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He didn’t mention the incident to Embelsira, not wanting to worry her, but the next morning he went to the Village Dome and informed Malesor. “Very bad,” the headman muttered. “Very bad. Whoever did it will be punished.”

“You won’t be able to catch them,” Clarey said, “and there’d be no point in punishment, anyway. Look at it like this, Mal. Suppose I had been an Earthman, don’t you see how dangerous this would be, not for me but for you? Can’t you imagine the inevitable results?”

Malesor nodded. “The Earthmen’s catapults do go farther and faster, then?”

“And maybe deeper,” Clarey agreed, pretending not to notice that it had been a question. “After the way Irik talked, I couldn’t help drifting over to the starfield when I was in Barshwat and watching an Earth ship come. You’ve no idea how incredibly powerful a thing it was. Anyone who has power in one direction is likely to have it in another.”

“I wonder if the Earthmen always had power,” Malesor mused, “if they weren’t like us once. If, given time, we couldn’t be like them....”