"We intend to blot out Homo sapiens and we shall do it. But not with stone clubs, not with revolvers. No, we'll lay hands tonight on man's greatest weapon, the only weapon which can be turned against the whole globe: the space station. You object to our primitive methods. You're not thinking deeply enough. The pure science of the station, the rockets and the VTO tugs buffaloes you. You can't see a horde of men with handguns and grenades capturing those awesome devices."
"That's right, I can't."
"Why not? There is no more problem here than there is attacking a bank vault, or an outpost of soldiers. So far as the government knows, there is no secret army within its borders! They haven't the faintest notion that we exist, an army of manlike non-men.
"It's the broad conception that stumps you, Ray. So picture each operation by itself. The storming of the rocket ports—by quite adequate troops of ours, well-armed and savage. Then the towing of the rockets, by VTO tugs, to Pompey Island—this done by technicians and scientists who are not men, but Neanderthals. Then the locking of the space station to the rockets, and the takeoff for outer space. Sixty of us in these boats, plus twenty waiting with other musters at the rocket stations will man that moon. From attack on Pompey to blast-off from Terra should take from one to three hours."
"You are insane," said Nessa in a shocked voice.
"No," said Skagarach seriously, "we are sane. But we have fought for the existence of our race through too many thousands of years, in too many lands and too many ages, to have mercy now that our hour is at hand."
I felt as though I'd been dropped into icy water. Skagarach wasn't kidding. And Bill Cuff was worse than he.
And I had lied to them. I could picture in brain-shattering detail what they would do to Nessa when they discovered that; for my lie could blow up their whole scheme. They'd torture her, not me, for they needed me. I looked at the thought and I couldn't stand it.
I did the most cowardly thing a man could do: I stood up and betrayed my country, my world, and my entire breed. But I did it because I knew exactly how much I could take before I cracked—and while I might withstand their worst for a little while, they would inevitably do things to Nessa which I could not take.