"It's the peripherals," he said with a sigh. "You've got the hard core, they're solidly with you. But the hard core isn't that many votes, Luce! The New Morality's real strength has been in its numbers, yeah, but most of those numbers aren't fanatics. They're ordinary folks who think the New Morality's ideas about cleaning up crime and vice are pretty good."

"And now?"

"Now they're looking at their television screens and seeing the big, bad U.N. attacking poor little Moonbase. And most of those people at Moonbase are Americans."

"Who use nanomachines."

The staff chief shook his head. "The voters don't care that much about the nanomachines. What's getting them worked up is the sight of a bunch of Americans getting attacked by the Peacekeepers—who are mostly foreigners."

"But they elected me because I pushed the nanotech treaty."

"That's not important to them now. As long as the Moon people keep their nanomachines on the Moon, the average American voter doesn't care a gnat's fart about it."

The President glared at her staff chief for long icy moments.

He gave her a weak grin. "Don't blame the messenger for the message," he said.

She huffed at him, then reached out and flicked on her desktop computer. "I want to see these numbers for myself."

The staff chief leaned back in the rocker and watched her face as the data from the constantly ongoing public-opinion poll flickered across her screen.

When she finally looked up at him she asked, "What should I do?"

"Call Faure and tell him to back off, maybe?"

"Don't be ridiculous! It's much too late for that."

"At least tell him that you're concerned about the safety of the American citizens at Moonbase."

"But they've declared their independence! They don't want American citizenship!"

"We don't know if that's just a ploy or not. Either way, there're probably a lot of men and women up there who want to keep their citizenship and come back to the States as soon as they can."

The President shook her head. "I can't weasel on Faure. I've been one of his strongest supporters! If I turn on him now, the word of this Administration will be worthless all around the world. Nobody would trust us again."

"I'm thinking about your re-election campaign."

She waved a hand in the air. "That's next year, for God's sake. By that time Moonbase will be under U.N. control and this whole flap will be forgotten."

Her staff chief still looked worried.

"All right," the President said,'so Yamagata will be running Moonbase and taking over the spacecraft market. If Masterson Corporation goes for it, what am I going to do about it?"

"Once the opposition starts gnawing on that bone . . ."

She shook her head stubbornly.

"They're already starting to make noises in the Senate," he insisted. "Joanna Brudnoy's been talking with half the committee chairmen on the Hill."