Cautiously, out of sight of the screen, Llud extended a hand and found a pad of memo blanks and a pencil. Without taking his eyes off the magnified, bragging image, he began to write. He thought he had the answer now to this murderous welcome.
"We have found the solution of the problem of growth," the image was saying. "For seven hundred years now, each generation has been smaller than the one before, so that there is constantly more room on the planet, relatively speaking; and the process still goes on. There are six hundred trillion of us on Earth now. In another two generations there will be a quadrillion human beings only two millimeters tall—and no overcrowding.
"But," the little man snarled venomously, "we have no room for you giants!"
Knof Llud sighed. The sagging lines of his face were calculated to reassure the other and his superiors on Earth, to whom the sight-sound conversation was undoubtedly being relayed. Llud said tiredly, "But you don't have any reason for destroying us. Why not let us land on one of the worthless outer planets, and make an attempt to live there? Or, if you will give us a little atomic fuel, we will leave the Solar System again and trouble you no more. In exchange we have a great deal of knowledge, data on the stars of the Taurus Cluster and beyond, to offer...."
As he spoke, he was beckoning Gwar Den to him, handing the navigator the brief order he had scrawled on the pad.
The little man laughed shortly. "As if we could trust you—or wanted your worthless knowledge of stars! No, we will not bargain with giants."
The captain said slowly, for there was still time to be gained in order that the gamble he had decided on might have its chance, "You're very sure that you can smash us. Remember, we control gravitic forces, a science you have evidently lost."
He saw the look of sneering triumph waver a little; then the image snapped, "We destroyed the others. Your screen, whatever it is, is not impenetrable; we have power to break through it."
That was true, of course. The drive-field would collapse when the fuel ran out, desperately soon now.