“Forever? No, Edith. None of us can afford it. We must know. If this works, Sol has a rather dangerous weapon against any possible conquesting races in the galaxy. Regardless of what has gone before, Sol is in a position to go out and make her mark upon the galaxy. It is best to go prepared, and if we fear nothing, we neither need fear subjugation.”
“But destroying a stellar system—”
“Who’ll miss it?” he asked.
She looked blank. “I don’t know,” she said. “It just seems so big. It doesn’t seem right that one man should be able to go out and destroy a stellar system. One that has been stable for million upon million of years. Superstition, perhaps,” she said thoughtfully. “I’m not a religious woman, Tom. I am not sacrilegious, either. Somehow, somewhere, there must be a God—”
“Who made t
