“Don’t ask this one what he thought of the Nano War,” pleaded Bretygne in his ear.
“You used the ’n’ word,” he chided.
Somehow the unwieldy mass of well-dressed and undressed humanity wandered over to the dining area. Part Two went with them. As for Ambassador Konski, he grabbed Lady Lamarr by the arm and announced, “This is our chance. Follow me!”
“Why are you grabbing me by the arm?” asked Bretygne, but not really resisting. “Isn’t that a violation of my elbow rights or something?”
“I’ll make restitution,” he grinned. “Besides, this way I know your boyfriends will follow.”
They all went through a service entrance where a space cadet limo was waiting. They piled in and Konski ordered the robot driver to take them out into the lunar night.
Konski’s tone of voice lost its strident quality. He sounded like a different person when he said, “Tonight reminded me of an observation by the twenty-first century philosopher Garmon. He said that the truth of all technological societies lies in the manner by which we come to resemble our tools. But I don’t want to look like a silver egg with tentacles! I don’t want to belong to any labor force that would have me as a member.”
Bretygne suddenly felt relaxed for the first time that evening. “You know, Palmer thinks I’m a spoiled brat.”
“I’ve never said that!” he protested.
“But it’s true,” she said, and not a single man in the limo asked her if she meant it was true that she was spoiled or that it was true that Palmer thought so.
The professor sounded happy, too. “Freedom is learning to balance responsibility along with being spoiled. Both are essential.”
Konski nodded. “The human race seems to be on a bell curve. Those who can handle freedom and responsibly are at one end. Those who would be the masters and dictators are on the other end. The vast mass is the bell of the bell curve. They want a little freedom and a little slavery. They play the role of master and slave interchangeably even though they don’t want either condition to be permanent.”
Palmer couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “That’s a surprisingly mature remark to come from a man who just turned in that performance back at the dome.”
Konski laughed and started rubbing off his mustache with a bright red handkerchief. “They wanted to see anarchists tonight, didn’t they? My brother and I worship a handful of twentieth century movie stars, the ones who had talent. The early, funny ones.”
They were sitting in a comfortable semicircle in the back. The guest of honor started acting as if he deserved the title. He patted Palmer on the shoulder. “Enough of the show. Let’s get down to brass tacks. Lysander has precious raw materials that are needed to power starships. It would be cheaper to mine them than to produce them artificially. That’s also considering the distances involved and the time factors. But we need the United States of Earth to believe that we have a military capacity to defend ourselves.”
“You don’t!” all three of his critics spoke at once.
“Exactly. But we learned from the loss of a continent that our defense agencies have certain limitations. We know how to live together now, but that doesn’t mean we have the organization to withstand an invasion by Earth forces! The bastards on the home world are capable of anything. They think we’re all children on Lysander so none of us have rights. We must convince them we are children who can bite!”
The Earth hung above their conversation like a blue and green goblin, threatening the gray expanse of a free Luna. Palmer leaned back in his seat and exhaled slowly. He’d been expecting the moment of decision for some time. Now that it had arrived it was as if a shadow moved across his vision, taking with it all of his worries.
In his whole life, he’d never heard the word freedom used as often as he’d heard it today. The word wouldn’t leave him alone. It had gotten inside him. Freedom. Liberty. A light to penetrate his personal darkness.
Looking at Bretygne, he seemed to see her for the first time. He felt something new. He didn’t want to have sex with her or to compete with her or to prove anything. He simply felt affection.
Taking her by the hand he smiled. She smiled back. For a brief wonderful moment they were alone in the universe and not even gigantic egos like Konski and Astaroth could intrude.
“I can fix it,” said Palmer. “Actually, the three of us can definitely arrange things for you, Mr.
Ambassador. But you already know that. We can fool the United States of Earth into believing you have a significant military force. The destruction of the continent on Lysander is proof of your capacity, after all. No one in Berlin would ever believe the real reasons for that disaster.”
Konski reached into a compartment and pulled out a small statuette. “This is a replica of the Statue of Liberty.”
“Oh, my,” said Bretygne. “The one that was destroyed.”
“In the Welfare War,” Astaroth finished for her.
Konski cradled his trophy. “This is a perfect copy except the inscription on the bottom has been changed. It speaks to what we need now on Lysander. And what we will require as we open new worlds. You three have spent enough time on Earth, don’t you think?”
Palmer took the small statue and held it close. He read the inscription out loud:
This time, just send us your children!
ACCORDING TO THEIR NEED
by Michael A. Stackpole
Father Flynn closed his eyes for a moment and luxuriated in the heat from the reflected sunlight coming up off the lake’s silver surface. A gentle breeze provided a hint of a swell to rock the boat, but better was the insistent slap of wavelets against the aluminum hull. While Apogea’s orbit around its single sun was a bit too distant to make the world quite warm enough, its largely unspoiled beauty more than compensated for the slight chill.
He opened his blue eyes again and smiled at the woman in the other end of the boat. “I’m thinking, Rina, this is about the closest to Paradise I’ll be getting before a discussion with Saint Peter.”
The woman laughed lightly and easily, and the youthful tone of her laughter further concealed her age. Flynn knew they were both in their fifties—him solidly, and she just starting—but she hid it well. Still lean, with bright hazel eyes and black hair without a hint of white, she seemed yet as youthful as she had when he first met her on the station. The years had used him a bit harder than they had her, and the resilience that had let her recover from tragedy had been long in evidence throughout his visit.
“Well, Dennis, I hope for your sake that you are incorrect. Apogeais very beautiful however.” She gave him a very warm smile. “And, despite our lack of luck so far today, it does have the fattest troutganisms I’ve seen this side of Earth.”
“Oh, I believe you, and I’m not in the least disappointed.” He winked at her. “After all, it’s called fishing, not
The small lake on which they were drifting lay in a forested hilly basin. The crystal waters were so pure that they just dipped a cup if they were thirsty. Trees resembling pines and maples dotted the hillsides, with Apogea’s evolutionary equivalent of cattails lining the shores. Off to the northeast he could see the white crescent of beach they’d set out from, and the cabin hidden a bit farther on, just the edge of the woods.
“It feels as if we’re all alone here.”
Arina Gadja nodded. “We are. Barring an emergency, accident, seriously poor navigating or someone incredibly rude, we won’t see anyone else unless we chose to invite them or accept an invite.”
Flynn tapped the chronometer on his left wrist. “But we’re not really alone, are we, since we’re being monitored all the time.”
“Just for safety’s sake. If your heart were to seize up, someone would be along to get you to sick bay.”
Flynn shook his head. “You know, I’m still surprised you agreed to come here and live on Apogea. You spent your adult life working security on Qian space stations, enforcing one law over countless individuals who came from a legion of legal traditions. Law and order were so much the fabric of your life, and yet you retire to a world
