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He listened for his own voice. The woods were quiet. His breathing seemed strangely loud. He held it—and heard the Agvars moving in the woods. Rustling, scraping, crackling—grunting their guttural dialog. Crashing! Threatening them!

“Let’s go back!” he urged, trying to sound casual. But his trail was blocked.

“Stick around,” Dr. Pine suggested easily. “You—ah—you haven’t said anything we didn’t know. We’re going right ahead.”

“But why?” Once more Chet was hotly incredulous. “To risk your life for a few stray facts? Become a casualty while trying to avoid casualties? It doesn’t make sense!”

Dr. Pine stared at his own hands as if to hide his shyness in them. “As to the fact-seeking,” he said slowly, “well… it’s a matter of opinion. I’ve lost a few classmates…. Risks in research are commonplace—and accepted as worthwhile by most people….

“And—ah—peace…. You once called it appeasement, but it isn’t, always. Well, look. If we fought those Agvars, somebody’d have to take a patrol into their village and capture prisoners for our Intelligence, right?”

Chet nodded dumbly.

“Well, in a way, I—ah—am the peaceful equivalent of that patrol. The—ah—risk I run is less than if we had a war and a patrol skirmish as part of it, though. And why in the world not take for peace a risk we’d routinely accept in war?”

Why not? But why not minimize it, just the same. The Agvars, invisible but noisy, were all around them, now. At any moment the woods might rain spears.

“It would be safer with two of us,” Chet said musingly. “Your knowledge of anthropology and medicine—mine of the people—”

“Barfield, you’re still on the sicklist,” Commander Seymour pointed out. He watched Chet’s face for a long moment before adding, “Still—if you’re over your sick-minded need for revenge—it’s possible Dr. Pine may find you fit. It’s up to him.”

Chet was afraid to ask directly. He pleaded with his eyes.

Dr. Pine grinned broadly at the both. “He’s ready for duty, sir,” he said.

Commander Seymour stepped back and scowled. “All right, Mr. Barfield,” he barked, “I’ll give you just three minutes to change to the uniform of the day!”

Chet’s jaw dropped. His vision, also downcast, noted the fatigues he wore, the muddy shoes. Then he looked up, saw the twinkle in his C.O.’s eyes, and understood.

In exactly three minutes he made the required change. He would enter the village as he’d left it—in the undress uniform of a Man….

Copyright

Front Cover, Copyright © 2010 Chet Dembeck, Publisher of One

Baltimore, Md.

First E-Book Edition

(science fiction)

Public Domain Short Stories.

The introduction and any other author commentaries on attributed public domain material cannot be produced in any form without written permission from the author & Publisher of One.