“Please do not concern yourself,” she gasped furiously, pulling herself erect and reaching once more for the hose. “I am quite all right.”

“Hell you are,” he said amiably. “Lean into it more, honey, you hear? It doesn’t take muscle, just a little brains.”

“I do not agree.”

He shook his head. “Why do you get so uptight, Annie?”

“I do not like being trained in the use of weapons!”

“What weapons?” He grinned at her. “Don’t you know this stuff is only to use against vermin? Colonel Menninger spelled it all out for us. We don’t want to kill any sentients; that’s against the law, and besides, we’ll all get our asses in a crack. But all the intelligent ones got little cousins, crabrats and airsharks and things that dig around in the dirt and come out and chew your ass off. Those are what we’re going to use this stuff for.”

“In any event,” said Ana, “I do not require assistance from you, sergeant — even if I believed you, or your Colonel Menninger, which I do not.”

Sweggert looked past her and pursed his lips. “Hello, there, colonel,” he said. “We was just talking about you.”

“So I noticed,” said Margie Menninger’s voice. Ana turned slowly, and there she was. Looking, Ana observed without regret, quite poorly. The shots were having their way with her; her face was broken out in cerise blotches, her eyes were red and running, and her hair showed dark roots. “Get on with it, sergeant,” she said. “Dimitrova, see me in my room after chow.”

She turned away and raised her voice. “All right, all of you,” she cried. “Get your asses down! Let’s see how you crawl!”

Rebelliously Ana dropped to the ground and practiced the way of worming herself across an open field that she had learned the day before. These were infantry tactics! What nonsense for a scientific expedition! She conserved her anger carefully, and it lasted her the rest of the afternoon, through dinner, and right up to the moment she knocked on Menninger’s door in that other barracks halfway across the base.

“Come in.” Lt. Col. Menninger was sitting at a desk in a white, fluffy dressing gown, rimless granny glasses on her nose, a half-eaten dinner tray pushed to one side. She looked up from some papers and said, “Take a seat, Ana. Do you smoke? Would you like a drink?”

The angry fires inside Ana banked themselves. But they were still ready to blaze out. “No, thank you,” she said, in general, to all.

Margie stood up and poured herself a scant shot of whiskey. She would have preferred marijuana, but she did not care to share a joint with this Bulgarian. She sipped a centimeter off the top of the drink and said, “Personal question. What have you got against Sweggert?”

“I have nothing against Sergeant Sweggert. I simply do not care to make love with him.”

“What are you, Dimitrova, some maximum women’s libber? You don’t have to ball him on the parade ground. Just let him give you a hand when he wants to.”

“Colonel Menninger,” Ana said precisely, “are you ordering me to encourage his sexual overtures so that I can complete the obstacle course more readily?”

“I am not ordering you to do diddly-shit, Dimitrova. What is it with you? Sweggert comes on to everything with a hole in it. It’s his nature. He comes on to me, too. I could put the son of a bitch in Leavenworth for the places his hands have been on the drill field. But I won’t, because he’s a good sol — Because he’s essentially a good person. He’ll help you if you let him. You can always tell him to fuck off later on.”

“This I consider immoral, Colonel Menninger.”

Margie finished her drink and poured half of another. “You’re not too happy here, are you, Ana?”

“That is correct, Mis Menninger. I did not ask for this assignment.”

“I did.”

“Yes, no doubt, perhaps you did, but I—”

“No, that’s not what I mean. I asked for it for myself, but I also asked for it for you. I picked you out by name, Ana, and it took hell’s own conniving to make the Bulgarians turn you loose. They think you’re pretty great at translating.” She tossed down the rest of the drink and took off her glasses. “Look, Ana, I need you. This project is important to me. It should be important to you, too, if you have a spark of patriotism in your body.”

“Patriotism?”

“Loyalty, then,” said Margie impatiently. “Loyalty to our bloc. I know we come from different countries, but we stand for the same thing.”

Ana found herself more puzzled than angered by this strange American. She tried to sort her feelings out and express them exactly. “Bulgaria is my home,” she began. “I love my home. The Food Bloc — that is a much more abstract thing, Mis Menninger. I understand that in a world of two hundred nations there must be alliances and that one owes one’s allies some sort of allegiance, or at least courtesy. But I cannot say I feel loyalty. Not to the Food Bloc.”

“To the whole human race then, honey,” said Margie. “Don’t you see it? You just said it for yourself — a world of two hundred nations. But Klong can be a world of one nation! No fighting. No spies. No cloak-and-dagger shit. Who colonized America?”

“What?” It took Ana a moment to realize she was supposed to answer the question. “Why — the English? Before them, the Dutch.”

“And before them maybe the Italians and Spaniards, with Columbus, and maybe, for Christ’s sake, anybody you like — the Vikings, the Polynesians, the Chinese. Who knows? But the people who live in America now are the Americans. And that’s who’s going to live on Klong in another generation or two. The Klongans. Or whatever they call themselves. A single race of human beings. Never mind where they come from here! They’ll be all the same, all part of the same wonderful… well, dream. I don’t mind calling it a dream. But you and I can make it come true, Ana. We can learn how to live on Klong. We can build a world without national barriers and without the kind of senseless competition and rapacity that have ruined this one. Do you know what it means to have a whole new world to start over on?”

Ana was silent. “I — I have had some thoughts of that sort myself,” she admitted.

“Of course you have. And I want to make it happen. I want to lay the foundations for a world society that understands planning and conservation and cooperation. Do you know how much we’re putting into this? Four ships. Nearly ninety people. Thirty-five tons of equipment. The invasion of Europe cost less than this one launch, and believe me, everybody involved is screaming. It costs too much. It upsets the Peeps. The Greasies will raise their prices. We need the resources to solve the problems of the cities. Half the Congress would like to call it off tomorrow—”

“One has heard rumors,” Ana said cautiously, “that the launch may be canceled.”

Margie hesitated, and a shadow crossed her face. “No,” she corrected. “That will not happen, because it is too important. But that is why I asked for you, Ana. If we can send ninety people, they must be the best ninety people there are. And you are the best translator I could find.” She reached out and touched Ana’s sleeve. “Do you understand?”

Ana drew away as soon as she could without giving offense, her thoughts uncertain. “Y-yes,” she said unwillingly, and then, “but, on the other hand, no. What you say is most persuasive, Mis Menninger, but what has it to do with the use of flamethrowers and other weapons? Are we to build this fine monolithic world by destroying everyone else?”

“Of course not, Ana!” cried Margie, with as much shock and revulsion in her voice as she knew how to put there. “I give you my word!”

There was a silence. “I see,” said Ana at last. “You give me your word.”

“What else would you have me do?”

Ana said thoughtfully, “One has so little contact with the rest of the world here. I would like very much an opportunity to discuss this with others. Perhaps with my own delegation at the United Nations?”