"Fine--but wondering what's going to happen."

"You won't be hurt," Vorongil said, quickly. Then: "You don't believe
me, do you?"

"I don't, sir. David Briscoe did what I did, and he's dead. So are three
other men."

"Men do strange things from fear--men and Lhari. Your people, as I said
before, have a strange history. It scares us. Can you guarantee that
some, at least, of your people wouldn't try to come and take the
star-drive by force? We left a man on Lharillis who thought nothing of
killing twenty-four of us. I suppose the captain of the Multiphase,
knowing he had gravely violated Lhari laws, knowing that Briscoe's
report might touch off an intergalactic war between men and Lhari--well,
I suppose he felt that half a dozen deaths were better than half a
million. I'm not defending him. Just explaining, maybe, why he did what
he did."

Bart lowered his eyes. He had no answer to that.

"No, you won't be killed. But that's all I can guarantee. My personal
feelings have nothing to do with it. You'll have to go to Council Planet
with us, and you'll have to be psych-checked there. That is Lhari
law--and by treaty with your Federation, it is human law, too. If you
know anything dangerous to us, we have a legal right to eliminate those
memories before you can be released."