Richard McKenna

“ The settlement prospered but the planet had a strong Rho effect. Did he understand?
"Yes, Madame President. An excess of female over male births until a certain population density is reached."
"It may take centuries. It's terrible. Stevie, I've actually heard the Patrol sometimes sends ships...." She blushed prettily and looked down at the teacup on her rounded knee.
"Yes. Yes, Wendrew. There is a special clause—oh, most delicately worded—in the standard Patrol treaty with Rho effect planets. Spacers call them good liberty planets." ”

“ I do believe, in the far future the name Welnicki will be honored by what I have done, but now—when Captain Kravitz comes—I have no right—"
"Every man has a right to happiness, Stevie. What if you married anyway?"
"Cashiered, automatically. Ten generations of Welnickis have given their lives to the Patrol with not one dishonorable action—"
"Stevie, you make me furious! How can marriage be dishonorable? We'll keep it secret and you can command the base here until you make commander. It's all so simple, really." ”

“ The ambassador slept.
Over coffee next morning the foreign minister produced copies of the Patrol treaty with Sigma-3 Velorum, with appropriate name changes, and proposed they sign them.
"These won't do, Madame Minister," he protested.
"Why not, Stephen? We have almost the same constitution."
"Your planet, Lindrew. Almost four thousand parsecs beyond the sphere of settlement. Do you know why we have a frontier?"
"Oh, Patrol policy ... no, why?"
"Other intelligent beings may be settling the galaxy just like we are. We're afraid to meet them too soon." ”

“ Resting one day from pipefitting, the ambassador asked Kihara, "You know math, chief. Isn't it true this damned, sacred 'sphere of settlement' really takes in the whole galaxy in subspace?"
"Yes, in a way."
"It's fossilized, Einsteinian thinking. Damn the admirals!"
"The admirals think Einstein is God. You better think the admirals are God," Kihara warned.
The ambassador thought. The outpost planet ... last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart ... one man with imagination ... serve humanity and be damned for it now, canonized later.... ”

“ Maybe the aliens don't exist," the ambassador argued. "If they do exist, they may respect boundaries. Then Fishdollar Five stakes a huge claim for humanity. If it's war, we make our fight around an outpost planet, far from settled regions."
"We ain't Prime Reference," Chong growled. "Who you trying to convince?"
Fishdollar Five ratified the treaty. Ambassador Welnicki looked unhappily at his initials and told the foreign minister, "I'm sorry, Linda." ”

“ The decisions always come through crooked, unmapped channels, through poets and prophets and dreamers, to enter the consciousness of man. Dreamers drove man to be free when he feared freedom. A few centuries later they drove him into space, shrinking and trembling. ”

“ We wish to negotiate a standard treaty with the Galactic Patrol."
Welnicki's long, thin nose twitched in dismay. "What ... where is Fishdollar Five?" he gasped. Are they human? his thoughts ran.
"Our present seat of government is in S.S. Rubberjack's tender," the neutral voice replied. "We have seceded from the main body of settlers. We wish to arrange for settlement on a different planet." ”

“ Chong came on the communicator. "Military order, captain. Stay put and keep your head down. We attack in one minute."
"No! Oh no, sergeant," the captain protested. "I've taken a Rubberjack prisoner ... he'll jam the hull doors for us—"
"Don't trust him nor you neither. The both of you stay put. Here goes—"
"No, Sergeant Chong! I relieve you of command. Article thirty-seven, Patrol Regulations. Stand fast, now!"
He smiled apologetically. "My field commander is impatient. But hurry, Cobb. My marines are straining at the leash." ”

“ President Fishdollar brought up a delicate subject with the ambassador plenipotentiary.
Four of her citizens were, well, you know, and they wanted to marry four of his marines. Could he authorize it?
"Of course, Wendy. Enlisted men may marry on any treaty planet."
He spoke to Chong.
"I told 'em hell no," the sergeant said. "Us marines depend on higher authority to protect us from that. You're gonna back me up, ain't you, captain?"
"No I'm not! What's so terrible about marriage?"
"Ask Corporal Hodges that, captain. He's married and the Fishdollars know it." ”

“ Welnicki thought about regression. The nine canonical threes vary independently in subspace; when a ship inspaces between the initial and terminal points set up in her computer, she may be anywhere. To find the Fishdollars, Carlyle would have to regress to the tender's breakaway point without changing computer settings. It is a mode of living backwards, and indescribably unpleasant.
"Stand by to regress!"
Howls of dismay arose. Ensign Welnicki stood at attention and raised his chin.
Pale with nausea, Ensign Welnicki faced Captain Kravitz after Carlyle inspaced. ”

“ The younger Fishdollars, she continued, planned one last effort to settle a new planet, to be named Fishdollar Five. They recruited a group meeting Patrol standards and got sponsorship. It cost them a great deal of money. Their constitution and legal codes were those of the parent system, with minor changes correcting the unfair laws against high-Rho names.
"And then—oh Stevie, those superstitious, ungrateful, low-Rho settlers! While we were still in subspace they began amending the laws and the constitution. ”

“ They would visit and field-search each system in turn, regain control of the tender and its crew when found, then wait for Carlyle. Under the treaty they were agents of the settlers' parent system, Sigma-3 Velorum, and bound by its constitution.
"So, gentlemen, it is really intersystemic war. Now the enemy population is about fifty—Captain Glover's estimate, he hadn't time to muster the settlers before we regressed. We have twenty marines and nine spacers. We are outnumbered and must attack prepared positions, but courage and imagination—"
"Won't some settlers be women?" ”

“ Early in the flaming dawn Kihara flew the marines south. He returned in midafternoon from the four-thousand-mile round trip. Then Captain Welnicki and the spacers flew south with equipment to complete the camp. There seemed to be no large animal life, so he left the ship closed but unguarded.
Chong's position lay behind a hill fifty miles north of the enemy. Great strap-leaf trees concealed tents and sentries. The captain, wearing the gray working uniform for the first time, called a council of war in his command tent. ”

“ Compute physical data and report," Captain Welnicki ordered Rutledge.
Next ship-day he briefed his subordinates. A single continent lay athwart the planet's equator, with major volcanic activity in its galactic north. The enemy base was on the southwest coast. Gravity was point nine, the day twenty-six standard hours, and the season spring in the southern hemisphere. They would achieve surprise by landing in the north and staging the landing party south in the atmospheric flyer. What did they think?
"It's a laugh, the way we outgun them Fishdollars, Mr.—I mean Captain Welnicki," Chong growled. ”