“One whole base has already been destroyed in a quake. Isn’t that enough for you?”

The wind slapped monstrously at the dome. They had never seen such gales as blew endlessly across Shang V. A blind whirl of sleet—solid ammonia—hid the outside view.

“Sir,” said the geologist, “this planet is utterly crazy. The probes gave readings that on any normal world would mean safe, solid ground.”

“Nevertheless, one of our domes has just been cracked open. Every man within it died instantly. You and your team are due for court-martial.”

The geologist nodded.

“As the colonel says. But may I suggest that we find another site? This one is obviously dangerous after all.”

“And do you realize what it means, in terms of effort and materials, to break camp on this planet?”

“I can’t help that, sir. I am officially proposing that we move.”

“Headquarters will have my skin, too,” said the colonel gloomily. He looked out again at the sinister land. “How could we know? How could anyone have foretold it would be like this?”

The Patrol knew! laughed his mind. They knew! Now all I can do is submit a recommendation that we evacuate. The other commanders here will back me up. But that’s an invitation to the enemy to return.

The floor trembled. He heard a paperweight jump on his desk. Outside, not five meters off, a hole opened in the ground—slowly, hugely, with all the time in the universe to do its work. Fire spilled from it, and magma crawled forth toward the dome.

* * *

The Elgash family had come up the hard way, from the peasant stock of a conquered land; it had been ennobled only fifty years ago. For that, and for its owning the Munitions Trust, Hurulta despised it. But he did not underestimate the being who sat across from his desk. The present Elgash was fat and wheezy and dandified, but there was a hard drive and a cold brain in him.

“I speak for several others, your excellency,” he said. “I need not mention their names.”

“The money barons,” replied Hurulta sullenly. “The industrialists and financiers. What of it?”

“Shall I speak plainly?” asked Elgash.

“Go ahead. We’re alone.”

“The group I represent is not at all satisfied with the conduct of the war.”

“Oh? And you have constituted yourselves the new General Staff?”

“Spare the sarcasm, your excellency. It was understood that Tukatan would be subjugated within six months. Now, after almost a year, we are still fighting there.”

“They could be bombarded from space,” said Hurulta, “but as you well know, that would destroy the whole value of the planet. We have to go slowly. Then the Patrol appeared to complicate matters.”

“I realize all that.” The insolence was more marked than ever. “And rather than concentrate on Tukatan and the Patrol, and get them safely out of the way, your ministry has tried to take on the whole star cluster. You have blundered disastrously into planets we hardly knew a thing about.”