any missile had carried. Fission, fusion, chemical, or biological; all one: no analysis,
however precise and thorough, could ever reveal what any of those cargoes had
originally been. Nor did any missile reach its destination. Admiral Dann had ships enough,
and missile-killers in thousands to spare.
Meanwhile hundreds of small, highly-specialized vessels had been flying hither and yon
above certain areas of the various oceans. They were hunting, with ultrasensitive
instrumentation, all Earth’s missile-carrying submarines. They didn’t bother about the
missiles launched by the subs-the boys and girls upstairs would take care of them-they
were after the pig-boats themselves. Their torpedoes were hunters, too. Once a
torpedo’s finders locked on, the sub had no chance whatever of escape. There was a
world-jarring concussion where each submarine had been, and a huge column of water
and vapor drove upward into and through the stratosphere.
This furious first phase of the “police action” lasted except for the sub-hunt-only minutes.
Then every missile-launching site on Earth was blasted out of existence. So also were a
few subspacers attempting to leave EastHem-all Earth had been warned once and had
been told that the warning would not be given twice.
Then the immense fleet re-formed, held position, and waited a few hours; after which
time Dann ordered all civilian ships to return to their various ports. The navy stayed on ‘in
its entirety. It would continue to destroy all ships attempting to leave Earth.
Twelve hours after Earth’s last missile had been destroyed, two-hundred-odd persons
met in the main lounge of the flagship of the fleet. Maynard, his face haggard and drawn,
called the meeting to order. After the preliminaries were over, he said:
“One part of the operation, the prevention of damage to any important part of Earth, was
one hundred percent successful. Second, the replacement of EastHem’s dictatorship by
a board of directors was also successful at least, the first objectives were attained.
Third, our attempt to replace WestHem’s government by a board of directors which,
together with that of EastHem, would form a unified and properly-motivated government
of all Earth, was a failure. The Westerners did not try to leave Earth, but decided to stay
and fight it out. For that reason many key men changed their minds at the last minute and
remained loyal to WestHem’s government instead of supporting us. Thus, while we
succeeded in evacuating most of our personnel, we lost one hundred four very good
men.
“The fault, of course, was mine. I erred in several highly important matters. I
underestimated the power of nationalism and patriotism; of loyalty to a government even
though that government is notoriously inefficient, unjust, and corrupt. I underestimated the
depth and strength of the anti-Galaxian prejudice that has been cultivated so assiduously
throughout the great majority of Earth’s people; I failed to realize how rigidly, in the
collective mind of that vast group, Galaxianism is identified with Capitalism. I
overestimated the intelligence of that group; its ability to reason from cause to effect and
its willingness to act for its own good. I thought that, when the issue was squarely joined,
those people would abandon their attitude of `Let George do it’ and take some interest in
their own affairs.
“Because of these errors in judgment I hereby tender my resignation, effective as of
now, from the position of Chairman of this Board. I turn this meeting over to
Vice-Chairman Bryce for the election of my successor.”
He left the room; but was recalled in five minutes. “Mr. Maynard, your tendered
resignation has been rejected by an almost unanimous vote,” Bryce told him. “It is the
concensus that no one else of us all could have done as well. You will therefore resume
your place and the meeting will proceed.”
Maynard sat down and said, “I thank you, fellow Galaxians, for your vote of confidence;
which, however little deserved, I am constrained to accept. Mr. Eldon Smith will now
speak.”
The meeting went on for hours. Discussion was thorough and heated; at times
acrimonious. Eventually, however, the main areas of discord were hammered out to
substantial agreement. The Board of Directors of the Galactic Federation concluded its
first really important meeting.
Earth’s communications systems were restored to normal operating conditions and
Maynard, after ample advance notice, spoke to every inhabitant of Earth who cared to
listen. He covered the situation as it then was; what had brought it about, and why such
drastic action had been necessary. Then he said:
“At present there are ninety five planets in the Galactic Federation. Earth will be admitted
to the Federation if and when it adopts a planetary government acceptable to the
Federation’s Board of Directors. We care nothing about the form of that government; but
we insist that its prime concern must be the welfare of the human race as a whole. Earth
now has two directors on our board, Li Hing Wong and Feodr Ilyowicz. Earth is entitled
to three more directors, to represent the regions now being so erroneously called the
Western Hemisphere. They must be chosen by an honest, stable, and responsible
authority, not by your present government of corrupt, greedy, and self-serving gangsters
and plunderers.
“We will allow enough freighters to land on WestHem’s spaceports to supply WestHem’s
people with its usual supply of food and of certain other necessities, but that is all. Our
milk-truck drivers have been recalled and we will do nothing whatever about the general
strike. If you wish to let an organized minority starve you to death, that is your right. You
got yourselves into this mess; you can get yourselves out of it or not, as you please.
“We will not broadcast again until three qualified representatives of WestHem have been
accepted by us as members of the Board of Directors of the Galactic Federation. Until
then, do exactly as you please. That is all.”
There is no need to go into what happened then throughout the nations of WestHem; the
many nations whose only common denominator had been their opposition to the East.
Too much able work has been done, from too many different viewpoints, to make any
real summary justifiable. It suffices to say here that the adjustment was not as simple as
Maynard’s statement indicated that it should be, nor as easy as he really thought it would
be. The strife was long, bitter, and violent; and, as will be seen later, certain entirely
unexpected events occurred.
In fact, many thousand persons died and the Galaxians themselves had to straighten
WestHem out before its three directors were seated on the Board.
There is no agreement as to whether or not the course that was followed was the right
course or the best course. Many able scholars hold that the Directorate was just as
much of a dictatorship, and just as intolerant of and just as inimical to real liberty and
freedom, as was any dictatorship of old.
It is the chronicler’s considered opinion, however, that what was done was actually the
best thing-for humanity as a whole-that could have been done; considering what the
ordinary human being intrinsically is. By “ordinary” is meant, of course, the person to
whom the entire field of psionics is a sealed realm; the person in whose tightly closed
and rigidly conventional mind no supra-normal phenomenon can possibly occur or exist.
And the present state of galactic civilization seems to show that if what was done was
not the best that could have been done it was a very close approximation indeed thereto.
At what exact point does liberty become license? What is Freedom? Is Ethics an
absolute? Can any system of ethics ever become an absolute? The conclusion seems
unavoidable that until human beings have progressed much farther than they have at
present-until supra-normal abilities have become normal-the “liberties” and the
“freedoms” of many will have to be abridged if the good of all is to be served.
Newmars was the first planet to be colonized and it was designed from the first to
become completely independent of Earth in as short a time as possible. Thus, as well as
being longer-established than the other planets, it grew faster in population. Therefore
Newmars had a population of about a billion, whereas the next most populous planet,
Galmetia, had scarcely half that many people and all the rest of the colonized planets
together did not have many more people than did Earth alone.
Geographically, Newmars had somewhat more land than Earth and somewhat less
water, but the land masses were arranged in an entirely different pattern. There was one
tremendous continent, Warneria; which, roughly rectangular in shape and lying athwart
the equator, covered on the average about ninety degrees of latitude and about one
hundred fifty of longitude. There were half a dozen other, much smaller continents, and
many hundreds of thousands of islands ranging in size from coral atolls up to
near-continents as large as Australia.
Most of Nevmars’ people lived on “The Continent,” and some seven millions of them lived