"I _am_ right. After all, in order to do any limb-grafting, the free limb must be fresh. A corpse will not keep too long, Guy. Autointoxication sets in and kills the cells, and then the limb is useless for grafting. The same is true for eyes, ears, and anything that can be grafted. All right," she snapped, "it's ghoulish to take a leg from a corpse and graft it on to a man who is alive but with a shattered thigh. It's inhuman? Not at all. Of what good to the dead is their lifeless body?" "O.K., Joan, I didn't mean to sound sanctimonious." "All right. It's pretty ghastly sometimes, but I think it's worth it all the way." "I'm sorry, Joan." "Well, consider me good enough to be where the trouble is," she said with a shy smile. "Look, Senior Aide Forbes, you are as fine an officer and gentleman as I have ever seen, even though it did take an Act of Terran Congress to make a gentleman out of you. You have my undying admiration." "You sound sincere," she said. "I am sincere. Some day some bird will come along that's good enough for you." Joan's peculiar glance was lost on Guy. "When he does," she said in a strained voice, "I'll follow him to the very end of the Solar System!" She looked at him seriously, and then turned and left. "I'll bet she will at that," he said to himself, and then forgot her in the maze of figures on his broad desk. After all, he had an important decision to make, and a conference to attend within the next hour. "Gentlemen, we'll by-pass One and Two, and hit Mephisto direct. I think we'll fox 'em that way, they'll be certain that we wouldn't leave a main base behind us, much less two bases. But we will, and by doing that we'll take the system!" "And when?" "As soon as we can mobilize. Hamilton, how soon is that?" "Do you mean that?" asked Hamilton uncertainly. The conference laughed at his deep swallow. "All right. Three hours!" "It's done, then! Come on, fellows. This is IT!" * * * * * The grand assembled fleet lifted from Three and headed for the planet direct. With numbers enough to invade a planet, they swarmed in and were met by planet-mounted beams that took a terrible toll with their extra power. They hit Mephisto in one spot, and literally sterilized the planet for a hundred square miles. The weight of their numbers would have broken into any planet, no matter how armed. Invading was not difficult; keeping the break and spreading it to cover the planet was the difficult job. No defense can be set up against an enemy that is able to choose the time and place for his invasion. Once the invasion is made, concentration of power against the invader is possible, and that is the point in dispute. So with ease, the Terran Space Patrol wiped out a hundred square miles of Mephisto and landed. Convoys poured in from Three, and the heavy permanent-mounts ranged the ragged square. Overhead, a horde of fighter-cover searched the skies for counterattack.