Q. Outer World ships?
A. Yes. But traveling under false Earth registry, remember.
Q. And the men imprisoned are citizens of the Outer Worlds?
A. I believe so. However, they were breaking not only our laws, but those of the Outer Worlds as well, and therefore doubly forfeited their interplanetary rights. I think the interview had better close, now.
Q. But this -
It was at this point that the broadcast came to a sudden end. The conclusion of Keilin's last sentence was never heard by anyone but Moreno. It ended like this:
'- means war.'
But Luiz Moreno was no longer on the air. So as he drew on his gloves, he smiled and, with infinite meaning, shrugged his shoulders in a little gesture of indifference.
There were no witnesses to that shrug.
The Gathering at Aurora was still in session. Franklin May-nard had dropped out for the moment in utter weariness. He faced his son, whom he now saw for the first time in naval uniform.
'At least you're sure of what will happen, aren't you?'
In the young man's response, there was no weariness at all, no apprehension; nothing but utter satisfaction. 'This is it, dad!'
'Nothing bothers you, then? You don't think we've been maneuvered into this.'
'Who cares if we have? It's Earth's funeral.'
Maynard shook his head: 'But you realize that we've been put in the wrong. The Outer World citizens they hold are lawbreakers. Earth is within its rights.'
His son frowned: 'I hope you're not going to make statements like that to the Gathering, dad. I don't see that Earth is justified at all. All right, what if smuggling was going on? It was just because some Outer Worlders are willing to pay black market prices for Terrestrial food. If Earth had any sense, she could look the other way, and everyone would benefit. She makes enough noise about how she needs our trade, so why doesn't she do something about it? Anyway, I don't see that we ought to leave any good Aurorans or other Outer Worlders in the hands of those apemen. Since they won't give them up, we'll make them. Otherwise, none of us will be safe next time.'
'I see that you've adopted the popular opinions, anyway.'
'The opinions are my own. If they're popular opinion also, it's because they make sense. Earth wants a war. Well, they'll get it.'
'But why do they want a war, eh? Why do they force our hands? Our entire economic policy of the past months was only intended to force a change in their attitude without war.'
He was talking to himself, but his son answered with the final argument: 'I don't care why they wanted war. They've got it now, and we're going to smash them.'
Maynard returned to the Gathering, but even as the drone of debate re-filled the room, he thought, with a twinge, that there would be no Terrestrian alfalfa that year. He regretted the milk. In fact, even the beef seemed, somehow, to be just a little less savory -
The vote came in the early hours of the morning. Aurora declared war. Most of the worlds of the Aurora bloc joined it by dawn.
In the history books, the war was later known as the Three Weeks' War. In the first week, Auroran forces occupied several of the trans-Plutonian asteroids, and at the beginning of the third week, the bulk of Earth's home fleet was all but completely destroyed in a battle within the orbit of Saturn by an Aurora fleet not one-quarter its size, numerically.
Declarations of war from the Outer Worlds yet neutral followed like the pop-pop of a string of firecrackers.
On the twenty-first day of the war, lacking two hours, Earth surrendered.
The negotiations of peace terms took place among the Outer Worlds. Earth's activities were concerned with signing only. The conditions of peace were unusual, perhaps unique, and under the force of an unprecedented humiliation, all the hordes of Earth seemed suddenly struck with a silence that came from a shamed anger too strong for words.
The terms mentioned were perhaps best commented upon by a voice on the Auroran video two days after they were made public. It can be quoted in part:
'… There is nothing in or on Earth that we of the Outer Worlds can need or want. All that was ever worthwhile on Earth left it centuries ago in the persons of our ancestors.
'They call us the children of Mother Earth, but that is not so, for we are the descendants of a Mother Earth that no longer exists, a Mother that we brought with us. The Earth of today bears us at best a cousinly relation. No more.
'Do we want their resources? Why, they have none for themselves. Can we use their industry or science? They are almost dead for lack of ours. Can we use their man power? Ten of them are not worth a single robot. Do we even want the dubious glory of ruling them? There is no such glory. As our helpless and incompetent inferiors, they would be only a drag upon us. They would divert from our own use food, labor and administrative ability.
'So they have nothing to give us but the space they occupy in our thought. They have nothing to free us from but themselves. They cannot benefit us in any way other than in their absence.
'It is for that reason that the peace terms have been defined as they have been. We wish them no harm, so let them have their own solar system. Let them live there in peace. Let them mold their own destiny in their own way, and we will not disturb them there by even the least hint of our presence. But we in turn want peace. We in turn would guide our own future in our own way. So we do not want their presence. And with that end in view, an Outer World fleet will patrol the boundaries of their system, Outer World bases will be established on their outermost asteroids, so that we may make sure they do not intrude on our territory.
'There will be no trade, no diplomatic relationships, no travel, no communications. They are fenced off, locked out, hermetically sealed away. Out here we have a new universe, a second creation of Man, a higher Man -
They ask us: What will become of Earth? We answer: That is Earth's problem. Population growth can be controlled. Resources can be efficiently exploited. Economic systems can be revised. We know, for we have done so. If they cannot, let them go the way of the dinosaur, and make room.
'Let them make room, instead of forever demanding room!'
And so an impenetrable curtain swung slowly shut about the Solar System. The stars in Earth's sky became only stars again, as in the long-dead days before the first ship had penetrated the barrier of light's speed.
The government that had made war and peace resigned, but there was no one, really, to take their place. The legislature elected Luiz Moreno - ex-Ambassador to Aurora, ex-Secretary without Portfolio - as President pro tem, and the Earth as a whole was too numbed to agree or disagree. There was only a widespread relief that someone existed who would be willing to take the job of trying to guide the destinies of a world in prison.
Very few realized how well-planned an ending this was, or with what calculation Moreno found himself in the president's chair.
Ernest Keilin said hopelessly from the video screen: 'We are only ourselves now. For us, there is no universe and no past - only Earth, and the future.'
That night he heard from Luiz Moreno once again, and before morning he left for the capital.
Moreno 's presence seemed incongruent within the stiffly formal president's mansion. He was suffering from a cold again, and snuffled when he talked.
Keilin regarded him with a self-terrifying hostility; an almost singeing hatred in which he could feel his fingers begin to twitch in the first gestures of choking. Perhaps he shouldn't have come- Well, what was the difference; the orders had been plain. If he had not come, he would have been brought.
The new president looked at him sharply: 'You have to alter your attitude toward me, Keilin, I know you regard me as one of the Gravediggers of Earth - isn't that the phrase you used last night? - but you must listen to me quietly for a while. In your present state of suppressed rage, I doubt if you could hear me.'