“Because, frankly, nobody in the White House is sure about the impact Kennedy’s remarks about the Mars option are having on public opinion. And now” — Agronski waved a hand at the curling photographs of Fra Mauro — “now you people have served us up with all this. The public mood is a fragile thing, Fred; after Apollo 13 America may want to go to Mars as fast as it can — or it may want to close down the space program altogether.”

Muldoon’s nostrils went white. “You’re talking about the lives of three men, damn it.”

Agronski studied him, analytically. “You know, you people at NASA have been the same whenever I’ve dealt with you. So emotive, so unrealistic. Even you, Fred. Every time we ask for proposals, back you come wanting everything: look at this Space Task Group report with its ‘balanced programs,’ its ‘wide range of technologies.’ You ask for Mars, but that brings everything else in its wake, it seems: nuclear boosters, a Space Shuttle, huge space stations. The same old vision von Braun has peddled since the 1950s — even though you didn’t need a space station to get to the Moon. Your hidden agendas are not, frankly, very well hidden. Why can’t you learn to prioritize?”

Muldoon said angrily, “The task group is asking for a mandate to begin the colonization of the Solar System. And to secure the future of the human race, just as Kennedy is saying. What could be higher priority than that?”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Agronski snapped. “We’re a country at war, Colonel Muldoon. And the war is a hemorrhage of money, resources, national morale.”

“Sure,” Muldoon said. “And Apollo is going to end up having cost as much as it takes to keep the war going for another twelve months. What a price to pay.”

Agronski ignored that. “The budget just isn’t big enough to do everything you want. You don’t have to be a White House insider to see that. And the public mood is against you, too. I don’t suppose you flyboys have heard of a thing called Earth Day, planned by the environmentalists in a couple of weeks’ time—”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it, damn it.”

“Cleanups. Marches. Teach-ins. That’s where the public is going to focus in the coming decade, Colonel Muldoon: on our problems here on Earth, not more of your stunts in space.”

“Maybe so. But Agnew chaired the Space Task Group, not NASA,” Michaels growled.

Agronski plowed on. “It’s time you people dropped the idea that you’re some kind of heroic superagency. During Apollo you thought you were the Manhattan Project. Well, now you’re a service agency with a limited budget. And that’s what you have to learn to live with…”

Michaels knew Agronski had a point.