The silence deepened.
Again Saxon became aware of those flickering baffling thoughts as the seven old men conferred behind their mental shields.
At last, grudgingly, the Moderator spoke, "That depends on your success."
Saxon didn't relax. He had won only if he had guessed the right answer to a question that had been obsessing him. If he was right, he would need no guarantee to hold the Aliens to their promise.
"You said that when the metabolism of the humanoids was slowed they returned to their normal life span. Does that mean that you can actually lengthen their lives to equal yours?"
The Moderator looked puzzled, nodded. "A comparatively simple operation, but...."
"But nothing!" Saxon almost shouted. "If their life span is the same as yours, then they'll be on the same time scale. Their fecundity is the direct result of their shortened life cycle. They'll no longer constitute a menace!"
Hope blazed temporarily in the Moderator's eyes, then went out. When he spoke next his voice was cold, dead.
"But that takes time. Before we could effect the change several generations of humanoids would have lived and died. We'd be conquered!"
Saxon laughed outright. "Of course, you people couldn't effect the change quick enough, but other humanoids could. You have Ileth here. She's a General Atomic agent. You have the crew and some of the best brains on Earth isolated on Zara. They could do it!"