Someone else must pull the lever. _I must leave a man behind at the bomb site to do it_, he thought. Psychology was a science on Brionimar; and he was a scientist. There was only one man he could be sure of out of all the crew. There were several fanatics, but he distrusted them. There was one idealist who would, of a psychological certainty, pull that lever and blow himself up along with Earth in the belief that his action was necessary to preserve the Universe. Herb. CHAPTER III When the starmen came, they made headlines in the newspapers all over the world. They sat down on the east-west runway of the Washington National Airport. MEN FROM STARS LAND! And shortly: FIRST CONTACT REVEALS STARMEN HUMANOID! GENERAL SAYS ARMY READY IF STARMEN MENACE! EARTH WARNS VISITORS! And on the heels of these: UNEASINESS SPREADS! STARMEN SAY PEACE THEIR MISSION! NO INVASION, SAYS WILKERSON! PEACE, SAY STARMEN! And a few hours later: CONGRESS TO MEET! CONGRESS FORMS COMMITTEE: WILL REPORT FINDINGS TO AMERICAN PEOPLE! STARMEN SAY PEACE BETWEEN WORLDS! Fear and faith combined; courage and cowardice; hatred and optimism. The great ground swell of popular approval was to come much later. At first there was naked uncertainty. Could the starmen be trusted? And suppose they could be trusted? Suppose that. What then? What? Many were afraid. Bud Council, freshman senator from the state of Missouri, was one of them. In the course of events he was to be assigned to the Committee to investigate the starmen. A weak man, a fearful man, and as such, a dangerous man.... CHAPTER IV From his initial statement it was obvious that Bud sided with the group determined to oppose all contact with the starmen. His reaction was more frantic than most. He awoke at night from a soggy dream of terror. _Let us alone_, he sobbed, trembling. _Let us alone._ The future, once so secure, was now a veiled menace. _Go away_, he whispered into the night, _let us alone. We don't want you. Go away._ He appeared sleepless for the first hearing. The three starmen filed in. He hated them. They testified. Herb, in the witness stand, peered out at the swarm of white faces; his head turned automatically from interrogator to interrogator. "Our government is a modified democracy, much as your own, containing strong safe guards for individual liberty and civil rights," Herb said. One would need to look deeply into his eyes to detect the dullness and the depersonalization that was the true index to the words. His thoughts were fuzzy, floating upon the periphery of his immediate existence. A detached part of himself seemed to observe and record the proceedings without understanding them; there was a fever of information inside of him.