“Thanks, Jimmie.”
Penny could not talk at all.
I turned in after that; a top-notch performance leaves me fagged. I slept for more than eight hours, then was awakened by the hooter. I had strapped myself to my bunk-I hate to float around while sleeping in free fall-so I did not have to move. But I had not known that we were getting under way so I called the control room between first and second warning. “Captain Broadbent?”
“Just a moment, sir,” I heard Epstein answer.
Then Dak’s voice came over. “Yes, Chief? We are getting under way on schedule-pursuant to your orders.”
“Eh? Oh yes, certainly.”
“I believe Mr. Clifton is on his way to your cabin.”
“Very well, Captain.” I lay back and waited.
Immediately after we started to boost at one gee Rog Clifton came in; he had a worried look on his face I could not interpret- equal parts of triumph, worry, and confusion. “What is it, Rog?”
“Chief! They’ve jumped the gun on us! The Quiroga government has resigned!”
Chapter 7
I was still logy with sleep; I shook my head to try to clear it. “What are you in such a spin about, Rog? That’s what you were trying to accomplish, wasn’t it?”
“Well, yes, of course. But-” He stopped.
“But what? I don’t get it. Here you chaps have been working and scheming for years to bring about this very thing. Now you’ve won-and you look like a bride who isn’t sure she wants to go through with it. Why? The no-good-nicks are out and now God’s chillun get their innings. No?”
“Uh-you haven’t been in politics much.”
“You know I haven’t. I got trimmed when I ran for patrol leader in my scout troop. That cured me.”
“Well, you see, timing is everything.”
“So my father always told me. Look here, Rog, do I gather that if you had your druthers you’d druther Quiroga was still in office? You said he had ‘jumped the gun.”
“Let me explain. What we really wanted was to move a vote of confidence and win it, and thereby force a general election on them-but at our own time, when we estimated that we could win the election.”
“Oh. And you don’t figure you can win now? You think Quiroga will go back into office for another five years-or at least the Humanity Party will?”
Clifton looked thoughtful. “No, I think our chances are pretty good to win the election.”
“Eh? Maybe I’m not awake yet. Don’t you want to win?”
“Of course. But don’t you see what this resignation has done to us?”
“I guess I don’t.”
“Well, the government in power can order a general election at any time up to the constitutional limitation of five years. Ordinarily they will go to the people when the time seems most favorable to them. But they don’t resign between the announcement and the election unless forced to. You follow me?”
I realized that the event did seem odd, little attention as I paid to politics. “I believe so.”
“But in this case Quiroga’s government scheduled a general election, then resigned in a body, leaving the Empire without a government. Therefore the sovereign must call on someone else to form a ‘caretaker’ government to serve until the election. By the letter of the law he can ask any member of the Grand Assembly, but as a matter of strict constitutional precedent he has no choice. When a government resigns in a body-not just reshuffling portfolios but quits as a whole-then the sovereign must call on the leader of the opposition to form the ‘caretaker’ government. It’s indispensable to our system; it keeps resigning from being just a gesture. Many other methods have been tried in the past; under some of them governments were changed as often as underwear. But our present system insures responsible government.”
I was so busy trying to see the implications that I almost missed his next remark. “So, naturally, the Emperor has summoned Mr. Bonforte to New Batavia.”
“Eh? New Batavia? Welll” I was thinking that I had never seen the Imperial capital. The one time I had been on the Moon the vicissitudes of my profession had left me without time or money for the side trip. “Then that is why we got under way? Well, I certainly don’t mind. I suppose you can always find a way to send me home if the Tommie doesn’t go back to Earth soon.”