"Naturally. But look, Indan Ko. You will be taxed terribly. You will be forced into handing over a certain percentage of your wealth. You will work for them, and for little remuneration. Yet your hardships will actually be less than the cost of fighting them. Now you must maintain a fleet, arm your cities against invasion, and always prepare for war. If you submit to the Loard-vogh banner you will be protected by the Loard-vogh, and may Heaven help any race that attacks Tlembo? The income you spend in being a nominal slave will be less than the amount spent in being an armed free-world." "And eventual conquest?" "Console yourselves with the certain knowledge that your hardships will all be avenged sometime. Not in your life, perhaps, but in the time of your descendants. Submit to their hard, exacting rules in outward abjection, but keep your mind forever on the future, when it will no longer prevail. And as you go, and as you find other races that are suitable, send their representatives to Terra. Terra will be the master-control of the anti-Loard-vogh combine." "I shall think it over and discuss it with the Tlemban council. But what of Sscantoo?" "Linzete must understand, also." "But Hotang Lu is there now." "What! Filling Linzete full of the theory of bombing the Loard-vogh with Solar spores?" Indan Ko nodded. "Then I must go--and quickly!" "Your trip will take months," objected Indan Ko. "Meanwhile, Linzete may set his machinery in operation." "Contact him," said Billy. "And have him smooth it down a bit. My trip will not take months. I'll be there in days." "Days!" "Yes. We have a new mode of space travel. It will be yours as soon as you decide to join the Loard-vogh--" "Terran, it sounds as though you were helping them." "Naturally it does. Until we are ready to strike, we must aid them completely--and always remember that what we find and give them we will have ourselves. No single weapon won a war, Indan Ko. But if we can match them man for man, we will win because our wits are sharper. Now I must waste no time in getting to Sscantoo." * * * * * Billy's exodus from the Tlemban capitol building was more arduous than his entry. This time he was in a hurry, and moving swiftly through corridors too small for him, brushing doll-sized furniture with his mass, and crushing not a few of the smaller and more fragile pieces in his haste--to say nothing of squeezing two doors from their hinges in his passage--they all hampered him. Tlembo was going to pay well for this visit. Outside, Billy towered above the Tlembans as he strode up the middle of the street, his head not more than a few inches below the trolley wire that fed the street car system. Traffic policemen gave him passage, for he could be seen for blocks. He turned into the spaceport and entered his ship. He was met by Cliff Lane. "How'd it go?" "I think we got him. There'll be no more trouble from that sector." "Good. Now what?"