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Updated: May 3, 2025
The food that had been captured with him would run out in less than six months, and it was doubtful that he would survive on Earth food. It was equally doubtful that any more Kerothi food would be captured. For two years, Earth had been fighting the Kerothi, and for two years Earth had been winning a few minor skirmishes and losing the major battles.
All MacMaine had to do was wait, and he'd automatically be promoted to the Commanding Staff, where he would have an equal vote with the others of his rank. One unit vote to begin with and an additional unit for every year thereafter. It's a great system for running a peacetime social club, maybe, MacMaine thought, but it's no way to run a fighting force. Maybe the Kerothi general was right.
The Kerothi hadn't hit any of the major colonies yet, but they had swallowed up outpost after outpost, and Earth's space fleet was losing ships faster than her factories could turn them out. The hell of it was that nobody on Earth seemed to be very much concerned about it at all. MacMaine wondered why he let it concern him. If no one else was worried, why did he let it bother him?
We are going out to arrange a special truce with the Kerothi." "What?" "That's what it says here. You'll have to get on the subradio and do some plain and fancy talking. Fortunately, not a man jack aboard this ship knows a word of your language, so they'll think you're arranging truce terms. "They'll be sitting ducks when your warship pulls up alongside and sends in a boarding party.
He stood up and extended both hands in the Kerothi fashion. The other did the same, and they clasped hands for a moment. "How are your guts?" he added in Kerothic. "They function smoothly, my sibling-by-choice," answered Space General Polan Tallis. "And your own?" "Smoothly, indeed. It's been far too long a time since we have touched."
The problem now was to convince the Kerothi that he fully intended to fight with them, to give them the full benefit of his ability as a military strategist, to do his best to win every battle for Keroth. And that was going to be the most difficult task of all. A telltale glow of red blinked rapidly over the door, and a soft chime pinged in time with it.
He was seated in one of the easy-chairs in his "living room," smoking a cigarette and reading a book on the history of Keroth, but he put the book down on the low table as a tall Kerothi came in through the doorway. MacMaine allowed himself a smile of honest pleasure.
Hokotan's grin was wolfish. "And the whole weak-hearted race will shake with fear, eh?" "Exactly. Tallis can speak English well enough to be understood. Have him make the announcement to them. He can word it however he likes, but the essence is to be this: Houston's World resisted the occupation by Kerothi troops; an example must be made of them to show them what happens to Earthmen who resist."
The Kerothi stepped back a pace and looked the Earthman up and down. "You look healthy enough for a prisoner. You're treated well, then?" "Well enough. Sit down, my sibling-by-choice." MacMaine waved toward the couch nearby. The general sat down and looked around the apartment. "Well, well. You're getting preferential treatment, all right.
But MacMaine had told them that there was another way a way which, if it succeeded, would save time, lives, and money for the Kerothi. And, if it failed, MacMaine said, they would be no worse off, they would simply have to resume the original plan. Now, the first of the big colony planets was to be taken.
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