A shrill buzzing interrupted him and a green light flashed on the intercommunicator. Val Dalum sprang up and pressed a button. "Val Dalum here." "Commander Ros Vinla reporting," came the voice of the etheradio operator on duty. "Switch him through," directed the Chief Scribe eagerly. The Commander's voice came over the set. "Greeting from Ros Vinla, Commander of the Norgan Spacefleet, to Val Dalum, Chief Scribe of the Rulers of Norga," he began formally. "Peace be with you. Will you arrange to have the Elders listen to this report, as my next action calls for their sanction." * * * * * Lan Yotar leaned forward and pressed the button that switched the Commander through to the various members of the Council of Elders, all of whom were waiting beside their etheradio sets in their homes. "Greeting from Lan Yotar, Chief of the Council of Elders, to Ros Vinla, Commander of the Norgan Spacefleet," he said. "Peace be with you. Communication has been established as you requested. Proceed." "Report on Planet No. 3 of System A93," continued the Commander. "This planet is almost an exact replica of the Planet Rona in our own system. It is slightly larger, but the air, water, vegetation, gravity even the domestic animals, are similar to those of Rona. The human beings inhabiting this planet are exact counterparts of ourselves--physically. Mentally, they differ vastly. "As usual, I sent one scout to make a preliminary survey. He returned with a tale so shocking and unbelievable that I sent two other scouts to check his statements. I took the added precaution of issuing them rayguns, as they would probably have been attacked by these insensate killers had their inviso-armor failed and their presence been discovered. Their reports were similar to that of my first scout, as follows: "As I said before, these beings are like us physically, save that instead of being all fair-skinned, there are many whose skin is yellow, brown or black, these forming separate races. These races are, in turn, divided into nations. These nations," here the Commander spoke slowly and with great emphasis, "are constantly warring among themselves. In the entire history of this planet, which we learned by selective telepathy, there has never been a time when nation has not been fighting against nation, and often one section of a nation against another. "This planet is ideally equipped by nature. There is an abundance of vegetation, minerals, domestic animals and all other necessities of life, while the undoubted ingenuity of the inhabitants has evolved many luxuries. Unfortunately, these beings have so strange and perverted a mentality that most of their efforts are devoted to inventing and manufacturing new and terrible methods and engines of destruction.