"captain mackley," said cressey, "i've heard it said that earth is the aggressor in this war."

"have you ever seen the london crater?" asked the information officer.

"pictures, yes, but what i want to know is, who attacked first?"

"it doesn't really matter, does it cressey? there is a war, and we've got to fight it, no matter how it started."

"yes sir," said cressey, "but i wanted to know."

"all right, i'll tell you then. the outspacers contacted this system roughly six years ago. the first eighteen months they spent on the outer planets. during the second year they came in as far as mars, and established a base there. six months later, one of their ships left on an obvious course toward earth. it was destroyed by a missile launched from satellite ii." mackley shrugged. "you know the rest. they retaliated. satellite ii was vaporized."

"but earth fired first?"

"i told you, it doesn't make any difference now. one outspacer later got through the defense rings, and now there's nothing from london to cambridge but glass. whatever the hell they use for weapons, they're effective."

"so we don't know whether or not they were originally hostile."

"no, we don't. it had to be assumed they were. we were not in a position to make allowances. you must realize, cressey, we were dealing with something totally unprecedented, a completely unknown force. common sense is enough to tell you the outspacer had to be considered inimical to us, until proven otherwise."

"they weren't given much of a chance to prove it."

"that may be. the point is irrelevant at the moment. we are committed to a line of action, and we must follow it through. on their part, the outspacers are doing the same."

cressey was silent for a moment, and mackley continued in a softer voice. "look here, son. i don't have to tell you all this. i could just as easily shoot you full of starry-eyed patriotism and send you out to save the world from the bug-eyed monsters, but the military isn't doing things that way any more. there is a possibility that we've made a mistake, i'll admit that, but we're stuck with the consequences of the original action. we're defending our planet with everything we've got. the hornets are the only weapon that has proven even remotely effective."

"i'll have to think it over, captain."

"of course," said mackley. "it's not an easy decision to make. come back again, any time you like, and we'll talk it over some more."

and cressey had gone back.