"Sorry," apologized Darquelnoy. He drained his cup of restno. "Out
here," he said, "living next door to the little beasts day after day,
one begins to lose one's sensibilities."
"It has been a long time," agreed Ebor.
"Longer than we had originally anticipated," Darquelnoy said frankly.
"We've been ready to move in for I don't know how long. And instead we
just sit here and wait. Which isn't good for morale, either."
"No, I don't imagine it is."
"There's already a theory among some of the workmen that the blow-up
just isn't going to happen, ever. And since that ship went circling
by, of course, morale has hit a new low."
"It would have been nasty if they'd spotted you," said Ebor.
"Nasty?" echoed Darquelnoy. "Catastrophic, you mean. All that crowd up
there needs is an enemy, and it doesn't much matter to them who that
enemy is. If they were to suspect that we were here, they'd forget
their own little squabbles at once and start killing us instead. And
that, of course, would mean that they'd be united, for the first time
in their history, and who knows how long it would take them before
they'd get back to killing one another again."
"Well," said Ebor, "you're underground now. And it can't possibly take
them _too_ much longer."
"One wouldn't think so," agreed Darquelnoy. "In a way," he added,
"that spaceship was a hopeful sign. It means that they'll be sending a
manned ship along pretty soon, and that should do the trick. As soon
as one side has a base on the Moon, the other side is bound to get
things started."
"A relief for you, eh?" said Ebor.
"You know," said Darquelnoy thoughtfully, "I can't help thinking I was
born in the wrong age. All this scrabbling around, searching
everywhere for suitable planets. Back when the Universe was younger,
there were lots and lots of planets to colonize. Now the old problem
of half-life is taking its toll, and we can't even hope to keep up
with the birth rate any more. If it weren't for the occasional planets
like that one up there, I don't know what we'd do."
"Don't worry," Ebor told him. "They'll have their atomic war pretty
soon, and leave us a nice high-radiation planet to colonize."
"I certainly hope it's soon," said Darquelnoy. "This waiting gets on
one's nerves." He rang for the orderly.