even to me, but let it pass. What about a race that develops spaceflight and then loses it?"
"It happens. There are lots of ways a space-going species can revert to animal. Atomic war. Or they just can't live with the complexity. Or they breed themselves out of food, and the world famine wrecks everything. Or waste products from the new machinery ruins the ecology."
"'Revert to animal.' All right. What about nations? Suppose you have two nations next door, same species, but one has space flight-"
"Right. Good point, too. Morris, there are just two countries on Earth that can deal with the Monks without dealing through the United Nations. Us, and Russia. If Rhodesia or Brazil or France tried it, they'd be publicly humiliated."
"That could cause an international incident." Morris's jaw tightened heroically. "We've got ways of passing the warning along so that it won't happen."
Louise said, "There are some countries I wouldn't mind seeing it happen to."
Morris got a thoughtful look ... and I wondered if everybody would get the warning.
The cleaning team arrived then. We'd used Tip Top Cleaners before, but these four dark women were not our usual team. We had to explain in detail just what we wanted done. Not their fault. They usually clean private homes, not bars.
Morris spent some time calling New York. He must have been using a credit card; he couldn't have that much change.
"That may have stopped a minor war," he said when he got back. And we returned to the padded booth. But Louise stayed to direct the cleaning team.
The four dark women moved about us with pails and spray bottles and dry rags, chattering in Spanish, leaving shiny surfaces wherever they went. And Morris resumed his inquisition.
"What powers the ground-to-orbit ship?"
"A slow H-bomb going off in a magnetic bottle."
"Fusion?"
"Yah. The attitude jets on the main starship use fusion power too. They all link to one magnetic bottle. I don't know just how it works. You get fuel from water or ice."
"Fusion. But don't you have to separate out the deuterium 'and tritium?"
"What for? You melt the ice, run a current through the water, and you've got hydrogen."
"Wow," Morris said softly. "Wow."
"The launching laser works the same way," I remembered. What else did I need to remember about launching lasers? Something dreadfully important.
'Wow. Fraser, if we could build the Monks their launching laser, we could use the same techniques to build other fusion plants. Couldn't we?"
"Sure." I was in dread. My mouth was dry, my heart was pounding. I almost knew why. "'What do you mean, if?"
"And they'd pay us to do it! It's a damn shame. We just don't have the hardware."
"What do you mean? We've got to build the launching laser!"
Morris gaped. "Frazer, what's wrong with you?"
The terror had a name now. "My God! What have you told the Monks? Morris, listen to me. You've got to see to it that the Security Council promises to build the Monks' launching laser."
"Who do you think I am, the Secretary-General? We can't build it anyway, not with just Saturn launching configurations." Morris thought I'd gone mad at last. He wanted to back away through the wall of the booth.
"They'll do it when you tell them what's at stake. And we can build a launching laser, if the whole world goes in on it. Morris, look at the good it can do! Free power from seawater! And light-sails work fine within a system."
"Sure, it's a lovely picture. 'We could sail out to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. We could smelt the asteroids for their metal ores, using laser power. . ." His eyes had momentarily taken on a vague, dreamy look. Now they snapped back to what Morris thought of as reality. "It's the kind of thing I daydreamed about when I was a kid. Someday we'll do it. Today-we just aren't ready."
"There are two sides to a coin," I said. "Now, I know how this is going to sound. Just remember there are reasons. Good reasons."
"Reasons? Reasons for what?"
"When a trading ship
"It happens. There are lots of ways a space-going species can revert to animal. Atomic war. Or they just can't live with the complexity. Or they breed themselves out of food, and the world famine wrecks everything. Or waste products from the new machinery ruins the ecology."
"'Revert to animal.' All right. What about nations? Suppose you have two nations next door, same species, but one has space flight-"
"Right. Good point, too. Morris, there are just two countries on Earth that can deal with the Monks without dealing through the United Nations. Us, and Russia. If Rhodesia or Brazil or France tried it, they'd be publicly humiliated."
"That could cause an international incident." Morris's jaw tightened heroically. "We've got ways of passing the warning along so that it won't happen."
Louise said, "There are some countries I wouldn't mind seeing it happen to."
Morris got a thoughtful look ... and I wondered if everybody would get the warning.
The cleaning team arrived then. We'd used Tip Top Cleaners before, but these four dark women were not our usual team. We had to explain in detail just what we wanted done. Not their fault. They usually clean private homes, not bars.
Morris spent some time calling New York. He must have been using a credit card; he couldn't have that much change.
"That may have stopped a minor war," he said when he got back. And we returned to the padded booth. But Louise stayed to direct the cleaning team.
The four dark women moved about us with pails and spray bottles and dry rags, chattering in Spanish, leaving shiny surfaces wherever they went. And Morris resumed his inquisition.
"What powers the ground-to-orbit ship?"
"A slow H-bomb going off in a magnetic bottle."
"Fusion?"
"Yah. The attitude jets on the main starship use fusion power too. They all link to one magnetic bottle. I don't know just how it works. You get fuel from water or ice."
"Fusion. But don't you have to separate out the deuterium 'and tritium?"
"What for? You melt the ice, run a current through the water, and you've got hydrogen."
"Wow," Morris said softly. "Wow."
"The launching laser works the same way," I remembered. What else did I need to remember about launching lasers? Something dreadfully important.
'Wow. Fraser, if we could build the Monks their launching laser, we could use the same techniques to build other fusion plants. Couldn't we?"
"Sure." I was in dread. My mouth was dry, my heart was pounding. I almost knew why. "'What do you mean, if?"
"And they'd pay us to do it! It's a damn shame. We just don't have the hardware."
"What do you mean? We've got to build the launching laser!"
Morris gaped. "Frazer, what's wrong with you?"
The terror had a name now. "My God! What have you told the Monks? Morris, listen to me. You've got to see to it that the Security Council promises to build the Monks' launching laser."
"Who do you think I am, the Secretary-General? We can't build it anyway, not with just Saturn launching configurations." Morris thought I'd gone mad at last. He wanted to back away through the wall of the booth.
"They'll do it when you tell them what's at stake. And we can build a launching laser, if the whole world goes in on it. Morris, look at the good it can do! Free power from seawater! And light-sails work fine within a system."
"Sure, it's a lovely picture. 'We could sail out to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. We could smelt the asteroids for their metal ores, using laser power. . ." His eyes had momentarily taken on a vague, dreamy look. Now they snapped back to what Morris thought of as reality. "It's the kind of thing I daydreamed about when I was a kid. Someday we'll do it. Today-we just aren't ready."
"There are two sides to a coin," I said. "Now, I know how this is going to sound. Just remember there are reasons. Good reasons."
"Reasons? Reasons for what?"
"When a trading ship
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