lf again as much
pay. And after the shakeup at Government House, about a year from now,
you may be going back as director of EETA. When they find out on Terra
just how badly this Government has been mismanaging things there'll be a
lot of vacancies."

The shoonoon had been watching the fighting in the viewscreens. Then
somebody noticed that the spot of light on the navigational globe was
approaching a coastline, and they all rushed forward for a look.

Travis and Edith slept for a while; when they returned to relieve him,
Alpha was rising to the east of Bluelake, and the fighting in the city
was still going on. The shoonoon were still wakeful and interested;
Kwanns could go without sleep for much longer periods than Terrans. The
lack of any fixed cycle of daylight and darkness on their planet had
left them unconditioned to any regular sleeping-and-waking rhythm.

"I just called in," Travis said. "Things aren't good, at all. Most of
the natives in the evacuee cantonments have gotten into the native city,
now, and they've gotten hold of a lot of firearms somehow. And they're
getting nasty in the west, beyond where Gonzales is occupying, and in
the northeast, and we only have about half enough troops to cope with
everything. The general wants to know how you're making out with the
shoonoon."

"I'll call him before I get in the sack."

He went up on the bridge and made the call. General Maith looked as
sleepy as he felt; they both yawned as they greeted each other. There
wasn't much he could tell the general, and it sounded like the glib
reassurances one gets from a hospital about a friend's condition.

"We'll check in with you as soon as we get back and get our shoonoon put
away. We understand what's motivating these frenzies, now, and in about
twenty-five to thirty hours we'll be able to start doing something about
it."

The general, in the screen, grimaced.

"That's a long time, Mr. Gilbert. Longer than we can afford to take, I'm
afraid. You're not cruising at full speed now, are you?"

"Oh, no, general. We're just trying to keep Alpha level on the horizon."
He thought for a moment. "We don't need to keep down to that. It may
make an even bigger impression if we speed up."

He went back to the observation deck, picked up the PA-phone, and called
for attention.

"You have seen, now, that we can travel around the world, so fast that
we keep up with the Sky Fire and it is not seen to set. Now we will
travel