"...crusades for rescuing gallant pioneers threatened by monstrous aliens and securing mankind's future among the stars..."? (p. 165)
Air corpsman Ensign Donald Conway assures himself that he had never been that naive, "...yet he had pictured himself as a kind of legionary...," on the Ishtarian model. (p. 165)
Anderson shows us that the alien Naqsans did look monstrous. His Excellency Tollog-a-Ektrush, Ambassador General of the League of Naqsa to the World Federation looked like this:
"{A blubbery-looking mass, bilious yellow spotted green and wetly shining in its nudity, short fluke-footed legs, membranes up to the knobbly elbows, head suggestive of a catfish...The hologram does not convey the odour, but audio brings the mushy voice, irritatingly hard for human ears to follow...]" (p. 99)
However, he spoke like this:
" '...how gratewul we are wor all we hawe learned w'rom you...I cannot welieve that Eart'h, Eart'h that we lowe, will really condone, let alone assist, the desowlation and wereawement uw harmless weings in their homes...' " (pp. 99-100)
So clearly we must ask, "Who are the monstrous aliens here?"
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