“I’m trying to save her, remember? And you can call me Vaska.”

“Taze,” she said automatically. “Sergeant in the Guard before they took over.”

“They?” I felt slightly confused. “You mean them, us, the army of Cliaand?”

“No, of course not. But why am I talking to you when I should be killing you…”

“You shouldn’t. Kill me I mean. Would you believe me if I told you I was a friend?”

“No.”

“That I was a spy from elsewhere now working against the Cliaands although I am in their Space Armada?”

“I would say that you are a worm pleading for your worthless life and willing to say anything.”

“Well it’s true, anyway,” I grumbled, realizing she wasn’t going to take my revelations on faith.

“Taze…” the girl on the table said weakly and we both turned that way. Then “Taze” again and died.

I thought I was dead as well. Taze swung the rifle up and I could see her knuckles whiten as she squeezed. I did a lot of things quickly, starting with a dive to get under the gun and a roll right into her. The gun fired—the blast almost taking my head off in the confined space—but I wasn’t hit. Before she could fire again I had the barrel in my hand and did a quick chop at the muscles in her arm and a few other things one does not normally do to women except in an emergency like this. Then I had the rifle, as well as my pistol back, and she was lying against the wall with something to really cry about this time. It would be a number of minutes before she could use her fingers again; I had stopped just short of breaking the bone.

“Look I’m sorry,” I said, putting my pistol away and fumbling with the archaic mechanism of the rifle. “I just didn’t feel like getting killed at the moment and this was the only way that I could stop you.” I worked the bolt and ejected all the cartridges, then squinted inside to make sure I hadn’t missed any. “What I told you was true. I am on your side and want to help you. But you will have to help me first.”

She was puzzled, but I had her attention. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve when I handed back her rifle, then widened them when I passed over the ammunition.

“I would appreciate it if you would keep that weapon unloaded for the moment. I’ll trade you information if you don’t want to give it freely. There is an organization you probably never heard of who is very interested in what the Cliaand are doing. And what they are doing is interstellar invasion—Burada is the sixth on the list and it looks as though it will be as successful as the others.”

“But why do they do this?”

I had her interest now and I rushed on.

“The why isn’t important, at least not for the present, since evil ambitions are not unusual among the varied political forms of mankind. What I want to know is the how. How did they get away with this invasion in the face of the defenses of the planet?”

“Blame the Konsolosluk,” she said with vehemence, shaking the rifle. “I’m not saying that the Women’s Party didn’t make mistakes, but nothing like theirs.”

“Could you fill in some background detail, because I’m afraid that you’ve lost me.”

“I’ll give you detail. Men!” She spat and her eyes glowed with anger and she was beginning to look attractive again. “The Women’s Party brought centuries of enlightened rule to this planet. We had prosperity, there was a good tourist trade, no one suffered. So maybe men voted a few years later than women or couldn’t get the best jobs. So what? Women suffered through this sort of thing—and worse—on other planets, and they didn’t revolt. Those Konsolosluk, sneaking around everywhere, whispering lies. Men’s rights and down with oppression and that kind of thing. Getting people worked up, winning a few seats in parliament, disturbing the country. Then their one day revolution, seizing everything, getting control. And all their promises. All they wanted to do was strut around and act superior. Some superior! Worthless all of them. Know nothing of Government or fighting. When your pigs landed more of these men ran away than fought, weak fools. And surrendering rather than fighting. I would never have surrendered.”

“Perhaps they had to.”

“Never. Weaklings, that’s all.”

All of which gave me pause to think, and with thought came suspicion and after this the dawning light of discovery. Pieces began to fall into shape in my mind and I tried not to get too excited. It was a formless idea yet—but if it worked—if it worked!

Then I would know how the Cliaandians managed their invasion trick. Simple, like all good ideas, and foolproof as well.

“I’ll need your help,” I told Taze. “I’ll stay in the Space Armada, at least for the moment, since I can learn more there. But I won’t leave this planet. This is where the Cliaandians are the weakest and this is where they are going to be beaten. Have you ever heard of the Special Corps?”

“No.”

“Well you have now. It is, well, it is the group that is going to help you. I work for them and they should be keeping an eye on me. They saw the fleet leave Cliaand and are certain to have followed it here. That was one of the developments we had planned for. Right now a message drone should be circling this planet. It will relay any messages to the Corps and we will have all the help we need. Can you get access to a medium powered radio transmitter?”

“Yes—but why should I? Why should I believe you? You could be lying.”

“I could be—but you can’t take the chance.” I scratched feverishly on a message form. “I’m leaving you now, I have to get back to my ship before they begin to wonder where I have gone. Here is the message you are to transmit on this frequency. You can do it without getting caught, it’s easy enough. And you lose nothing by doing it. And you may save your planet.”

She was still doubtful, looking at the paper.

“It’s so hard to believe. That you are really a spy—and want to help us.”

“You can believe he is a spy, take my word for it,” a voice said from the doorway behind me and I felt a cold hand clamp down on my heart. I turned, slowly.

Kraj, the man in gray was standing there. Two other gray uniformed men stood behind him leveling their weapons at me. Kraj pointed his finger like a third gun.

“We have been watching you, spy, and waiting for this information. Now we can proceed with the destruction of your Special Corps.”

“People seem to be popping up in doorways a lot today, ha ha,” I said with a joviality I certainly did not feel. Kraj smiled a very wintry smile.

“If you mean the colonel, yes, I had him watching you. Now try to act the fool. Pas Ratunkowy, or whatever your name really is.”

“Hulja, Vaska, Lieutenant in the Space Armada.”

“Flight-Major Hulja has been found in the Dosadan-Glup Robotnik Hotel, which discovery put us on your trail. Yours was a most ingenious plan and might have succeeded had not an optical pickup burned out. The repairman sent to order the matter discovered the Flight-Major and his delusion about the date and this was brought to my attention. I’ll take that.”

Kraj lifted the message form from Taze’s unresisting fingers. He seemed very much in control of the situation. I clutched my chest in the area of my heart, rolled up my eyes and staggered backwards.

“Too much…” I muttered. “Heart going… don’t shoot… this is the end.”

Kraj and his two men looked on coldly while I was going through all this for their benefit, until the dramatic moment when I clutched at my throat and shrieked with pain, my body arched and every muscle taut, then fell over backwards through the window.

It was nicely done with plenty of crashing glass, and I flipped in midair and landed on my shoulder and did a roll and came up to my feet, ready to run.

Looking right up the barrel of a gaussrifle held by another silent and unsmiling man in gray. He scored zero as a conversationalist and for the moment I could think of nothing bright to say myself. Kraj’s voice came clearly through the broken window behind me.