In rapid succession, all the bubbles which were members of a non-existent fighting fleet winked out of existence about Sirene IV. There were a great many of them, and no trace of any remained. The last was long gone when a small salvage ship descended to the Huk home planet. A heavily accented voice talked it down. The salvage ship landed amid evidences of cordiality. The Huks were extremely co-operative. They even supplied materials for the repair job on the _Cerberus_, including landing rockets to be used in case of need. But they weren't needed for take-off. The _Cerberus_ had been landed at a Huk spaceport, which obligingly lifted it out to space again when its drive had been replaced. * * * * * And the squad ship sped through emptiness at a not easily believable multiple of the speed of light. Sergeant Madden dozed, while Patrolman Willis performed such actions as were necessary for the progress of the ship. They were very few. But Patrolman Willis thought feverishly. After a long time Sergeant Madden waked, and blinked, and looked benignly at Patrolman Willis. "You'll be back with your wife soon, Willis," he said encouragingly. "Yes, sir." Then the patrolman said explosively: "Sergeant! There's nothing coming from the Coalsack way! There's nothing for the Huks to fight!" "True, at the moment," admitted Sergeant Madden, "but something could come. Not likely--But you see, Willis, the Huks have had armed forces for a long time. They've glamour. They're not ready to cut down and have only cops, like us humans. It wouldn't be reasonable to tell 'em the truth--that there's no need for their fighting men. They'd make a need! So they'll stand guard happily against some kind of monstrosities we'll have Special Cases invent for them. They'll stand guard zestful for years and years! Didn't they do the same against us? But now they're proud that even we humans, that they were scared of, ask them to help us. So presently they'll send some Huks over to go through the Police Academy, and then presently there'll be a sub-precinct station over there, with Huks in charge, and ... why ... that'll be that." "But they want planets--" Sergeant Madden shrugged. "There's plenty, Willis. The guess is six thousand million planets fit for humans in this galaxy. And by the time we've used them up, somebody'll have worked out a drive to take us to the next galaxy to start all over. There's no need to worry about that! And for immediate--does it occur to you how many men are going to start getting rich because there's a brand-new planet that's got a lot of things we humans would like to have, and wants to buy a lot of things the Huks haven't got?" Patrolman Willis subsided. But presently he said: "Sergeant ... what'd you have done if they hadn't told you about the _Cerberus_?" Sergeant Madden snorted.