He created them. In His anger He will surely castigate men who, with impious hands, would reach into His Heavens!"
Rhetorical appeals of such fervor did not go unheeded. Chi-Lau-Hen struck a chord in the very hearts of Chinese and Indian voters, where it resounded ever louder and deeper.
On such a high plane did his verbal crusade proceed that the actual critical aspect, the procurement of funds, was completely obscured form view. It was not long before the powerful Asiatic block in the Senate stood united in purposeful and almost devotional opposition to further exploration of space. Even in the weary and tax-ridden Western countries there were those to whom Chi-Lau-Hen's blandishments were not without a profound appeal.
The supporters of the measure, those on the other side of the fence, were drawn from very heterogeneous groups.
Scientists were almost unanimously in favor of the plan, for almost every man or woman of science could not but be titillated by the almost illimitable extension of research in many fields that such a grandiose scheme would engender. The Congress was literally flooded with pleas and challenges from the men of science to show itself equal to the great task before it. The Space Forces had launched a campaign of publicity which united behind the scientists a very large section of the forward-looking and progressive public.
The press of the world in general, with all its power to mold public opinion, espoused the cause of Operation Mars. Whether or not the prospect of future headlines motivated much editorial thought did not affect the energy with which they supported the crusade.
It was in industrial circles that the strongest proponents of Operation Mars made their appearance, for many were the producers of armaments and related products who found themselves with plant facilities swollen by the war demand and now facing the almost hopeless problems of conversion to peaceful production. The military organization maintained by the World Government for police purposes more than sufficed to suppress any internecine strife which could be humanly foreseen, but it was still infinitesimal in comparison to the great armies, fleets, air and space forces created and supplied by the huge munitions plants during the war. Many of such plants were so highly specialized that conversion to the manufacture of such things as vacuum cleaners and bath tubs proved literally impossible. Plants so specialized viewed Operation Mars with the billions to be expended therein as a God-sent substitute for the armament contracts without which they could not hope to maintain the technical levels and the skills they had so long labored to achieve.
As diverse as were the motives of the proponents of the Operation, they soon welded together a solid front against the Orientals, manipulating their best weapon, the World News Services, with consummate skill.
At the head of this group stood a Senator from America by the name of McLee. In furthering his cause, he moved in a direction diametrically opposite to that of his celestial opponent. McLee made no bones about avoiding the involutions of the pseudo-ethical arguments with which Chi-Lau-Hen attempted to enmesh him and concentrated his fire directly upon the real crux of the situation, the finances. His strategy was to satirize and minimize, with dry and humorous comment, the oriental urges towards bucolic laissezfaire which beset him. With sardonic wit, he sent shaft after shaft of biting comment winging through the public press with such skill that those who supported the project did so with a smile upon their lips.
"Did you ever realize that short drinks in America cost more in one year than we ask for Operation Mars?" This was one of his innocent, yet effective gambits.
In one of his speeches before the full Senate, he referred with a gentle bitterness to the cost of women who had reached what he called the "cosmetic age." Following each item with the amount of yearly expenditure devoted to it, he listed permanent waves, eyelash curlers, skin rejuvenators, falsies, girdles, lipstick and all the myriad adjuncts of the beauty business. He showed that Operation Mars would cost far less than they, sadly and gently wondering whether a lesser expenditure might not be justified to bring the "cosmic age" to mankind.
As McLee listed feminine accouterments in meticulous detail, many a worthy Senator would cast a comprehending glance at some fellow domestic sufferer. The glaring contrast between the costs of "cosmic" and "cosmetic" achievement made the headlines to the vast detriment of Chi-Lau-Hen's sanctimony.
In Holt's sitting room at Emerald Bay, Spencer sat behind a cloud of acrid tobacco smoke and vented his rage at the stalemate in Congress.
"There they sit, on their fat bottoms," said he. "A bunch of Asiatic mystics who want to persuade us to squat there, gazing into our navels and musing on the virtues of inaction as a Way of Life! Forty long years I've been battling for space travel. I've worn every last hair off my head for it; I've talked myself deaf, dumb and blind for it; I've just about written my fingers off for it; Hundreds of fine young fellows have lost their lives for it!
And here comes some sanctimonious, sententious son of a Mandarin blatting about how Confucius wouldn't like it!"
Holt was no less perturbed at the possible frustration of the enterprise than Spencer.
"Confucius has been dead a long time," he said, "and I think the assumption that he would have been against it is entirely unwarranted. I know that General Eraden's conviction that we should carry out this plan is fervent, and there's a lot of religion in that fervor! Isn't there someone who could upset that oriental mysticism?"
Spencer shook his head wearily. "Braden would be the man, of course, but I've argued vainly with him to go before the Congress. He says everybody identifies him with
"high brass," and claims that people don't want to have anything to do with "brass" ever since the war ended. He thinks that anything he said would only make matters worse.
"And, of course, he's quite wrong, for the whole world — including our former enemies — recognizes him as the man who put an end to the war before civilization was entirely destroyed; He's stuck his neck out for every one of the space developments that really form the basic groundwork of our peace. And every time he did it, he invited unpopularity, criticism and opprobrium. Nevertheless, he overcame ridicule, doubt, bureaucracy and every single obstacle that could be put in his way. Even our sit-down strikers from East Asia know they wouldn't be where they could make their opposition felt if it weren't for him! He's the only man I know to whom even they might listen…"
"If only he wasn't so modest and retiring!" sighed Holt. "He just can't get it out of his head that he's anything but just another soldier serving the people."
While Holt and Spencer were bewailing the threatening hiatus in their long-cherished undertaking, Catherine Holt had been in the kitchen preparing a snack for the dispirited conferees. None of their remarks had escaped her. For several weeks she had noticed that Gary's usually high spirits had been drooping and had wondered whether this could be attributed only to the delays caused by the celestial longwindedness in Congress. She entered the sitting room bearing her offering of food upon a tray, and with a quiet little smile on her face.
"Catherine, my dear," said Spencer, "if it wasn't for you and people like you, we'd never be able to keep up our morale during times like these. You keep your man's courage up the way you always have, and we'll find some way out of this dilemma sooner or later."
"That's very kind of you, Mr. Spencer," said Catherine. "I'll do what I can. By the way, Gary, didn't I hear that you two were going to fly out to Kahului for a few days? I was thinking I'd like to take a trip to New York for a visit to mother while you're gone. What would you think of that?"