"Or at least a strong confederation," Jimmy Peters added.
Homer nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps. But we can't look that far forward now." He looked from one of the newcomers to the other. "I don't know to what extent you fellows understand what the rest of us have set out to accomplish but I suppose if you've been with Rex for the past week, you have a fairly clear idea."
"I believe so," Jack nodded, straight-faced.
Homer Crawford said slowly, "I don't want to give you the wrong idea. If you join up, you'll find it's no parade. Our chances were slim to begin, and we've had some setbacks. As you've probably heard, the Arab Union has stolen a march on us. And from what we can get on the radio, we have thus far to pick up a single adherent among the world powers."
"Powers?" Cliff snorted. "We haven't got a nation the size of Monaco on our side."
Moroka shot a quick glance at the big Californian.
Isobel caught it and laughed. "Cliff's a perpetual sourpuss," she said. "However, he's been in since the first."
The South African looked at her in turn. "We were hardly prepared to find a beautiful American girl in the Great Erg," he said.
Something about his voice caused her to flush. "We've all caught Homer's dream," she said, almost defensively.