ALREADY DOING, and sent my take as NOTE 3.
The direct-line phone from our United Nations bureau rang and I picked
it up.
"Hello, Sam?" Collishaw Jones's voice asked. "What's all this about
Monolithia?"
"What about it, Collie?" I asked him. "Have you got something, too?"
"It's a handout saying Monolithia is applying for UN membership and
requesting the Secretary-General to circulate its petition among all
delegates. What the hell is Monolithia?"
I gave Collie a quick fill-in and said, "Put a copy of the handout on
the machine, will you? I'll work it into Washington's series. Is there
anything in the Charter that says a nation has to be from this planet
to be eligible for UN membership?"
"Of course there is--I think. I mean it's never come up before. I'll
send the text and then check."
But Collishaw Jones's check showed there was nothing in the Charter
prohibiting an alien nation from joining the UN, provided it was
peace-loving and accepted its obligations.
"There's lots of stuff about international peace and cooperation and
international relations," he said. "As far as I can see, the word
'interplanetary' isn't used once. But on the other hand it isn't
specifically ruled out."
"Thanks," I said. "That sounds like a good story all by itself."
"I'll do it," he said.
Meanwhile Ian McEachern had sent a few more takes about his
conversation with the voice at Burning Tree, which spoke good English
in a clicking sort of way, as if it had denture trouble, with an
indefinable accent. The conversation had produced few facts, the
speaker sticking pretty close to the text of the note, but Ian milked
it for as much color as he could extract.
I looked over his copy and handed it to Nancy. I could hear her just
busting to ask questions but I didn't give her a chance. I had a
thousand of my own and nobody to ask them.
Stew Macon, one of the rewrite men, came on duty and said, "What's new,
Sam?"
I handed him the clipboard. "Read this," I said. "Then get Webster
and the Oxford and call the library and do a piece on the literal and
figurative meanings of 'monolith.' Work in how Dulles and that crowd
used to call Russia a monolithic state, and why."