Helena sat, with an absolutely human gesture of spreading her skirt
beside her. The General plumped into a chair and chuckled. The
slick-haired young man politely offered Janice a cigarette and lighted
Helena's for her. Dillon leaned against the mantel above the fire.
"Well?" said Coburn harshly. "You can state your terms. What do you want
and what do you propose to do to get it?"
Dillon shook his head. He took a deep breath. "I want you to listen,
Coburn. I know about the atom bomb planted somewhere around, and I know
I'm talking for my life. You know we aren't natives of Earth. You've
guessed that we come from a long way off. We do. Now--we found out the
trick of space travel some time ago. You're quite welcome to it. We
found it, and we started exploring. We've been in space, you might say,
just about two of your centuries. You're the only other civilized race
we've found. That's point one."
Coburn fumbled in his pocket. He found a cigarette. Dillon held a match.
Coburn started, and then accepted it.
"Go on." He added, "There's a television camera relaying this, by the
way. Did you know?"
"Yes, I know," said Dillon. "Now, having about two centuries the start
of you, we have a few tricks you haven't found out yet. For one thing,
we understand ourselves, and you, better than you do. We've some
technical gadgets you haven't happened on yet. However, it's entirely
possible for you to easily kill the four of us here tonight. If you
do--you do. But there are others of our race here. That's point two."
"Now come the threats and demands," said Coburn.
"Perhaps." But Dillon seemed to hesitate. "Dammit, Coburn, you're a
reasonable man. Try to think like us a moment. What would you do if
you'd started to explore space and came upon a civilized race, as we
have?"