The Lagrangists. Mack Reynolds
nuclear fission people.”
Rex Bader said, “Who else? You said that the letters you got were a hundred to one in favor.”
Professor Casey laughed in self-deprecation. “Perhaps those who were against didn’t write. At any rate, after my two close, ah, accidents, I began to think of just who might be against space colonization and came up with quite a list, which still probably isn’t complete.”
He came to his feet and went over to a small old fashioned bar set in a corner, which Rex hadn’t noticed sooner.
“A drink? I find all this talk a desiccant.”
Both Susie and Rex agreed. The professor mixed the drinks with the care of a chemist. Obviously, he was not a man who tolerated autobars, nor a man who put up with synthetics such as pseudo-whiskey. Without asking for preferences, he brought both an excellent Scotch and Soda.
When the drinks had been passed around, he said, “By the way, all of those letters that were in favor of the project were not necessarily so for the same reason that motivate us. We had one minister from The Scientific Church, some group based in California, who was for it because of his opinion that the other planets—he mentioned Mars—were occupied and we should get out into space so that we could convert the extraterrestrials to the true faith—whatever that is. Then there was a super-militarist type, a retired brigadier, named Cogswell. He was also of the belief that there was intelligent life out there in the stars and that it was man’s manifest destiny, as he called it, to conquer the galaxy. Ours, he claimed, is the first step.”
“Very convincing,” Rex joked. “But who was on your list of those who were against the Lagrange Five Project?”
The professor smiled ruefully. “For one, religious cranks such as I’ve already mentioned. Then there are the politicians who rebel against the expense, though in actuality we expect it to be no more than two and a half times the cost of the Apollo Project, which, of course, save for some technological spinoffs, paid off hardly at all. We expect the Lagrange Five Project to pay for itself in about twenty-two years. After that, the profits from it will be astronomical. Then there are the reactionary elements who fear that these space colonies, like most colonies of the past, would drift away from the mother country and domination of Earth. That they’ll form new governments; possibly even someday present a military danger to Earth.”
The professor took up a sheet of paper from his desk and checked it. “Oh, yes. A very important element that must be opposed to our project are far-seeing manufacturers in the advanced countries, including the United States, who realize that ultimately they will be put out of business by the ultra-efficient production of the space colonies. Among other things, such as hard vacuum and endless energy from the sun, everything in space pertaining to manufacture will be the very latest. There would be no such thing as obsolete machinery.
“Then there are the militarists. War as we have known it in the past would be antiquated, with our Islands in space hanging above. And here we shouldn’t forget the industrialists who were once called Merchants of Death. Those manufacturers, those aerospace plants, those shipyards, who have fattened on so-called defense expenditures ever since the Second World War. We actually got to the point where we were spending more on the military in peace time than we had ever spent in the war years. But with the coming of the space colony project, our military in the Hexagon and our Merchants of Death are going to be harder put to ram their appropriations through. The money is going to be needed to develop the Solar System.”
“Holy Zen,” Rex said in protest. “Wouldn’t there be anybody with clout in favor?”
The professor smiled at that. “Oh, yes. Astronomers and other scientists. Astronomy will be revolutionized. As things are now, radiation that may have taken a billion years to reach Earth is absorbed, or distorted almost beyond recognition, in less than a thousandth of a second as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere. There’s no atmosphere outside the space colonies. Beyond that, the size of the telescopes could tremendously exceed anything now on Earth. And you can imagine the research that will be possible in complete vacuum and without gravity.”
The professor thought about it for a moment, then recalled another group. “Environmentalists are also very gung-ho. The pollution now being spewed from present day power plants will end. And in time the pollution by industry will drop as heavy industry moves into space. We’ll draw our raw materials from Luna and the asteroids, so that depletion of Earth’s raw materials will all but end. We will be able to turn our mother planet back into the garden it was before the advent of the industrial revolution.”
The professor looked at his list again. “Then there are many who want cheap power, in both private life and in industry. And those dreamers who see man’s destiny as being in space, first the Solar System, then other star systems. It was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the 19th century Russian who studied the practical problems of space who said, ‘The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever.’ ”
Rex Bader said, “Wizard. So we’ll accept that you’ve got both friends and enemies. All right, but if you’re in continual danger, you need a minimum of three men to guard you on a twenty-four hour a day basis.”
Casey shook his head to that. “No. This must be handled with the utmost discretion. We can’t afford negative publicity. If three men were involved, there would be three times as much likelihood of the news leaking. I have an apartment here in this building, and now one in the administration building in Island One. You’ll simply move in as one of my research aides.”
Rex eyes him doubtfully. “Twenty-four hours a day?”
The professor smiled his soft grin at him. “You’d have your own room, of course.”
Rex came to his feet in sudden decision. “I’m going to regret this—but I’m in. When do I start?”
“You just have. Tomorrow morning we leave for Los Alamos where we take off for Island One.”
Susie said briskly, “If you’ll go get your things, on your return I’ll show you your room. Not too much weight, mind. Practically everything is supplied at Island One, including clothing.”
It took Rex Bader but a little over an hour to pack a single suitcase and return to the professor’s building. He ran into only one difficulty upon his arrival.
At the elevator banks was a stern looking young man of a type Rex Bader had known long and all too well. In the old days, supposedly, you were able to spot them by the size of their feet. These days you spotted them by their sincere, dedicated, usually intelligent, brightness and their conservative, very earnest, attire.
This one took in the bag and said, “What is your destination, sir?”
“Professor George Casey’s suite,” Rex told him, inwardly impatient.
“With what view in mind?”
“I’m a new member of his staff.”
The other looked at the bag again. “That doesn’t exactly look as though it contains papers pertaining to the Lagrange Five Project.”
Rex said, “Could I see some identification?”
The other brought forth a wallet and flicked back its cover. “Ron Peglor,” he snapped. “Security. Assigned from the IABI. And now, sir, may I see your identification?”
Rex sighed and brought forth his Universal Credit Card, which bore everything pertaining to the papers a citizen carried these days. It was even his driver’s license.
The other got out a pad and made notations, then returned the card to Rex.
Rex began to bend down to pick up his bag again. One of the elevators was available.
“Just a minute,” the other said coldly. “What is your position on the professor’s staff?”
Rex stared back. “Ask him; He can tell you better than I can.”
And Peglor rapped out, “You’re carrying a shooter,