"Out of this valley, on the desert, it would be plenty cold," Keith said.
Danton asked then, "What happened?"
Keith watched the forest warily. "We hit the lake out there, had to swim in."
"So now what?" Van Ness wanted to know.
"We still have a kind of advantage," Danton said. "They don't know who we are, or where. They know nothing."
"Neither do we," Keith said. "There's a chance Seers was wrong about the Oligarchs. Maybe their culture has changed. Maybe they don't intend to attack Earth."
"Their ego couldn't stand to forget their defeat," Danton said. "They had a highly advanced technology that could conceivably control any environment, rather than the other way round. In some ways they were ahead of the rest of the world."
Keith grinned. "That's right, Captain. You're so right."
Danton looked Keith in the eyes. "You mentioned earlier, something about sometimes thinking you should be an Oligarch. You really feel that way, Keith?"
"Why not? We didn't have a choice whose side we would fight on. We were conditioned from the time we were old enough to think, and we fought the Oligarchs for fifty years. Three-quarters of the world's population rubbed out. And then we had a world that didn't want us—unless we were three other people. We fought to destroy the old values, help build a new society. But let's face it, Captain—those old values we destroyed were our own! We helped destroy our own kind of world. So what does it mean? It means we should have fought for the Oligarchs, and that we really sympathize with them. Their system is a war system, probably still is. With them, there would always be a place for a fighting-man. A soldier among the Oligarchs could expect honor and privilege."