"No, Doctor! I can listen to no more. You forget I am a soldier of the
United States army."
"The government has fallen; the last of the democracies is crushed
beneath the conqueror's heel, Brian, lad."
"It will rise again. In the hinterlands--"
"--are Totalitarian troops."
"There are still eighty million Americans--"
"And a hundred million aggressors!" He put a hand on my shoulder.
"Don't you see, Brian, this is how you can best serve your country?
Make this flight with me. We will take your men and my followers--two
score men and the women you have already seen--and form a colony on the
Moon.
"We will return, then, secretly, for more Americans. And more, and
more. We will transfer our democracy to a new soil, there grow in
strength and power and wisdom until some day we can reclaim our
heritage."
Despite my training, I could not help but be convinced. I said, shaken,
"But astronomers tell us the Moon is a barren, lifeless world?"
"For the most part, it is. But the Caltech telescope indicates that air
still lingers in the depths of the hollow craters. And in underground
caverns. Water can be synthesized. It will be no easy existence, but it
will be--"
"The ultimate salient!" breathed Maureen at my side. "The last line of
defense for freedom's children! Brian, Dr. Mallory is right! We must do
this thing!"