Robert Heinlein - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

I looked at watch--hour and a half since first load hit. "Prof," I said, "can you tell me what this is about?"

"Sorry, Manuel," he said gently. "I intended--I should have--prefaced the meeting with an item from the news. But you seemed to feel that you had been bypassed and--well, I did not. The Minister refers to a news dispatch that came in just before I called you. Reuters in Toronto. If the flash is correct--then instead of taking our warnings it seems that thousands of sightseers crowded to the targets. There probably have been casualties. How many we do not know."

"I see. What was I supposed to do? Take each one by hand and lead away? We warned them."

Wright cut in with, "The intelligentsia feel that basic humanitarian considerations make it obligatory--"

I said, "Listen, yammerhead, you heard President say this news just came in--so how do you know how anybody feels about it?"

He turned red. "Gospodin President! Epithets! Personalities!"

"Don't call the Minister names, Manuel."

"Won't if he won't. He's simply using fancier words. What's that nonsense about nuclear bombs? We haven't any and you all know it."

Prof looked puzzled. "I am confused by that, too. This dispatch so alleged. But the thing that puzzled me is that we could actually see, by video, what certainly seemed to be atomic explosions."

"Oh." I turned to Wright. "Did your brainy friends tell you what happens when you release a few billion calories in a split second all at one spot? What temperature? How much radiance?"

"Then you admit that you did use atomic weapons!"

"Oh, Bog!" Head was aching. "Said nothing of sort. Hit anything hard enough, strike sparks. Elementary physics, known to everybody but intelligentsia. We just struck damnedest big sparks ever made by human agency, is all. Big flash. Heat, light, ultraviolet. Might even produce X-rays, couldn't say. Gamma radiation I strongly doubt. Alpha and beta, impossible. Was sudden release of mechanical energy. But nuclear? Nonsense!"

Prof said, "Does that answer your questions, Mr. Minister?"

"It simply raises more questions. For example, this bombardment is far beyond anything the Cabinet authorized. You saw the shocked faces when those terrible lights appeared on the screen. Yet the Minister of Defense says that it is even now continuing, every twenty minutes. I think--"

Glanced at watch. "Another just hit Cheyenne Mountain."

Wright said, "You hear that? You hear? He boasts of it. Gospodin President, this carnage must stop!"

I said, "Yammer-- Minister, are you suggesting that their space defense HQ is not a military target? Which side are you on? Luna's? Or F.N.?"

"Manuel!"

"Tired of this nonsense! Was told to do job, did it. Get this yammerhead off my back!"

Was shocked silence, then somebody said quietly, "May I make a suggestion?"

Prof looked around. "If anyone has a suggestion that will quiet this unseemliness, I will be most happy to hear it."

"Apparently we don't have very good information as to what these bombs are doing. It seems to me that we ought to slow up that twenty-minute schedule. Stretch it out, say to one every hour--and skip the next two hours while we get more news. Then we might want to postpone the attack on great China at least twenty-four hours."

Were approving nods from almost everybody and murmurs: "Sensible idea!"--"Da. Let's not rush things." Prof said, "Manuel?"

I snapped, "Prof, you know answer! Don't shove it on me!"

"Perhaps I do, Manuel... but I'm tired and confused and can't remember it."

Wyoh said suddenly, "Mannie, explain it. I need it explained, too."

So pulled self together. "A simple matter of law of gravitation. Would have to use computer to give exact answer but next half dozen shots are fully committed. Most we can do is push them off target--and maybe hit some town we haven't warned. Can't dump them into an ocean, is too late; Cheyenne Mountain is fourteen hundred kilometers inland. As for stretching schedule to once an hour, that's silly. Aren't tube capsules you start and stop; these are falling rocks. Going to hit somewhere every twenty minutes. You can hit Cheyenne Mountain which hasn't anything alive left on it by now--or can hit somewhere else and kill people. Idea of delaying strike on Great China by twenty-four hours is just as silly. Can abort missiles for Great China for a while yet. But can't slow them up. If you abort, you waste them--and everybody who thinks we have steel casings to waste had better go up to catapult head and look."

Prof wiped brow. "I think all questions have been answered, at least to my satisfaction."

"Not to mine, sir!"

"Sit down, Gospodin Wright. You force me to remind you that your ministry is not part of the War Cabinet. If there are no more questions--I hope there are none--I will adjourn this meeting. We all need rest. So let us--"

"Prof!"

"Yes, Manuel?"

"You never let me finish reporting. Late tomorrow or early Sunday we catch it."

"How, Manuel?"

"Bombing. Invasion possible. Two cruisers headed this way."

That got attention. Presently Prof said tiredly, "The Government Cabinet is adjourned. The War Cabinet will remain."

"Just a second," I said. "Prof, when we took office, you got undated resignations from us."

"True. I hope not to have to use any of them, however."

"You're about to use one."

"Manuel, is that a threat?"

"Call it what you like." I pointed at Wright. "Either that yammerhead goes... or I go."

"Manuel, you need sleep."

Was blinking back tears. "Certainly do! And going to get some. Right now! Going to find a doss here at Complex and get some. About ten hours. After that, if am still Minister of Defense, you can wake me. Otherwise let me sleep."

By now everybody was looking shocked. Wyoh came up and stood by me. Didn't speak, just slipped hand into my arm.

Prof said firmly, "All please leave save the War Cabinet and Gospodin Wright." He waited while most filed out. Then said, "Manuel, I can't accept your resignation. Nor can I let you chivvy me into hasty action concerning Gospodin Wright, not when we are tired and overwrought. It would be better if you two were to exchange apologies, each realizing that the other has been overstrained."

"Uh--" I turned to Finn. "Has he been fighting?" I indicated Wright.

"Huh? Hell, no. At least he's not in my outfits. How about it, Wright? Did you fight when they invaded us?'

Wright said stiffly, "I had no opportunity. By the time I knew of it, it was over. But now both my bravery and my loyalty have been impugned. I shall insist--"

"Oh, shut up," I said. "If duel is what you want, can have it first moment I'm not busy. Prof, since he doesn't have strain of fighting as excuse for behavior, I won't apologize to a yammerhead for being a yammerhead. And you don't seem to understand issue. You let this yammerhead climb on my back--and didn't even try to stop him! So either fire him, or fire me."

Finn said suddenly, "I match that, Prof. Either fire this louse--or fire us both." He looked at Wright. "About that duel, choom--you're going to fight me first. You've got two arms--Mannie hasn't."

"Don't need two arms for him. But thanks, Finn."

Wyoh was crying--could feel it though couldn't hear it. Prof said to her most sadly, "Wyoming?"

"I'm s-s-sorry, Prof! Me, too."

Only "Clayton" Watenabe, Judge Brody, Wolfgang, Stu, and Sheenie were left, handful who counted--War Cabinet. Prof looked at them; I could see they were with me, though it cost Wolfgang an effort; he worked with Prof. not with me.

Prof looked back at me and said softly, "Manuel, it works both ways. What you are doing is forcing me to resign." He looked around. "Goodnight, comrades. Or rather, 'Good morning.' I'm going to get some badly needed rest." He walked briskly out without looking back.