ut up till I give you some
background. You're probably full of a lot of nonsense you picked up in
school."

Ronny shut up. He'd expected more of an air of dedication in the Octagon
and in such ethereal departments as that of Interplanetary Justice,
however, he was in now and not adverse to picking up some sophistication
beyond the ken of the Earth-bound employees of UP.

The other's voice took on a far away, albeit bored tone. "It seems that
most of the times man gets a really big idea, he goes off half cocked.
Just one example. Remember when the ancient Hellenes exploded into the
Mediterranean? A score of different City-States began sending out
colonies, which in turn sprouted colonies of their own. Take Syracuse, on
Sicily. Hardly was she established than, bingo, she sent off colonists to
Southern Italy, and they in turn to Southern France, Corsica, the
Balearics. Greeks were exploding all over the place, largely without
adequate plans, without rhyme or reason. Take Alexander. Roamed off all
the way to India, founding cities and colonies of Greeks all along the
way."

The older man shifted in his chair. "You wonder what I'm getting at, eh?
Well, much the same thing is happening in man's explosion into space, now
that he has the ability to leave the solar system behind. Dashing off half
cocked, in all directions, he's flowing out over this section of the
galaxy without plan, without rhyme or reason. I take that last back, he
has reasons all right--some of the screwiest. Religious reasons, racial
reasons, idealistic reasons, political reasons, altruistic reasons and
mercenary reasons.

"Inadequate ships, manned by small numbers of inadequate people, setting
out to find their own planets, to establish themselves on one of the
numberless uninhabited worlds that offer themselves to colonization and
exploitation."

Ronny cleared his throat. "Well, isn't that a good thing, sir?"

Ross Metaxa looked at him and grunted. "What difference does it make if
it's good or not? It's happening. We're spreading our race out over tens
of hundreds of new worlds in the most haphazard fashion. As a result, we
of United Planets now have a chaotic mishmash on our hands. How we manage
to keep as many planets in the organization as we do, sometimes baffles
me. I suppose most of them are afraid to drop out, conscious of the
protection UP gives against each other."

He picked up a report. "Here's Monet, originally colonized by a bunch of