leet. You never heard of that, of course. The
dictator-ruler naturally didn't make a report when his fleet simply
vanished without trace. Here!"

The liquor burned in Duke's throat, but it steadied him. He bent down,
to feel the mossy turf under his hand.

"It's real," Flannery repeated. "Paradynamics handles all
relationships, captain. And the position of a body is simply a
statement of its geometrical relationships. What happens if we change
those relationships--with power enough, that is? There is no motion, in
any classic sense. But newspapers appear two high-drive days away
minutes after they're printed. We arrive here. And fleets sent against
Earth just aren't there any more!"

He pressed a button, and abruptly the walls of his office were around
them again--the office that was suddenly the control room of a building
that was more of a battleship than any Duke had ever seen.

He found himself clutching the chair, and forced himself to relax,
soaking up the shock as he had soaked up so many others. His mind faced
the facts, accepted them, and then sickly extended them.

"All right, you've got weapons," he admitted, and disgust was heavy in
his voice. "You can defend yourself. But can the galaxy defend itself
when somebody decides it's a fine offensive weapon? Or are all Earthmen
supposed to be automatically pure, so this will never be turned to
offensive use? Prove that to me and maybe I'll change my mind about
this planet and take that job of yours!"

Flannery leaned back, nodding soberly. "I intend to," he answered.
"Duke, we tried making peaceful citizens of our youngsters here a
century ago, but it wouldn't work. Kids have to have their little gang
wars and their fisticuffs to grow up naturally. We can't force them.
Their interests aren't those of adults. In fact, they think adults are
pretty dull. No adventure. They can't see that juggling a
twenty-million gamble on tooling up for a new competitive product is
exciting; they can't understand working in a dull laboratory to dig
something new out of nature's files can be exciting and dangerous.
Above all, they can't see that the greatest adventure is the job of
bringing kids up to be other adults. They regret the passing of dueling
and affairs of honor. But an adult civilization knows better--because
the passing of such things is the first step toward a race becoming
adult, because it is adopting a new type of thinking, where such things
have no value. You