Chapter 3

 "Captain Mackley," said Cressey, "I've heard it said that Earth is the aggressor in this war."

"Have you ever seen the London Crater¹?" asked the Information Officer.

"Pictures, yes, but what I want to know is, who attacked first?"

"It doesn't really matter, does it Cressey? There is a war, and we've got to fight it, no matter how it started."

"Yes sir," said Cressey, "but I wanted to know."

"All right, I'll tell you then. The Outspacers contacted this system roughly six years ago. The first eighteen months they spent on the outer planets. During the second year they came in as far as Mars, and established a base there. Six months later, one of their ships left on an obvious course toward Earth. It was destroyed by a missile launched from Satellite II." Mackley shrugged². "You know the rest. They retaliated³. Satellite II was vaporized."

"But Earth fired first?"

"I told you, it doesn't make any difference now. One Outspacer later got through the defense⁴ rings, and now there's nothing from London to Cambridge but glass. Whatever the hell they use for weapons, they're effective."

"So we don't know whether or not they were originally hostile."

"No, we don't. It had to be assumed they were. We were not in a position to make allowances. You must realize, Cressey, we were dealing⁵ with something totally unprecedented⁶, a completely unknown force. Common sense is enough to tell you the Outspacer had to be considered inimical to us, until proven otherwise."

"They weren't given much of a chance to prove it."

"That may be. The point is irrelevant⁷ at the moment. We are committed to a line of action, and we must follow it through. On their part, the Outspacers are doing the same."

Cressey was silent for a moment, and Mackley continued in a softer voice. "Look here, son. I don't have to tell you all this. I could just as easily shoot you full of starry-eyed patriotism⁸ and send you out to save the world from the Bug-Eyed Monsters, but the military isn't doing things that way any more. There is a possibility that we've made a mistake, I'll admit that, but we're stuck with the consequences of the original action. We're defending our planet with everything we've got. The Hornets are the only weapon that has proven even remotely effective."

"I'll have to think it over, Captain."

"Of course," said Mackley. "It's not an easy decision to make. Come back again, any time you like, and we'll talk it over some more."

And Cressey had gone back.

1 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

2 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 retaliated   

v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• When he once teased her for her inexperience, she retaliated. 有一次，他讥讽她没有经验，她便反唇相讥。 来自辞典例句
• The terrorists retaliated by killing three policemen. 恐怖分子以杀死三名警察相报复。 来自辞典例句

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

7 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

8 patriotism   

n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• They obtained money under the false pretenses of patriotism.他们以虚伪的爱国主义为借口获得金钱。