If somebody already lives there, go on by." Marching alongside that rule was another, the product of hard-won maturity. Solarian Man's leap into space was in no sense a prelude to conquest. At most it was a technical achievement serving the oldest instinct of all: to see what was on the other side. So every ship that stood off and warped into the big dark was equipped with the finest and most efficient long-range snooping facilities Solarian science could provide out of many centuries of experience in such things. If a few nice new shiny planets could be found, vacant, there would be colonists to follow. But Solarian Man was just that little bit too sensible, now, to want to fight somebody else for living room. Rules make sense only if they are known to and respected by all parties involved. It happened that as S.U. ships leaped further and further into the unknown the time came when they discovered Zorgan. And Zorgan had a different set of rules entirely. The first ships to brush the fringe of the expanding sway of Zorgan performed precisely as the code directed.
