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of the harsh notches, "the result may be lumpy?" Barton nodded. "Or be must cut back, so they will be shorter."

"Yes."

"Second choice is preferable, I think," she said. "But I can talk about it more with Dr. Parr, what he thinks chances are in each case."

They left it at that Limila was already late at the ship, engrossed in their discussion, neither had noticed the time. "Come on; I'll walk you over to the motor pool,"

he said. Limila put on her robe, hood, veil and sandals, found her notecase. They set out

Jeeps were available, but no driver. Barton hadn't driven a car in eight years; it seemed like a good time to practice. He didn't have a driver's license, but he hadn't had one for the Demu spaceship, either.

The controls were different from the ones he'd known, but he figured them out without much difficulty. He and Limila arrived at the ship safely, without even a close call. They found Tarleton fuming quietly and pretending not to.

"We've hit some snags here," he said, giving them only a bare nod as greeting. "Siewen can't make head or tail of the astrogationai data. Limila, your people have in- terstellar travel; maybe you can do better with it"

"I picked up a little of it on the trip back," said Bar- ton. "Want me to sit in?" ^

"Later, maybe. Glad you came.out, though; I have an item or two. for you. Why don't you go on into the ship and let Kreugel fill you in? I'll be along as soon as we get this other on the road." He and Limila walked to the nearby prefab as Barton climbed into the ship.

Kreugel had blueprints and circuit drawings spread over most of the control room. "Hi, Barton." he said*

"Good to see you." They shook hands.

"How's it-coming?"

"Not bad, not bad at all. The theory boys are handing us some pretty weird answers, though. For instance, how long are the Demu supposed to have had space travel?"

"Oh, since about the time our ancestors left the forests and started using antelope bones for clubs, I'd guess.

Why?"

"That's about what I thought," said Kreugel. "Then tell me how come. Barton-tell me how come in all that time they never improved their space drive?"

"How do you know they didn't?"

79.

"Well, we dont, really. But we think so. The thing is that the drive the Agency was working on-given a cou- ple of clues from this ship-turned out to be a better, more efficient drive than the one the Demu have."

"Couldn't that be coincidence, or luck? If true?"

"Maybe. But now again, once the Agency got their drive working-"

"They have it working?"

"Yes, as of last Friday," Kreugel said, grinning. "Any- way, from nothing but static test runs, the boys came up with about sixteen different ideas for further improve- ments. Now what does that tell you. Barton?"

"It doesn't tell me the Demu are stupid, if that's what you mean. They are in some ways, such as their cul- tural inertia, but that little Eeshta is nobody's dummy."

"Not stupid. Barton. Just not inventive. You see it now?"

"I'm not sure, Kreugel. You tell me."

"The guess is that the Demu didn't invent this drive in the first place. They got it from somebody else, somehow, and just plain copied it. The same with the other stuff:

the leaky no-splash floors, the sleep gun, the protective shield and all the rest of it. All it would take, Barton, would be the capture of one ship, plus a reasonable level of technology and a lot of patience- I'm told we could have done it ourselves as early as-well, whenever semi- conductor application was first being developed."

"Late 1940s," Barton recalled. "Well, it's an interesting idea, but what's so important about it?"

"It means that we can build ships that outclass the Demu-and that maybe they can't improve theirs with- out a model to copy."

"Hmm, maybe so," said Barton. "I wouldn't bet too big a bundle on it, though."

Tarleton came in. "Hi. How far along are you?"

"Just that somebody thinks the Demu are copycats, not inventors, and stole their antigravity and everything,"

said Barton. "I'm not totally sold, but it could be. What else is there?"

"Not too much. But before you leave I'd like you to check Limila's interpretation of the astrogational data.

She's pretty sure she's right, but you're the one who worked with it." Barton nodded, waiting for Tarleton to continue. Kreugel waved them off and went back to his

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blueprints. The two men moved out into the other com- partment.

"Kreugel tell you the Agency has its own drive work- ing?"

"Yeah, and improved six ways from Sunday over this one, he says. No kidding?"

"Fact," said Tarleton. "The lab people are going out of their minds with the possibilities. Apparently they were only a couple of Jumps from the whole antigravity thing already. They have to admit that those jumps weren't in the direction they were trying to go; they'd been on a wrong track. But they claim it would have been a matter of only a few months. They could be right; those lads don't spend too much time in blind alleys."

"So what's next?" Barton was getting bored with the Agency's ego trip.

"Well, they've cobbled together this one ship, a sort of breadboard model, to experiment with. Washington is in a hurry to settle on an adequate design and get into pro- duction: the old argument between 'Get it on the road now' and 'Give us a little more time so we can make it betteri' You know."

"Afraid-1 can't help you much on that," Barton grinned.

"I learned a long time ago to keep my neck out of policy arguments."

"Maybe so, but I want your advice on the auxiliary hardware. Just how far do you think we should go in du- plicating what the Demu carry?"

Barton shook his head impatiently. "I don't know all that much about it, Tarleton. We don't need their fancy floors; plumbing's simpler. Or the no-source lighting; it's nice to have no shadows on your control console but not necessary. I imagine those two items would be a'big part of the cost problem, so skip 'em.

"When it comes to weapons, maybe I brought you the wrong ship. The bigger ones may have stuff we don't even know about, and you can bet that Hishtoo won't be telling us anything he doesn't have to. This crate has the uncon- sciousness weapon-the sleep gun, you call it-and the shield. Personally, I don't even know what the shield will handle and what it won't. But if there's more ofiense or defense on here, I never found it."