No manipulation of the instrument itself can have any effect, unless you know the fulcrum and the force.”
Bob Star came to attention, with a quick salute, when Jay Kalam entered the room.
Oddly, although he had been commander of the Legion for nearly twenty years, he looked far less soldierly than John Star.
He was slender and dark and tall, with no trace of military stiffness in his bearing.
His green-and-gold uniform was worn with a confident assurance, but it failed to disguise the grave reserve of the scholarly gentleman.
“John!” He spoke from the doorway, his voice quick with urgency.
“Aladoree!
Have you destroyed the object hi Virgo?” She moved toward him anxiously.
“Not yet,” she whispered.
“In another second—but we saw your rockets—”
“Then don’t!”
His thin face relaxed, and the breath sighed out of him.
He came on into the room, smiling slightly now.
“I was afraid I had got here too late,” he said huskily.
“The Council has rescinded its order—”
“What’s that?”
John Star’s voice was brittle as the snap of breaking glass.
“Why?”
Deliberately, the tall man drew another heavy envelope from an inside pocket of his tunic, and handed it gravely to Aladoree.
She opened it hastily, and her gray eyes smiled again as she read the document.
“I’m glad you got here, Jay,” she whispered softly.
“You have saved me from murdering—something that must be very wonderful!”
“Why is this?”
John Star’s lips were tight, his narrow face pale and stern.
“Why was the order rescinded?”
The grave commander of the Legion swung quietly toward him.
“John,” he said soberly, “you know the Council was divided on ordering the destruction of the cometary object.
I myself oppose it— as the murder of something greater than a planet.
After you departed, I got permission to speak before the Council, in favor of a more moderate policy.”
“But—Jay!”
John Star’s voice was sharp with his apprehensive urgency.
“We know already that the Cometeers are hostile.
We know they’ve found out about Merrin.
Every moment the comet exists increases our danger.
It must be destroyed!”
The tall commander shook his head.
“I know your arguments, John,” he said slowly.
“And we all admit that the situation is extremely grave.
We must take stern measures to assure the safety of the System.
But we aren’t justified yet, in annihilating the object—without even finding out what it really is.
While it’s true that the Cometeers have been scouting our military establishments, it’s quite possible that they are only trying to protect themselves from the hasty use of some such weapon as Aladoree’s.
For all we know, their purpose in approaching the System may be entirely peaceful.”
“Jay, you’re a pacifist at heart.”
Restrained anger cracked in John Star’s voice.
“You’ve no business in the Legion!”
“I’ll not be guilty of the murder of an unknown world,” Jay Kalam answered softly.
“Not just out of panic.
My business in the Legion is the protection of civilization—and what does that mean, without justice or mercy?
If we attempt the needless destruction of the comet, I feel that we’re asking for the same sort of fate.
“Anyhow, John, I was able to convince several members of the Council that they had been unduly swayed by your war talk.