“I don’t know, I tell you. But there must be some way; perhaps a—a message we might send or a—a crucial rainstorm we might start by cloud seeding. We could manage a great deal with their weather conditions—”

“How would that start a nuclear war?” said Devi-en, unimpressed.

“Maybe it wouldn’t. I mention such a thing only as a possible example. But large primates would know. After all, they are the ones who do start nuclear wars in actual fact. It is in their brain pattern to know. That is the decision the Council came to.”

Devi-en felt the soft noise his tail made as it thumped slowly against the chair. He tried to stop it and failed. “What decision, your Height?”

“To trap a large-primate from the planet’s surface. To kidnap one.”

“A wild one?”

“It’s the only kind that exists at the moment on the planet. Of course, a wild one.”

“And what do you expect him to tell us?”

“That doesn’t matter, Captain. As long as he says enough about anything, mentalic analysis will give us the answer.”

Devi-en withdrew his head as far as he could into the space between his shoulder blades. The skin just under his armpits quivered with repulsion. A wild large-primate being! He tried to picture one, untouched by the stunning aftermath of nuclear war, unaltered by the civilizing influence of Human eugenic breeding.

The Archadministrator made no attempt to hide the fact that he shared the repulsion, but he said, “You will have to lead the trapping expedition, Captain. It is for the good of the Galaxy.”

Devi-en had seen the planet a number of times before, but each time a ship swung about the Moon and placed the world in his line of sight, a wave of unbearable homesickness swept him.

It was a beautiful planet, so like Hurria itself in dimensions and characteristics but wilder and grander. The sight of it, after the desolation of the Moon, was like a blow.