"I'm afraid not," said Arthur. "I'll never get over being the son of a traitor. At first, when I heard of the plans for surrender, I thought they were intended as a maneuver, to throw the Hops off their guard. I never believed that you could intend them seriously."
"The Hops aren't to be thrown off their guard so easily. Don't you know anything about them?"
"I know a great deal. I've seen several of your secret reports."
Everson frowned. "How did you get at those?"
"Never mind that. I wanted to know if a military defense was possible. On the basis of those reports, I think it was. But you didn't have the courage to undertake it."
"It isn't a question of courage. In the first place, we'd have been slightly out-numbered."
"That wouldn't have mattered. There's a human population of six billion on Earth, four billion on the other planets. The Hops were estimated to number a hundred billion in all—"
"That is inaccurate," said his father, with that weariness which never seemed to leave him in these days. "That was the first, very wild estimate. We've corrected it since. The Hops number ten trillion. And they regard most of their number as expendable."
"They can't be so many."
"They can. They are. Which reports did you see, Arthur?"