Somehow, Fellman has convinced the Benda that they are, if not superior to humans, at least not to be dominated by humans. I'm afraid that simply removing Fellman and the other teachers who are helping him will not reverse the process. The damage is done."

"What do you suggest?"

Hyman sighed, then shrugged. "There appears to be little alternative.

You must convince the Benda-once and for all-that they are inferior.

And this must be done in a manner understandable to the Benda."

Lynn rubbed the back of his neck. "What are you suggesting?"

"A confrontation. A demonstration of force." Hyman smiled. "I'm certain that you can devise a pretext that will satisfy the Ninth Quadrant Supervisory Forces."

Lynn pulled at his lower lip, then nodded. "In fact, if it is worked properly, I might even be able to get the Quadrant Forces to do the dirty work." He leaned forward. "One thing more. Your report said that the Benda males cannot act in concert. How can we provoke something that will appear to be an uprising?"

Hyman rubbed his chin and studied the toes of his shoes, then helooked up. "Fellman has them sitting and talking together. Perhaps he has made our task very simple by making it possible for the Benda to act together in an attempt at force." He nodded and held up a finger. "One thing."

"What's that?"

"Fellman and his bunch must not leave the planet. Since they are aware of the report, it wouldn't do to have them wandering around Earth, talking." Hyman stood and walked toward the door. He paused and looked back at Lynn. "There is an alternative-but I suppose you know that."

"Know what, Hyman?"

"If Fellman's efforts result in a unified Benda race, RMI will have a political ent.i.ty with which to deal for minerals. It will cut into the profits some, but no more than on any other planet RMI has invested in."

Lynn nodded. "I'll be getting in touch with you later, Hyman." The biologist nodded and left the office. Lynn swung his chair around and stared at the map behind his desk. On it were marked the many test-boring sites that had uncovered rich deposits of hemat.i.te, silver, tungsten, zinc, lead-a treasure house of metals. He tapped his fingertips upon the armrests of his chair, then he swung back and punched a code into his desk's tiny keyboard.

"Thorpe here."

"This is Lynn."

"Yes, Mr. Lynn."

"Thorpe, I want you to prepare to have a full crew move into the Javuud Valley tomorrow. I want full-scale production to be reached within the next two weeks."

"Yes, sir, but all the transfers of mineral rights haven't been completed."

"Let me worry about that. And Thorpe?"

"Yes, Mr. Lynn.""I'll be having a full security company with your crew for protection."

"Is there a need? I mean, has there been some trouble that I should know about?"

"Just taking precautions." Lynn cut off the communication, then stared at the door through which the biologist had left. Lynn's eyes narrowed as he clenched his fists. "It's not profits, Hyman. It's Fellman!"

Dale Stevenson felt the bite of the morning chill as he walked from his quarters at the subschool to the local RMI auditorium.

There were many things that had to be prepared as Doctor Fellman made his circuit of RMI subschools. First, the auditorium had to be opened, which was the easy part. After the lecture, as the ma.s.s of Benda males divided into discussion groups, Stevenson and the other discussion-group leaders would again be embroiled in the telling questions and spirited arguments of the students for the next nine days.

Then Fellman would appear for a lecture and begin the process all over again.

As he approached the door to the auditorium, he nodded at the students who had gathered there, then he motioned to the RMI security guard standing beside the door. "Let's open it up."

The guard shook his head. "My orders are to keep these doors closed."

Stevenson sighed. "Look... what's your name?"

"Bartlet, Mr. Stevenson."

"Then you know who I am."

"Yes, sir. But my orders come from Mr. Lynn. The auditorium is to remain closed for the day."

Stevenson held out his hands. "There is some mistake, Mr. Bartlet. This auditorium has to be open for Doctor Fellman to deliver his lecture."

The guard shook his head. "My orders stand until Mr. Lynn changes them. I'm sorry."Stevenson fumed a bit, then moved to the door and tried the handle.

The door rattled but would not open. He motioned to a couple of Benda males who were observing the conversation. "You two. Pull this door open."

The males grinned at each other, then moved toward the door. Bartlet pulled a solid projectile weapon from the holster at his side and aimed it at Stevenson. "If they go near that door, Stevenson, I have orders to shoot!"

Stevenson's eyes widened, then he laughed. "Nonsense!" He turned back to the two Benda and pointed at the door. "Go to it."

A sharp report deafened them all. The guard, his face red, looked around at the students, then back at Stevenson on the ground holding his thigh. "I told you! My orders are to shoot!"

Stevenson looked at the guard, his eyes wide and gla.s.sy with shock. "My G.o.d, man, have you lost your mind?"

"I got my orders!"

The guard turned and faced the circle of Benda males as a low growl began at one side. He pointed his gun at a particularly huge male who began advancing. "Stand back! Stand back or I'll shoot!" He squeezed the trigger again and again as hairy black hands reached for his throat.

Distath looked out of the door beyond his garden and examined with pleasure the rocks and fields of his Dishah's land. The human's lessons on property were complicated, but caused him many hours of profound thought. He rolled the words with his tongue. "Without a right to exist at some place, no other rights can exist." He nodded, then started as he saw a movement among the rocks. A Benda-a female, not of his Dishah. He ran from the house toward the movement, left the garden and vaulted the low fence. As he approached the rocks, a golden female stepped forth and bowed her head. "Forgive me... forgive me this intrusion. It is my husband, Virsth."

Distath glowered at the female, then held out a hand. "What of Virsth?"

"Distath, the humans have come with great machines to take myfamily's land." She hung her head, then looked into the male's eyes. "Virsth sent me to warn you."

Distath swung his head back, then looked down at the female. "You realize the impropriety of a female not of my Dishah being on my land?"

He shook his s.h.a.ggy head. "What care have I that the humans take Virsth 's property? He is to care for his Dishah, and I mine."

The female looked up into Distath's eyes. "The humans come for your land as well, Distath. This is the message I was given to deliver... as my husband died from a wound delivered at the hands of the humans. Do with it what you will!"

Lynn's office door opened and two guards pulled a struggling Michael Fellman into the room, then released him before Lynn's desk. "Lynn, what are you-"

"You're fired." Lynn returned to the papers on his desk. "If you are found anywhere on company property you will be arrested under Quadrant Savage Planet Regulations as a trespa.s.ser." He glanced up.

"That's all."

Five days later, as his shuttle touched down at the RMI field on Bendadn, Damon Stirnak watched from his view port as Jacob Lynn crossed the tarmac toward the craft. He heard the shuttle door open, then he waited and watched. Lynn hesitated at the bottom step, then he moved into the shuttle. Stirnak did not rise as Lynn entered the pa.s.senger compartment, nor did he offer Lynn a seat. Lynn appeared to Stirnak to be having difficulties about what to do with his hands. They clasped in front, went into his coat pockets, jumped out and clasped behind Lynn's back, then went off to hide themselves in his trouser pockets. Stirnak leaned his head back against the seat and closed his ice-blue eyes. "Stop fidgeting, Lynn."

"Yes, Mr. Stirnak." Lynn took a deep breath and halted his nervous movements through sheer will.

"You know, of course, why I am here?"

"No, sir. I was only notified of your arrival a few minutes ago.""Surely when your office applied for military a.s.sistance under the QSP Regulations it knew that the fact would come to the attention of RMI."

Lynn shrugged. "Of course, but everything is well in hand. I see no need for an Executive Office investigator."

Stirnak nodded, then opened his eyes and fixed Lynn to the deck.

"Lynn, what is going on down here?"

Lynn wet his lips. "It's all in the application for a.s.sistance, Mr. Stirnak.

There have been four attacks on RMI facilities by locals-"

"Why? Why have these attacks happened? According to the Hyman Report, submitted by your office five years ago, the locals should-right now-be a whipped and dying population."

"I can explain."

"Do."

Lynn wet his lips again. "It's Fellman and some of the other instructors RMI hired to staff the school system. They turned everything around, making the locals hostile."

"How did this happen?"

Lynn shrugged. "I'm not the one who screened the applicants for those positions. That's a Main Office headache."

Stirnak rubbed his chin, closed his eyes, then opened them again.

"Lynn, I am going to give you a free hand with this problem."

"Thank you, Mr. Stirnak."

Stirnak held up a hand and shook his head. "Save your thanks, Lynn.

I'm putting you on the spot."

Lynn frowned. "Sir?"

"The Manifest Destiny plan was cooked up and submitted by your office. RMI has made and will make no official notice of the plan. That includes, as well, your present attempts at resolving the situation. You are on your own.""I see." Lynn nodded. "If everything works out, I'm a hero, but-"

"-But if this all falls apart, Lynn, you will find yourself in a high wind, and very much alone." Stirnak motioned to a seat opposite his. "First sit, then tell me what you plan to do about the Benda."

Several mornings later, Dale Stevenson, hobbling on an improvised crutch, spotted Michael Fellman at the edge of the clearing that the instructors had been camping in. He pursed his lips against the ache in his leg, and moved toward him. Fellman looked around and smiled. "It's good to see you up and around, Dale." Michael pointed at the leg. "And how is your badge of courage?"

Stevenson snorted as he came to a halt. "Michael, if you think for an instant that if I thought that guard was serious, I would have... well, you'd be as ready for a soft-walled room as the rest of us are." Stevenson c.o.c.ked his head back toward the collection of rough lean-tos that housed the former RMI Department of History on Bendadn. "Look at us, Michael.

Flabby, gray, weak, and without half an idea between us as to how to survive on our own, much less as savages."

Michael looked at the camp, saw several faces turned in his direction.

As they noticed him looking back, the faces turned away. Michael looked at Stevenson. "Have you been put up as a spokesman of some kind?"

"I guess I have. Look, you know as well as any of us how impossible our situation is. You know what the winter is like on Bendadn. I doubt if any of us can survive it like this."

Michael shrugged. "What would you have me do about it?"

Stevenson shook his head. "I don't know. Get in touch with Lynn. Ask for a deal."

"What kind of deal? We don't have anything he wants."

Stevenson looked into Michael's eyes for an instant, then averted his glance. "We have one thing."

Michael studied Stevenson, then as his mouth opened in surprise he pointed at the camp. "You... and the others. You want me to tell Lynn that we'll go back and implement his d.a.m.nable Manifest Destiny plan?"Stevenson kept his gaze down as he nodded. "What good are we doing like this? I ask you, what good? If Kurst over there hadn't had a smattering of medical training, I'd be dead right now. The same thing for those two Benda males who got wounded with me. Michael, in a couple of months we aren't going to have anything to eat!"

Michael sighed. "Is this the man who came to me with the Hyman Report? The same man who said that I have to do something?"

Stevenson shook his head. "I know. But, we aren't doing any good like this. What about the families that got tossed into the bush along with us?

You and I are single, but what about the instructors with families? Could you sit and watch your son or daughter starve or freeze to death? What good are our ideals then?"

"Dale, that's when they're the most important. I'll tell you what good we've done. After you and the two Benda males were wounded, the rest of the students carried the three of you off and cared for you until we could get Kurst to you. Before we came, they wouldn't have done that-not for a human, not for a Benda."

Stevenson looked into Michael's eyes and shook his head. "But what good are we doing now?"

"We are abstaining from the commission of a crime."

"Aaah-"

"Listen, Dale. When you came to me with that report, what did you have as a limit on your so-called ideals? Do what you can, Fellman, just as long as I don't lose my job?" Michael turned away, then spoke with his back toward Stevenson. "First, Dale, I doubt if the Manifest Destiny program can be salvaged at this point. Our students, I am proud to say, have learned too well for that. But even if we could reverse what we've done, I doubt that Jacob Lynn would believe it, or, if he did, that he would take any of us back. In his mind, he is committed to the use of physical force." Michael turned back. "But if any of those in the camp want to try, I have no way of stopping them."

That evening, Armath and a scattering of Benda males looked with horror at the bodies littered across the Javuud Valley. Squads of scaled creatures moved out from the protection of the mineral extraction plant.Each one carried one of the weapons that had felled the Benda long before any of them had reached the RMI ramparts. A hairy hand shook Armath's shoulder. "The creatures seek the rest of us, Armath. We must run!"

The speaker ran off into the underbrush leaving Armath alone. The Benda male frowned as he felt the hair below his eyes and found them wet.

He lowered his hand as a fist, watched the beings coming closer, then he turned and followed the other male into the forest.

Michael, Stevenson and several of the other instructors watched as the huge Benda male drew a seven-pointed star in the dirt. Armath looked up at the circle of human faces, then pointed at the star. "This is the sign they wore on their coverings, and on their flying boats."

"That's the Ninth Quadrant insignia." One of the humans stepped forward and turned toward Michael. "Those aren't RMI guards, Fellman.

Those are Ninth Quadrant troops."

Michael nodded at the man. "I can see that, DuPree. What I want to know is how RMI got the Quadrant to use its troops." He looked up at DuPree. "You have experience in Quadrant law, don't you?"