THE GREEN HILLS OF EARTH

The Colonel wanted to talk politics; Johnny was puzzled. Finally Towers had come to the point; it was not safe (so he said) to leave control of the world in political hands; power must be held by a scientifically selected group. In short – the Patrol.

Johnny was startled rather than shocked. As an abstract idea, Towers' notion sounded plausible. The League of Nations had folded up; what would keep the United Nations from breaking up, too, and thus lead to another World War. «And you know how bad such a war would be, Johnny.»

Johnny agreed. Towers said he was glad that Johnny got the point. The senior bomb officer could handle the work, but it was better to have both specialists.

Johnny sat up with a jerk. «You are going to do something about it?» He had thought the Exec was just talking.

Towers smiled. «We're not politicians; we don't just talk. We act.»

Johnny whistled. «When does this start?»

Towers nipped a switch. Johnny was startled to hear his own voice, then identified the recorded conversation as having taken place in the junior officers' messroom. A political argument he remembered, which he had walked out on ... a good thing, too! But being spied on annoyed him.

Towers switched it off. «We have acted,» he said. «We know who is safe and who isn't. Take Kelly – « He waved at the loudspeaker. «Kelly is politically unreliable. You noticed he wasn't at breakfast?»

«Huh? I thought he was on watch.»

«Kelly's watch-standing days are over. Oh, relax; he isn't hurt.»

Johnny thought this over. «Which list am I on?» he asked. «Safe or unsafe?»

«Your name has a question mark after it. But I have said all along that you could be depended on.» He grinned engagingly. «You won't make a liar of me, Johnny?»

Dahlquist didn't answer; Towers said sharply, «Come now – what do you think of it? Speak up.»

«Well, if you ask me, you've bitten off more than you can chew. While it's true that Moon Base controls the Earth, Moon Base itself is a sitting duck for a ship. One bomb – blooie !»

Towers picked up a message form and handed it over; it read: I HAVE YOUR CLEAN LAUNDRY – ZACK. «That means every bomb in the Trygve Lie has been put out of commission. I have reports from every ship we need worry about.» He stood up. «Think it over and see me after lunch. Major Morgan needs your help right away to change control frequencies on the bombs.»

«The control frequencies?»

«Naturally. We don't want the bombs jammed before they reach their targets.»

«What? You said the idea was to prevent war.»

Towers brushed it aside. «There won't be a war – just a psychological demonstration, an unimportant town or two. A little bloodletting to save an all-out war. Simple arithmetic.»

He put a hand on Johnny's shoulder. «You aren't squeamish, or you wouldn't be a bomb officer. Think of it as a surgical operation. And think of your family.»

Johnny Dahlquist had been thinking of his family. «Please, sir, I want to see the Commanding Officer.»

Towers frowned. «The Commodore is not available. As you know, I speak for him. See me again – after lunch.»

The Commodore was decidedly not available; the Commodore was dead. But Johnny did not know that.

Dahlquist walked back to the messroom, bought cigarettes, sat down and had a smoke. He got up, crushed out the butt, and headed for the Base's west airlock. There he got into his space suit and went to the lockmaster. «Open her up, Smitty.»

The marine looked surprised. «Can't let anyone out on the surface without word from Colonel Towers, sir. Hadn't you heard?»

«Oh, yes! Give me your order book.» Dahlquist took it, wrote a pass for himself, and signed it «by direction of Colonel Towers.» He added, «Better call the Executive Officer and check it.»

The lockmaster read it and stuck the book in his pocket. «Oh, no, Lieutenant. Your word's good.»

«Hate to disturb the Executive Officer, eh? Don't blame you.» He stepped in, closed the inner door, and waited for the air to be sucked out.

Out on the Moon's surface he blinked at the light and hurried to the track-rocket terminus; a car was waiting. He squeezed in, pulled down the hood, and punched the starting button. The rocket car flung itself at the hills, dived through and came out on a plain studded with projectile rockets, like candles on a cake. Quickly it dived into a second tunnel through more hills. There was a stomach-wrenching deceleration and the car stopped at the underground atom-bomb armory.

As Dahlquist climbed out he switched on his walkie-talkie. The space-suited guard at the entrance came to port-arms. Dahlquist said, «Morning, Lopez,» and walked by him to the airlock. He pulled it open.

The guard motioned him back. «Hey! Nobody goes in without the Executive Officer's say-so.» He shifted his gun, fumbled in his pouch and got out a paper. «Read it, Lieutenant.»

Dahlquist waved it away. «I drafted that order myself. You read it; you've misinterpreted it.»

«I don't see how, Lieutenant.»