Metafire

George said nothing, but now Sporkin interjected, "Erisa may have a point here. We never before considered that exploding a bomb would be desirable. Why do we consider it as desirable today? Just because people can see the explosion? Millions have lost relatives to the fire. How real must it be to be effective? Can we not consider that our point is made?"

Platon now spoke, "What about a plan that just continues to hide these bombs we now have? We will use one for power, but the other simply goes with us. It will never be used or demonstrated. Our colony will just move into deep space with two disabled devices. Sporkin is right. There is no more need. We have done as much as we could do in our lifetimes. We have done more than we should have."

"I think you may be right," George had evidently changed his mind. "We may use the bomb as a threat to gain freedom, though. We may do this in a way that only the FBI and NSP knows. That would be enough. They would leave us alone, if they knew we had the capability to use it."

This concerned Andrei, but he said, "George, you may be right about that. But we shouldn't use such a threat unless forced. Perhaps the strategic value of our software business is enough for them to leave us alone."