Sundaram started where he sat. “What’s this?”
“A demonstration. Maychance it will interest you, a military man.”
Sundaram made his visage a mask. “Yes,” he said without tone. “It will, very much.”
The view shifted outside. In kangaroo bounds, Kaino and his followers deployed. They unslung the things they carried and opened fire on the hillside. Silently, silently, an automatic rifle stitched pox across a bluff. Another blew chips off a boulder, set it rolling, whipped it on with slug after slug. A miniature rocket streaked forth, a flash erupted, dust fountained aloft from a new-made crater a meter wide. The fourth instrument woke and the scene dissolved in flashes and buzzes, scrambled electronics.
When it cleared and steadied, Kaino stood limned athwart the sky, gun in hand, flame-head thrown back, joyously laughing.
The view regained Sundaram and Ivala. The officer held himself expressionless. “Thank you,” he said. “That was most interesting.”
“I do not believe your service possesses anything similar,” she purred.
“No. We did not foresee a need to develop infantry weapons for space. Until now.”
“Now? Why, what you saw was naught save sport.”Sundaram gazed straight at the lovely image. “You do hot threaten us?”
“Positively not.” Her amicability went grave. “We do caution you.”
“Against what?”
“Against the unforeseeable. Too easily can events break free of all bounds. Not so? Let me suggest, Colonel, that you consult with your superiors. Thereafter, fare you well.” The face disappeared.
Zhao rose and went over to blank the screen. He did not bring back the scene from home. “The rest we need not play,” he told Dagny. “You know what passed. After some debate, the team received orders to turn back.”
She nodded.
He stood tall above her. “That was by my direct command,” he said. “I do not wish to provoke hotheads.”
She looked up at him. “I wonder if those aren’t inhumanly cool heads,” she replied. “But thank you, your Excellency. You are a wise man.”
His smile flickered. “Thank you for that. In fact, I fumble my way ahead, like everyone else.” Somber-ness: “You must agree I cannot let this defiance go ignored.”
“What can you do about it?”
“I begin by appealing to you, madame. Those are your sons. You are highly regarded everywhere on the Moon. If you make them see reason, I will see to it that no charges are brought.”
Dagny weighed out her words. “I asked, what can you do?”
“I beg pardon?”
“They’d no more hear me or my husband than grown, headstrong men ever heard their parents. Probably less.”
Zhao sat down again opposite her. “I am not convinced of that. You are you.”
“Gracias. But don’t you be convinced, either, of what I might say to them. This does involve a basic principle.” Dagny sighed. “Yes, I could wish they’d been more … tactful, politic. But they are what they are. Don’t you see, that’s the heart of the conflict. You’re trying to make them into what they are not, what they cannot be.”
“ ‘One Law for the Lion and Ox is Oppression,’” Zhao recited.
Dagny gave him a questioning glance.
“Thus wrote the poet William Blake some centuries ago,” he explained. Her respect for him waxed further. “But I am lawman for the oxen,” he went on. “For poor, wounded Earth. Have you no compassion for us?”
Dagny shook herself. “You’re not that dependent— Well, never mind. No, I don’t want a showdown, let alone an armed clash. It’d be lunacy.” She intended no humor. “I’m just telling you that to avoid it, you’ll have to give more than you get. Not more than you can afford, though.”
“I fear that to yield would provoke further encroachments. What then of the future?”
“We can’t control it. The grand illusion, that human beings ever could.”
He smiled anew, a bit. “Now it is you who quote. Anson Guthrie.”
“Why not? Fireball’s a vital factor too.” She leaned forward. “Listen, please. You want me to use my good offices to make Brandir give in. Well, they aren’t worth much for that end, and if they were, I might not employ them. However, I can and will use whatever influence I have with Guthrie. You’ve doubtless heard we’re close friends. He in his turn will … think of something. A stable Luna is in Fireball’s interest also. Besides, he wouldn’t let a fire burn people up when he could put it out.”