"Yes, yes," she said. "Of course," he said, "there is a comparison with Hitler, because, like Hitler, I have turned down the opportunity to ally myself with one of our most powerful enemies, the Empire, to fight both Empire and the other strong force in the galaxy."
"You said it, not I," she said.
"That's the real reason for the delegation, isn't it? You think, at home, that I'm biting off more than I can chew?" "There is talk," she said. "Fear, you mean." "Fear. Yes. We're afraid of the casualty reports, Lex. We live by them. For the first time in history
there's unlimited birth on Texas. That's a blessing, I suppose, because now people can have as many children as they want. They can have boys and girls without strict control, letting nature do the balancing. But the joy of a young one in the house is diminished by the news that a husband, a brother, a son has died out here in the galaxy."
"It will end soon."
"Will it, Lex? When you've beaten the Cassiopeians, what then? Will you then come home and bring our young men with you?" "There'll be opportunity to go home." "But you'll have a galaxy at your command. Will you leave it and come back to Texas?" "Those who want to go home will be allowed to go home," he said stubbornly. "And Texas will never be the same. Already we're scattered over vast distances. Families separated.
Men making alliances with Empire women."
"Distance is nothing," Lex said. "You're not aware, apparently, of the work being done at the Blink Space Works on Macall. Using the Empire techniques of miniaturization we are installing multiple generators on ships of the line. That means no charging periods along known space routes, making a series of blinks possible, reducing the distance between, say, Earth and Texas to hours. The approach to a planet will take longer than the blink across galactic distances."
Emily smiled sadly. "And it will make the Texas fleet even more invincible."
"I'd like to talk more with you," Lex said. "Will you May with me? Here?"
"No," she said. He examined her face closely. "I'm still a Texican woman, Lex. I've had my two
husbands and I've lost both of them. I'll admit that once I was close to you, but—"
"Who has changed?" he asked. "You? Me? I'm a Texican, too, Emily. I'm a lonely Texican. I remember how you—"
She broke in, not wanting to hear it. "I am told that Empire women flock to all fleet bases. I am told that they like Texas men."
"A man wants to be with his own," Lex said.
"Then come home, Lex. Let the Empire take care of its problems with Cassiopeia."
"No."
"Why?"
He thought for a moment. He wanted to be truthful with her. He owed her that. "Texicans have died,"
he's aid. "They've died uselessly. Riddent died for no good reason. I'm going to see that there is an end to
useless dying."
The violence of her response shook him, made his face go slack as he withdrew within himself. "Meacr shit," she said. "You're not thinking of Riddent. You're not thinking of dead Texicans. You're thinking of revenge, of yourself. Lex, no amount of killing, no amount of conquest can bring her or them back."
"You are entitled to your opinion," Lex said weakly.
"Tell me, Lex, how does it make you feel to know that you're the moving spirit of the most deadly battle force the universe has ever seen? Does it make you feel powerful?"
He looked at her with his eyes cold. "I know my power," he said. "I know it down to the last man on the
last airors, to the last projectile in the arsenal."
"And do you realize how that power has changed you?"
"We all grow up."
"No," she said sadly. "It isn't just that. You've changed, Lex. You're not Lex anymore. You're not even a Texican. You're Alexander. You're Napoleon. You're capable of wielding unlimited power and that power will, eventually, turn on you. It always has. It always will."
"When it's over, I'll come home."
"No," she said. "No."
When she was gone, Lex sat at his desk, moodily fingering the corner of his star chart. Then, with a shrug, he bent to check, once again, the path of Texican conquest.
Chapter Thirteen
The Second Battle of Wolfs Star lasted two hours and ten minutes. The allied dictatorships had massed their main power there, at the site of the last major engagement with the Empire, and it was met by a Texican fleet which was outnumbered ten to one.
On Texas, Emily heard the engagement called the Slaughter of Wolfs Star.
With the miniaturized multiple-blink generators installed, the Texican fleet blinked circles around the traditional formations of the Cassiopeians. So efficient had become the killers from extra-galactic space that the destruction was selective. First, Darlene projectiles took out the protecting Vandys, then, millions of men dead, a concerted effort demolished the Cassiopeian force of Middleguard cruisers, leaving a core of huge Rearguards grouped together like frightened, herded meacrs.
"To the death," vowed the elected battle leader of the Cassiopeians.
"Death it is, then," Lex sent. "In three minutes and live seconds your ship dies." He himself pushed the button which sent a Darlene projectile blinking into the main control room, there to hang in air as Lex sent, "There is death, my friend. Now you must choose. Surrender, if you will."
"Never," said the dictator, speaking his last word.
"Any more heroes?" Lex sent.
The final engagement of the War of Texican Conquest saw a battered Empire allied with the Cassiopeians, their traditional enemies. Lex sent a phalanx of captured Cassie Rearguards into the scattered formations, spreading fire on all sides. Two days after the final surrender, ship works on a thousand planets began conversion of the huge warships into merchantmen.
Behind him, Arden Wal administered all of the Cassiopeian territory, bending his main effort to trade, for the Cassies excelled at agriculture. In exchange for foodstuffs, a flow of manufactured goods began to stream out of the old Empire even before Lex began the slow, triumphal march to the home planet, old Earth. Blant Jakkes was in charge of the outer limits of Empire. Form had died at the Second Battle of Wolfs Star. Billy Bob Blink, after the final victory, said goodbye and blinked toward Texas. All over the galaxy, young Texican officers were assuming their duties as administrators of planets, groups of planets, vast star fields. An isolated dictatorship, embracing six planets, resisted. The main military planet was broken, burned, using captured Empire planetkillers, and there was peace.
The Texas-builtLone Star , flagship of the victorious Texican fleet, neared old Earth, paused as scanners played over the planetary surface to show, in full color close-ups, a park planet, manicured and clean, population confined to towering cities, the main administrative city covering the central belt of the North American continent in what had once been the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri. The spaceports which had once served the capital were deserted. In the streets there was little movement.
Lex scorned the spaceports, lowering theLone Star into the vast reaches of the park surrounding the Emperor's palace. The building, when he stepped out onto the earth of his mother planet, towered over him, gleaming, dazzling in the bright summer sun. The planet was weather-controlled. The temperature, after he confines of a warship, seemed chill at seventy-two degrees. Around him growing things followed orderly patterns as he walked, at the head of his crew of officers, toward the group which was forming to greet him on the palace entry.
The Lady Gwyn was there, dressed officially. In addition, there were somber-faced old men, documents in hand. "In the name of the Emperor," said one official, "we welcome you to Earth."
Lex waved them aside, taking the steps two at a time, his officers following, hands on their side arms. The Lady Gwyn, as they passed, said bitterly, "Gentlemen, this is your new Emperor."
Lex heard. He kept his face forward, striding purposefully up the stairs to the grand entry door. Inside, a huge hall stretched away from him. Uniformed attendants stood fearfully at attention. "The Emperor," Lex said to one of them.
"This way, sir," the attendant said, bowing, leading Lex across the huge hall into a series of corridors until, with another bow, the man indicated a door flanked by two men, tall by Empire standards.
"To see the Emperor," the attendant said. "President Lexington Burns."