That was what brought on the System
States War. The Alliance planets took themselves outside the Federation
economic orbit and the Federation crushed them."
Conn swore impatiently. "You've been listening to old Klem Zareff
ranting about the Lost Cause and the greedy Terran robber barons holding
the Galaxy in economic serfdom while they piled up profits. The
Federation didn't fight that war for profits; there weren't any profits
to fight for. They fought it because if the System States had won, half
of them would be at war among themselves now. Make no mistake about it,
politically I'm all for the Federation. But economically, I want to see
our people exploiting their own resources for themselves, instead of
grieving about lost interstellar trade, and bewailing bumper crops, and
searching for a mythical robot god."
"You think, if you can get something like that started, that they'll
forget about the Brain?" his father asked skeptically.
"That crowd up in Kurt Fawzi's office? Niflheim, no! They'll go on
hunting for the Brain as long as they live, and every day they'll be
expecting to find it tomorrow. That'll keep them happy.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48