**Tiriis, I thank you, for what you've shown us just now."

Then they left her, and went up the several levels to of&cers' country. Ferenc accepted Barton's invitation to come in for a drink or so. And once everybody was sit- ting down with a full glass. Barton had some questions to ask. For starters: "Ferenc, what's our timing?"

"Until our nominal no-return day? About a week. It*s been some time since we could have reached Earth, or Tilara. But if the charts are accurate, we could still make it to one of the Demu planets. And refuel, and go again from there."

Barton had been ready to laugh. The idea of the, Oth- ers trying their cup routine on the exoskeletal Demu struck him funny. Come to think of it, that business would hardly work with the Larka-Te, or the FilJar, either. But with the Tilari it sure as hell did. So he didn't laugh. Instead, he asked, "For now, what's most impor- tant?"

"Not to relax vigilance," Szabo said. The door chime interrupted his next remark; Barton went to admit Ren Bearpaw, got him sat down with a drink of his own, and waved for Ferenc to go on. The man said, "I was point- ing out, Ren, that we should be braced for a last-minute mental push by the Others. We're so close to securing the situation that it would be easy to let down and be caught off guard."

"Not when you keep telling us," Barton said. "And it's good, your doing that. Change of subject, though." He looked at both men, and at Limila. "What do you think of the Children? How do you feel about them?"

"Scared," said Bearpaw. "Oh, not of anything they'll do, directly. I think they're no more given to violence than the Others are, and maybe less." For a moment. Barton took exception; then it struck him that the fighting- in Control had been human reaction to the Others' in- fluence. He shrugged, and listened. "What I'm a&aid of, I guess, is what the Children are going to be."

Ferenc Szabo scowled. "I know," he said. "It's, a hard thing to say, but the thing I wish most is that I could be one of them. Since I can't, obviously, I wish they didn't exist."

Before Barton could say anything, the man continued.

"It would be meaningless, as well as cruel, of course, to eliminate the young creatures on this ship. E^"

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such a terrible act were possible. For then- counterparts exist on Opal, as well."

Barton chilled, a little. This man's coming close.

Bearpaw stood. "I'm due on watch. These days it's about as busy as a chess match between two corpses, but that's what I get paid for.** Suddenly be looked surprised.

"Except that there isn't any pay now, is there? We just keep doing the job because it's there."

Barton bad to smile; since he first left Earth with Tarleton's fleet, he hadn't thought much about pay. He said, "There's a lot of it going around, Ren. Might's well get your loyal butt on duty."

So Bearpaw left, and the other man not long afterward.

Then Barton said, "Limila. You haven't said. Seeing the Children, how do you feel?"

Maybe without knowing she did it, Limila clasped her hands across her swelling belly. "I am not certain. I think -Barton, I am torn between two things. Fear is one; the other may be honor."

For a long time then, until Limila calmed. Barton held her.

When the sirens woke Barton, he didn't know a hoot in hell, what was going on. He didn't find out in a hurry, either. He grabbed clothes and shoes, told Limila it might be a good idea if she stayed^put, for now, and went out in the corridor, moving fast to go see what was happening topside. When he stuck his head up past the next-level deck, somebody came dose to blowing it off with a stan- dard explosive bullet

Well, the hell with that. Faster than he thought he could. Barton snaked back down to quarters and rousted his luggage for what he wanted right now. The sleep- gun's indicator showed a fair grade of charge; his port- able Shield-harness, its charge lamp, gave an intermittent blink. Maybe it would hold up for a while, and maybe not. Hardly an optimum situation, but you go with what you have, so Barton went.

This time, climbing. Barton wasn't Mr. Dumbjohn; he ^ept his head down and his gun up>. His infantry stretch, ill Nam, was a long time ago, but the techniques came (sack fast. Only the first person to shoot bullets at him got off more than two. Nobody hit him. but that, of course, needed him a lot of luck. Though it did strike him that he'd never seen so many lousy shots in one fracas.

485.

Going up, he met Ren Bearpaw coming down. Then they got cornered on a landing; ho way to go, at all.

Barton was trying to figure whether he could jump and catch the next-level railing, or maybe the next one down, if it didn't tear his arm off, when somebody on a bullhorn offered truce.

So while there was still enough confusion that be might get away with it. Barton dropped his sleep-gun and Shield- harness down the stairwell* If they didn't break, maybe he could find them later.

Then he surrendered. He and Renton Bearpaw, both.

And once it turned out they were disarmed, nobody wanted them for anything. Seemed stupid, but Barton wasn't going to argue.

And after all the shooting there were only five casual- ties, none fatal.

To find out what had happened, though, took Barton a while. The answers, then, were simple enough. In the best defense, there's always a hole. This one was, the Others had got on a young medic who was running a fever and not concentrating too well, and influenced him to drug the man guarding Captain Soong's detention quar- ters. Since the mental command was totally outside the resistance pattern everyone was focusing on, it caught the groggy man unaware,

Freed, the captain got on the intercom and rounded up his personal guards. Working for him, they'd, bad priv- ileges; under Ferenc Szabo, they didn't. The goons came running. Armed, they took Comm and Control, and had Ferenc Szabo bottled up in Soong's former quarters; their orders were to blow his head off if he showed it. "Poor old Nargilosa, in Control-she's working with a gun at her head, too," said Bearpaw. "Not necessary, that;

she's always saying how Ferenc overstepped the bounds by stashing dear Captain Sooug away." And probably, he added, the only reason she hadn't freed him herself was that she shared his profound horror of taking any initia- tiva.

But when Soong was up against it personaUy. he could act, all right. He had a message sent to Base, in the clear, and read it aloud over intercom broadcast. Besides the official gibberish fore and aft, he said, "I have taken command. The mutinous Szabo is confined to quarters.

Since I was wrongfully deprived of command wp- ^your

486 ^'.

latest order was received, and was unable to give you the correct information, the order is invalid- I cannot be bound by it. Accordingly, I am reversing course and returning to Base as soon as possible. Soong, Command- ing."

Looking at Barton. Bearpaw shook his bead. "I wonder who wrote that for him; he never said anything that well

in his life."

"Doesn't matter," Barton said. "He's only the mouth- piece for Dahil and Tiriis, anyway. And maybe the Chil- dren, too, by now." He made a lopsided smile. "He hasn't checked the fuel situation, though, if he still thinks he can get back to Base."

But that didn't matter, either. Barton realized. Some- body would tell Soong the facts of life, and if the ship couldnt reach a Demu planet, it could still make Opal.

Which wouldn't give the Others the whole galactic Arm, right away, but human women would bear more Children.

"For what good it might do," he said, "could we sneak a message through to Base somehow?"

"Not a chance." Bearpaw shook his bead. "Once Rigan had sent that message, Soong disabled the F.T.L.

transmitter. Wouldn't have expected him to know enough, but he did. Pulled out a couple of key components, and the spares are gone, too."

Damn it, there had to be something they could do! Bar- ton said, "You been in touch with Ferenc yet?" i

"Don't dare," said Bearpaw. "Anything on the inter- com can be monitored, from Corom." Then, after a moment, he grinned. "I'm due on watch in a few minutes.

Stay here. If it's safe to talk. 111 call here and let you know."

When he had left, Limila said, **What strange garni do you play. Barton? When the time comes, to which sid( will you jump?"

Well, he hadn't expected to fool her, and come ti that, he didn't want to. "I know. What must happen, will But right now I'm on Elys Rounds' side-hers, and othe women who aren't physically up to taking another c those long pregnancies. You saw the holo of her, take two years ago; you can see how she's changed. And don't imagine she's the only one."

Nodding. Umila said, "Yes. But Usa Teragni, for i]

487.

stance, does not seem to have been banned. And I-M She patted her belly. "So far, I feel no ill effects."

"Sure, and that's great." Time for a hug, Barton fig- ured, and Limila responded. "If the Others would settle for volunteers, give full information instead of that sneaky cup business-"

The intercom interrupted him. "Bearpaw, calling from Comm. The coast's clear, and I've checked for taps;