When he got to thinking this way, Scott Warren felt more like a propagandist for World Government than a newsman--the chief of the Mars bureau of Galactic News. He wished he could tell them the truth, a truth not dictated by Policy. Some day he'd write a book. That was what all newsmen said, wasn't it? The truth would have gone something like this: "The distrust Martians have for Earth people--yes, that includes you, dear friends of the reading, listening and viewing audience--wasn't completely wiped out even when World Government corrected its first monumental blunder. Oh, yes, W.G. has made blunders, and the first was a whooperdoo, ladies, gentlemen and prodigies, a whooperdoo of the first order, a dilly whose details still are skirted when we talk about it, because they're very, very embarrassing. "The first spaceship, you see, dealt naturally enough with those who had seemed to be the rulers of Mars, if not the duly elected representatives of the pee-pul. And so did the Earth emissaries who followed. These Martians in the welcoming party were a crafty race, stockily built with oversized heads like granite, hard-bargaining and double-crossing. Rockheads, we called them, and still do, underestimating them. "As our politicians point out with pride, there has been no colonization of Mars--as such. Not even despite the cries of the imperialists back home. And there has been no war, you will remember, although for a while it was touch and go. "Among the first to come from Earth were the World Government commissions. C.E.A.--exploration and assessment. C.E.D.--economic development. C.I.I.--industrial integration. C.H.W. came later--health and welfare. And so did C.I.E.--information and education. "It all worked very smoothly. Mars, you remember, was the goal of space-flight for half a century, ever since the pioneer hop to the icy rock of the moon; and the planning commission had it all set up, in advance, from Martian Relations right down to War Planning (top secret in the "if necessary" category). "But Earth muffed it, and good. The Rockheads of Mars who met the spaceship, and whose delegations worked with the Earth emissaries, were intelligent people, true--but they were the fascists of Mars. What World Government didn't know, and couldn't have known, was that there had been a military revolution on the red planet a short ten years before the first spaceship landed, and that in that revolution the democratic government of the planet was overthrown and its leaders killed or banished!" * * * * * Scott Warren took an imaginary sip of water and paced up and down his imaginary lecture platform. He pointed a finger at his imaginary classroom.