Dal had his information gathered first--a disappointingly small amount indeed. Among the billions of notes on file in the _Lancet_'s data bank, there were only two scraps of data available on the 31 Brucker system. "Is this all you could find?" Tiger said, staring at the information slips. "There's just nothing else there," Dal said. "This one is a description and classification of the star, and it doesn't sound like the one who wrote it had even been near it." "He hadn't," Tiger said. "This is a routine radio-telescopic survey report. The star is a red giant. Big and cold, with three--possibly four--planets inside the outer envelope of the star itself, and only one outside it. Nothing about satellites. None of the planets thought to be habitable by man. What's the other item?" "An exploratory report on the outer planet, done eight hundred years ago. Says it's an Earth-type planet, and not much else. Gives reference to the full report in the Confederation files. Not a word about an intelligent race living there." "Well, maybe Jack's got a bit more for us," Tiger said. "If the place has been explored, there must be _some_ information about the inhabitants." But Jack also came up with a blank. Central Records on Hospital Earth sent back a physical description of a tiny outer planet of the star, with a thin oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, very little water, and enough methane mixed in to make the atmosphere deadly to Earthmen. "Then there's never been a medical service contract?" Tiger asked. "Contract!" Jack said. "It doesn't even say there are any people there. Not a word about any kind of life form." "Well, that's ridiculous," Dal said. "If we're getting messages from there, somebody must be sending them. But if a Confederation ship explored there, there's a way to find out. How soon can we convert to star-drive?" "As soon as we can get strapped down," Tiger said. "Then send our reconversion co-ordinates to the Confederation headquarters on Garv II and request the Confederation records on the place." Jack stared at him. "You mean just ask to see Confederation records? We can't do that, they'd skin us alive. Those records are closed to everyone except full members of the Confederation." "Tell them it's an emergency," Dal said. "If they want to be legal about it, give them my Confederation serial number. Garv II is a member of the Confederation, and I'm a native-born citizen." Tiger got the request off while Jack and Dal strapped down for the conversion to Koenig drive. Five minutes later Tiger joined them, grinning from ear to ear. "Didn't even have to pull rank," he said. "When they started to argue, I just told them it was an emergency, and if they didn't let us see any records they had, we would file their refusal against claims that might come up later. They quit arguing. We'll have the records as soon as we reconvert." * * * * *