"In another few weeks, I should imagine, if, as you say, they've scheduled an invasion for next month." "Look here, Zubb." Magnan shook a finger at the tall alien. "How is it that these Qornt are allowed to embark on piratical ventures of this sort without reference to the wishes of the majority?" "Oh, the majority of the Qornt favor the move, I imagine." "These few hotheads are permitted to embroil the planet in war?" "Oh, they don't embroil the planet in war. They merely--" "Retief, this is fantastic! I've heard of iron-fisted military cliques before, but this is madness!" "Come softly, now." Zubb beckoned, moving toward a bend in the yellow-lit corridor. Retief and Magnan moved forward. * * * * * The corridor debouched through a high double door into a vast oval chamber, high-domed, gloomy, paneled in dark wood and hung with tattered banners, scarred halberds, pikes, rusted longswords, crossed spears over patinaed hauberks, pitted radiation armor, corroded power rifles, the immense mummified heads of horned and fanged animals. Great guttering torches in wall brackets and in stands along the length of the long table shed a smoky light that reflected from the mirror polish of the red granite floor, gleamed on polished silver bowls and paper-thin glass, shone jewel-red and gold through dark bottles--and cast long flickering shadows behind the fifteen trolls at the board. Lesser trolls--beaked, bush-haired, great-eyed--trotted briskly, bird-kneed, bearing steaming platters, stood in groups of three strumming slender bottle-shaped lutes, or pranced an intricate-patterned dance, unnoticed in the shrill uproar as each of the magnificently draped, belted, feathered and jeweled Qornt carried on a shouted conversation with an equally noisy fellow. "A most interesting display of barbaric splendor," Magnan breathed. "Now we'd better be getting back." "Ah, a moment," Zubb said. "Observe the Qornt--the tallest of the feasters--he with the head-dress of crimson, purple, silver and pink." "Twelve feet if he's an inch," Magnan estimated. "And now we really must hurry along--" "That one is chief among these rowdies. I'm sure you'll want a word with him. He controls not only the Tarroonian vessels but those from the other Centers as well." "What kind of vessels? Warships?" "Certainly. What other kind would the Qornt bother with?" "I don't suppose," Magnan said casually, "that you'd know the type, tonnage, armament and manning of these vessels? And how many units comprise the fleet? And where they're based at present?" "They're fully automated twenty-thousand-ton all-purpose dreadnaughts. They mount a variety of weapons. The Qornt are fond of that sort of thing. Each of the Qornt has his own, of course. They're virtually identical, except for the personal touches each individual has given his ship."