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travels," I said, "It travels only from one civilized system to another. There are ways to tell whether a system has a civilization that can build a launching laser. Radio is one. The Earth puts out as much radio flux as a small star.
    "When the 'Monks find that much radio energy coming from a nearby star, they send a trade ship. By the time the ship gets there, the planet that's putting out all the energy is generally civilized. But not so civilized that it can't use the knowledge a Monk trades for.
    "Do you see that they need the launching laser? That ship out there came from a Monk colony. This far from the axis of the galaxy, the stars are too far apart. Ships launch by starlight and laser, but they brake by starlight alone, because they can't count on the target star having a launching laser. If they had to launch by starlight too, they probably wouldn't make it. A plant-and-animal cycle as small as the life support system on a Monk starship can last only so long."
    "You said yourself that the Monks can't always count on the target star staying civilized."
    "No, of course not. Sometimes a civilization hits the level at which it can build a, launching laser, stays there just long enough to send out a mass of radio waves, then reverts to animal. That's the point. If we tell them we can't build the laser, we'll be animals to the Monks."
    "Suppose we just refuse? Not can't but won't."
    "That would be stupid. There are too many advantages. Controlled fusion-"
    "Frazer, think about the cost." Morris looked grim. He wanted the laser. He didn't think he could get it. "Think about politicians thinking about the cost," he said. "Think, about politicians thinking about explaining the cost to the taxpayers."
    "Stupid," I repeated, "and inhospitable. Hospitality counts high with the Monks. You see, we're cooked either way. Either we're dumb animals, or we're guilty of a criminal breach of hospitality. And the Monk ship still needs more light 'for its light-sail than the sun can put out."
    "So?"
    "So the captain uses a gadget that makes the sun explode."
    "The," said Morris, and "Sun," and "Explode?" He didn't know what to do. Then suddenly he burst out in great loud cheery guffas, so that the women cleaning the Long Spoon turned with answering smiles. He'd decided not to believe me.
    I reached across and gently pushed his drink into his lap.
    It was two-thirds empty, but it cut his laughter off in an instant. Before he could start swearing, I said, "I am not playing games. The Monks will make our sun explode if we don't build them a launching laser. Now go call your boss and tell him so."
    The women were staring at us in horror. Louise started toward us, then stopped, uncertain.
    Morris sounded almost calm. "Why the drink in, my lap?"
    "Shock treatment. And I wanted your full attention. Are you going to call New York?"
    "Not yet." Morris swallowed. He looked down once at the spreading stain on his pants, then somehow put it out of his mind. "Remember, I'd have to convince him. I don't believe it myself. Nobody and nothing would blow up a sun for a breach of hospitality!"
    "No, no, Morris, They have to blow up the sun to get to the next system. It's a serious thing, refusing to build the launching laser! It could wreck the ship!"
    "Screw the ship! What about a whole planet?"
    "You're just not looking at it right-"
    "Hold it. Your ship is a trading ship, isn't it? What kind of idiots would the Monks be, to exterminate one market just to get on to the next?"
    "If we can't build a launching laser, we aren't a market."
    "But we might be a market on the next circuit!"
    "What next circuit? You don't seem to grasp the size of the Monks' marketplace. The communications gap between Center and the nearest Monk colony is about-" I stopped to transpose. "-sixty-four thousand years! By the time a ship finishes one circuit, most of the worlds she's visited have already forgotten her. And then what? The colony world that built her may have failed, or