, COMMANDING STRAFE