n nodded. "I could have. But I didn't want to get false hopes
aroused. I didn't have much hope the deal would actually go through,
myself. I think Fothergill is pretty much responsible for it."

"Transpace--" Joyce said dreamily. "Tell me about the Markovian Nucleus.
Why is it important enough for a big research study, anyway?"

"It's a case of a leopard who changed his spots," said Cameron. "And
nobody knows how or why. The full title of the project is A Study of the
Metamorphosis of the Markovian Nucleus."

"What happened? How are they any different from the way they used to
be?"

"A hundred and fifty years ago the Markovians were the meanest,
nastiest, orneriest specimens in the entire Council of Galactic
Associates. The groups of worlds in one corner of their galaxy, which
make up the Nucleus, controlled a military force that outweighed
anything the Council could possibly bring to bear against them.

"With complete disregard of any scheme of interplanetary rules or order
they harassed and attacked peaceful shipping and inoffensive cultures
throughout a wide territory. They were something demanding the Council's
military action. But the Council lacked the strength.

"For years the Council dragged on, debating and threatening
ineffectively. But nothing was ever done. And then, so gradually it was
hardly noticed, the harassments began to die down. The warlike posturing
was abandoned by the Markovians. Within a period of about seventy or
eighty years there was a complete about-face. They wound up as good
Indians, peaceful, cooeperative and intelligent members of the Council."

"Didn't anybody ever find out why?" asked Joyce.

"No. Nobody _wanted_ to find out. In the early years the worlds of the
Council were hiding behind their collective hands hoping with all their
might that the threat might go away if they kept their eyes closed long
enough. And by some miracle of all miracles, when they parted their
fingers for a scared glimpse, the threat _had_ disappeared.

"When they could breathe a little more easily it seemed a foolish thing
to bring out this old skeleton from the closet again, so a perpetual
state of hush was established. Finally, the whole thing was practically
forgotten except for a short paragraph in an occasional history text.
But no politician or historian has ever dared publicly to question the
mysterious why of the Markovian's about-face."

"Sociologists should have done it long ago," said Joy