der you
to go immediately to the Invaders."

Another deep breath. No one moved.

"You have all heard the propaganda of the Invaders. You know that they
have offered you--well, what? Freedom? Yes, that's the way they term it.
Freedom." Another pause. "Freedom. _Hah!_"

He put his hands on his hips. "None of you have ever seen a really
regimented society--and I'm thankful that you haven't. I hope that you
never will."

Chief Samas twisted his lips into an expression of hatred. "Freedom?
Freedom from _what_! Freedom to _do_ what?

"I'll tell you. Freedom to work in their factories for twelve hours a
day! Freedom to work until you are no longer of any use to them, and
then be turned out to die--with no home, and no food to support you.
Freedom to live by yourselves, with every man's hand against you, with
every pittance that you earn taxed to support a government that has no
thought for the individual!

"Is that what you want? Is that what you've worked for all your lives?"

A visual chorus of shaken heads accompanied the verbal chorus of "No."

Chief Samas dropped his hands to his sides. "I thought not. But I will
repeat: If any of you want to go to the Invaders, you may do so now."

Anketam noticed a faint movement to his right, but it stopped before it
became decisive. He glanced over, and he noticed that young Basom was
standing there, half poised, as though unable to make up his mind.

Then The Chief's voice bellowed out again. "Very well. You are with me.
I will leave the work of the barony in your hands. I ask that you
produce as much as you can. Next year--next spring--we will not plant
_cataca_."

There was a low intake of breath from the assembled men. Not plant
_cataca_? That was the crop that they had grown since--well, since
_ever_. Anketam felt as though someone had jerked a rug from beneath
him.

"There is a reason for this," The Chief went on. "Because of the
blockade that surrounds Xedii, we are unable to export _cataca_ leaves.
The rest of the galaxy will have to do without the drug that is
extracted from the leaves. The incident of cancer will rise to the level
it reached before the discovery of _cataca_. When they understand that
we cannot ship out because of the Invader's blockade, they will force
the Invader to stop his attack on us. What we need now is not _cataca_,
but food. So, next spring, you will plant food crops.

"Save aside the _cataca_ seed until the war is over. The seedlings