"Your ideas are rather big, too, Delos," Dixon said dryly. "But what actually happens next?"
"First we get title confirmed by the U.N. The Security Council is now in secret session; the Assembly meets tonight. Things will be popping; that's why I've got to be there. When the United Nations decides-as it will!- that its own non-profit corporation has the only real claim to the Moon, then I get busy. The poor little weak non-profit corporation is going to grant a number of things to some real honest-to-god corporations with hair on their chests-in return for help in setting up a physics research lab, an astronomical observatory, a lunography institute and some other perfectly proper nonprofit enterprises. That's our interim pitch until we get a permanent colony with its own laws. Then we-"
Dixon gestured impatiently. "Never mind the legal shenanigans, Delos. I've known you long enough to know that you can figure out such angles. What do we actually have to do next?"
"Huh? We've got to build another ship, a bigger one. Not actually bigger, but effectively bigger. Coster has started the design of a surface catapult- it will reach from Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak. With it we can put a ship in free orbit around the Earth. Then we'll use such a ship to fuel more ships-it amounts to a space station, like the power station. It adds up to a way to get there on chemical power without having to throw away nine-tenths of your ship to do it."
"Sounds expensive."
"It will be. But don't worry; we've got a couple of dozen piddling little things to keep the money coming in while we get set up on a commercial basis, then we sell stock. We- sold stock before; now we'll sell a thousand dollars' worth where we sold ten before."
"And you think that will carry you through until the enterprise as a whole is on a paying basis? Face it, Delos, the thing as a whole doesn't pay off until you have ships plying between here and the Moon on a paying basis, figured in freight and passenger charges. That means customers, with cash. What is there on the Moon to ship-and who pays for it?"
"Dan, don't you believe there will be? If not, why are you here?"
"I believe in it, Delos-or I believe in you. But what's your time schedule? What's your budget? What's your prospective commodity? And please don't mention diamonds; I think I understand that caper."
Harriman chewed his cigar for a few moments. "There's one valuable commodity we'll start shipping at once."
"What?"
"Knowledge."
Entenza snorted. Strong looked puzzled. Dixon nodded. "I'll buy that. Knowledge is always worth something-to the man who knows how to exploit it. And I'll agree that the Moon is a place to find new knowledge. I'll assume that you can make the next trip pay off. What's your budget and your time table for that?"
Harriman did not answer. Strong searched his face closely. To him Harriman's poker face was as revealing as large print-he decided that his partner had been crowded into a corner. He waited, nervous but ready to back Harriman's play. Dixon went on, "From the way you describe it, Delos, I judge that you don't have money enough for your next step-and you don't know where you will get it. I believe in you, Delos-and I told you at the start that I did not believe in letting a new business die of anemia. I'm ready to buy in with a fifth share."
Harriman stared. "Look," he said bluntly, "you own Jack's share now, don't you?"
"I wouldn't say that."
"You vote it. It sticks out all over."
Entenza said, "That's not true. I'm independent. I-"
"Jack, you're a damn liar," Harriman said dispassionately. "Dan, you've got fifty percent now. Under the present rules I decide deadlocks, which gives me control as long as George sticks by me. If we sell you another share, you vote three-fifths-and are boss. Is that the deal you are looking for?"
"Delos, as I told you, I have confidence in you."
"But you'd feel happier with the whip hand. Well, I won't do it. I'll let space travel-real space travel, with established runs-wait another twenty years before I'll turn loose. I'll let us all go broke and let us live on glory before I'll turn loose. You'll have to think up another scheme."
Dixon said nothing. Harriman got up and began to pace. He stopped in front of Dixon. "Dan, if you really understood what this is all about, I'd let you have control. But you don't. You see this is just another way to money and to power. I'm perfectly willing to let you vultures get rich-but I keep control. I'm going to see this thing developed, not milked. The human race is heading out to the stars-and this adventure is going to present new problems compared with which atomic power was a kid's toy. Unless the whole matter is handled carefully, it will be fouled up. You'll foul it up, Dan, if I let you have the deciding vote in it-because you don't understand it."
He caught his breath and went on, "Take safety for instance. Do you know why I let LeCroix take that ship out instead of taking it myself? Do you think I was afraid? No! I wanted it to come back-safely. I didn't want space travel getting another set-back. Do you know why we have to have a monopoly, for a few years at least? Because every so-and-so and his brother is going to want to build a Moon ship, now that they know it can be done. Remember the first days of ocean flying? After Lindbergh did it, every so-called pilot who could lay hands on a crate took off for some over-water point. Some of them even took their kids along. And most of them landed in the drink. Airplanes get a reputation for being dangerous. A few years after that the airlines got so hungry for quick money in a highly competitive field that you couldn't pick up a paper without seeing headlines about another airliner crash.
"That's not going to happen to space travel! I'm not going to let it happen.
Space ships are too big and too expensive; if they get a reputation for being unsafe as well, we might as well have stayed in bed. I run things."
He stopped. Dixon waited and then said, "I said I believed in you, Delos. How much money do you need?"
"Eh? On what terms?"
"Your note."
"My note? Did you say my note?"
"I'd want security, of course."
Harriman swore. "I knew there was a hitch in it. Dan, you know everything I've got is tied up in this venture."
"You have insurance. You have quite a lot of insurance, I know."
"Yes, but that's all made out to my wife."
"I seem to have heard you say something about that sort of thing to Jack Entenza," Dixon said. "Come, now-if I know your tax-happy sort, you have at least one irrevocable trust, or paid-up annuities, or something, to keep Mrs. Harriman out of the poor house."
Harriman thought fiercely about it. "When's the call date on this note?"
"In the sweet bye and bye. I want a no-bankruptcy clause, of course."
"Why? Such a clause has no legal validity."
"It would be valid with you, wouldn't it?"
"Mmm... yes. Yes, it would."
"Then get out your policies and see how big a note you can write." Harriman looked at him, turned abruptly and went to his safe. He came back with quite a stack of long, stiff folders. They added them up together; it was an amazingly large sum-for those days. Dixon then consulted a memorandum taken from his pocket and said, "One seems to be missing- a rather large one. A North Atlantic Mutual policy, I think."