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But in the early days there had not been the organization that existed in the present Aristarchy; planets had become lost for generations at a time. Most of the recalcitrant planets had eventually been subdued, but there were still many "hidden planets" which were organized as separate governments under a loose confederation. These were the Misfits.
After a generation had passed, others came in the civilizing types and settled the planets, making them part of the Aristarchy proper. The Guesser had a feeling that the government at that time had been of a different sort, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was.
Perhaps it had been the prototype of the Aristarchy, for certainly the present system of society had existed for four or five centuries perhaps more. The Guesser realized that his knowledge of ancient history was as confused as anyone's; after all, it wasn't his specialty.
And yet, the suggestion that the Sixer woman had made did require a little thinking over before he accepted or rejected it. The Misfits. What did he really know about them, anyway? They didn't call themselves Misfits, of course; that was a derogatory name used by the Aristarchy. But the Guesser couldn't remember off hand just what they did call themselves.
But the Sixer woman said she had heard that the Aristarchy was holding back facts; that there were planets clear out to the Periphery, all occupied by Misfits; that the legendary Earth was one of those planets; that A thousand things. All wrong, as The Guesser knew. But she was firmly convinced that if anyone could get to a Misfit planet, they would be welcomed.
There were no Classes among the Misfits, she said. The Guesser had asked the woman why if her statements were true the Misfits had not conquered the Aristarchy long ago. After all, if they held the galaxy clear out to the Periphery, they had the Aristarchy surrounded, didn't they? She had had no answer. And it had only been later that The Guesser realized that he had an answer.
Because of the numerical superiority of the Aristarchy, and because it operated in the open instead of skulking in the darkness of space, the Misfits knew where Aristarchy planets were located, while the Aristarchy was unable to search out every planet in the multimyriads of star systems that formed the galaxy. Thus the Misfits had become pirates, preying on the merchantships of the Aristarchy.
And it occurred to him that the Misfits might have another kind of trained talent. They seemed to be able to search out and find a single Aristarchy ship, while it was impossible to even detect a Misfit fleet until it came within attacking distance. Well, that, again, was not his business. But none of these considerations were important in the long run; none of them were more than minor.
Why? No one knew. The Aristarchy occupied nearly all the planets of the galaxy that could be inhabited by Man; that much The Guesser had been told. Just why Earth-type planets should occur only within five thousand light-years of the Galactic Center was a mystery to him, but, then, he was no astrophysicist.
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