Another event had cast another person under some suspicion of berserker sympathies--this time not directed at a computer program. One of the more timid souls in strategic headquarters on Earth--in fact one of the premier's personal advisers--had recently put forward a suggestion that the space atoll called Fifty Fifty be evacuated. It was a small, exposed outpost, hard to defend against a superior force. According to this point of view, all Solarian forces should be pulled back much nearer Earth, preferably entirely within Sol System, where they could concentrate on playing a purely defensive role. A logical extension of this strategy--if one can call it a strategy--is that Port Diamond might as well be written off too.
The timid soul who came up with this proposal was promptly transferred Earthward, to a different and less important job. At least he had not advocated abandoning Earth herself. No one above him in the chain of command gave his ideas any serious consideration--except as basis for review of his security clearance.
-Berserker Fury, Fred Saberhagen
