Zach Hughes - For Texas and Zed

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 act as 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

the first Cassie planet the people were, at first, suspicious, but when we opened the political prisons and allowed the citizens to elect their own local officials—"

"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.