front of the saucer, Amanda told Charley where she lived and her telephone number and asked for another ride for herself and her girlfriends. Finally she bounded away, her grandfather urging her on, her pigtails flying.
13
'The Europeans are coming around,' Henri Salmon reported to Pierre Artois. 'All but the British and Dutch, who are being obstinate.'
'As usual,' Julie remarked.
She and Pierre had just seated themselves in the lunar base com center to listen to the president of the United States, who had asked for network time to make a speech to the nation. That speech was, of course, being broadcast worldwide. Salmon and his department heads were also there, standing because there were not enough seats.
When he appeared, the president started with a brief exposition of Pierre's demands, which amounted to a world government that Pierre would rule by fiat. The president even repeated some of Pierre's stated goals for that government, such as solving the world hunger problem, and so forth.
Then he went into a summary of the history of democratic government as it had evolved through the centuries, taking it from the Magna Carta to elected parliaments to the American Revolution to universal suffrage.
'Representative democracy is not perfect,' the president said, 'but I am absolutely convinced that it is the best method yet devised for making the public decisions that affect our lives, liberty and property. Similarly, the rule of law is the best method mankind has yet come up with for arbitrating personal and business disputes and resolving legal issues. The rule of law is also not perfect. Still, both institutions have grown and taken root in Western civilization and are, I believe, our legacy to the generations of mankind yet to come. Both institutions are being slowly adopted, and adapted to local conditions, in fits and starts by developing nations all over the globe. I stand before you today as an elected official of our constitutional democracy; like every president before me, I have sworn an oath to uphold and defend that Constitution.'
The president continued on for a few minutes more, but Pierre pushed a button to silence the audio. He had gotten the message.
'We've been too gentle,' Julie said. 'We've been attacking things, trying to minimize the loss of life.' She managed to imply that choice had been an act of humanitarian kindness. A cynic might have disagreed, but there were no cynics in the com center, only true believers. 'It's time to take off the gloves,' she added flatly.
'Some reporter has gotten wind of your saucer ride,' P.J. O'Reilly told the president after his speech. 'He called my office minutes ago to see if we wanted to comment.'
The president pondered a bit before he answered. 'No comment,' he said finally.
O'Reilly was horrified. 'But, sir, the press will think we have something to hide. The congressional opposition will demand an investigation.'
'Let 'em investigate. We've got other things to worry about.'
Sensing that he was not getting through, O'Reilly attacked from another direction. 'The press will imply that you've launched the saucer on a military mission to the moon.'
The president brightened. 'I did.'
'They'll want to know specifics.'
The president thought about it. Rip Cantrell and Charley Pine — they were sure nice young people. He took a deep breath. A rescue mission, Rip said. Well, he and Charley were bright enough and courageous enough to do the right thing.
'No comment,' the president said, 'about the saucer or anything connected to it. Pierre can sweat a little.'
The trip to the moon in a flying saucer was, Egg Cantrell thought, the high point of his life. During his waking hours he sat in the pilot's seat wearing the headset that allowed him to talk to the saucer's computers. Looking through the canopy into deep space, watching the moon move against the stars, glancing over his shoulder at the spinning earth while exploring the wisdom of the ancients— it made him feel as if he were sitting at a window that allowed him to look at the eternal. He was beginning to get a glimmer of the how and why; it felt as if he could see the springs and gears that made the universe turn.
When he took off the headset and sat silently looking, he found himself thinking of the people and events in his own life from a different perspective. His parents and his childhood friends and experiences seemed to become part of the warp and woof of life. His personal and professional triumphs and failures — he had had his share of both — seemed somehow less significant. Now he saw life as a grand, glori-
ous adventure, and in some mysterious, almost mystical way, he was a part of all of it and it was a part of him.
Egg didn't get to spent all his time lost in thought. Chad-wick used his satellite radio to check in with the men in the moon on a regular basis, and to chat with the people at Mission Control in France. That was how he learned of the president's upcoming speech, which he, Egg and the two Frenchmen, whom Egg referred to as Fry One and Fry Two, listened to as it was broadcast.
'Politicians are ambitious, venal and selfish,' Chadwick said as the president talked about representative democracy.
Egg couldn't resist. 'And dictators aren't, which is probably why people all over the planet are ridding themselves of them as quickly as they can.'
'Pierre Artois isn't,' Chadwick asserted. 'He's a friend of all mankind.'
Egg let it drop. He consoled himself with the thought that reasoning with fanatics was a fool's errand. And Chadwick was a fanatic, he well knew, a dangerous one.
After the speech, they listened to news commentary from 'experts' and a report that a saucer had been seen flying around Washington, D.C., earlier in the day and was now thought to be outfitting for a flight to the moon.
Chadwick discussed that tidbit with Artois on the moon using the encrypted radio. Both men spoke in French, but Egg didn't need to understand their words to know they were worried men. He could see the strain on Chadwick's face and on the countenances of Fry One and Two, who whispered back and forth.
Egg sighed and tried to keep a poker face. It was difficult. Rip and Charley must be planning to come to the moon, no doubt in an attempt to rescue him. It would be exceedingly dangerous, he thought. In addition to the length of the journey in a craft not designed for it, a battle on the moon held little appeal.
Someone was going to die. He prayed it wouldn't be Rip or Charley.
Egg went back into the computers, which were very similar to the one at his house that he had been studying for a year. As near as Egg could determine, each computer had four programs devoted to analyzing data and attempting to collaborate with their human creators by generating and testing new ideas, new hypotheses. When a computer was given information, it would assimilate it, generate a theory, test it against known physical laws and then look for connections between this new theory and others.
To perform these feats the computer used four programs running simultaneously. Egg had named them. Franklin had a short attention span and jumped off in a new direction with each piece of data, brainstorming into areas that at first appeared implausible. Jefferson was pickier and only toyed with novel or interesting ideas. The Professor was more pedantic, exploring ideas only when they conformed to its preconceived concepts and rules. Einstein, more thorough, explored different shades and implications of ideas from any source, including his three colleagues, and occasionally arrived at a profound insight.
Egg lived for Einstein's insights, when he understood them. He communicated with a computer by watching it work and trying to understand the reality that it was exploring. The medium wasn't language; it was thoughts. He saw the thoughts, felt them and watched his four horsemen continuously mold and shape them, trying them out.
Egg found that he wasn't in the mood for computers. Nor did the games they contained interest him. Normally he had to ration himself on the games, which were interactive intellectual exercises presumably designed to stimulate the minds of interstellar voyagers. He couldn't stop thinking of Rip and Charley.
