nd more to Mars and Venus for a place to move ... not tiny
colonies, but places for millions of people. And as Mars grew, Jupiter
Equilateral grew."

"But it was just a mining company," Tom said.

"At first it was, but then its interests began to expand. The company
accumulated wealth, unbelievable wealth, and it developed many friends.
Very soon it had friends back on Earth fighting for it, and the United
Nations found itself fighting to stay on Mars."

"I don't see why," Tom said. "The company already has half the mining
claims in the Belt...."

"They aren't interested in the mining," the Major said. "They have a
much longer-range goal than that. The men behind Jupiter Equilateral are
looking ahead. They know that someday Earthmen are going to have to go
to the stars for colonies ... it won't be a matter of choice after a
while, they'll _have_ to go. Well, Jupiter Equilateral's terms are very
simple. They're perfectly willing to let the United Nations control
things on Earth. All they want is control of everything else. Mars, if
they can drive us out. Venus too, if it ever proves up for colonies. And
if they can gain control of the ships that leave our Solar System for
the stars, they can build an empire, and they know it."

They were silent for a moment. Then Johnny Coombs said, "Doesn't anybody
on Earth know about this?"

"There are some who know ... but they don't see the danger. They think
of Jupiter Equilateral as just another big company. So far U.N. control
of Mars and Venus has held up, even though the pressure on the
legislators back on Earth has been getting heavier and heavier. Jupiter
Equilateral won the greatest fight in its history when they limited U.N.
jurisdiction to Mars, and kept us out of the Belt. And now they hope to
convince the lawmakers that we're incompetent to administer the Martian
colonies and keep peace out here. If they succeed, we'll be called home
in nothing flat; we've had to fight just to stay."

The Major spread his hands helplessly. "Like I said, it's been a war.
Our only hope was to prove that the company was using piracy and murder
to gain control of the asteroids. We had to find a way to smash the
picture they've been painting of themselves back on Earth as a big,
benevolent organization interested only in the best for Earth colonists
on the planets. We had to expose them before they had the Earth in
chains ... not now, maybe not even a century from now, but sometime,
ye