met him when I was
indoctrinated. He took the same micro-course in culturology. 'Course,
he only believed that stuff when he was scared."

"Oh, you don't say," said Banner. "Tell us, my little friend, are you
too, convinced that Armageddon is around the corner? Not that I really
think you're capable of having an opinion."

"I got plenty of opinions, all right," said Arnold quietly, staring at
his shoes. "Opinion number one is this: We're not really at war yet,
but within the past two years, fifty-six patrol ships have disappeared
in the vicinity of our friendly neighbor."

"That's not an opinion," Banner said. "And disappeared can mean a lot
of things."

"Opinion number two," continued Arnold, scratching himself under an
arm. "About the only diplomatic relations we got with them animals is
when they write a note complaining about some Patrol ship getting too
close to some piece of dirt in their system."

"Speaking of that, you'll have to excuse me for a moment," Warcraft
said.

"Stop clowning," snapped Banner. "Listen to him. Here's your chance to
get some insight into the nature of the thorn in your side. Go on, Bean
Brain. Any more opinions?"

"Yeah. If you're such a wise guy, tell me why you're here right now.
Why?" Arnold's mouth screwed itself into a knowing, bitter smile. "When
both of you were children you heard the story about the Big Fleet. So
you made it into the Patrol, spent the rest of your life training,
looking, thinking that some day--"

Warcraft broke in, "That tale about an Ankorbadian fleet build-up has
been discredited a full thousand times. When they pried that crazy
scout out of his ship, he was an hour away from the crematorium. You
try spending forty-six days in space without food or water sometime!
You'll see hidden arsenals of alien ships till hell won't have it."

"And," added Banner, "where is this fleet build-up supposed to take
place? The patrol has had every planet in reachable space under
scheduled surveillance for the past twenty years. You don't hide a
thousand S-type cruisers in somebody's pocket."

"So nobody's scared, huh?" said Arnold. "So the entire space command
has been playing footsie all over the galaxy for twenty years looking
for a thousand ships that aren't there in the first place, huh?"

"Routine surveillance," said Warcraft.

"A thousand ships," said Arnold, slapping his sweating forehead.
"They'll burn through our defense system like--"

"You're a parano