Allerton's eyes narrowed, but he remained silent as Saleh recounted the incident.
"Did Trader Sen say whether the Rooshrike were going to remain on guard over Astra?" he asked when the Secretary-General had finished.
"According to him, they'll stay there as long as we want them to. But I don't expect they're doing it for free."
"Um. You suppose their fee will involve some of the Spinneret technology?"
"Possibly. But that's not the point. No man or group of men can claim possession of land they cannot defend. We have been shamefully negligent in this area, and it is by the grace of God alone that we have a second chance."
"What are you suggesting we do?" Allerton asked calmly. Too calmly, in Saleh's opinion. Where was that warmongering, saber-rattling American belligerence when you truly needed it?
"I'm suggesting we get some real weapons to Astra immediately," he ground out.
"Anti-aircraft missiles, certainly; equipment for ground warfare, probably. And we'll need to arm our ships, too—"
"Who's going to pay for all this?"
For nearly a second Saleh completely lost his voice. "Have you perhaps forgotten those are your people out there?" he snapped when he found his tongue again.
"So you want us to foot the bill for these useless weapons," Allerton nodded.
"That's about what I expected."
"Useless?"
"You don't seriously think anything we can make will be effective against the kind of military technology we'd be up against, do you? Our only chance would be to buy state-of-the-art weaponry from the Ctencri—and I doubt seriously they would sell that to us."
Saleh stared at Allerton's image, again forcing his temper down. "All right, then.
If we can find a supplier of such weaponry, will you help pay for it?"
"Possibly," Allerton said. "It depends partly on who would have control of the weapons and how you would guarantee they wouldn't show up later in various national arsenals."
"We—the United Nations—would retain control, naturally."
"That's a little vague. Do you mean the Security Council, the General Assembly, or just the Secretariat?"
Saleh favored him with a long, cool gaze. "You don't trust us, do you?"
"As you've so often pointed out, Mr. Saleh, all Ctencri contacts run through the UN. Given the anti-West invective that seems to be a staple of Assembly speeches, I think I have a right to be concerned when you start talking about hasty weapons deals."
"Yet you are offended when I suggest the benefits of Astra and the Spinneret should be more evenly distributed."
"That's a different situation entirely, and you know it."
"Of course I do. But world opinion is seldom so rational." He paused. "So I'm giving you advance warning as to my plans. One: I'm going to make public the full details of the Spinneret's discovery and capabilities tomorrow morning, along with the Ctencri report of the M'zarch attack. At the same time I'm going to introduce a resolution in the Security Council that the UN take over the operation and defense of Astra."
"The United States will veto any such action," Allerton cut in sharply.
"So you've told me. And two: I'm going to authorize the formation of an international scientific task force to study the Spinneret and its cable. They will be transported to Astra aboard one of the new courier space ships the Ctencri have generously offered us—ships that will make the one-way trip in approximately four days."
He had the satisfaction of seeing Allerton's expression twitch at that. "So. Faster ships," the President said slowly. "Well, if you're expecting a communications advantage like that to shake us off Astra, you're going to be disappointed. What Astra needs most is a stable source of supplies, and I doubt your little couriers are going to have anything near the capacity of our ships."
"True. But who knows? In a month you may be leasing those ships to us—because I assure you, Mr. President, that the Spinneret will not remain long under the domination of you or any other single nation. It is the property of all mankind, and I intend to make that status both explicit and legal. I suggest you decide just how graciously you will bow to the inevitable. Good day, sir."
Allerton was still staring blackly at the camera when Saleh cut off the connection.
Chapter 15
Meredith had guessed the political ripples of the M'zarch attack would take a month to return to Astra; but in fact the ships started arriving barely ten days after the incident. Three warships from the Orspham Empire were first, hulking monstrosities that completely dwarfed the Rooshrike corvets which escorted them in from the border. The Whissst arrived a few days later, their ships much smaller and reminding Meredith of nothing so much as large, steel-plated pretzels. The Ctencri sent no warships, but the flying warehouse they brought was a gadgeteer's delight, judging by the catalogue they transmitted groundside. As each race arrived Meredith did his best to send properly courteous greetings, and to gratefully acknowledge their offers of assistance and defense without actually accepting any of them.
"I feel like an Exxon heir at a gold diggers' convention," he grumbled to Major Barner one afternoon in the latter's Crosse office. He seemed to be spending a lot of time in people's offices lately; the thought of all the radio monitors overhead had made him increasingly leery of the phone for anything but the most innocuous conversations. "You can practically hear dollar signs dropping every time one of them calls down."
"Except with the Orspham," Barner noted. "They seem more interested in finding a M'zarch ship to shoot up. Have you figured out yet what you're going to do about all of them?"
Meredith grimaced. "Not yet. It's obvious we're going to need some protection, if only to keep the M'zarch from taking another crack at us. The only problem is making sure the guards we pick don't decide at some point that robbery would pay better." He shook his head. "Never mind that for now. We can afford to string them along for a while longer. Did you really want me here to discuss the harvesting, or is this more from Hafner's people?"
"The latter." Barner unfolded a map and indicated the new areas of crosshatching.
"They've eliminated three more hills and most of the ridge that overhangs that end of the Dead Sea."
"Um. Still using that sonic echoing gadget Brown's people cobbled together?"
"And hoping slabs of cable material don't play games with sound waves as well as electric fields, yes. So far nothing that looks like a cavity has shown up."
"Have they talked to Dr. Chang's team about that? I don't know if they've done any sonic studies on the cable, but they should be able to rig up something."
"Probably could." Barner hesitated. "I don't really think Hafner's people want Chang in on this, though."
"The hell with what they want," Meredith growled. "We've got a set of experts here and we're going to use them. What does Hafner think this is, some new version of keep-away?"
"I don't think Dr. Hafner cares that much, himself. But some of his people—well, resent the way Chang just came in and took over up at the cable site."
For an instant Meredith remembered how Captain Witzany had reacted to that same event. "This whole place better start remembering that Astra is a territory of the United States, not some free and independent country. You'll send a messenger to Chang this afternoon to ask about the cable's sonic characteristics."
He caught the objection in Barner's eyes and mentally backed up a step. "You don't have to tell him why we want the information, though."