feeling disconnected from it. He passed Chris a bracky and lighted it
for her. She took it automatically, smiling as the smoke hit her lungs.
It was one thing they had in common now, at least.
Ben Wilson finally read the message.
"To the people of Earth, greetings!
"On behalf of the free people of Mars, I have the honor to announce that
this planet hereby declares itself a sovereign and independent world. We
shall continue to regard Earth as our mother, and to consider the health
and welfare of her people in no way second to our own in matters which
affect both planets. We trust that Earth will share this feeling of
mutual friendship. We trust that all strains of hostility will be ended.
The advantages to each from peaceful commerce make any course other than
the most cordial of relations unthinkable.
"We shall consider proof of such friendship an order by Earth to all
rockets circling this planet that they shall deliver themselves safely
into our hands, in order that we may begin converting them to peaceful
purposes for the trade that is to come. In turn, we pledge that all
efforts will be made to ensure a prompt delivery of those products most
in demand, including the curative bracky plant."
He turned to Doc then. "You want to sign it, Dr. Feldman? Make it as
acting president or something, until we can get around to voting you
into permanent office."
"You and Jake fight over the job," Doc told him. "No, Ben, I mean it."
He got up and moved out into the outer room, where he could avoid the
stares of amazement that were turned to him. He'd never asked for the
honor, and he didn't want it.
Chris came with him. Her face was shocked and something was slowly
draining out of it as he looked at her.
"Forget it, Chris," he said. "You're going back to Earth. There is
nothing for you here."
She hadn't quite given up. "There could be, Dan. You know that."
"No. No, Chris, I don't think there ever can be. You can't find a man
strong enough to rule who'll be weak enough to let you rule in his
place. It didn't work on Earth, and it won't work here. Forget the
dreams you had of what could be done with a new planet. Those are the
dreams that made a mess of the old one."
"I'll be back," she told him. "Some day I'll be back."
He shook his head again. "No. You wouldn't like what you find here.
Freedom is heady stuff, but you have to have a taste for it. You can't
acquire a fondness for it secondhand. And for a while, there's going to
be freedom here. Besides, once you get back to Earth, you'll forget what
happened here."
She sighed at last. For the first time since he had known her, she
seemed to give in completely. And for that brief moment, he loved what
she could have been, but never would be.
"All right, Dan," she said quietly. "I can't fight you. I never could, I
see now. I'll take the rocket back. What are you going to do?"
He hadn't bothered to think, but he knew the answer. "Research. What
else?"
There would be a lot of research done here. It had been suppressed too
long, and had piled up a back-pressure that would have to be relieved.
And from that research, he suspected, would come the end of the stable
oligarchy of Earth. It could never stand against the changes that would
be pouring out of Mars.
She put her hands on his shoulders and moved forward to kiss him. He
bent down to meet her, and found her eyes were wet. Maybe his were, too.
Then she broke free.
"You're a fool, Dan Feldman," she whispered, and began moving down the
hallway and out of the council hall of Mars.
Doc Feldman nodded slowly as he let her go. He was a fool. He had always
been a fool, and always would be. And that was why he could never take
over leadership here. Fools and idealists should never govern a world.
It took practical men such as Jake to do that.
But the practical men needed the foolish idealists, too. And maybe for a
time here on Mars their kind of men and his kind of fools could make one
more stab at the ancient puzzle of freedom.
Outside the war rockets of Earth began landing quietly on the free soil
of Mars.
[Transcriber's Note: The following errors in the original have been
corrected in this version:
Page 5: 'and there was' to 'and there were'
Page 9: 'ideopathic gastroentiritis' to 'idiopathic gastroenteritis'
Page 29: 'The cheapness of snythetics' to 'The cheapness of synthetics'
Page 42: 'huband's' to 'husband's'
Page 43: 'Southpost' to 'Southport'
Page 47: 'laywer' to 'lawyer'
Page 50: 'in a can' to 'to a can'
Page 118: 'Selnick's' to 'Selznick's'
]
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