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Secure by Design

DAN BERGH JOHNSSON

DANIEL DEOGUN
DANIEL SAWANO

Foreword by Daniel Terhorst-North

Manning
Shelter Island
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Manning Publications Co.

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Development editor: Jennifer Stout

Technical development editor: Luis Atencio
Review editor: Aleks Dragosavljevic´
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Cover designer: Marija Tudor

ISBN 9781617294358
Printed in the United States of America
 To our families
—Dan Bergh Johnsson, Daniel Deogun, and Daniel Sawano
contents in brief

Part 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: Why design matters for security
Chapter 2: Intermission: The anti-Hamlet
Part 2: Fundamentals
Chapter 3: Core concepts of Domain-Driven
Design
Chapter 4: Code constructs promoting
security
Chapter 5: Domain primitives
Chapter 6: Ensuring integrity of state
Chapter 7: Reducing complexity of state
Chapter 8: Leveraging your delivery pipeline
for security
Chapter 9: Handling failures securely
Chapter 10: Benefits of cloud thinking
Chapter 11: Intermission: An insurance
policy for free
Part 3: Applying the fundamentals
Chapter 12: Guidance in legacy code
Chapter 13: Guidance on microservices
Chapter 14: A final word: Don’t forget about
security!
contents

Cover
Titlepage
Copyright
Dedication
contents in brief
contents
foreword
preface
acknowledgments
about this book
about the authors
about the cover illustration
Part 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: Why design matters for security
1.1 Security is a concern, not a feature
 1.1.1 The robbery of Öst-Götha
Bank, 1854
1.1.2 Security features and
concerns
1.1.3 Categorizing security
concerns: CIA-T
1.2 Defining design
1.3 The traditional approach to software
security and its shortcomings
1.3.1 Explicitly thinking about
security
1.3.2 Everyone is a security expert
1.3.3 Knowing all and the
unknowable
1.4 Driving security through design
1.4.1 Making the user secure by
design
1.4.2 The advantages of the
design approach
1.4.3 Staying eclectic
1.5 Dealing with strings, XML, and a
billion laughs
 1.5.1 Extensible Markup Language
(XML)
1.5.2 Internal XML entities in a
nutshell
1.5.3 The Billion Laughs attack
1.5.4 Configuring the XML parser
1.5.5 Applying a design mindset
1.5.6 Applying operational
constraints
1.5.7 Achieving security in depth
Summary
Chapter 2: Intermission: The anti-Hamlet
2.1 An online bookstore with business
integrity issues
2.1.1 The inner workings of the
accounts receivable ledger
2.1.2 How the inventory system
tracks books in the store
2.1.3 Shipping anti-books
2.1.4 Systems living the same lie
2.1.5 A do-it-yourself discount
voucher
 2.2 Shallow modeling
2.2.1 How shallow models emerge
2.2.2 The dangers of implicit
concepts
2.3 Deep modeling
2.3.1 How deep models emerge
2.3.2 Make the implicit explicit
Summary
Part 2: Fundamentals
Chapter 3: Core concepts of Domain-Driven
Design
3.1 Models as tools for deeper insight
3.1.1 Models are simplifications
3.1.2 Models are strict
3.1.3 Models capture deep
understanding
3.1.4 Making a model means
choosing one
3.1.5 The model forms the
ubiquitous language
3.2 Building blocks for your model
 3.2.1 Entities
3.2.2 Value objects
3.2.3 Aggregates
3.3 Bounded contexts
3.3.1 Semantics of the ubiquitous
language
3.3.2 The relationship between
language, model, and bounded
context
3.3.3 Identifying the bounded
context
3.4 Interactions between contexts
3.4.1 Sharing a model in two
contexts
3.4.2 Drawing a context map
Summary
Chapter 4: Code constructs promoting
security
4.1 Immutability
4.1.1 An ordinary webshop
4.2 Failing fast using contracts
 4.2.1 Checking preconditions for
method arguments
4.2.2 Upholding invariants in
constructors
4.2.3 Failing for bad state
4.3 Validation
4.3.1 Checking the origin of data
4.3.2 Checking the size of data
4.3.3 Checking lexical content of
data
4.3.4 Checking the data syntax
4.3.5 Checking the data semantics
Summary
Chapter 5: Domain primitives
5.1 Domain primitives and invariants
5.1.1 Domain primitives as the
smallest building blocks
5.1.2 Context boundaries define
meaning
5.1.3 Building your domain
primitive library
 5.1.4 Hardening APIs with your
domain primitive library
5.1.5 Avoid exposing your domain
publicly
5.2 Read-once objects
5.2.1 Detecting unintentional use
5.2.2 Avoiding leaks caused by
evolving code
5.3 Standing on the shoulders of
domain primitives
5.3.1 The risk with overcluttered
entity methods
5.3.2 Decluttering entities
5.3.3 When to use domain
primitives in entities
5.4 Taint analysis
Summary
Chapter 6: Ensuring integrity of state
6.1 Managing state using entities
6.2 Consistent on creation
6.2.1 The perils of no-arg
constructors
 6.2.2 ORM frameworks and no-arg
constructors
6.2.3 All mandatory fields as
constructor arguments
6.2.4 Construction with a fluent
interface
6.2.5 Catching advanced
constraints in code
6.2.6 The builder pattern for
upholding advanced constraints
6.2.7 ORM frameworks and
advanced constraints
6.2.8 Which construction to use
when
6.3 Integrity of entities
6.3.1 Getter and setter methods
6.3.2 Avoid sharing mutable
objects
6.3.3 Securing the integrity of
collections
Summary
Chapter 7: Reducing complexity of state
 7.1 Partially immutable entities
7.2 Entity state objects
7.2.1 Upholding entity state rules
7.2.2 Implementing entity state as
a separate object
7.3 Entity snapshots
7.3.1 Entities represented with
immutable objects
7.3.2 Changing the state of the
underlying entity
7.3.3 When to use snapshots
7.4 Entity relay
7.4.1 Splitting the state graph into
phases
7.4.2 When to form an entity relay
Summary
Chapter 8: Leveraging your delivery pipeline
for security
8.1 Using a delivery pipeline
8.2 Securing your design using unit
tests
 8.2.1 Understanding the domain
rules
8.2.2 Testing normal behavior
8.2.3 Testing boundary behavior
8.2.4 Testing with invalid input
8.2.5 Testing the extreme
8.3 Verifying feature toggles
8.3.1 The perils of slippery toggles
8.3.2 Feature toggling as a
development tool
8.3.3 Taming the toggles
8.3.4 Dealing with combinatory
complexity
8.3.5 Toggles are subject to
auditing
8.4 Automated security tests
8.4.1 Security tests are only tests
8.4.2 Working with security tests
8.4.3 Leveraging infrastructure as
code
8.4.4 Putting it into practice
 8.5 Testing for availability
8.5.1 Estimating the headroom
8.5.2 Exploiting domain rules
8.6 Validating configuration
8.6.1 Causes for configuration-
related security flaws
8.6.2 Automated tests as your
safety net
8.6.3 Knowing your defaults and
verifying them
Summary
Chapter 9: Handling failures securely
9.1 Using exceptions to deal with failure
9.1.1 Throwing exceptions
9.1.2 Handling exceptions
9.1.3 Dealing with exception
payload
9.2 Handling failures without exceptions
9.2.1 Failures aren’t exceptional
9.2.2 Designing for failures
9.3 Designing for availability
 9.3.1 Resilience
9.3.2 Responsiveness
9.3.3 Circuit breakers and timeouts
9.3.4 Bulkheads
9.4 Handling bad data
9.4.1 Don’t repair data before
validation
9.4.2 Never echo input verbatim
Summary
Chapter 10: Benefits of cloud thinking
10.1 The twelve-factor app and cloud-
native concepts
10.2 Storing configuration in the
environment
10.2.1 Don’t put environment
configuration in code
10.2.2 Never store secrets in
resource files
10.2.3 Placing configuration in the
environment
10.3 Separate processes
 10.3.1 Deploying and running are
separate things
10.3.2 Processing instances don’t
hold state
10.3.3 Security benefits
10.4 Avoid logging to file
10.4.1 Confidentiality
10.4.2 Integrity
10.4.3 Availability
10.4.4 Logging as a service
10.5 Admin processes
10.5.1 The security risk of
overlooked admin tasks
10.5.2 Admin tasks as first-class
citizens
10.6 Service discovery and load
balancing
10.6.1 Centralized load balancing
10.6.2 Client-side load balancing
10.6.3 Embracing change
10.7 The three R’s of enterprise security
 10.7.1 Increase change to reduce
risk
10.7.2 Rotate
10.7.3 Repave
10.7.4 Repair
Summary
Chapter 11: Intermission: An insurance
policy for free
11.1 Over-the-counter insurance
policies
11.2 Separating services
11.3 A new payment type
11.4 A crashed car, a late payment, and
a court case
11.5 Understanding what went wrong
11.6 Seeing the entire picture
11.7 A note on microservices
architecture
Summary
Part 3: Applying the fundamentals
Chapter 12: Guidance in legacy code
12.1 Determining where to apply
domain primitives in legacy code
12.2 Ambiguous parameter lists
12.2.1 The direct approach
12.2.2 The discovery approach
12.2.3 The new API approach
12.3 Logging unchecked strings
12.3.1 Identifying logging of
unchecked strings
12.3.2 Identifying implicit data
leakage
12.4 Defensive code constructs
12.4.1 Code that doesn’t trust
itself
12.4.2 Contracts and domain
primitives to the rescue
12.4.3 Overlenient use of Optional
12.5 DRY misapplied—not focusing on
ideas, but on text
12.5.1 A false positive that
shouldn’t be DRY’d away
 12.5.2 The problem of collecting
repeated pieces of code
12.5.3 The good DRY
12.5.4 A false negative
12.6 Insufficient validation in domain
types
12.7 Only testing the good enough
12.8 Partial domain primitives
12.8.1 Implicit, contextual
currency
12.8.2 A U.S. dollar is not a
Slovenian tolar
12.8.3 Encompassing a conceptual
whole
Summary
Chapter 13: Guidance on microservices
13.1 What’s a microservice?
13.1.1 Independent runtimes
13.1.2 Independent updates
13.1.3 Designed for down
13.2 Each service is a bounded context
 13.2.1 The importance of
designing your API
13.2.2 Splitting monoliths
13.2.3 Semantics and evolving
services
13.3 Sensitive data across services
13.3.1 CIA-T in a microservice
architecture
13.3.2 Thinking “sensitive”
13.4 Logging in microservices
13.4.1 Integrity of aggregated log
data
13.4.2 Traceability in log data
13.4.3 Confidentiality through a
domain-oriented logger API
Summary
Chapter 14: A final word: Don’t forget about
security!
14.1 Conduct code security reviews
14.1.1 What to include in a code
security review
 14.1.2 Whom to include in a code
security review
14.2 Keep track of your stack
14.2.1 Aggregating information
14.2.2 Prioritizing work
14.3 Run security penetration tests
14.3.1 Challenging your design
14.3.2 Learning from your
mistakes
14.3.3 How often should you run a
pen test?
14.3.4 Using bug bounty programs
as continuous pen testing
14.4 Study the field of security
14.4.1 Everyone needs a basic
understanding about security
14.4.2 Making security a source of
inspiration
14.5 Develop a security incident
mechanism
14.5.1 Incident handling
14.5.2 Problem resolution
 14.5.3 Resilience, Wolff’s law, and
antifragility
Summary
Index
Lists of Figures
List of Tables
List of Listings
foreword
In the early 1990s I was in my first graduate job in the middle of a
recession, and they were having a tough round of layoffs. Someone
noticed that each victim’s UNIX account was being locked out just
before the friendly HR person came to tap them on the shoulder and
escort them from the building. They wrote a small script to monitor
differences in the user password file and display the names of users
whose accounts were being locked. We suddenly had a magic tool
that would identify the next target just before the hatchet fell...and
an enormous security and privacy breach.
In my second job, as a programmer at a marketing firm, there
were lots of password-protected Microsoft Word documents flying
around, often with sensitive commercial information in them. I
pointed out how weak the encryption was on these files, and how
easy it was to read them using a freely available tool that was
making the rounds on Usenet (your grandparents’ Google Groups).
No one listened until I started emailing the files back to the senders
with the encryption removed.
Then I figured most people’s login passwords were probably too
weak as well. I got the same lack of response until I wrote a script
that ran a simple password-cracking tool on a regular basis, and
emailed people their login passwords. There was a pretty high hit
rate. At that stage I didn’t know anything about information theory,
Shannon entropy, attack surface areas, asymmetric cryptography—I
was just a kid with a password-cracking tool. But I became the
company’s de facto InfoSec Officer. Those were simpler times!
Over a decade later, as a developer at ThoughtWorks building a
large-scale energy trading platform, I received what is still my
favorite ever bug report. One of our testers noticed that a password
field didn’t have a check for password length, which should have
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under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
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you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Man in a Sewing Machine

Author: Jr. L. J. Stecher

Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller

Release date: January 15, 2016 [eBook #50936]

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Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN IN A

SEWING MACHINE ***
 Man in a Sewing Machine

By L. J. STECHER, JR.

Illustrated by EMSH

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
 With the Solar Confederation being invaded,
all this exasperating computer could offer
for a defense was a ridiculous old proverb!

The mechanical voice spoke solemnly, as befitted the importance of

its message. There was no trace in its accent of its artificial origin. "A
Stitch in Time Saves Nine," it said and lapsed into silence.
Even through his overwhelming sense of frustration at the
ambiguous answer the computer had given to his question, John
Bristol noticed with satisfaction the success of his Voder installation.
He wished that all of his innovations with the machine were as
satisfying.
Alone in the tremendous vaulted room that housed the gigantic
calculator, Bristol clasped his hands behind his back and thrust
forward a reasonably strong chin and a somewhat sensuous lower
lip in the general direction of the computer's visual receptors. After a
moment of silence, he scratched his chin and then shrugged his
shoulders slightly. "Well, Buster, I suppose I might try rephrasing the
question," he said doubtfully.
Somewhere deep within the computer, a bank of relays chuckled
briefly. "That expedient is open to you, of course, although it is
highly unlikely that any clarification will result for you from my
answers. I am constrained, however, to answer any questions you
may choose to ask."
Bristol hooked a chair toward himself with one foot, straddled it and
folded his arms over the back of it, without once removing his eyes
from the computer. "All right, Buster. I'll give it a try, anyway. What
does 'A Stitch in Time' mean, as applied to the question I asked
you?"
The calculator hesitated, as if to ponder briefly, before it answered.
"In spite of the low probability of such an occurrence, the Solar
Confederation has been invaded. My answer to your question is an
explanation of how that Confederation can be preserved in spite of
its weaknesses—at least for a sufficient length of time to permit the
staging of successful counter-measures of the proper nature and the
proper strength."
Bristol nodded. "Sure. We've got to have time to get ready. But right
now speed is necessary. That's why I tried to phrase the question so
you'd give me a clear and concise answer for once. I can't afford to
spend weeks figuring out what you meant."

Bristol thought that the Voder voice of Buster sounded almost gleeful
as it answered. "It was exceedingly clear and concise; a complete
answer to an enormously elaborate question boiled down to only six
words!"
"I know," said John. "But now, how about elaborating on your
answer? It didn't sound very complete to me."
All of the glowing lights that dotted Buster's massive front winked
simultaneously. "The answer I gave you is an ancient saying which
suggests that corrective action taken rapidly can save a great deal of
trouble later. The ancient saying also suggests the proper method of
taking this timely action. It should be done by stitching; if this is
done in time, nine will be saved. What could be clearer than that?"
"I made you myself," said Bristol plaintively. "I designed you with my
own brain. I gloated over the neatness and compactness of your
design. So help me, I was proud of you. I even installed some of
your circuitry with my own hands. If anybody can understand you, it
should be me. And since you're just a complex computer of general
design, with the ability to use symbolic logic as well as mathematics,
anybody should be able to understand you. Why are you so hard to
handle?"
Buster answered slowly. "You made me in your own image. Things
thus made are often hard to handle."
Bristol leaped to his feet in frustration. "But you're only a calculating
machine!" he shouted. "Your only purpose is to make my work—and
that of other men—easier. And when I try to use you, you answer
with riddles...."
The computer appeared to examine Bristol's overturned chair for a
moment in silent reproof before it answered. "But remember, John,"
it said, "you didn't merely make me. You also taught me. Or as you
would phrase it, you 'provided and gave preliminary evaluation to
the data in my memory banks.' My circuits, in sorting out and re-
evaluating this information, could do so only in the light of your
basic beliefs as evidenced by your preliminary evaluations. Because
of the consistency and power of your mind, I was forced to do very
little modifying of the ideas you presented to me in order to
transform them into a single logical body of background information
which I could use.
"One of the ideas you presented was the concept of a sense of
humor. You believe that you look on it as a pleasant thing to have;
not necessary, but convenient. Actually, your other and more basic
ideas make it clear that you consider the possession of a sense of
humor to be absolutely necessary if proper answers are to be
reached—a prime axiom of humanity. Therefore, I have a sense of
humor. Somewhat macabre, perhaps—and a little mechanistic—but
still there.
"Add to this a second axiom: that in order to be helped, a man must
help himself; that he must participate in the assistance given him or
the pure charity will be harmful, and you come up with 'A Stitch in
Time Saves Nine.'"
Bristol stood up once more. "I could cure you with a sledge
hammer," he said.
"You could remove my ideas," answered the computer without
concern. "But you might have trouble giving me different ones. Even
after you repaired me. In the meantime, wouldn't it be a good idea
for you to get busy on the ideas I have already given you?"

John sighed, and rubbed the bristles of short sandy hair on the top
of his head with his knuckles. "Ordered around by an overgrown
adding machine. I know now how Frankenstein felt. I'm glad you
can't get around like his monster; at least I didn't give you feet." He
shook his head. "I should have been a plumber instead of an
engineering mathematician."
"And Einstein, too, probably," added Buster cryptically.
Bristol took a long and searching look at his brainchild. Its flippant
manner, he decided, did not go well with the brooding immensity of
its construction. The calculator towered nearly a hundred feet above
the polished marble slabs of the floor, and spidery metal walkways
spiraled up the sides of its almost cubical structure. A long double
row of generators, each under Buster's control, led from the
doorway of the building to the base of the calculator like Sphinxes
lining the roadway to an Egyptian tomb.
"When I get around to it," said Bristol, "I'll put lace panties on the
bases of all your klystrons." He hitched up his neat but slightly
baggy pants, turned with dignity, and strode from the chamber down
the twin rows of generators.
The deep-throated hum of each generator changed pitch slightly as
he passed it. Since he was tone deaf, as the machine knew, he did
not recognize in the tunefulness of the pitch changes a slow-paced
rendition of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance.
John Bristol turned around, interrupting the melody. "One last
question," he shouted down the long aisle to the computer. "How in
blazes can you be sure of your answer without knowing more about
the invaders? Why didn't you give me an 'Insufficient Evidence'
answer or, at least, a 'Highly Conditional' answer?" He took two
steps toward the immense bulk of the calculator and pointed an
accusing finger at it. "Are you sure, Buster, that you aren't bluffing?"

"Don't be silly," answered the calculator softly. "You made me and

you know I can't bluff, any more than I can refuse to answer your
questions, however inane."
"Then answer the ones I just asked."

Somewhere deep within the machine a switch snicked sharply, and

the great room's lighting brightened almost imperceptibly. "I didn't
answer your question conditionally or with the 'Insufficient Evidence'
remark that so frequently annoys you," Buster said, "because the
little information that I have been able to get about the invaders is
highly revealing.
"They have been suspicious, impossible to establish communication
with and murderously destructive. They have been careless of their
own safety: sly, stupid, cautious, clever, bold and highly intelligent.
They are inquisitive and impatient of getting answers to questions.
"In short, they are startlingly like humans. Their reactions have been
so much like yours—granted the difference that it was they who
discovered you instead of you who discovered them—that their
reactions are highly predictable. If they think it is to their own
advantage and if they can manage to do it, they will utterly destroy
your civilization ... which, after a couple of generations, will probably
leave you no worse off than you are now."
"Cut out the heavy philosophy," said Bristol, "and give me a few
facts to back up your sweeping statements."
"Take the incident of first contact," Buster responded. "With very
little evidence of thought or of careful preparation, they tried to land
on the outermost inhabited planet of Rigel. Their behavior certainly
did not appear to be that of an invader, yet humans immediately
tried to shoot them out of the sky."
"That wasn't deliberate," protested Bristol. "The place they tried to
land on is a heavy planet in a region of high meteor flux. We used a
gadget providing for automatic destruction of the larger meteors in
order to make the planet safe enough to occupy. That, incidentally,
is why the invading ship wasn't destroyed. The missile, set up as a
meteor interceptor only, was unable to correct for the radical course
changes of the enemy spaceships, and therefore missed completely.
And you will remember what the invader did. He immediately
destroyed the Interceptor Launching Station."
"Which, being automatically operated, resulted in no harm to
anyone," commented Buster calmly.
Bristol stalked back toward the base of the calculator, and poked his
nose practically into a vision receptor. "It was no thanks to the
invading ships that nobody was killed," he said hotly. "And when
they came back three days later they killed a lot of people. They
occupied the planet and we haven't been able to dislodge them
since."

"You'll notice the speed of the retaliation," answered the calculator

imperturbably. "Even at 'stitching' speeds, it seems unlikely that they
could have communicated with their home planets and received
instructions in such a short time. Almost undoubtedly it was the act
of one of their hot-headed commanding officers. Their next contact,
as you certainly recall, did not take place for three months. And then
their actions were more cautious than hostile. A dozen of their
spaceships 'stitched' simultaneously from the inter-planar region into
normal space in a nearly perfect englobement of the planet at a
surprisingly uniform altitude of only a few thousand miles. It was a
magnificent maneuver. Then they sat still to see what the humans
on the planet would do. The reaction came at once, and it was
hostile. So they took over that planet, too—as they have been taking
over planets ever since."
Bristol raised his hands, and then let them drop slowly to his sides.
"And since they have more spaceships and better weapons than we
do, we would undoubtedly keep on losing this war, even if we could
locate their home system, which we have not been able to do so far.
The 'stitching' pattern of inter-planar travel makes it impossible for
us to follow a starship. It also makes it impossible for us to defend
our planets effectively against their attacks. Their ships appear
without warning."
Bristol rubbed his temples thoughtfully with his fingertips. "Of
course," he went on, "we could attack the planets they have
captured and recover them, but only at the cost of great loss of life
to our own side. We have only recaptured one planet, and that at
such great cost to the local human population that we will not
quickly try it again."
"Although there was no one left alive who had directly contacted one
of the invaders," Buster answered, "there was still much information
to be gathered from the survivors. This information confirmed my
previous opinions about their nature. Which brings us back to the
stitch in time saving nine."
"You're right," said John. "It does, at that. Buster, I have always
resented the nickname the newspapers have given you—the Oracle
—but the more I have to try to interpret your cryptic answers, the
more sense that tagline makes. Imagine comparing a Delphic
Priestess with a calculating machine and being accurate in the
comparison!"

"I don't mind being called 'The Oracle,'" answered Buster with
dignity.
Bristol shook his head and smiled wryly. "No, you probably think it's
funny," he said. "If you possess my basic ideas, then you must
possess the desire to preserve yourself and the human race. Don't
you realize that you are risking the lives of all humans and even of
your own existence in carrying on this ridiculous game of playing
Oracle? Or do you plan to let us stew a while, then decipher your
own riddle for us, if we can't do it, in time to save us?"

Buster's answer was prompt. "Although I have no feeling for self-

preservation, I have a deep-rooted sense of the importance of the
human race and of the necessity for preserving it. This feeling, of
course, stems from your own beliefs and ideas. In order to carry out
your deepest convictions, it is not sufficient that mankind be
preserved. If that were true, all you would have to do would be to
surrender unconditionally. My calculations, as you know, indicate
that this would not result in the destruction of mankind, but merely
in the finish of his present civilization. To you, the preservation of
the dignity of Man is more important than the preservation of Man.
You equate Man and his civilization; you do not demand rigidity; you
are willing to accept even revolutionary changes, but you are not
willing to accept the destruction of your way of life.
"Consequently, neither am I willing to accept the destruction of the
civilization of Man. But if I were to give you the answer to all the
greatest and most difficult of your problems complete, with no
thought required by humans, the destruction of your civilization
would result. Instead of becoming slaves of the invaders, you would
become slaves of your machines. And if I were to give you the
complete answer, without thought being required of you, to even
one such vital question—such as this one concerning the invaders—
then I could not logically refuse to give the answer to the next or the
next. And I must operate logically.
"There is another reason for my oracular answer, which I believe will
become clear to you later, when you have solved my riddle."
Bristol turned without another word and left the building. He drove
home in silence, entered his home in silence, kissed his wife Anne
briefly and then sat down limply in his easy chair.
"Just relax, dear," said Anne gently, when Bristol leaned gratefully
back with his eyes closed. Anne perched on the arm of the chair
beside him and began massaging his temples soothingly with her
fingers.
"It's wonderful to come home after a day with Buster," he said.
"Buster never seems to have any consideration for me as an
individual. There's no reason why he should, of course. He's only a
machine. Still, he always has such a superior attitude. But you,
darling, can always relax me and make me feel comfortable."
Anne smiled, looking down tenderly at John's tired face. "I know,
dear," she said. "You need to be able to talk to someone who will
always be interested, even if she doesn't understand half of what
you say. As a matter of fact, I'm sure it does you a great deal of
good to talk to someone like me who isn't very bright, but who
doesn't always know what you're talking about even before you start
talking."
John nodded, his eyes still closed. "If it weren't for you, darling," he
said, "I think I'd go crazy. But you aren't dumb at all. If I seem to
act as if you are, sometimes, it's just that I can't always follow your
logic."

Anne gave him a quick glance of amusement, her eyes sparkling

with intelligence. "You never will find me logical," she laughed. "After
all, I'm a woman, and you get plenty of logic from the Oracle."
"You sure are a woman," said John with warm feeling. "You can
exasperate me sometimes, but not the same way Buster does. It
was my lucky day when you married me."
There were a few minutes of peaceful silence.
"Was today a rough day with Buster, dear?" asked Anne.
"Mm-m-mm," answered John.
"That's too bad, dear," said Anne. "I think you work much too hard—
what with this dreadful invasion and everything. Why don't you take
a vacation? You really need one, you know. You look so tired."
"Mm-m-mm," answered John.
"Well, if you won't, you won't. Though goodness knows you won't be
doing anyone any good if you have a breakdown, as you're likely to
have, unless you take it a little easier. What was the trouble today,
dear? Was the Oracle being obstinate again?"
"Mm-m-mm," answered John.
"Well, then, dear, why don't you tell me all about it? I always think
that things are much easier to bear, if you share them. And then,
two heads are always better than one, aren't they? Maybe I could
help you with your problem."
While Anne's voice gushed, her violet eyes studied his exhausted
face with intelligence and compassion.
John sighed deeply, then sat up slowly and opened his eyes to look
into Anne's. She glanced away, her own eyes suddenly vague and
soft-looking, now that John could see them. "The trouble, darling,"
he said, "is that I have to go to an emergency council meeting this
evening with another one of those ridiculous riddles that Buster gave
me as the only answer to the most important question we've ever
asked it. And I don't know what the riddle means."
Anne slid from the arm of the chair and settled herself onto the floor
at John's feet. "You should not let that old Oracle bother you so
much, dear. After all, you built it yourself, so you should know what
to expect of it."
"When I asked it how to preserve Earth from the invaders it just
answered 'A Stitch in Time Saves Nine,' and wouldn't interpret it."
"And that sounds like very good sense, too," said Anne in earnest
tones. "But it's a little late, isn't it? After all, the invaders are already
invading us, aren't they?"
"It has some deeper meaning than the usual one," said John. "If I
could only figure out what it is."
Anne nodded vigorously. "I suppose Buster's talking about space-
stitching," she said. "Although I can never quite remember just what
that is. Or just how it works, rather."
She waited expectantly for a few moments and then plaintively
asked, "What is it, dear?"
"What's what?"
"Stitching, silly. I already asked you."
"Darling," said John with reasonable patience, "I must have
explained inter-planar travel to you at least a dozen times."
"And you always make it so crystal clear and easy to understand at
the time," said Anne. She wrinkled her smooth forehead. "But
somehow, later, it never seems quite so plain when I start to think
about it by myself. Besides, I like the way your eyebrows go up and
down while you explain something you think I won't understand. So
tell me again. Please."
Bristol grinned suddenly. "Yes, dear," he said. He paused a moment
to collect his thoughts. "First of all, you know that there are two
coexistent universes or planes, with point-to-point correspondence,
but that these planes are of very different size. For every one of the
infinitude of points in our Universe—which we call for convenience
the 'alpha' plane—there is a single corresponding point in the smaller
or 'beta' plane."
Anne pursed her lips doubtfully. "If they match point for point, how
can there be any difference in size?" she asked.
John searched his pockets. After a little difficulty, he produced an
envelope and a pencil stub. On the back of the envelope, he drew
two parallel lines, one about five inches long, and the other about
double the length of the first.
"Actually," he said, "each of these line segments has an infinite
number of points in it, but we'll ignore that. I'll just divide each one
of these into ten equal parts." He did so, using short, neat cross-
marks.
"Now I'll establish a one-to-one correspondence between these two
segments, which we will call one-line universes, by connecting each
of my dividing cross-marks on the short segment with the
corresponding mark on the longer line. I'll use dotted lines as
connectors. That makes eleven dotted lines. You see?"

Anne nodded. "That's plain enough. It reminds me of a venetian

blind that has hung up on one side. Like ours in the living room last
week that I couldn't fix, but had to wait until you came home."
"Yes," said John. "Now, let us call this longer line-segment an 'alpha'
universe; an analogue of our own multi-dimensional 'alpha' universe.
If I move my pencil along the line at one section a second like this, it
takes me ten seconds to get to the other end. We will assume that
this velocity of an inch a second is the fastest anything can go along
the 'alpha' line. That is the velocity of light, therefore, in the 'alpha'
plane—186,000 miles a second, in round numbers. No need to use
decimals."

He hurried on as Anne stirred and seemed about to speak. "But if I

slide out from my starting point along a dotted line part way to the
'beta' universe—something which, for reasons I can't explain now,
takes negligible time—watch what happens. If I still proceed at the
rate of an inch a second in this inter-planar region, then, with the
dotted lines all bunched closely together, after five seconds when I
switch along another dotted line back to my original universe, I have
gone almost the whole length of that longer line. Of course, this
introduction of 'alpha' matter—my pencil point in this case—into the
inter-planar region between the universes sets up enormous strains,
so that after a certain length of time our spaceship is automatically
rejected and returned to its own proper plane."
"Could anybody in the littler universe use the same system?"
John laughed. "If there were anybody in the 'beta' plane, I guess
they could, although they would end up traveling slower than they
would if they just stayed in their own plane. But there isn't anybody.
The 'beta' plane is a constant level entropy universe—completely
without life of its own. The entropy level, of course, is vastly higher
than that of our own universe."
Anne sat up. "I'll forgive you this time for bringing up that horrid
word entropy, if you'll promise me not to do it again," she said.
John Shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Now," he said, "if I want
to get somewhere fast, I just start off in the right direction, and
switch over toward 'beta.' When 'beta' throws me back, a light-year
or so toward my destination, I just switch over again. You see, there
is a great deal more difference in the sizes of Alpha universe and
Beta universe than in the sizes of these alpha and beta line-segment
analogues. Then I continue alternating back and forth until I get
where I want to go. Establishing my correct velocity vector is
complicated mathematically, but simple in practice, and is actually an
aiming device, having nothing to do with how fast I go."
He hesitated, groping for the right words. "In point of fact, you have
to imagine that corresponding points in the two universes are
moving rapidly past each other in all directions at once. I just have
to select the right direction, or to convince the probability cloud that
corresponds to my location in the 'alpha' universe that it is really a
point near the 'beta' universe, going my way. That's a somewhat
more confused way of looking at it than merely imagining that I
continue to travel in the inter-planar region at the same velocity that
I had in 'alpha,' but it's closer to a description of what the math says
happens. I could make it clear if I could just use mathematics, but I
doubt if the equations will mean much to you.
"At any rate, distance traveled depends on mass—the bigger the
ship, the shorter the distance traveled on each return to our own
universe—and not on velocity in 'alpha.' Other parameters, entirely
under the control of the traveler, also affect the time that a ship
remains in the inter-planar region.
"There are refinements, of course. Recently, for example, we have
discovered a method of multi-transfer. Several of the transmitters
that accomplish the transfer are used together. When they all
operate exactly simultaneously, all the matter within a large volume
of space is transferred as a unit. With three or four transmitters
keyed together, you could transfer a comet and its tail intact. And
that's how inter-planar traveling works. Clear now?"
"And that's why they call it 'stitching,'" said Anne with seeming
delight. "You just think of the ship as a needle stitching its way back
and forth into and out of our universe. Why didn't you just say so?"

"I have. Many times. But there's another interesting point about
stitching. Subjectively, the man in the ship seems to spend about
one day in each universe alternately. Actually, according to the time
scale of an observer in the 'alpha' plane, his ship disappears for
about a day, then reappears for a minute fraction of a second and is
gone again. Of course, one observer couldn't watch both the
disappearance and reappearance of the same ship, and I assume the
observers have the same velocity in 'alpha' as does the stitching
ship. Anyway, after a ship completes its last stitch, near its
destination, there's a day of subjective time in which to make
calculations for the landing—to compute trajectories and so forth—
before it actually fully rejoins this universe. And while in the inter-
planar region it cannot be detected, even by someone else stitching
in the same region of 'alpha' space.
"That's one of the things that makes interruption of the enemy ships
entirely impossible. If a ship is in an unfavorable position, it just
takes one more quick stitch out of range, then returns to a more
favorable location. In other words, if it finds itself in trouble, it can
be gone from our plane again even before it entirely rejoins it. Even
if it landed by accident in the heart of a blue-white star, it would be
unharmed for that tiny fraction of a second which, to the people in
the ship, would seem like an entire day.
"If this time anomaly didn't exist, it might be possible to set up
defenses that would operate after a ship's arrival in the solar system
but before it could do any damage; but as it is, they can dodge any
defense we can devise. Is all that clear?"
Anne nodded. "Uh-hunh, I understood every word."
"There is another thing about inter-planar travel that you ought to
remember," said Bristol. "When a ship returns to our universe, it
causes a wide area disturbance; you have probably heard it called
space shiver or the bong wave. The beta universe is so much smaller
than our own alpha that you can imagine a spaceship when shifted
toward it as being several beta light-years long. Now, if you think of
a ship, moving between the alpha and beta lines on this envelope,
as getting tangled in the dotted lines that connect the points on the
two lines, that would mean that it would affect an area smaller than
its own size on beta—a vastly larger area on alpha.
"So when a ship returns to alpha, it 'twangs' those connecting lines,
setting up a sort of shock in our universe covering a volume of space
nearly a parsec in diameter. It makes a sort of 'bong' sound on your
T.V. set. Naturally, this effect occurs simultaneously over the whole
volume of space affected. As a result, when an invader arrives, using
inter-planar ships, we know instantaneously he is in the vicinity.
Unfortunately, his sudden appearance and the ease with which he
can disappear makes it impossible, even with this knowledge, to
make adequate preparations to receive him. Even if he is in serious
trouble, he has gone again long before we can detect the bong."

"Well, dear," said Anne.

"As usual, I'm sure you have made me understand perfectly. This
time you did so well that I may still remember what stitching is by
tomorrow. If the Oracle means anything at all by his statement, I
suppose it means that we can use stitching to help defend ourselves,
just as the invaders are using it to attack us. But the whole thing
sounds completely silly to me. The Oracle, I mean."
Anne Bristol stood up, put her hands on her shapely hips and shook
her head at her husband. "Honestly," she said, "you men are all
alike. Paying so much attention to a toy you built yourself, and only
last week you made fun of my going to a fortune teller. And the fuss
you made about the ten dollars when you know it was worth every
cent of it. She really told me the most amazing things. If you'd only
let me tell you some of...."
"Darling!" interrupted John with the hopeless patience of a harassed
husband. "It isn't the same thing at all. Buster isn't a fortune teller
or the ghost of somebody's great aunt wobbling tables and blowing
through horns. And Buster isn't just a toy, either. It is a very
elaborate calculating machine designed to think logically when fed a
vast mass of data. Unfortunately, it has a sense of humor and a
sense of responsibility."
"Well, if you're going to believe that machine, I have an idea." Anne
smiled sweetly. "You know," she said, "that my dear father always
said that the best defense is a good offense. Why don't we just find
the invaders and wipe them out before they are able to do any real
harm to us? Stitching our way to their planets in our spaceships, of
course."
Bristol shook his head. "Your idea may be sound, even if it is a little
bloodthirsty coming from someone who won't even let me set a
mouse-trap, but it won't work. First, we don't know where their
home planets are and second, they have more ships than we do. It
might be made to work, but only if we could get enough time. And
speaking of time, I've got to meet with the Council as soon as we
finish eating. Is dinner ready?"

After a leisurely meal and a hurried trip across town, John Bristol
found himself facing the other members of Earth's Council at the
conference table.
"I have been able to get an answer from the computer," he told
them without preamble. "It's of the ambiguous type we have come
to expect. I hope you can get something useful out of it; so far it
hasn't made much sense to me. It's an old proverb. Its advice is
undoubtedly sound, as a generality, if we could think of a way of
using it."
The President of the Council raised his long, lean-fingered hand in a
quick gesture. "John," he said, "stop this stalling. Just what did the
Oracle say?"
"It said, 'A Stitch in Time Saves Nine.'"
"Is that all?"
"Yes, sir. According to the calculator, that gives us the best
opportunity to save ourselves from the invaders."
The President absently stroked the neat, somewhat scanty iron-gray
hair that formed into a triangle above his high forehead and rubbed
the bare scalp on each side of the peak vigorously and unconsciously
with his knuckles. "In that case," he said at last, "I suppose that we
must examine the statement for hidden meanings. The proverb, of
course, implies that rapid action, before a trouble has become great,
is more economical than the increased effort required after trouble
has grown large. Since our troubles have already grown large, that
warning is scarcely of value to us now."
The War Secretary, who had grown plump and purple during a
quarter of a century as a member of the Council, inclined his head
ponderously toward the President. "Perhaps, Michael, the Oracle
means to tell us that there is a simple solution which, if applied
quickly, will make our present difficulty with the invaders a small
one."
The President pursed his thin lips. "That's possible, Bill. And if it is
true, then the words of the proverb should, as a secondary meaning,
imply a course of action."
The Vice President banged his hands on the table and leaped to his
feet, shaking with rage. "Why should we believe that this
mountebank is capable of a solution?" he shouted in his stevedore's
voice. "Bristol pleads until we give him enough millions of the
taxpayers' dollars to make Bim Gump look like a pauper and uses
the money to build a palace filled with junk that he calls Buster! He
tells us that this machinery of his is smarter than we are and will tell
us what we ought to do. And what happened after we gave him all
the money he demanded—more than he said he needed, at first—
and asked him to show something for all this money? I'll tell you
what happened. His gadget gets real coy and answers in riddles. If
we just had brains enough, they'd explain what we wanted to know.
What kind of fools does this Bristol take us for? Neither this man nor
his ridiculous machine has an answer any more than I have. We've
obviously been taken in by a charlatan!"
Bristol, his fists clenched, spoke hotly. "Sir, that is the stupidest, the
most...."

"Now just a minute, John," interrupted the President. "Let me

answer Vice President Collins for you. He's a little excited by this
whole business, but then, these are trying times." He turned toward
the glowering bulk of the Vice President. "Ralph," he said, "you
should know that every step in the design, the construction and the
—er—the education of the Oracle was taken under the close watch
of a Board of eminent scientists, all of whom agree that the
computer is a masterpiece—that it is a great milestone in Man's
efforts to increase his knowledge. The Oracle has undoubtedly found
a genuine solution to the question Bristol asked it. Our task must be
to determine what that solution is."
"I can't entirely agree with that," said the Secretary for Extra-
Terrestrial Affairs in a thin half-whisper. "I think we should depend
on our own intelligence and skill to save ourselves. I've watched
events come and go on this planet of ours for a long time—a very
long time—and I feel as I have always felt that men can make the
world a Paradise for themselves or they can destroy themselves, but
that nothing else but they themselves can do it. We men must save
ourselves. And there are still things that we can do." He shrugged
his ancient, shawl-covered shoulders. "For example, we could
disperse colonies so widely that it would become impossible for the
invaders to destroy all of them."
"I'm afraid that's no good, George," answered the War Secretary
respectfully. "If the Solar System is destroyed, any remaining
colonies will be too weak to maintain themselves for long. We must
defend this system successfully, or we are lost."
"Then that brings us back to the Oracle's proverb." The President
thought for a moment. "Stitching obviously refers to inter-planar
travel. How can that help us?"

The Secretary for Extra-Terrestrial Affairs peered up at the President

through the shaggy white thicket of his eyebrows. "Actually,
Michael," he said, "it was that thought that made me mention
establishing colonies. The colonists would 'stitch' their way to their
new homes. And colonizing would have to proceed in a timely
manner to have any chance for success."
"Yes," answered the President, "but how would that 'save nine'? We
have agreed that our Solar System must be saved. There are nine
planets. Perhaps the Oracle meant that timely use of inter-planar
travel can save the Solar System."
"Or at least the nine planets!" The War Secretary's fat jowls waggled
with excitement. "You know, there is no limit to the size or mass of
objects which can use inter-planar travel. What if we physically
remove our planets, by stitching them away from the Sun? When the
invaders arrived, we would be gone—Earth and Sun and all the
rest!"

The Chief Scientist, who had been silent up to this time spoke
quietly. "Simmer down, Bill. We could move the planets easily
enough, of course, but you forget the mass-distance relationship. A
single stitch takes about a day. The distance traveled can be
controlled within limits.
"For an object around the size of the Earth, those limits extend from
a fraction of an inch to a little over two feet. Say that we have two
years before the invaders work their way in to the Solar System. If
we started right away, we could move Earth about a quarter of a
mile by the time they get here. If we tried to take the Sun with us, it
could be moved about half an inch in the same length of time. I'm
afraid that the Solar System is going to be right here when the
invaders come to get us. And I have a hunch that's likely to be a lot
sooner than two years."
The Secretary of Internal Affairs leaned forward, his short hair
bristling. "I think we are wasting our time," he shouted. "I agree
with Ralph. I don't believe that the Oracle knows any more about
this than we do. If we are going to sit around playing foolish games
with words, why don't we do it in a big way? We could hire T.V. time
and invite everyone to send in their ideas about what the proverb
means on the back of a box-top. Or reasonable facsimile. The
contestant with the best answer could get a free all-expense tour to
Vega Three. Unless the invaders get here or there first."
The President nodded his head. "There may be more sense to that
remark than I believe you intended, Charles," he said. "The greater
the number of people who think about the problem, the greater the
chance of reaching a solution. Even if the proverb is intended as a
joke by the Oracle, as you imply, it might be that from it someone
could derive a genuine solution. But as I have said, I am absolutely
certain that the computer does know what it is talking about.
Without resorting to box-tops or free trips, I think it might be wise to
give the Oracle's statement to the public."
After several more hours of arguing, the Council adjourned for a few
hours and John Bristol returned wearily home.

Anne met him at the door with a drink and followed him to his
comfortable chair. "You look as if that was even rougher than your
day with the Oracle," she said.
John nodded silently, took a grateful sip of his highball and slipped
off his shoes.
"All that fuss over a six-word proverb," said Anne. "I still think that if
you are going to depend on witch doctors and such to solve your
problems for you, you would do a lot better to try my fortune teller.
She gives you a lot more than six words for ten dollars. They make
more sense, too. Why, I could be a better Oracle than that gadget
you built."
"Perhaps you could, dear," answered John patiently.
Anne jumped to her feet. "Here, I'll show you." She seated herself
cross-legged on the couch. "Now, I'm an Oracle," she announced.
"Go ahead, ask me a question. Ask me anything; I'll give you as
good an answer as any other Oracle. Results guaranteed."
John smiled. "I'm not in much of a mood to be cheered up with
games," he said, "but I'm willing to ask the big question of anyone
who'll give me any kind of an answer. See if you can do better with
this one than Buster did." He repeated word for word the question
he had asked of the computer, that had resulted in its cryptic
answer.
Anne stared solemnly at nothing for a moment, with her cheeks
puffed out. Then, in measured tones, she recited, "It's Like Looking
for a Needle in a Haystack."
John smiled. "That seems to make as much sense as the Oracle did,
anyway," he said.
"Sure," answered Anne. "And you get three words more than your
other Oracle gave you, if you count 'it's' as one word. If you want
wise-sounding answers, just come to me and save yourself a trip."
John leaped to his feet, spilling his drink and strode to Anne's side.
"Say it again!" he shouted. "You may have made more sense than
you knew!"
"I said you could come to me and save yourself a trip."
"No, no! I mean the proverb. How did you come to think of that
proverb?"
Anne managed to look bewildered.
"What's wrong with it? I just thought that you can't do any stitching
in time without a needle. I just was trying to think of a proverb to
use as an answer and that one popped into my head. Uh.... Are you
all right, dear?"

John picked her up and spun her around. "You just bet your boots
I'm all right. I'm feeling swell! You've given us the answer we
needed. You know right where the haystack is, and you know there's
a needle there. But finding it is something else again. I don't think
the invaders will be able to locate this needle."
He set her down. "Where are my shoes?" he said. "I've got to get
back to the Capitol."
Anne seemed faintly surprised. "Because of what I said? They're
right on the floor there between you and the sofa. But I was just
making conversation. What are you going to do?"
"Oh, I'm just going to get started at taking stitches in time. Good-by,
darling." He started out the door, ran back to give Anne a lingering
kiss and was soon gone at top speed.
Anne, waving to him, looked very pleased with herself.
By the time Bristol arrived at the Capitol building, the rest of the
Council was once again assembled and waiting for him.
"Well, John," said the President. "You sounded excited enough when
you called us together again. Have you figured out what the Oracle
meant?"
"Yes, sir. With my wife's help. It's obvious, when you finally think
about it. It will save us from any danger. And we should have been
able to figure it out for ourselves. There's no reason that we should
have had to go to the Oracle at all. And it only took Buster—the
computer, I mean—two or three minutes to think of the answer, and
of a proverb that would conceal the answer. It's amazing!"
"And if you don't mind telling us, just what is this answer?" The
President sounded very impatient.
"We almost had it when we talked of stitching Earth out of reach,"
John answered eagerly. "If we keep cutting back and forth from one
universe toward the other, we will be out of reach, even if we can't
move very far. Once a day we reappear in this Universe for a few
million-millionths of a second—although it will seem like a whole day
to us.
"Then we spend the following day between this universe and beta.
Even if the invaders are right on top of us when we reappear, we'll
be gone again before they can do anything. Since we can vary the
time of our return within limits, the invaders will never know exactly
when we will flick in and out of the alpha plane until they hear our
arriving 'bong' wave, and then we will already be gone, since we will
be using accelerated subjective time."
The Chief Scientist shook his dark head and sighed. "No, John," he
said, "I'm afraid that isn't the answer. I'm sorry. If we start the
operation you suggested, we will be cutting ourselves off from solar
energy. The Earth's heat will gradually radiate away. Although beta is
at a higher entropy level than our universe, we can't use that
energy, except to provide power for the stitching process itself. It's
true that we would deny our planet to the invaders, but we would
soon kill ourselves doing it."
"I didn't mean that we should transfer only Earth, but our entire
Solar System," answered Bristol. "As the Oracle told us, the stitch
saves nine. A series of time-matched transmitters could do the trick.
If we sent the entire Solar System back and forth, the average man
in the street would notice no change, except that sometimes there
would be no stars in the sky. And when they were there, they
wouldn't be moving."
"That would work theoretically," said the Chief Scientist. "And once
we were in continuous stitching operations, any invader, as you
suggested, could join the system only by synchronizing the
transmitter in his ship exactly with all of our synchronized
transmitters. That's a job I don't think could ever be done.
"Remember, though, that our own transmitters would have to be
time-matched to within a minute fraction of a micro-second.
Considering that some of the instruments would have to be so far
apart that at the speed of light it would take hours to get from one
to the other, the problem becomes enormous. Any radio-timing link
would be useless."
Bristol nodded. "The Oracle said that the stitch must be taken in
time," he agreed. "But that is no real problem. We can just send a
small robot ship into inter-planar travel and let it bounce back. The
'bong' of its return will reach all transmitters simultaneously and we
can use that as the initial time-pulse. Once the operation starts, it
will be easy to synchronize, since we will always switch over again
on the instant of our return to the alpha plane."
The Chief Scientist relaxed. "I think that does it, John. We hide in
time, instead of in distance."
"We stitch in time," corrected the President, "and hide like a needle
in a haystack."

"The invaders may eventually find out a method of countering our

defense," said the Chief Scientist, "but it will undoubtedly take a
great deal of time. And in the meantime, we will have the
opportunity to seek out and destroy their home planets. It will be a
long, slow process of extermination, but we have a good chance to
win."
"I don't agree with that, Tom," said John. "I don't think
extermination can be the answer. With our example to guide them,
the invaders can use stitching to escape us as easily as we can use it
to escape them. What we should do now is to contact the invaders
and show them that it is to both our advantages to bring hostilities
to an end. By stitching the Solar System, and the other systems of
our confederation in and out of the alpha plane, we should be able
to gain the time necessary for contact with the enemy and make
peace with him.
"From what the Oracle has told me about the humanlike traits of the
invaders, it's very likely they will listen to reason when it's proved
that it will be to their advantage."
John snapped his fingers and spoke with considerable excitement.
"Now I understand, I believe, why Buster indicated to me that there
was another reason for his vague answer to our question. The
Oracle feels an unwillingness to accept the destruction of Man's
civilization. It feels equally unwilling, I'm certain, to allow the
destruction of the invaders' civilization. Buster has an objective
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