Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

the Director thinks. But I agree that we’d better ask for some extra heads

in discussing our next move.”

They did not find out what the Director thought, he did not appear; Dr.

Chase-Huebner, now shockingly white and withered, spoke for him. Jorn spoke

for himself, but the agreed strategy called for Dr. Kamblin to open.

“So much for the facts,” Kamblin was saying. “Now we are thrown into the

realm of deductions, and from there into the reahn of inferences. To begin

with, obviously as one goes inward toward a center of population-stellar or

otberwise-one’s chances of locating a habitable planet begin to rise. They

go up pretty

And all the Stars a Stage 163

sharply toward the tail of the curve, because the stars at the heart of the

galaxy seem to average about a light year apart, or only a little more. If

everyone is clear about this so far, I will yield the floor to Jorn Birn.”

There seemed to be no questions. Jorn rose slowly. All eyes were on him.

“What I want to point out is this,” he said. “The farther we go toward the

galactic center, the more likely we are apt to meet more advanced,

civilized, colonized, dangerous systems; the more likely we are to meet

someone like the black men and get thrown out, probably with more damage.

Sergeant Strage tells me that the lavelin can no longer survive such a

fight. It’s my opinion that we never could have. We lost the first one we

got into so decisively that were going to have to face up to our own

pretensions. All the military training and weaponry and gimmickry, all our