But he admitted Gordette's point with a shrug. Moonbase against the United Nations, he thought. That's what it boils down to. Moonbase against the world.

So far, so good, he told himself. We've still got our electricity and we've forced the Peacekeepers to abandon their heavy weapons.

But as he watched the implacable approach of the Peacekeeper troops, Doug realized that what had happened so far was just the preliminary phase of this battle. The real fighting was about to begin.

Then the screen showing Edith's broadcast Earthside winked off.

CRATER FLOOR

Colonel Giap held the electro-optical binoculars to his visor and carefully studied the main airlock to Moonbase. The massive hatch had been slid wide open; the garage inside was brightly lit, clearly visible.

They could be hiding behind the tractors parked in the garage, Giap reasoned, waiting to pick us off as we enter the garage.

Pick us off with what? he asked himself. They have no guns. A few industrial lasers, of course, but those make awkward weapons. Trained troops could silence them in a few minutes.

"The men are deployed and waiting for your orders, sir," said his sergeant. Not his original aide; that poor devil was still back at the mountain pass, freed at last from the blue slime but in no emotional condition to be relied upon.

"Men and women, sergeant," Giap reminded him. "It is better to use the word "troops"."

"Yessir," the sergeant's apologetic voice hissed in Giap's helmet earphones. "The troops are waiting for your orders, sir."

Giap's timetable was a shambles, but that no longer mattered. They were about to penetrate Moonbase's perimeter defense.

Putting down his binoculars and letting them dangle from the cord around his neck ring, Giap turned to face his team of officers. Three captains, six lieutenants. His second-in-command, a South African major, had been left with the stalled vehicles up in the mountain pass. We have too many officers anyway, Giap thought. The Peacekeepers are top heavy with brass.

His nine officers straightened to a semblance of attention, a posture difficult to accomplish in their spacesuits and virtually impossible to maintain.

"Stand easy," Giap said mildly. "We will attack in two waves. First platoon will advance through the airlock and into the garage area on tractors. Second platoon will follow on foot. Third platoon will remain in reserve. Any questions?"

A tenth figure had joined the little group, uninvited. "What are we volunteers to do?"

Giap turned on the questioner. In his spacesuit it was difficult to determine which of the suicide fanatics it might be; the voice sounded American.

"You are to return to the command tractor and remain there, all of you, until I summon you," Giap said firmly.

"How will we know what to expect?"

Giap allowed himself a sneering smile, knowing that no one could see it behind his tinted visor. "You can follow the progress of the battle on Global News, just like everyone else on Earth."