"You are serious, aren't you?"
"I sure as hell am."
She tried to laugh; it came out as an unsure giggle. "But the Moon . . . it's so desolate, so foresakerr. . ."
"Have you been there?" he countered. "Have you watched the Earth rise? Or planted footprints where no human being has ever walked before? Have you been any- where in your whole life where you really were on your own? Where you had the time and the room and the peace to think?"
"That's what you want?"
"Being here is like being in jail. It's a madhouse. I'm locked into Pentagon level three, ring D, corridor F, room number—"
"But we're all in that same jail, Chet. One way or another, we're all locked up in the same madhouse."
"It doesn't have to be that way." He reached out to grasp her hand. "We can build a new world, a new society, all those things you sing about in your songs—love, freedom, hope. We can have them."
"You can have them," Diane said. "What about all the billions of others who can't get to your new world, no matter what?"
"We've got to start someplace. And we've got to start now, right now, before we sink so far back into the mud that we won't have the energy or the materials or the people to do 193 the job. Civilization's cracking apart, Diane."
"And you want to run away from the catastrophe."
"No! I want to prevent it." Realizing the truth of it as he spoke the words. Kinsman listened to himself, as surprised as Diane at his revelation. "We can build a new society on the Moon. We can set an example. Just the way the new colonies of America set an example for the old world of Europe. We can send energy back to the Earth, raw materials—but most of all, we can send hope."
"That's not your real reason," she said. "Nobody ever did anything for the sake of philosophy. That's not what's really driving you."
"It's a part of it. A big part."
Diane studied his face. "But only part. What's the rest of it, Chet? Why is this so important to you?"
"It's the freedom, Diane. There are no rulebooks up there. No chains of command. You can work with people on the basis of their abilities, not their rank or their connections, It's—it's so completely different that I don't know if I can describe it to you. There's nothing like it on Earth."
"Freedom," Diane echoed.
"In space. On the Moon. A new society. A new world. A world that you could be part of, Diane."
She shook her head. "Not me. I can see how important it is to you, Chet, but it's not for me." Her hand slid away from his. "If I'm going to help build a new world, it'll be right here on terra firma. That's where we need it."
He leaned back in his chair. "By singing folk songs."
