stay the night." He looked at her, waiting for an argument. "Here," he said. "All right," she said. "If that's what you want." Chapter Twelve As the Texican fleet blinked and waited, moving deeper into the galaxy, Fleet General Billy Bob Blink
transferred over to the flagship carrying a bottle of liberated brandy. He found Lex in his cabin brooding
over star charts. "Hey, boy, time for a break." He brandished the bottle. Lex pushed his eyebrows apart with thumb and
forefinger and managed a grin. He threw his booted feet onto his desk and accepted the glass offered by Billy Bob and let the crisp taste of the brandy linger on his tongue.
They drank in silence for a few minutes and then Billy Bob chuckled. "Hey, you remember that time we
laid one on in Dallas City, that time just before you went off to do your time for the Empire?" Lex nodded. He had scant time for memories these days, but it was pleasant to take his mind off
problems tor a few minutes.
"Drunk, whee, I had to hold onto the grass to stay on the world," Billy Bob said.
"And the look on the faces of those herders when you tackled them," Lex said, entering into the mood.
"They thought you were some crazy kid and they tried not to hurt you."
"Well," Billy Bob said, "I didn't really need your help."
"Oh, no," Lex said.
Billy Bob chuckled again and mused into his glass. "Hell, I miss it, old buddy. I miss all of it, Texas, the
big spaces, riding oldClean Machine down across the desert blowing low and fast."
"Yeah," Lex said.
"Here I am going on twenty-three and I ain't married," Billy Bob said. "And the ratio of women is up at
home, too."
"There'll be time," Lex said.
"When?" His question was not an idle one. Lex recognized that and let his feet fall to the floor with a thud. "When we gonna quit, Lex? Hell, we've made it secure for Texas. We occupy a quarter of the galaxy. We've got our buffer zone through which no one could attack with any degree of surprise. When we gonna call it enough?"
"When the killing has been stopped," Lex said.
"Seems to me we're doing our share," Billy Bob said.
"We didn't start it."
"No, but we can stop it. I talked to your friend when she was here. I know the Emperor offered you a
deal."
"Only to be able to kill Cassies," Lex said.
"Is that our business?"
"B.B., I've been doing me some reading now and then. And I ran into something which might explain to
you the way I feel. I may not remember the exact words, but they were written by a fellow back on the old Earth, long before we went into space. It goes something like this: The death of any man diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. You get what I mean?"
"I don't wanta sound smart," Billy Bob said, "but it seems to me you're saying you're gonna kill people to keep them from killing themselves."
Lex's face went stiff. "I kill only when there is no other way."
"Sure, you offer them a chance to surrender. What if it were the other way and someone was taking Texas piece by piece, would you surrender?"
"It's different," Lex said.
"We've got the Empire on the ropes," Billy Bob said. "We could fly through to Earth right now. And I'm not sure we're on the right track, buddy. There are ;he Cassies. Now I've been doing me some reading and some talking, too. I think of the two the Empire is just a hair better. What are we gonna do, take nut the Empire and then tackle the Cassies?"
"Nope," Lex said.
"Then what?"
"Take a look," Lex said. "Here." He shoved a star hart across his desk. Billy Bob looked and then he pursed his lips and whistled. On the chart, marked in red, was the line of march extending out from Texas into Empire. Red areas showed areas of Texican control. The dotted line of future movement extended not toward Earth, but outward. There was a circle around the star Cassiopeia.
The fleet blinked into Cassiopeian space just over two years from the time it first left Texas space and the messages began to go out. There were the usual offers of surrender and honorable terms, all, of course, refused. Cassiopeian ships learned the hard way that they were no match for Texican weapons and the dark space flared with their lessons. Nevertheless, the resistance was stiff. Again, Texicans died and the news of their dying brought a delegation from the home planet to meet with President Burns in deep space. Of the five Texicans, two were known to Lex. Retired Admiral Crockett Reds shook his hand and congratulated him on his successes. Emily smiled and her hand was warm in his.
He seated them in his cabin, although it was crowded. He listened. They questioned his wisdom in attacking the Cassiopeian dictatorships while still engaging the Empire.
"You elected me to assure the security of Texas," he said. "Are you now saying that you want me to resign?"
"Of course not," said Reds in his aged, deep voice. "But dammit, boy, we've got security. A free electron can't get through the ring of territory you've established on this side of the galaxy. Now you've done a fine job. I'm told that the people on the occupied planets have started treating us as liberators, rather than as conquerors. But let's look at it this way. You've got a supply line which reaches back toward Texas for one helluva distance. By leaving good Texicans behind on occupied planets to administer them you've reduced your fleet, leaving you with Empireites in key positions. Over half your ship Captains are non-Texican. We think you're extending yourself too far."
"Has there been one defection among the converts?" Lex asked.
"Not that I know of," Reds said, continuing to actas spokesman, "but you're taking on a whole new game now that you're moving into Cassiopeian space. You're suffering losses. As long as you're winning the men are happy. But they've seen ships burned. How long can you keep them willing to risk, and risk, and risk?"
"Long enough," Lex said. Emily remained when the other had gone. "Are you going to lecture me now?" he asked. "You have become a very handsome man," she said disarmingly. "Gonna sweet-talk me back to Texas, huh?" he asked, grinning in spite of himself. "No. Actually, I just want to see you alone, talk with you. How are you, Lex?" "Great." "No, I mean really, inside. Can't you forget?" He turned away without answering. "My Poul was in Dallas City, too," she said. He looked at her. "I didn't know. I'm sorry." "My way of trying to forget was to submerge myself in my work," she said. "The techniques we
discovered by testing the Empire thought monitors led to many new things. Miniaturization in many fields, but, most importantly, they led to a new understanding of the human mind. The mind is a funny thing, Lex. We think we do what we want, but sometimes we're conditioned to think we're doing what we want to do by an oversecretion of some obscure enzyme in the body. Or our thoughts are colored by emotions. Grief has a chemical effect on the brain, and on the entire entity we call mind, soul, ourselves."
"I won't say that I'm not a different man because of—"He paused, then said it. "—because of Riddent's death, but it's Texas I'm thinking of." "Is it?" . "What else is there?" He looked at her challengingly. "Glory?" "Bullshit." "I talked with Billy Bob."
"Changing the subject?" "Not really," she said, smiling. "He says you spend a lot of time alone and that when you're not working you're reading, old things from Earth. Do you know Alexander?"
"Do you know Sargon?" he countered.
"And Frederick and Napoleon and Eisenhower and Hitler and Stalin," she said. "Yes, I remember, you mentioned Hitler to me once." "He killed fifty million people, directly or indirectly," she said. "And Empire has been fighting the Cassies for hundreds of years," Lex said. "I'm going to stop the killing,
not continue it." "Alexander was a young man, too," she said, "and he established what was, perhaps, the first empire." "He sold his captive women and children into slavery," Lex said. "Am I Alexander? When we liberated