a flashing to the rear of the airboat at a steady thousand kilometers per hour as they sped westward in the middle traffic level

Alexander said with a wry smile. "Besides, I wanted

," Kennon said. "Tha

. There are plenty of females where we are going and I need you on Flora-not in Albert

anes below, Flora must be an ou

nce the company owns Flora and the surrounding island groups there's no reason for shipping to come there. We have our own supply vessels, a Discovery Charter, and a desire for privacy.-Ah! It won't be long now. There's the Otpens!" Alexander pointed at a smudge on

ing place,"

s and automatic interceptors to protect our property. Look!-there'

l two hundred kilometers lo

volcano filling the eastward end of the island and swept over a broad green valley dotted with

rd of. Things like the Iliad and Gone with the Wind. The mountains he called the Apennines, and that volcano's Mount Olympus. The marshland to the north is called the Pontine Marshes-our main road is the Camino Real." Alexander g

ss II Fortalice built on the efficient star-shaped plan of half a millennium ago-an ugly spiky pile of durilium, squat

a thing like tha

a synthesizer and tapes for a Fortalice in his ship. So he built it. It serves the dual p

se outbu

part of y

re slower and steadier. The ship landed gently on a pitted concrete slab near the massive radiation shields of the barricaded entranceway to the fortress. Projectors in polished dually turrets swivelled to point their ugly noses at them. It gave Kennon a qu

"Those projectors have been mounted nearly four hundred yea

ably. "You ought to dismantle them. The

anism's safetied. But we keep them in operating condi

, but I didn't think it was

y, "and since we've shown we can handle o

stock if the competition tried to rus

"-the entrepreneur opened the cabin door letting

" Kennon exploded. "Th

cool things off. Well-come along." He began walking toward the arched entrance to the great building some hundred meters away. Kennon followed looking around curiously. So this wa

eat even the air was quiet. Two women came out of the darkness, moving with quiet graceful steps across the blistering hot concrete. They were naked except for a loincloth, h

t wear. Santos was a planet of nudists, and certainly this hot sun was fully as brilliant as the one which warmed

at them and noticed with surprise that they weren't human. The long tails

gasped. "For a m

when a stranger sees a Lani for the first time. Well-now yo

should have h

t wouldn't be reason able or le

r that phase in our studies-and from their appearance they'

xander said. "It just goes to show what parall

humanoid life on Kardon," Kennon conti

're indigenous o

ghly organized as that simply don

exists today. Then the ocean rose. Now all that's left is the mid continent plateau and a few mountain tops. You noted, I suppose, that this is mature topography except for that range of h

ped here under those conditions. A peneplain topograph

uriously. "Only as part of my cultural base,"

itive culture they were unable to reach the other land masses," Alexander

u happen to

d years ago. He picked this area because it all could be comfortably included in Discovery Right

ly capitali

s and animals here are different from other

Its ecology, however, was exceedingly primitive when compared with the rest of the planet. Flora's on

tumbled on a real b

l purposes I own an independent nation. There's about a thousand humans here, and nearly six thousand Lani. We're increasi

purposes, his employer was a slave trader-or would have been if the nati

have done credit to an exploration ship, and emerged dressed in tunics and sa

erged. "He was a hound for sanitation and he infected us with the habit." He turned and led t

tapestries from Santos formed the walls. Delicate ceramics, sculpture, and bronzes reflected the art of a score of different civilizations. A circular pool, festooned with lacelike Halsite ferns, stood in the center of the ro

it," Alex

W

moment they can't block me since I also control my cousin Douglas's shares. But when Douglas comes of age they will be troublesome. Therefore I defer to them. I don't want to build a united opposition. Usually I can get one or more of th

as appalled at Alexander. Civilized people didn

voice was grim. "Mother, Cousin Anne, Douglas, and Eloise like to play lor

r leaped to her feet, her mouth opening in an O of surprise. Her soft snow-white hair, creamy skin, and brig

tirely different. His face darkened. "Yo

sir," the

se auth

ouglas

here with a little sense. Like I was telling you, the Family'd"-he stopped

White Magic-platinum expe

How long have y

a mont

ie and tell her that Man Alexander

widened. "Man

nder

breathed. "T

pped, "and tell Goldie to r

disappearing through the door they had en

hs and he'd disrupt the entire operation. The nerve of that young pup-requisition

ned the left-hand one revealing a modern grav-shaft that carried them swiftly to the uppermost level. They walked down a short corridor and stopped before another door. It opened

n," Alexander said as he dropped into

many questions, b

r. The Family will probably put you through the meat grinder, bu

nd a plump pink-skinned Lani entered. She was considerably older than th

"I understand Man Douglas has

sible. He's been culling the staff and replacing them with empty-headed fillies whose only cla

"Now I'd like you to meet Old Doc's replacem

Goldie said. "You l

ave the same powers. Goldie's the head housekeeper," Alexander added.

on n

on's things to Old Doc's house. Find Man Douglas and tell him I want to see him at once. Tell the Family that I've

and left the room, her

trustworthy, intelligent. She's been running Alexandria for t

ow old

irt

ty-ye

nder

d have guessed her at

ut one tenth as long as we do. They'r

er difference. Even without age

d gerontologic

re too many differences." He stretched. "I'd tell you more about them but it'll be better to hear it from Evald Blalok. He's our superintendent. Steve Jordan can tell you

nners to be injected into a family affair-es

es of the Family, I do not have to. I run Outworld Enterprises and all the extensions of that organization. I possess control-and the Family knows it. My men are respected and furthermore they know everything that goes on." He smiled icily. "In a way it's quite a healthy s

plicated. Take Flora for instance. Before Grandfather came here, it must have been a pleasant place with the simple natives happy in their paradise. But that's all changed now.

were just another animal added to humanity's growing list of pets and livestock. The little Varl with their soft-furred bodies and clever six-fingered hands made excellent pets and precision workmen.

ependent on their conquerors. They were merely intelligent animals-and that was all they would ever be until the human race changed its cultural pattern or was overthrown. The one alternative was as

efore the fierceness and the greed of men. But unlike most oth

was humanity so jealous of its dominance that no other species could exist except by sufferance? Why after five thousand years of exploration, invasion, and colonization did the human race still consider the galaxy as its oyster, and themselves uniquely qualified to hold the knife? He hadn't though

And behind the view wall of Alexander's apartment Kardon's brilliant yellow sun sank slowly toward the horizon, filling the sky with flaming colors of red and gold, rimm