... The situation is serious, J. O., and there's no getting around it. If the Government has to take action there's only one way (given current majorities) they're going to be able to move, and that's to declare Fruyling's World a protectorate, or some such (get your lawyers to straighten out the terminology: in plain and simple English, a ward of the state), and "administer" the place for the best interests of the natives.
Get that: the natives.
Never mind us, never mind AMP, never mind the metals we need.
No, the Government will step in and take all that away from us in the interests of a bunch of silly green-looking monsters who can barely talk and can't, as near as I can see, think at all.
Statistics doesn't give us much of a chance of heading them off. As a matter of fact, any recommended course of action has better than a 50% chance of making matters even worse. And if you don't think they can be worse, take a look at the attached sheet, which....
TO: John Harrison
FROM: Fredk. Ramsbotham
RE: Your memo May 15
Have you never heard of the Confederation impounding records? Or these memos, for instance?