"People."
"People? How can they govern? There must be some one person to make decisions."
"There is a way. The blueprint I have, dealt with a small section of one planet, but it can be adapted to all the Galaxy."
The Director smiled. "Come, children, I may as well marry you. It can do little more harm now."
Biron's hand tightly enclosed Artemisia's and she was smiling at him. They felt the queer inward twinge as the Remorseless made its single precalculated Jump.
Biron said, "Before you start, sir, will you tell me something about the blueprint you mention, so that my curiosity will be satisfied and I can keep my mind on Arta?"
Artemisia laughed and said, "You had better do it, Father. I couldn't bear an abstracted groom."
Hinrik smiled. "I know the document by heart. Listen."
And with Rhodia's sun bright on the visiplate, Hinrik began with those words that were older-far older-than any of the planets in the Galaxy save one:
"'We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America...'"