The Speaker said: "Where? Therbis is the only planet with--" His voice trailed off as he suddenly saw the truth. Parmay nodded. "All this time, we've been assuming that the aliens were after the same planets we were. But every bit of evidence indicates that they live on the ammonia-methane giants!" He paused to light a cigarette, then went on: "Alina Starrnel, my wife, has done some checking on the conditions that obtain in such an atmosphere. Alina--" he nodded toward her. She looked at them from her cool green eyes. "The atmospheres of ammonia-methane giants are such that the surface suffers from almost unbelievable electric storms. Every sunspot on the primary, every wind, every slight change in temperature causes lightnings and electrical displays such as we on Earth can't imagine. The atmosphere itself is a semi-conductor. "Therefore, it would be almost impossible for them to have radio communication as we know it. "There are two reasons why metals are not used for construction on such planets. One: the heavy, metal-bearing core of the giants is buried beneath thousands of miles of ice. Two: metals wouldn't stand the strain. At the temperatures prevailing on those planets, most metals are so brittle that they'd shatter under the loads that the unimaginable gravitational pull would cause. "Plastics are a different matter. Any life that would evolve on such a world would be able to synthesize hard, tough materials in its own body. With plenty of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen around, they would have to find some way of making building materials from organic compounds. Actually, they're probably not plastics as we know them; possibly they wouldn't even stand up at normal room temperature on Earth." Parmay took up the story again. "There, you see, is the reason we never contacted them. We never went anywhere near such planets; we had no use for them. And they wouldn't try to colonize our planets any more than we'd try to colonize Mercury." The Speaker had a question: "How did they detect your radar when it impinged on their ship?" Alina answered him. "On their worlds, sound would be useless as a normal means of communication. There's too much noise. It would be like you or I trying to talk within fifty feet of an atomic bomb explosion. The shorter electromagnetic spectrum, bad as it is, would permit them to 'shout' at each other over a distance of a hundred yards, and they could probably carry on a normal conversation in a room this size. "We believe that they are naturally equipped to speak to each other by radio--after all, an electric eel can generate currents within its own body of quite sizable voltages. A slight modification, plus a controlling intelligence, could make a transmitter of a living body. "Therefore, when our radar hit them, it probably sounded like a siren. They knew our ship was somewhere near and got the devil away from there." The room was silent as Parmay thanked Alina and concluded his speech.