human
I'll try to answer what I can, he said cautiously.
gpt
But what're you to brief me about?
human
That you're not back on Earth yet, said the officer curtly, pulling out the first sheaf of questions.
gpt
Officially you haven't even started back. Ostensibly you're still on the Platform.
human
If your return were known, continued the lieutenant,
gpt
I don't think any of us want to be ridden around to have ticker-tape dumped on us. That part's all right. I'm sure the others will agree.
human
Good! One more difficulty. We had two space ships. Now we have none. Our most likely enemies haven't only been building rockets, they've got a space fleet coming along. Intelligence just found out they're nearly ready for trial trips. They've been yelling to high heaven that we were building a space fleet to conquer the world. We weren't. They were. And it looks very much as if they may have beaten us.