He said nothing of that to Garstang or the others. To them, the unexpected recall to home base meant an unlooked-for leave. And to him, it would mean returning to Lyllin sooner than he had hoped. But even that could not quite banish his uneasiness. The squadron wheeled in tight formation and set its course toward the great blue-white sun that burned in Lyra, capital of a mighty Sector that was in everything but name an empire of stars. When they made their world-fall, when the squadron swept down through the bluish glare over Vega Town and landed on the spaceport, Larned came at once from his own ship. The Vice-Commander, a blocky, brusque and competent young man, bristled with questions. "What the devil is all this about, Kirk? Pulling us in like this--" "I haven't an idea," Kirk said. "But I'm about to find out. Call Lyllin for me and tell her I'll be along soon." * * * * * An air-car with a uniformed driver took him across the great city. It was really two cities. The older city of graceful white towers had been built long ago by the native Vegans, Lyllin's people. But then, more than a century ago, the starships had come to Vega, the first wave of explorers and colonizers from the inner galaxy. They had not been all Earthmen, even though that wave had first started from Earth. By the time they reached here, Earthmen had already mixed and mated with many other human star-folk. It was these newcomers who had built the new part of Vega Town. It was to the newer city that the air-car took him, to the looming, dominating mass of Government house. A lift took him down from the roof, and he went through the corridors, a tall man with a faintly worried look on his copper-bronzed face. Efficient secretaries shunted him smoothly and quickly into a room few people ever entered. It seemed a small room, to be the center of government of so many stars. For this was the center--the Sectors each had their elected legislatures but it was the Governors who wielded the power. "Stop saluting, Kirk," said Ferdias. "You know you're at ease when you step in here." Ferdias came around the desk. He limped, from the crash of a Class Twenty long ago. But you never remembered his limp, or how small a man he was. You saw only his face, and when you saw it you knew why, at the age of forty, he was one of the five great Governors. "Now let's have it," he said. Kirk let him have it, the full story of the trap in the cluster. And Ferdias' face got just a trifle longer. He said, finally, "You had no business going in alone. But since you got out, I'm glad you did it. For I'm sure now of what I only suspected before. In his eagerness to find out how much I know, Solleremos has told me what I _wanted_ to know." Kirk, frankly puzzled, said, "I just don't get it. What is Ferdias planning to do about Earth? What plans _would_ you have about it?"