appens all the time," he explained to the
group at large. "Carry on."

Discussion went on, with less and less acrimony, all the rest of the
day. And the next day, and the next. Then, argument having reached the
point of diminishing returns, the three starships took the forty-six
couples home.

* * *

The six Primes went into Evans' office, where the lawyer was deeply
engaged with Gerald Banks, the Galaxians' Public Relations Chief. Banks
was holding his head in both hands.

"Garlock, maybe _you_ can tell me," Banks demanded. "How much of this
stuff, if any, can I publish? And if so, _how_?"

"Nothing," Garlock said, flatly.

"What do you think, Thaker?" Belle asked. "You're smarter than we are."

"What Thaker thinks has no bearing," Garlock said.

Belle, Fao, and Delcamp all began to protest at once, but they were
silenced by Thaker himself.

"Garlock is right. My people are not your people; I know not at all how
your people think or what they will or will not believe. I go."

"That lets Deg and me out too; then, double-plus," Fao said with a grin,
"so we'll leave that baby on your laps. We go, too."

"Well, little Miss Weisenheimer," Garlock smiled quizzically at Belle,
"You grabbed the ball--what are you going to do with it?"

"Nothing, I guess...." Belle thought for a minute. "We couldn't stuff
any part of that down the throat of a simple-minded six-year-old. We
haven't really _got_ anything, anyway. Time enough, I think, when we
have six or seven hundred planets in each region, instead of only one
planet. Maybe we'll know something by then. Does that make sense?"

"It does to me," Garlock said, and the others agreed.

"That Thakern 'we go' business sounds rough at first, but it's
contagious. Fao and Deggi caught it, and I feel like I'm coming down
with it myself. How about you, Clee?"

"We go," Belle and Garlock said in unison, and vanished.

* * *

Aboard the _Pleiades_, the next few days passed quietly enough. James
set up, in the starship's memory banks, a sequence to mass-produce
instruction tapes and blueprints. Garlock and Belle began systematically
to explore the Tellurian Region. Now, however, their technique was
different. If either Prime of any world was not enthusiastic about the
project--

"Very well. Think it over," they would say. "We will get in touch with
you again in about a year," and the starship would go on to the next