Part III, Selenos 8: Chapters 46 - 48 Summary

The President talks directly with the leader of the Jersey Colony, Eli Steinmetz, who he congratulates for his tremendous accomplishment. Then the President gets immediately down to business and warns the colony leader of the likelihood of a Soviet attack. In spite of the President's pleas, Steinmetz refuses to destroy the colony to avoid bloodshed. While his men are not well armed, they do enjoy the home team advantage for they have lived on the moon for six years. The Soviets land on the moon and indeed they are well armed. The biggest problem for them is that they are not trained cosmonauts, they are soldiers. Eli Steinmetz uses a flag of truce to initiate talks with the Russians. Petrov is a soldier, and is not skilled at verbal negotiations. He offers the falsehood of...