Yeah, sure. And I could fly if I had wings. The facts of the matter are that you've been assigned to decapitate the leadership here and this Stavenger kid is the leadership. Sooner or later the Peacekeepers are going to come back in force and either take this base or flatten it. If you haven't done your job by then you're dead. Either you get killed in the battle or they drag you back to headquarters, a failure. And you know what that means. Better to get yourself killed trying to do your job.

He tried to calm himself and think his problem through. The only time Stavenger's alone inside the base here is when he sleeps. And he hasn't been doing much sleeping, the past ten days. Conferences all the time. He's always got a gaggle of people around him.

Maybe tonight, though. He's got to sleep sometime. Maybe I'll walk him to his quarters and do him there and get it the hell over with.

"All right," Doug said, standing on a table in The Cave. "This your meeting. Let's hear what you have to say."

Almost the entire population of Moonbase was jammed into The Cave. Only a skeleton crew was left on duty at the monitoring center, and they were piped into this meeting through the base intercom. The dinner shifts were finished. The other tables and chairs had been pushed against the far wall so everyone could gather into the space. From his vantage atop the table, Doug saw their faces focused squarely on him. They were standing shoulder-to-shoulder; the only empty spots on the floor of the big cafeteria were the little squares of grass.

Edith Elgin, now in a Moonbase-issue white coverall, stood off to one side, where she had set up both her minicams on tripods to record the meeting.

Jinny Anson was standing in the front row at Doug's feet. She asked, "Well, are we independent or not?"

The acoustics in The Cave were good enough so that she didn't need amplification.

Doug answered, There's been no confirmation of our declaration of independence from the U.N. or any recognition by any country on Earth."

"Great," someone sneered.

"Physically, though," Doug went on, "we're showing that we can exist independently of supplies from Earth. The U.N. hasn't allowed a flight here since the Peacekeeper mission took off. We're under siege."

"Big deal.'.

"Wait a minute," one of the women asked. "You mean we can't go back Earthside if we want to?"

"I don't know," Doug said. "I'm sure we could arrange with Faure for transport to take people back Earthside, if there're enough who want to leave to make a flight necessary."

"What about us?" asked the manager of the Canadian dance troupe.

Doug lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Until we can negotiate your return Earthside, you'll have to remain here as our guests, I'm afraid."

"But we have contractual obligations! Dates in a dozen cities!"