He had given up telling himself that the posting was important. He knew it wasn’t. Even with the increased tension and gradual advance of the aliens, the post was nothing more than an expendable speck in the vast perimeter of Earth’s defence. Its very position made it of less importance than similar posts elsewhere because the bulk of Jupiter almost wholly nullified the detector instruments with which the dome was equipped. At most, they would have less than three minutes warning if the aliens decided to attack...