At Morgenthau’s suggestion, Holly organized parades. The sports fans’ clubs easily agreed to march to the park, each of them carrying makeshift banners of their club’s colors. The musicians among the populace formed impromptu bands and even agreed to play one at a time, rather than competing in cacophony. The farmers put together a march of sorts, not that they walked in any discernable order. So did the other workers, each organized by their specialty.

Still, when the music played and the people marched, only a few thousand showed up. Most of the population stayed home. Holly consoled herself with the thought that they all would watch the rally on video. At least, she hoped so.

Even so, some three thousand people formed a considerable crowd. Eberly looked delighted as they assembled raggedly in front of the band shell where he sat on the stage, watching and smiling at them.

Morgenthau looked pleased, too. Holly heard her say into Eberly’s ear, “This is a big-enough minority to give us the power we need, Malcolm. The ones who’ve stayed home will be swept up in the tide, when the time comes.”

The atmosphere was like an old-fashioned summertime picnic. Music played. People marched, then stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the little band shell and stage that stood at one end of the park.

Manuel Gaeta was the first speaker. Morgenthau introduced him and the crowd roared and whistled as he slowly, shyly, climbed the steps of the stage.

He motioned for quiet, grinning out at a sea of expectant faces. “I’m no public speaker,” he began. “I’ve done a lot of scary things in my life, but I think this is scarier than any of them.”

People laughed.

“I don’t have all that much to say. I hope to be able to get down to the surface of Titan, and when I do, I’d like to dedicate the mission to you folks, the people of this habitat.”

They roared their delight. Holly, sitting beside Eberly at one side of the stage, looked around the crowd, searching for the faces of scientists that she knew. She spotted only a few of them. Neither Dr. Urbain nor Professor Wilmot was in the crowd.

“My real job today,” Gaeta went on, “is to introduce the main speaker. I think you all know him. Malcolm Eberly is director of the Human Resources Department, and the one man among the habitat’s top staff who’s tried to help me. I think he can help all of us.”

With that, Gaeta turned and gestured toward Eberly, who slowly, deliberately got up from his chair and walked to the podium. The crowd’s applause was perfunctory.

“Thank you, Manny,” Eberly said, gripping the sides of the podium with both hands. Looking out into the crowd, he went on, “And thank you, each and every one of you, for coming to this rally this evening.”

He took a breath, then lowered his head, almost as if in prayer. The crowd went silent, waiting, watching.

“We have before us a task of awesome magnitude,” Eberly said. “We must face new and unknown dangers as we sail farther into unexplored space than any human beings have gone before.”

Holly was struck by the pitch of his voice. He was a different man on the platform, she saw: His eyes blazed, his voice was deeper, stronger, more certain than she had ever heard before.

“Soon now we will be reaching Saturn. Soon our real work must begin. But before we can start, we have the responsibility of creating a new order, a new society, a new government that will represent us fairly and justly and accomplish all that we want to achieve.

“The first step in creating this new order is the naming of names. We have the opportunity, the responsibility, of choosing the names by which our community will be known. It may seem like a trivial task, but it is not. It is of primary importance.

“Yet what do we see all around us? Instead of unity, there is strife. Instead of clear purpose, there is confusion and struggle. We are divided and weak, where we must be united and strong.”

Holly listened in growing fascination, feeling herself drawn into his web of words. It’s enthralling, she realized. Malcolm is mesmerizing all these thousands of people.

“We are the chosen ones,” he was telling them. “We few, we chosen few, we who will establish human purpose and human dignity at the farthest outpost of civilization. We who will bring the banner of humanity to the cold and hostile forces of nature, we who will show all the universe that we can build a strong and safe haven for ourselves, a paradise of our own creation.

“The naming of names is merely the first step in this quest. We then must create a new government and elect the leaders who will serve us as we begin to create the new society that we desire.

“Instead of rivalry, we must have cooperation. Instead of struggle, we must have unity. Instead of weakness, we must have strength. Let each man and woman here firmly resolve that this society shall be strong and united. Ask not what gain you as an individual will obtain. Ask rather what strength you can contribute to help create a free and flourishing new order. We can build a paradise with our own hands! Will you help to do it?”

They bellowed, “YES!” They clapped and cheered and whistled. Eberly stood at the podium, head bowed, soaking up their adulation the way a flower drinks in sunlight.

The crowd quieted, watched his silent form up on the podium. Slowly Eberly raised his head, looked out on them with an almost beatific smile on his lips.

“Each of you — each man and woman here — must pledge yourselves to the unity and cooperation we need to create the new order. I want each of you to reach out and clasp hands with the person next to you. Friend or stranger, man or woman, take your neighbor’s hand in your own and swear that we will work together to build our new world.”

The crowd murmured, heads turned, feet shuffled. Then, slowly at first, people turned to each other and clasped hands. Holly watched as more and more people embraced, their differences forgotten for the moment, many of them openly sobbing. Holly realized that Malcolm was the only person in the entire habitat who could bring the people together like this.

She was proud to have helped this great man achieve this moment of unity, this powerful emotion of loving friendship.