"In a week we can't negate their entire history. We can't begin to undo the effect of the big bomb." "You can't tell," said Ethaniel. "We can look things over." "And then what? How much authority do we have?" "Very little," conceded Ethaniel. "Two minor officials on the way to Willafours--and we run directly into a problem no one knew existed." "And when we get to Willafours we'll be busy. It will be a long time before anyone comes this way again." "A very long time. There's nothing in this region of space our people want," said Ethaniel. "And how long can Earth last? Ten years? Even ten months? The tension is building by the hour." "What can I say?" said Bal. "I suppose we can stop and look them over. We're not committing ourselves by looking." They went much closer to Earth, not intending to commit themselves. For a day they circled the planet, avoiding radar detection, which for them was not difficult, testing, and sampling. Finally Ethaniel looked up from the monitor screen. "Any conclusions?" "What's there to think? It's worse than I imagined." "In what way?" "Well, we knew they had the big bomb. Atmospheric analysis showed that as far away as we were." "I know." "We also knew they could deliver the big bomb, presumably by some sort of aircraft." "That was almost a certainty. They'd have no use for the big bomb without aircraft." "What's worse is that I now find they also have missiles, range one thousand miles and upward. They either have or are near a primitive form of space travel." "Bad," said Ethaniel. "Sitting there, wondering when it's going to hit them. Nervousness could set it off." "It could, and the missiles make it worse," said Bal. "What did you find out at your end?" "Nothing worthwhile. I was looking at the people while you were investigating their weapons." "You must think something." "I wish I knew what to think. There's so little time," Ethaniel said. "Language isn't the difficulty. Our machines translate their languages easily and I've taken a cram course in two or three of them. But that's not enough, looking at a few plays, listening to advertisements, music, and news bulletins. I should go down and live among them, read books, talk to scholars, work with them, play." "You could do that and you'd really get to know them. But that takes time--and we don't have it." "I realize that." "A flat yes or no," said Bal. "No. We can't help them," said Ethaniel. "There is nothing we can do for them--but we have to try." "Sure, I knew it before we started," said Bal. "It's happened before. We take the trouble to find out what a people are like and when we can't help them we feel bad. It's going to be that way again." He rose and stretched. "Well, give me an hour to think of some way of going at it." * * * * *