Robert Heinlein - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Suddenly a light came on in my skull and I decided to question Wyoh privately. No, not Wyoh--Mike. Get past his "Adam Selene" dignity and hammer truth out of his neuristors. Recalled a cheque ten million dollars too large and wondered how many had voted for me? Seven thousand? Seven hundred? Or just my family and friends?

But no longer worried about new Congress. Prof had not slipped them a cold deck but one that was frozen solid--then ducked Earthside while crime was committed. No use asking Wyoh; she didn't even need to know what Mike had done... and could do her part better if did not suspect.

Nor would anybody suspect. If was one thing all people took for granted, was conviction that if you feed honest figures into a computer, honest figures come out. Never doubted it myself till met a computer with sense of humor.

Changed mind about suggesting that Stu be let in on Mike's self-awareness. Three was two too many. Or perhaps three. "Mi--" I started to say, and changed to: "My word! Sounds efficient. How big did we win?"

Adam answered without expression. "Eighty-six percent of our candidates were successful--approximately what I had expected."

("Approximately," my false left arm! Exactly what expected, Mike old ironmongery!) "Withdraw objection to a noon session--I'll be there."

"It seems to me," said Stu, "assuming that the embargo starts at once, we will need something to maintain the enthusiasm we witnessed tonight. Or there will be a long quiet period of increasing economic depression--from the embargo, I mean--and growing disillusionment. Adam, you first impressed me through your ability to make shrewd guesses as to future events. Do my misgivings make sense?"

"They do."

"Well?"

Adam looked at us in turn, and was almost impossible to believe that this was a false image and Mike was simply placing us through binaural receptors. "Comrades... it must be turned into open war as quickly as possible."

Nobody said anything. One thing to talk about war, another to face up to it. At last I sighed and said, "When do we start throwing rocks?"

"We do not start," Adam answered. "They must throw the first one. How do we antagonize them into doing so? I will reserve my thoughts to the last. Comrade Manuel?"

"Uh... don't look at me. Way I feel, would start with a nice big rock smack on Agra--a bloke there who is a waste of space. But is not what you are after."

"No, it is not," Adam answered seriously. "You would not only anger the entire Hindu nation, a people intensely opposed to destruction of life, but you would also anger and shock people throughout Earth by destroying the Taj Mahal."

"Including me," said Prof. "Don't talk dirty, Manuel."

"Look," I said, "didn't say to do it. Anyhow, could miss Taj."

"Manuel," said Prof, "as Adam pointed out, our strategy must be to antagonize them into striking the first blow, the classic 'Pearl Harbor' maneuver of game theory, a great advantage in Weltpolitick. The question is how? Adam, I suggest that what is needed is to plant the idea that we are weak and divided and that all it takes is a show of force to bring us back into line. Stu? Your people Earthside should be useful. Suppose the Congress repudiated myself and Manuel? The effect?"

"Oh, no!" said Wyoh.

"Oh, yes, dear Wyoh. Not necessary to do it but simply to put it over news channels to Earth. Perhaps still better to put it out over a clandestine beam attributed to the Terran scientists still with us while our official channels display the classic stigmata of tight censorship. Adam?"

"I'm noting it as a tactic which probably will be included in the strategy. But it will not be sufficient alone. We must be bombed."

"Adam," said Wyoh, "why do you say so? Even if Luna City can stand up under their biggest bombs--something I hope never to find out--we know that Luna can't win an all-out war. You've said so, many times. Isn't there some way to work it so that they will just plain leave us alone?"

Adam pulled at right cheek--and I thought: Mike, if you don't knock off play-acting, you'll have me believing in you myself! Was annoyed at him and looked forward to a talk--one in which I would not have to defer to "Chairman Selene."

"Comrade Wyoming," he said soberly, "it's a matter of game theory in a complex non-zero-sum game. We have certain resources or 'pieces in the game' and many possible moves. Our opponents have much larger resources and a far larger spectrum of responses. Our problem is to manipulate the game so that our strength is utilized toward an optimax solution while inducing them to waste their superior strength and to refrain from using it at maximum. Timing is of the essence and a gambit is necessary to start a chain of events favorable to our strategy. I realize this is not clear. I could put the factors through a computer and show you. Or you can accept the conclusion. Or you can use your own judgment."

He was reminding Wyoh (under Stu's nose) that he was not Adam Selene but Mike, our dinkum thinkum who could handle so complex a problem because he was a computer and smartest one anywhere.

Wyoh backtracked. "No, no," she said, "I wouldn't underitand the maths. Okay, it has to be done. How do we do it?"

Was four hundred before we had a plan that suited Prof and Stu as well as Adam--or took that long for Mike to sell his plan while appearing to pull ideas out of rest of us. Or was it Prof's plan with Adam Selene as salesman?

In any case we had a plan and calendar, one that grew out of master strategy of Tuesday 14 May 2075 and varied from it only to match events as they actually had occurred. In essence it called for us to behave as nastily as possible while strengthening impression that we would be awfully easy to spank.

Was at Community Hall at noon, after too little sleep, and found I could have slept two hours longer; Congressmen from Hong Kong could not make it that early despite tube all way. Wyoh did not bang gavel until fourteen-thirty.

Yes, my bride wife was chairman pro tem in a body not yet organized. Parliamentary rulings seemed to come naturally to her, and she was not a bad choice; a mob of Loonies behaves better when a lady bangs gavel.

Not going to detail what new Congress did and said that session and later; minutes are available. I showed up only when necessary and never bothered to learn talk-talk rules--seemed to be equal parts common politeness and ways in which chairman could invoke magic to do it his (her) way.

No sooner had Wyoh banged them to order but a cobber jumped up and said, "Gospazha Chairmah, move we suspend rules and hear from Comrade Professor de la Paz!"--which brought a whoop of approval.

Wyoh banged again. "Motion is out of order and Member from Lower Churchill will be seated. This house recessed without adjourning and Chairman of Committee on Permanent Organization, Resolutions, and Government Structure still has the floor."

Turned out to be Wolfgang Korsakov, Member from Tycho Under (and a member of Prof's cell and our number-one finagler of LuNoHoCo) and he not only had floor, he had it all day, yielding time as he saw fit (i.e., picking out whom he wanted to speak rather than letting just anyone talk). But nobody was too irked; this mob seemed satisfied with leadership. Were noisy but not unruly.

By dinnertime Luna had a government to replace co-opted provisional government--i.e., dummy government we had opted ourselves, which sent Prof and me to Earth. Congress confirmed all acts of provisional government, thus putting face on what we had done, thanked outgoing government for services and instructed Wolfgang's committee to continue work on permanent government structure.

Prof was elected President of Congress and ex-officio Prime Minister of interim government until we acquired a constitution. He protested age and health... then said would serve if could have certain things to help him; too old and too exhausted from trip Earthside to have responsibility of presiding--except on occasions of state--so he wanted Congress to elect a Speaker and Speaker Pro Tem... and besides that, he felt that Congress should augment its numbers by not more than ten percent by itself electing members-at-large so that Prime Minister, whoever he might be, could opt cabinet members or ministers of state who might not now be members of Congress--especially ministers-without-portfolio to take load off his shoulders.