"Let's go," he said. "Ross is free for a time."
Ronny Bronston said nothing. He followed the other. The rage within himwas still mounting.
In the months that had elapsed since Ronny Bronston had seen Ross Metaxathe latter had changed not at all. His clothing was still sloppy, his eyesbleary with lack of sleep or abundance of alcohol--or both. His expressionwas still sour and skeptical.
He looked up at their entry and scowled, and made no effort to rise andshake hands. He said to Ronny sourly, "O.K., sound off and get it overwith. I haven't too much time this afternoon."
Ronny Bronston was just beginning to feel tentacles of cold doubt, but hesuppressed them. The boiling anger was uppermost. He said flatly, "All mylife I've been a dedicated United Planets man. All my life I've consideredits efforts the most praiseworthy and greatest endeavor man has everattempted."
"Of course, old chap," Jakes told him cheerfully. "We know all that, oryou wouldn't ever have been chosen as an agent for Section G."
Ronny looked at him in disgust. "I've resigned that position, Jakes."
Jakes grinned back at him. "To the contrary, you're now in the process ofreceiving permanent appointment."
Ronny snorted his disgust and turned back to Metaxa. "Section G is asecret department of the Bureau of Investigation devoted to subvertingArticle One of the United Planets Charter."
Metaxa nodded.
"You don't deny it?"
Metaxa shook his head.
"Article One," Ronny snapped, "is the basic foundation of the Charterwhich every member of UP and particularly every citizen of United Planets,such as ourselves, has sworn to uphold. But the very reason for theexistence of this Section G is to interfere with the internal affairs ofmember planets, to subvert their governments, their economic systems,their religions, their ideals, their very way of life."
Metaxa yawned and reached into a desk drawer for his bottle. "That'sright," he said. "Anybody like a drink?"
Ronny ignored him. "I'm surprised I didn't catch on even sooner," he said."On New Delos Mouley Hassan, the local agent, knew the God-King was goingto be assassinated. He brought in extra agents and even a detail of SpaceForces guards for the emergency. He probably engineered the assassinationhimself."
"Nope," Jakes said. "We seldom go _that_ far. Local rebels did the actualwork, but, admittedly, we knew what they were planning. In fact, I've gota sneaking suspicion that Mouley Hassan provided them with the bomb. Thatlad's a bit too dedicated."
"But _why_," Ronny blurted. "That's deliberately interfering with internalaffairs. If the word got out, every planet in UP would resign."
"Probably no planet in the system that needed a change so badly," Metaxagrowled. "If they were ever going to swing into real progress, thathierarchy of priests had to go." He snorted. "An immortal God-King, yet."
Ronny pressed on. "That was bad enough, but how about this planet Mother,where the colonists had attempted to return to nature and live in themanner man did in earliest times."
"Most backward planet in the UP," Metaxa said sourly. "They just had to beroused."
"And Kropotkin!" Ronny blurted. "Don't you understand, those people were_happy_ there. Their lives were simple, uncomplicated, and they hadachieved a happiness that--"
Metaxa came to his feet. He scowled at Ronny Bronston and growled,"Unfortunately, the human race can't take the time out for happiness. Comealong, I want to show you something."
He swung around the corner of his desk and made his way toward aceiling-high bookcase.
Ronny stared after him, taken off guard, but Sid Jakes was grinning hisamusement.
Ross Metaxa pushed a concealed button and the bookcase slid away to oneside to reveal an elevator beyond.
"Come along," Metaxa repeated over his shoulder. He entered the elevator,followed by Jakes.
There was nothing else to do. Ronny Bronston followed them, his face stillflushed with the angered argument.
The elevator dropped, how far, Ronny had no idea. It stopped and theyemerged into a plain, sparsely furnished vault. Against one wall was aboxlike affair that reminded Ronny of nothing so much as a deep-freeze.
For all practical purposes, that's what it was. Ross Metaxa led him overand they stared down into its glass-covered interior.
Ronny's eyes bugged. The box contained the partly charred body of ananimal approximately the size of a rabbit. No, not an animal. It hadobviously once been clothed, and its limbs were obviously those of a toolusing life form.
Metaxa and Jakes were staring down at it solemnly, for once no inane grinon the supervisor's face. And that of Ross Metaxa was more weary thanever.
Ronny said finally, "What is it?" But he knew.
"You tell us," Metaxa growled sourly.
"It's an intelligent life form," Ronny blurted. "Why has it been keptsecret?"
"Let's go on back upstairs," Metaxa sighed.
Back in his office he said, "Now I go into my speech. Shut up for awhile." He poured himself a drink, not offering one to the other two."Ronny," he said, "man isn't alone in the galaxy. There's otherintelligent life. Dangerously intelligent."
In spite of himself Ronny reacted in amusement. "That little creature downthere? The size of a small monkey?" As soon as he said it, he realized theridiculousness of his statement.
Metaxa grunted. "Obviously, size means nothing. That little fellow downthere was picked up by one of our Space Forces scouts over a century ago.How long he'd been drifting through space, we don't know. Possibly onlymonths, but possibly hundreds of centuries. But however long he's proofthat man is not alone in the galaxy. And we have no way of knowing whenthe expanding human race will come up against this other intelligence--andwhoever it was fighting."
[Illustration.]
"But," Ronny protested, "you're assuming they're aggressive. Perhapscoming in contact with these aliens will be the best thing that everhappened to man. Possibly that little fellow down there is the mostbenevolent creature ever evolved."
Metaxa looked at him strangely. "Let's hope so," he said. "However, whenfound he was in what must have been a one-man scout. He was dead and hiscraft was blasted and torn--obviously from some sort of weapons' fire. Hisscout was obviously a military craft, highly equipped with what could onlybe weapons, most of them so damaged our engineers haven't been able tofigure them out. To the extent they have been able to reconstruct them,they're scared silly. No, there's no two ways about it, our little rabbitsized intelligence down in the vault was killed in an interplanetaryconflict. And sooner or later, Ronny, man in his explosion into the starsis going to run into either or both of the opponents in that conflict."
Ronny Bronston slumped back into his chair, his brain running out a dozenleads at once.
Metaxa and Jakes remained quiet, looking at him speculatively.
Ronny said slowly, "Then the purpose of Section G is to push the memberplanets of UP along the fastest path of progress, to get them ready forthe eventual, inevitable meeting."
"Not just Section G," Metaxa growled, "but all of the United Planetsorganization, although most of the rank and file don't even know our basicpurpose. Section G? We do the dirty work, and are proud to do it, by everymethod we can devise."
Ronny leaned forward. "But look," he said. "Why not simply inform allmember planets of this common danger? They'd all unite in the effort tomeet the common potential foe. Anything standing in the way would bebrushed aside."
Metaxa shook his head wearily. "Would they? Is a common danger enough forman to change his institutions, particularly those pertaining to property,power and religion? History doesn't show it. Delve back into early timesand you'll recall, for an example, that in man's early discovery ofnuclear weapons he almost destroyed himself. Three or four differentsocio-economic systems co-existed at that time and all would havepreferred destruction rather than changes in their social forms."
Jakes said, in an unwonted quiet tone, "No, until someone comes up with abetter answer it looks as tho
ugh Section G is going to have to continuethe job of advancing man's institutions, in spite of himself."
The commissioner made it clearer. "It's not as though we deal with all ourmember planets. It isn't necessary. But you see, Ronny, the best colonistsare usually made up of the, well, crackpot element. Those who aresatisfied, stay at home. America, for instance, was settled by theadventurers, the malcontents, the non-conformists, the religious cultists,and even fugitives and criminals of Europe. So it is in the stars. A groupof colonists go