“Uh. . . no, damn it! Just tell.”
“The odds against us are now only seventeen to one . . . and they’ve been shortening all month. Which I couldn’t tell you.”
“Was amazed, delighted, overjoyed–hurt. “What you mean, couldn’t tell me? Look, Prof, if not trusted, deal me out and put Stu in executive cell.”
“Please, son. That’s where he will go if anything happens to any of us–you, me, or dear Wyoming. I could not tell you Earthside–and can tell you now–not because you aren’t trusted but because you are no actor. You could carry out your role more effectively if you believed that our purpose was to achieve recognition of independence.”
“Now he tells!”
“Manuel, Manuel, we had to fight hard every instant–and lose.”
“So? Am big enough boy to be told?”
“Please, Manuel. Keeping you temporarily in the dark greatly enhanced our chances; you can check this with Adam. May I add that Stuart accepted his summons to Luna blithely without asking why? Comrade, that committee was too small, its chairman too intelligent; there was always the hazard that they might offer an acceptable compromise–that first day there was grave danger of it. Had we been able to force our case before the Grand Assembly there would have been no danger of intelligent action. But we were balked. The best I could do was to antagonize the committee, even stooping to personal insult to make certain of at least one holdout against common sense.”
“Guess I never will understand high-level approach.”
“Possibly not. But your talents and mine complement each other. Manuel, you wish to see Luna free.”
“You know I do.”
“You also know that Terra can defeat us.”
“Sure. No projection ever gave anything close to even money. So don’t see why you set out to antagonize–”
“Please. Since they can inflict their will on us, our only chance lies in weakening their will. That was why we had to go to Terra. To be divisive. To create many opinions. The shrewdest of the great generals in China’s history once said that perfection in war lay in so sapping the opponent’s will that he surrenders without fighting. In that maxim lies both our ultimate purpose and our most pressing danger. Suppose, as seemed possible that first day, we had been offered an inviting compromise. A governor in place of a warden, possibly from our own number. Local autonomy. A delegate in the Grand Assembly. A higher price for grain at the catapult head, plus a bonus for increased shipments. A disavowal of Hobart’s policies combined with an expression of regret over the rape and the killings with handsome cash settlements to the victims’ survivors. Would it have been accepted? Back home?”
“They did not offer that.”
“The chairman was ready to offer something like it that first afternoon and at that time he had his committee in hand. He offered us an asking price close enough to permit such a dicker. Assume that we reached in substance what I outlined. Would it have been acceptable at home?”
“Uh. . . maybe.”
“More than a ‘maybe’ by the bleak projection made just before we left home; it was the thing to be avoided at any cost–a settlement which would quiet things down, destroy our will to resist, without changing any essential in the longer-range prediction of disaster. So I switched the subject and squelched possibility by being difficult about irrelevancies politely offensive. Manuel, you and I know–and Adam knows–that there must be an end to food shipments; nothing less will save Luna from disaster. But can you imagine a wheat farmer fighting to end those shipments?”
“No. Wonder if can pick up news from home on how they’re taking stoppage?”
“There won’t be any. Here is how Adam has timed it, Manuel: No announcement is to be made on either planet until after we get home. We are still buying wheat. Barges are still arriving at Bombay.”
“You told them shipments would stop at once.”
“That was a threat, not a moral commitment. A few more loads won’t matter and we need time. We don’t have everyone on our side; we have only a minority. There is a majority who don’t care either way but can be swayed–temporarily. We have another minority against us. . . especially grain farmers whose interest is never politics but the price of wheat. They are grumbling but accepting Scrip, hoping it wili be worth face value later. But the instant we announce that shipments have stopped they will be actively against us. Adam plans to have the majority committed to us at the time the announcement is made.”