"I'm going to drop you off here. Then I'm going somewhere."
"Where?"
"That's it. I don't know where. I'm barred from everything but Mars—I might try there."
"You loved Ertene, didn't you?" asked Charalas.
Guy nodded. "Until I found out how blind they are. A fine thing! They give credence to a plotter because his accuser is not of Ertene. And this last—I hate them and him!"
"This last?"
"Thomakein dropped the barrier so that the Terrans would come to investigate. He planned it all—and got his fleet ready-made."
"They came to fight—"
"They wouldn't have come if Thomakein hadn't started it all. Blame whom you will, but Thomakein saw his plan start when he found me alive in the Mardinex. My life has been just a pusharound for Thomakein for nine years."
"You think Ertene will win?"