The Terran Barbarians have landed! Already they plunder a dying, helpless planet! And a whisper rustles through the cold, thin air, across the rust-red sands: "Give us a leader--and we will fight! Give us back our ancient glory!" The small room was dark but for the flickering light of a single ef-lamp that burned on the bare table between the two long rows of black-hooded figures. The thin dry air was surcharged with the tenseness of a tautly drawn cord ... a strangler's cord. A sentence of death had been passed in silence. Now, the executioners balloted, still in silence, to select from their number a leader.…
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