Marlowe sat behind the desk that had been put down in the middle of this emptiness, his eyes brooding as he looked at Holliday. Bussard stood beside him, trying nervously to appear noncommittal, while Mead went up to the shaking old man, grasped his hand, and brought him over to the desk. Marlowe shifted uncomfortably. The desk was standard size, and he had to sit far away from it. He could not feel at ease in such a position. His thick fingers went into the side pocket of his jacket and peeled the film off a candy bar, and he began to eat it, holding it in his left hand, as Mead introduced Holliday. "How do you do, Mr. Holliday?" Marlowe said, his voice higher than he would have liked it, while he shook the man's hand. "I'm ... I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Secretary," Holliday replied. His eyes were darting past Marlowe's head. "This is Mr. Bussard, of Emigration, and you know Mr. Mead, of course. Now, I think we can all sit down." Mead's chair was next to Holliday's, and Bussard's was to one side of the desk, so that only Marlowe, unavoidably, blocked his complete view of the stretching tarmac. "First of all, Mr. Holliday, I'd like to thank you for coming back. Please believe me when I say we would not have made such a request if it were not urgently necessary." "It's all right," Holliday said in a low, apologetic voice. "I don't mind." Marlowe winced, but he had to go on. "Have you seen a news broadcast recently, Mr. Holliday?" The man shook his head in embarrassment. "No, sir. I've been ... asleep most of the time." "I understand, Mr. Holliday. I didn't really expect you had under the circumstances. The situation is this: "Some time ago, our survey ships, working out in their usual expanding pattern, encountered an alien civilization on a world designated Moore II on our maps, and which the natives call Dovenil. It was largely a routine matter, no different from any other alien contact which we've had. They had a relatively high technology, embracing the beginnings of interplanetary flight, and our contact teams were soon able to work out a diplomatic status mutually satisfactory to both. "Social observers were exchanged, in accordance with the usual practice, and everything seemed to be going well." Holliday nodded out of painful politeness, not seeing the connection with himself. Some of his nervousness was beginning to fade, but it was impossible for him to be really at ease with so many people near him, with all of Earth's billions lurking at the edge of the tarmac.