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The silence in the room was like a Salaman fog. Thick silence broken only by the steady hum of the machines deep beneath us in the dead planet. A wild, impossible dream of one thousand lost souls. A dream that would destroy them, and they did not care. There was something about it all that I liked.

I said, “Why not get Council approval?”

Portario smiled. “Council has little liking for wild dreams, Commander. It would not be considered as advancing the future of United Galaxies’ destiny. Then there are the ionics.” And Portario hesitated. “And there is the danger of imbalance, Galactic imbalance. I have calculated carefully, the danger is remote, but Council is not going to take even a remote chance.”

Yuan Saltario broke in. “All they care about is their damned sterile destiny! They don’t care about people. Well we do! We care about something to live for. The hell with the destiny of the Galaxies! They don’t know, and we’ll be gone before they do know.”

“They know plenty now. O’Hara’s beamed them in.”