“Hardly,” Old Pete replied slowly. “It’s a bold move, all right – certainly a surprising one – but to talk of ‘war’ is a little melodramatic. Oh, I’m sure there’ll be skirmishes over resource planets. But these will no doubt be referred to as ‘battles.’ I foresee nothing on a large scale.”
“Yes. Well, uh...thank you, sir,” the reporter said, obviously displeased. Calm, rational answers were of no value to a good vid newscast – they slowed up the pace. He turned to Jo in the hope of finding a little feminine hysteria.
“How about you, miss? Do you think there was really a plot to assassinate Elson deBloise’s character?”
Jo’s mouth twisted mischievously as she spoke in a solemn tone. “Wheels within wheels, bendreth.”
Then she linked her arm with Old Pete’s and together they walked toward the exit, laughing.
It is given that the Tarkan Empire would never have initiated the Terran-Tarkan War if it had not been tempted by the inflamed rhetoric and spectacle of a civil war between the Federation and the Restructurist Union.
It is also given that the Restructurist secession from the Federation was precipitated when serious criminal charges were brought against Elson deBloise, the movement’s most prominent member at that time. Restructurist apologists today say that the charges were false and never proven; other students of the period think otherwise. Both camps, however, agree on this: after the secession, the packet of evidence against deBloise was forwarded to Jebinose but mysteriously disappeared on the way.
One thing is certain: the contents of that packet significantly altered the course of human history.
from Stars for Sale:
An Economic History of Occupied Space
by Emmerz Fent
F. Paul Wilson, Wheels Within Wheels
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