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Fleetlord Atvar strode briskly into the command station of the invasion fleet bannership 127th Emperor Hetto Officers stiffened in their seats as he came in But for the way his eye turrets swiveled in their sockets, one to the left, the other to the right, he ignored them Yet had any been so foolish as to omit the proper respect, he would have noticed-and remembered

Shiplord Kirel, his body paint less elaborate only than Atvar’s, joined hi, he said, “Let us exa the control with his own index claw A blue and gray and white sphere sprang into being, a perfect representation of a life-bearing world floating in space

All the officers turned both eyes toward the hologram Atvar, as was his custom, walked around the projector to view it from all sides: Kirel followed hiun, Atvar ran out a bifurcated tongue “Cold-looking place,” the fleetlord said, as he usually did “Cold and wet”

“Yet it will serve the Race and the Emperor,” Kirel replied When he spoke those words, the rest of the officers returned to their assigned tasks; theritual was over Kirel went on, “Pity such a hot white star as Tosev has hatched so chilly an egg”

“Pity indeed,” Atvar agreed That chilly world revolved around a star ht as the sun under which he’d been raised Unfortunately, it did so toward the outer edge of the biosphere Not only did Tosev 3 have too round here and there In the Empire’s three current worlds, frozen water was rare outside the laboratory

Kirel said, “Even if Tosev 3 is colder on average than e’re used to, Fleetlord, on’t have any real trouble living there, and parts will be very pleasant” He opened his jaws slightly to display sive us no difficulty”

“By the Eht-years away, Atvar automatically cast both eyes down to the floor for athe shiplord’s amusement “Show me the picture sequence from the probe once more”

“It shall be done” Kirel poked delicately at the projector controls Tosev 3 vanished, to be replaced by a typical inhabitant: a biped with a red-brown skin, rather taller than a typical male of the Race The biped wore a strip of cloth round its midsection and carried a bow and several stone-tipped arrows Black fur sprouted from the top of its head

The biped vanished Another took its place, this one swaddled frorayish tan A curved iron sword hung from a leather belt at its waist Beside it stood a brown-furred riding ani neck and a hump on its back

Atvar pointed to the furry animal, then to the biped’s robes “Even the native creatures have to protect themselves from Tosev 3’s atrocious cli scales of his arm

More bipeds appeared in holographic projection, soolden brown, soht it was almost pink As the sequence moved on, Kirel opened his jaws in amusement once more He pointed to the projector “Behold-now! — the fearsome warrior of Tosev 3”

“Hold that ie Let everyone, look closely at it,” Atvar commanded

“It shall be done” Kirel stopped the flow of ies Every officer in the coh most kept the other on the tasks before them

Atvar laughed silently as he studied the Tosevite fighter This native belonged to the pinkish race, though only one hand and his face were visible to testify to that Protective gear covered the rest of him almost as comprehensively as had the earlier biped’s robes A pointed iron helmet with several dents sat on top of his head He wore a suit of rather rusty mail that reached almost to his knees, and heavy leather boots below them A flimsy coat of bluish stuff helped keep the sun off the mail

The aniraceful relative of the humped creature, looked bored with the whole business An iron-headed spear projected upward froht sword, a knife, and a shield with a cross painted on it

“Hoell do you think his kind is likely to stand up to bullets, ar vehicles, aircraft?” Atvar asked rhetorically The officers all laughed, looking forward to an easy conquest, to adding a fourth planet and solar system to the dominions of the Emperor

Not to be outdone in enthusiases, too: they date back only about sixteen hundred years” He paused to poke at a calculator “That would be about eight hundred of Tosev 3’s revolutions And how e in a ht hundred revolutions?”

The officers laughed again, hed with them The history of the Race was more than a hundred thousand years deep; the Ssumaz dynasty had held the throne for al male heirs orked out Under the Ssuht thousand years ago, and seized Halless 1 eighteen thousand years after that Now’ it was Tosev 3’s turn The pace of conquest was quickening, Atvar thought