tears in the younger man's eyes. He lowered his head again, shook it,
and said finally, heavily. "I'll think about it."

"Do this one thing for me, Bryan, I beg. Don't think too long. Or
there will be nothing left to defend." He rose and left the room.

The next day, Gale relayed Blackwood's proposal to Commander Donovan,
venturing to suggest that the way things were---desperate---perhaps it
could be considered as a fall-back position. After the necessary
signal delay (and not two minutes later) he received the following
reply, an audio/visual recording.

"Have you lost your mind, man? I'd sooner make a pact with the Devil.
You just do your job and hold 'em off until we get there, or I'll
replace you with someone of stouter fiber and longer memory. Help from
the English, indeed!" And that was the end of it.

New Belfast fell to the enemy, and could not be retaken.

Here, at least, was a clear moral for anyone to read. By facing the
darkness alone and stubbornly, refusing all help, by not using
unsparingly all the resources at their disposal, and by placing beliefs
in constraining patterns upon a world where no such narrow order
existed, the frontier Irish were swept away. And all their heart,
courage and past, all their faith in life and beauty of soul were
rendered meaningless, and in the end amounted to naught, because of it.

But for one disturbing question. What was Blackwood really after?

Part, the Second

The wind, she blows extreme
My mind would scream
But for the discipline
That empty years have taught it.

Richard Dark, a denaturalized American citizen, had risen swiftly
through the ranks of the (People's Republic of) Chinese Army, and
because of his technical understanding and combat experience, along
with the marked favor of vice-Chairman Tam, had been put in charge of
the Outer Fences of the two settled planets of the Tsingtao system, now
under attack by Soviet-backed Cuban forces.

Viewed mockingly by some, since they were not accompanied by a powerful
Space Navy, these unique defenses were nonetheless a highly effective
form of planetary cover. Invented by Dark himself, in conjunction with
the exiled physicist Tolstoy (both men had chosen not to reveal the
full discovery to their native governments, and were therefore
outcast), they we