"I didn't think so. Come on, let's see if we can't get a scream for help out to the strike force before they think of cutting off our power."

Chapter 38: Decision and Destiny.

Larson Sands and Kimber Crawford strolled through the park and watched as workmen on scaffolds repaired the damage done to Government Tower during the Militarists' coup. If one looked closely, it was possible to see where the habitat barrier had been temporarily patched. In another few weeks, a new section would be installed and its edges molecularly joined to the undamaged original.

As they walked arm in arm, they noted the other strollers among the potted trees and foam filled flowerbeds. Many were strike force officials attending the peace talks that had slipped outside for a breath of "fresh air." There were a number of couples in the park where the men were in strike force uniforms and the women were obviously locals. Lars had to smile at that. It had only been two weeks since the surrender and already the wounds were beginning to heal. He suspected that it had always been thus.

After the rout of the Alliance Navy in the eastern flyway, Admiral Vishnu had issued a surrender ultimatum on all channels. With Admirals Samorset and Blount dead and with no hope of defending their home cities, the senior surviving Alliance commander had bowed to the inevitable. He had ordered all cities and surviving warcraft to immediately cease their resistance.

The surrender had come none too soon for Sands and Rugillio Caen. Even as official word flashed through Cloudcroft, Alliance Marines had prepared to blast open the armored box containing the two infiltrators and the body of Mikal Blount. Some had resisted the order, wanting to take their frustrations out on the two enemies at hand. Wiser heads had prevailed after a few tense minutes. And so it was that Larson Sands found himself accepting the formal surrender of the government of the Northern Alliance.

The first few days following the surrender had been devoted to disarming the Alliance military. The process had been complicated by the fact that not all the ships that had gone out to meet Strike Force Redemption were accounted for. Fully ten percent were missing, even when known casualties were considered. The discrepancy caused a brief alarm aboard the coalition home cities. As the days dragged on, it became obvious that most of the missing craft had either sought refuge in neutral cities, or else had turned privateer.

The occupation force had discovered Kelt Dalishaar on the third day. He had shown up at an aid station suffering from untreated flash burns on face and hands. Even Kimber had not recognized him. When Sands saw him later, the ex-first councilor had been a frightened man.

"Are you here to pass sentence?" Dalishaar demanded in a voice that quivered despite his attempts toremain calm.

"Sentence?"

"They say you people are going to liquidate all of the old ruling council."

"No one has been liquidated. So long as you abide by the surrender agreement, no one will be."

"Then why are you here?"

"I came to ask about the energy screen data. We're having trouble locating it."

"How should I know where it is?" Dalishaar asked peevishly. "Samorset and Blount took possession of the record tiles on Earth. I never saw them."

"Any idea where they kept them?"

"Samorset probably put them in his personal safe."

"Where would we find that?"

"In his office down in Naval Headquarters. His battle staff can lead you to it."

"Thanks. Remain cooperative and you'll come out of this all right."

With the help of the grand admiral's intelligence officer, they were able to track down the record tiles the following day. Sands had duplicates made and distributed to each of the coalition partners. A set was also given to Paolo Renzi, who spent the next two diurnal cycles cataloging the data. When the scientist finished, he announced that, while far from complete, the records were sufficiently detailed that he would be able to duplicate the ancients' results within a few years.

Kelt Dalishaar was released from custody and given the duty of representing the Alliance in peace negotiations. Like many others, Sands wondered what there was to negotiate with the strike force in full control of each of the Alliance cities. He soon discovered how wrong he had been. At times during the peace conference, it seemed as though the Alliance had won the battle of the eastern flyway after all.

If there was one thing the coalition partners agreed on, it was the need to break up the Alliance. It was quickly agreed that no more than three Alliance cities would henceforth be allowed to join the same cluster. Furthermore, all ex-Alliance cities would be subject to military inspection for a period of twenty years. Those who wished to become free flyers could do so. Other cities possessing special skills would be invited to join various coalition partners.

It was over this last policy that the Corwins and Moskvans had their first disagreement. Both wanted one of the cities specializing in light manufacture to join their clusters. The dispute was finally settled when it was decided that no annexations would take place unless all partners agreed.

Despite its obvious defects, the peace talks had progressed well enough that ships began to return to their home cities ten days after the surrender. Some of the outlying Alliance cities had begun preparations for leaving the cluster. Even the daily arguments were becoming routine.

Sands found this a hopeful sign. Despite fifty thousand years of trying, no one had ever been able to cure human beings of orneriness. Perhaps that was just as well. After all, hadn't the race abandoned one planet to establish itself on a world manifestly unsuited to its needs? If people were less feisty, could they have accomplished such a feat? Would they have even tried? If politics and war were the natural result ofhumanity's desire to dominate the universe, then maybe they were not too high a price to pay.

"Hello!" Kimber said as she squeezed his hand to get his attention.

"Huh?"

"You look like you're a million kilometers away."

"Oh, sorry. Just thinking about the way things turned out."

"And how did they turn out?"

He smiled at her. "Pretty well, actually. No one is trying to kill us, and I have you. What more could I ask?"

She laughed. "You certainly know what I want to hear. Don't change after we're married."

He stopped, took her into his arms, and kissed her lightly. They embraced for a long time while smiling passersby walked around them. They remained that way until a shout from across the grassy quadrangle made them release each other. Both turned to find Paolo Renzi hurrying in their direction.

"Hello, Professor," Kimber said.

"I've been looking for you two."

"You've found us. What's up?"

"They're scheduling a vote in a few minutes. Your father sent me after you. We're going to need everyone to defeat this motion the Corwins are pushing."

"Which motion is that?" Sands asked. After several marathon sessions, the distinctions were becoming blurred.

"The Corwins are asking that the Alliance cities be banned from competing with coalition members in prime industries."

"Sounds good to me. Keep them humble, then maybe they'll forget this nonsense about a single government with themselves on top."

"You don't know what you're saying," Renzi replied. "All a trade ban would do is create resentment that will fester until it explodes into some new crisis. Read your history. No, if we are to have a lasting peace, we must be magnanimous in victory. As for unifying Saturn, that's something we should all be striving for!"

Sands frowned. "You mean you think they were right in trying to take over the whole belt?"

"No, of course not. Their goal was sound, but their methods were profoundly flawed. No one is ever going to unify a place as big as Saturn by conquest. If it is ever done, it will be by persuasion; with independent cloud cities joining the central government because of the benefits they will derive from it."

Sands was speechless. It was as though the Pope in New Rome had just remarked that Satan was not such a bad fellow after all.

"Are you serious?""Totally," Renzi replied. "If you think about it, you'll see that I'm right. Take energy screens as one example. In a few years we will be able to build them large enough to shield our cities from attack and will be well on our way to knowing how to construct planet-size screens. However, knowing how to do it will not get it done. For that we will need resources vastly greater than currently possessed by any single city or cluster of cities. If we are to return Earth to a habitable condition, we will need cooperation on an unprecedented scale. For that we must be united. So, I ask you, why not begin the process here and now?"

"How do you propose to do that?" Kimber asked.

"I'm talking to your father about sponsoring an institute for the study of energy screens. With Titan leading such an effort, the various cloud cities will more likely support the research with funds and people. They will also be less quick to worry that their rivals are gaining too many of the benefits. The institute will be just a beginning, of course. We will use it to set up cooperative efforts of all kinds, including a commission to see that every city has access to the data we publish. Once they get used to cooperating, maybe we can establish an international arbitration service and do away with this trial-by-combat ethic we've developed.".

"It sounds like you've been doing a lot of thinking these past two weeks," Kimber said.

"I have."

"What does Factor Crawford say about this grand plan?" Sands asked.

"He said the idea had merit."

"My father saidthat ?"

"Yes. He was quite enthusiastic, in fact."

"Who else have you talked to?"

"The Laird of Glasgow has expressed an interest."

Sands nodded. Hugh Fitzroy had arrived at the peace conference two days earlier with the three surviving members ofSparrowHawk 's crew. Fitzroy would likely agree to any plan that guaranteed he would be provided with energy screen technology.

Renzi glanced at his chronometer and clucked. "Shame on you two young people. You have gotten me up on my soapbox and made all of us late. I'll go ahead and tell the factor you will be along presently."

Sands watched the scientist hurry off and wondered if there had ever been a more unlikely candidate for changing the world. He took Kimber by the arm and the two of them walked slowly after Renzi in silence. Finally, he asked, "What do you think?"

Kimber shrugged. "The man makes a lot of sense."

"But damn it, we just risked our necks to keep things the way they are!"

"Just because the Northern Alliance was wrong, doesn't mean that we're right, you know," Kimber replied.

"Can't you just see Saturn ruled by some overgrown bureaucracy? They would levy taxes; tell you who you could sell to and at what price, make everything illegal that was not compulsory! Do you want to livelike that?"

"If it means getting Earth back?" she mused. "I think maybe I do."

As they walked under a sky of royal blue, beneath a sun a hundred times weaker than that of Earth, he had to admit to being confused. What was Saturn except a lifeboat in which they had kept the species Homo sapiens afloat until it could reclaim its native world? What were cloud cities but a bridge between the moment when the sun flared and that when humanity could do something about it? Was his personal dislike for big government merely a reflection of the fact that there would be no need for privateers on a united Saturn?

Sands glanced at Kimber and knew that this last consideration no longer applied. Sometime in the last two weeks, he had come to a decision. Never again would he risk his life in battle just because someone paid him to do it. A man with a wife had to be more mature than that. Having lost his profession, he needed a new goal in life. Perhaps remaking the world was not such a bad thing to dedicate one's life to.

It might even be fun!

"What are you smiling about?" Kimber asked "Was I smiling?"

"Well, it was more of a silly grin."

"I think I just made a decision."

"Oh? Care to share it with me?"

"I'll tell you later. In the meantime, let's get inside. We have a motion to defeat. We're going to need all the help we can get if we're ever to reclaim Earth."

She locked arms with him and smiled happily "I couldn't agree more!"

With that, they strode arm in arm toward Government Tower and their future together. Of one thing Sands was certain. It would not be dull!

The End

Author's Biography

Michael McCollum was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1946, and is a graduate of Arizona State University, where he majored in aerospace propulsion and minored in nuclear engineering. He is currently employed at AlliedSignal Aerospace Company, Tempe, Arizona, where he is a senior engineering manager in the Pneumatic Controls Product Line. In his career, Mr. McCollum has worked on the precursor to the Space Shuttle Main Engine, a nuclear valve to replace the one that failed at Three Mile Island, several guided missiles, Space Station Freedom, and virtually every aircraft in production today. He is currently involved in an effort to create a joint venture company with a major Russian aerospace engine manufacturer and has traveled extensively to Russia in the last several years.

In addition to his engineering, Mr. McCollum is a successful professional writer in the field of sciencefiction. He is the author of a dozen pieces of short fiction and has appeared in magazines such as Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Amazing, and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. His novels (all originally published by Ballantine-Del Rey) includeA Greater Infinity , ,Procyon's Promise,Antares Dawn ,Antares Passage ,The Clouds of Saturn, and The Sails of Tau Ceti, His novel,Thunderstrike!

, was optioned by a Hollywood production company for a possible movie.Several of these books have subsequently been translated into Japanese and German.

Mr. McCollum is the proprietor of Sci Fi - Arizona, one of the first author-owned-and-operated virtual bookstores on the INTERNET. He has completed the first book in a series titledThe Gibraltar Stars Trilogy .Gibraltar Earth was the first original novel published on Sci Fi -Arizona. Mr. McCollum is now working onAntares Victory .

Mr. McCollum is married to a lovely lady named Catherine, and has three children: Robert, Michael, and Elizabeth. Robert is a newly minted engineer, and Michael is studying to be a police officer. Elizabeth is a student at Northern Arizona University, where she is majoring in communications.

Sci Fi - Arizona A Virtual Science Fiction Bookstore and Writer's Workshop Michael McCollum, Proprietor WWW.SCIFI-AZ.COM.

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