"The Russians don't seem to think so. Even with the agreement in their pocket, they're still screaming." Mel shook his head doggedly. "Militarily, it's a failure." "It's _not_ a failure," Mel barked. He unsnapped his belt, shuffled to the center of the compartment, and kicked open the cover of a port in the rim-deck. "Look at that! Look at those stars, Mel. No one's ever had a crack at them like this. The astronomers, and astro-physicists, have learned more from Mike and Andre in the last three months than they have in the last three centuries." As the rim rotated, the earth came majestically into view. "Look at that," Stanton said. "See that cold front over the Sierras? Petrovski's data has given them forecasts down there that they've never conceived of." He waved his hand expansively. "Vacuum! Billions and billions of cubic miles of hard, hard vacuum. Trippler goes nuts at the thought of it. Any physicist, any electronic engineer, would. Temperature? Absolute zero. Absolute zero, Mel. Where else can you get absolute zero? Can't they see what it means?" Mel Cramer ground out his cigarette. "What does absolute zero mean, Walt? To a general?" Walter kicked shut the hatch. "I don't know. I just don't know...." "Walt, this deal was oversold to the military. You know it, and I know it. Frankly, you helped oversell it." Walter Stanton swung around angrily. "You're right, Mel. But the end justified the means. We needed the funds; only the military could provide them. And it _is_ useful to them; it will be, when it's finished. It would be now, if--" "If we could break the agreement and leave the Galapagos Islands for a spin around the world." "No!" Walter Stanton held his friend's eyes. "That isn't what I meant. This platform wasn't meant for spying; the millions of man-hours weren't spent for that. It's a UN deal, Mel, and we needed the agreement; we had to see that the Russians kept hands-off. If the price is an orbit that keeps us at earth-surface speed; if we have to stay on our side of the iron curtain, OK. We agreed to it, and by God if we grow roots down to Galapagos we're staying here." Mel shrugged. "That isn't the point. The wheels know that in case of war you'd change orbits. If they thought it was worth while, they'd order you to. The UN could order you to. What they doubt is that if you _moved_ your orbit in behind the Curtain you'd see enough to do any good." "I don't care to argue that point. Right now, probably not. When the scope's completed and installed, we'll undoubtedly be able to spot concentrations and new industries. The main thing would be to stay with the station. But it's an academic question--" "Is it an academic question whether they can blow us out of the sky?" Walter Stanton shot him a glance. "That's your department. Can they?" "Let's not kid ourselves. If they have a missile they can get up here, it'll track you. Manned or unmanned, regardless of what your orbit is or where you are."