Hunter slipped white-faced into a terminal bench. His hand trembled as he jammed the blaster back beneath his belt. "Why did you do it, Captain?" Dawn asked. How could he answer her, without saying he had seen the grids in their skulls? And he wasn't ready to trust Dawn to that extent. "The people couldn't help themselves," he said ambiguously. "Because they're in the U.F.W. and Eric Young cracks the whip. Is that what you mean?" "They weren't aware of their own danger." "Miscalculating the risks then? But that's part of the system, Captain. If you can't fight your way up to the top--" "Then the system is utterly vicious." "You don't mean that," she said. "Why not? We're living in a jungle society. It's nothing but conflict--conflict on the frontier and conflict here from the time they put you in the general school." "Only the children who have the intelligence--" "But why?" he interrupted fiercely. "Where does it get us?" "We have a stable society," she told him. "Peace of a sort. Law enforcement, too, and a chance to build something better when we learn how." "Something better?" He laughed as he stood up. "We'll get that when we pull this hell apart, and not before." She put her hand on his arm. "No, Captain. It's not realistic to say that. Over and over again in the past we wrecked civilization because good-hearted and conscientious people thought there was no other way to create a finer world. It didn't work, because violence is madness. This time we have to begin where we are and build rationally. We can, you know, when we understand what we have to build with." "What else do we need to know, Dawn? You're falling back on the typical double-talk of the psychiatrists. With all the application of physical science that we have--" "I wasn't thinking of technology, Captain. Civilization isn't machines. It's people. Our accumulation of knowledge is tremendous, but essentially it means nothing because we know so little about ourselves. It's absurd to talk of making something better until we really know the individual we're making it for." "Go ahead," he countered angrily. "Pussy-foot around with your cautious experiments, make sure nobody gets hurt--and you'll all end up slaves. As for me, I'm going to find Ann and get out while there's still time." "Always the same two alternatives," Dawn said wearily. "Pull down the world, or run away from it. We need the courage to try something different. We need men who will act like men. I thought, Captain, by this time--" She looked up into his eyes. "Where are you going?" "To the top--the casinos." Her abrupt question took him off balance and almost surprised him into telling the whole truth.