"Hmm... Jill, I've been awake nights when I should have been dreaming about you, trying to answer that one.  It's a two-part question, political and financial - and here are the best answers I have now:  If Smith dies, his odd legal claim to the planet Mars vanishes.  Probably the pioneer group the Champion left behind on Mars starts a new claim - and almost certainly the administration worked out a deal with them before they left Earth.  The Champion is a Federation ship but it is more than possible that the deal, if there was one, leaves all the strings in the hands of that redoubtable defender of human rights, Mr. Secretary General Douglas.  Such a deal could keep him in power for a long time.  On the other hand, it might mean nothing at all."