"Never mind. There's a better use for this fellow than killing him by inches. Perhaps he places little value on his own life, but when it comes to those of a few billion people. Yes. Haine, do you think you could wreck a Geejay?" "Wreck a--" There was the sound of hoarse breathing from a half dozen men, and Jon felt something stir inside him, but it was as though he were a thing disconnected from his physical body; that he no longer had power of decision over it. "--sure, I guess so. A double-A in reverse! Haw! Where?" "Canis Major, Proky system, if that's where he's from." "Don't look like a Prokyman to me." "Never mind that. Could you do the job so that the ITA couldn't repair it? And I mean NOT AT ALL?" "Hell, sir, one of our E-blasters would do that much--" "I have a feeling that one very simple way to gain our end, Haine, would be through the use of our E-blasters against every ship the ITA possesses--and just what do you suppose that would leave us? This fellow here wasn't so far wrong, you know, when he pointed out what would happen in the event the ITA were suddenly destroyed. We'd be left with a universe full of the screaming meemies. We'd be on top, but on top of the biggest booby hatch you ever saw! If we're going to do ourselves any good, we leave the ITA in one piece. The only difference being, we tell them what to do!" "Now ain't that nice of us, to just walk in like that without firing a charge--" "I'm doing the thinking around here, Johnson!" "It's a cinch you ain't doing much of the shooting! Letting fancy-brains, here, tell you--" Jon heard the sudden sound of bone crunching against bone; there was a choked yelp of pain, and the sound of a man falling heavily. Then Stine was talking again, softly. "Anyone else here who prefers muscle to brain power?" "Sir--Johnson's--you--" "Bury him later, and listen to me now! I want the Gravity-Justifier in Procyon smashed so that the Tinkers can't do a thing with it--but so that _he can_! Do you understand, Haine?" "I can smash it up so that _we_ couldn't put it back together in a million years." "You'll be responsible. Let's get this man aboard the _New World_ and be ready to up-ship within an hour. We're going to have our cake, gentlemen, and eat it, too! Unless, of course, our friend Kane, here, will be able to watch ten billion people die as an entire planetary system breaks up, and do nothing about it! All right, let's get going!" And then there was the sound of another man coming into the already crowded cubicle. "Senator Stine, sir! Look what we found coming down the ladder! And in a shooting mood, too! I'll need a new space rig--" "JON!" "Well! The ITA hasn't lost much time! She looks a little bit white, doesn't she, Thurston? And seems to know our friend, here! Gentlemen, I think things are going to work out rather well...." And that was the moment that Jon Kane returned to full consciousness, and full pain. But he kept his eyes shut, his voice silent.