had stopped talking to Ulv some time ago, and had
been listening to his conversation with Krafft. He shrugged, trying
to put his feeling into words.

"We've tried--and almost succeeded. But if they won't listen, what
can we do? What can one man possibly do against a fleet loaded with
H-bombs?"

As if in answer to the question, Ulv's voice drowned him out,
the harsh Disan words slashing the silence of the room.

"Kill you, the enemy!" he said. "Kill you _umedvirk_!"

He shouted the last word and his hand flashed to his belt. In a
single swift motion he lifted his blowgun and placed it to his lips.
A tiny dart quivered in the already dead flesh of the creature in
the magter's skull. The action had all the symbolism of a broken
lance, the declaration of war.

"Ulv understands it a lot better than you might think," Lea said.
"He knows things about symbiosis and mutualism that would get him
a job as a lecturer in any university on Earth. He knows just what
the brain-symbiote is and what it does. They even have a word for it,
one that never appeared in our Disan language lessons. A life form
that you can live with or cooperate with is called _medvirk_. One
that works to destroy you is _umedvirk_. He also understands that
life forms can change, and be _medvirk_ or _umedvirk_ at different
times. He has just decided that the brain symbiote is _umedvirk_
and he is out to kill it. So will the rest of the Disans as soon as
he can show them the evidence and explain."

"You're sure of this?" Brion asked, interested in spite of himself.

"Positive. The Disans have an absolute attitude towards survival;
you should realize that. Not the same as the magter, but not much
different in the results. They will kill the brain-symbiotes, even
if it means killing every magter who harbors one."

"If that is the case we can't leave now," Brion said. With these
words it suddenly became clear what he had to do. "The ship is
coming down now from the fleet. Get in it and take the body of
the magter. I won't go."

"Where will you be?" she asked, shocked.

"Fighting the magter. My presence on the planet means that Krafft
won't keep his threat to drop the bombs any earlier than the
midnight deadline. That would be deliberately murdering me. I doubt
if my presence past midnight will stop him, but it should keep the
bombs away at least until then."

"What will you accomplish besides committing suicide?" Lea pleaded.
"You just told me how a