Portario smiled. "Council has little liking for wild dreams, Commander.
It would not be considered as advancing the future of United Galaxies'
destiny. Then there are the ionics." And Portario hesitated. "And there
is the danger of imbalance, Galactic imbalance. I have calculated
carefully, the danger is remote, but Council is not going to take even a
remote chance."
Yuan Saltario broke in. "All they care about is their damned sterile
destiny! They don't care about people. Well we do! We care about
something to live for. The hell with the destiny of the Galaxies! They
don't know, and we'll be gone before they do know."
"They know plenty now. O'Hara's beamed them in."
"So we must hurry," Portario said. "Three days, Commander, will you
protect us for three days?"
A Council offense punishable by instant destruction with United Galaxies
reserve ionic weapons in the hands of the super-secret police and
disaster teams. And three days is a long time. I would be risking my
whole Company. I heard Rajay-Ben laugh.
"Blast me, Red, it's so damned crazy I'm for it. Let's give it a shot."
I did not know then how much it would really cost us. If I had I might
not have agreed. Or maybe I would have, it was good to know people could
still have such dreams in our computer age.
"Okay," I said, "beam the full Companies and try to get one more.
Mandasiva's Sirian boys would be good. We'll split the fee three ways."