You can imagine the pickle I was in, boss. The siren summoned more guards, who came at me from all directions. I tried to get away, pounding across the pavement of the quadrangle. From somewhere, a searchlight cut a bright yellow swath across the quadrangle. It found me and held me. One of the guards fired a blaster, hitting me in the base of the skull and killing me instantly. Cordially, Sammy Trumple * * * * * Interstellar Division Terran Insurance Co. Baltimore, Md., Earth Dear Sammy: I'm glad you managed to get away, but quit pulling my leg, will you? So the guard killed you--and then you sat down and wrote me a letter. Please tell me what really happened. By the way, I have great news for you. Joanie had a litter of four pups, all spotted brown and white and cute as the dickens. I'm sending two of them to you by Subspace Express. And let me know what happened, will you? Yours in sales, Hermie * * * * * Rmpldecroidesanspertxkle Halcyon Dear Hermie: This letter is being smuggled out to you by a friend because it never would pass the Halcyonian censor. They have a good thing and they want to keep it to themselves as much as possible and I can't blame them. Thanks for sending along the pups. I'll be waiting for them. Give Joanie a pat on the head for me. Incidentally, cancel all my insurance policies. And I quit the company, effective immediately. I'm staying here on Halcyon. I wasn't pulling your leg, Hermie. You remember I told you a slice of flesh was taken from my rump at the stockade. That's how the Halcyonians have developed their reincarnation process. They've learned a way to duplicate an individual artificially using a sample of his hereditary genes from the slice of flesh. Every Halcyonian has his slice on file of course. The new embryo is then grown rapidly, in a matter of a few days. Lar Luk and I figured it's about time heavy industry came to Rmpldecroidesanspertxkle. We're opening a new munitions factory here, which suits the Halcyonians fine. Most of them are in favor of war because they'd like to better their position in life and might do it next time around on the new incarnation. This reincarnation sure as hell beats life insurance, doesn't it? With fond regards, Sammy