"It's a start," Arkady said.  "But there are aspects of that treaty you haven't mentioned.  Bases built on Mars will belong to the countries that build them, for instance.  We will be building American and Russian bases, according to this provision of the law.  And that puts us right back into the nightmare of Terran law and Terran history.  American and Russian businesses will have the right to exploit Mars, as long as the profits are somehow shared by all the nations signing the treaty.  This may only involve some sort of percentage paid to UN, in effect no more than bribe.  I don't believe we should acknowledge these provisions for even a moment!"

Silence followed this remark.

Ann Clayborne said, "This treaty also says we have to take measures to prevent the disruption of planetary environments, I think is how they put it.  It's in Article Seven.  That seems to me to expressly forbid the terraforming that so many of you are talking about."

"I would say that we should ignore that provision as well," Arkady said quickly.  "Our own well-being depends on ignoring it."

This view was more popular than his others, and several people said so.

"But if you're willing to disregard one article," Arkady pointed out, "you should be willing to disregard the rest.  Right?"

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"All these changes will happen inevitably," Sax Russell said with a shrug.  "Being on Mars will change us in an evolutionary way."

Arkady shook his head vehemently, causing him to spin a little in the air over the table.  "No, no, no, no!  History is not evolution!  It is a false analogy!  Evolution is a matter of environment and chance, acting over millions of years.  But history is a matter of environment and choice, acting within lifetimes, and sometimes within years, or months, or days!  History is Lamarckian!  So that if we choose to establish certain institutions on Mars, there they will be!   And if we choose others, there they will be!"  A wave of his hand encompassed them all, the people seated at the tables, the people floating among the vines:  "I say we should make those choices ourselves, rather than having them made for us by people back on Earth.  By people long dead, really."

Phyllis said sharply,  "You want some kind of communal utopia, and it's not possible.  I should think Russian history would have taught you something about that."

"It has," Arkady said.  "Now I put to use what it has taught me."

"Advocating an ill-defined revolution?  Formenting a crisis situation?  Getting everyone upset and at odds with each other?"