he want ads. His needs were few, and there
should be dishwashing jobs, at least, somewhere in the city. He still
had to eat and find some place to sleep.

A headline glared up at him, catching his attention. He started to skim
the story, and then read it thoroughly. Things weren't going at all as
he'd expected in the Outer Worlds, if the account were true; and
usually, such battle reports weren't altered much.

The aliens had developed a union of their own--if anything, a stronger
one than the humanoids had. Apparently they'd chased the Federation
ships into some kind of a trap. Losses on both sides were huge. And
raids had begun on all the alien and humanoid planets.

He scowled as he came to the latest developments. One section of the
Federation fleet under Sra of Chumkt had pulled out, accusing the
faction headed by Barth Nevesh of leading the aliens to the humanoid
rendezvous. Kel's leader had gone after the deserters, fought it out
with them in the middle of the larger battle, killed Sra, and declared
himself the head of the whole Federation. It was madness that should
have led to complete annihilation; only the fumbling, uncooerdinated
leadership of the aliens had saved the humanoid fleets. And now the
Federation was coming apart at the seams, with Barth Nevesh frantically
scurrying around to catch up the pieces.

Duke read it through again, but with no added information. It was a
shock to know that the aliens had combined against the humanoid
Federation. Still, looking back on that, he could begin to see that
they would have to, once they knew of the Federation. But the rest of
the account--

Flannery's words came back to him. The director had been right. His
prediction was already coming true, after only three days--unless he
had either had prior knowledge or juggled things to make it come true!
Duke considered it, but he could see no way Flannery could either learn
or act in advance of the arrival of the ship on Earth. The Federation
was farther from Meloa than from this planet. He'd been forced to
depend on the same accounts Duke had read in the papers on board the
ship.

Then Duke glanced at the date on the current paper idly, and his
thoughts jolted completely out of focus. It was dated only three days
later than the paper he had seen when they were docked on Clovis!
Without instantaneous communication, it was impossible. He might have
been mistaken about the date before, but--

Nothing fitted. The