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Updated: May 31, 2025
In only three cases was the estimate of your losses higher than the actual losses. Actually, we'd be fools to turn you down. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose." "I felt the same way a year ago," said MacMaine. "Even being watched all the time will allow me more freedom than I had on Earth if the Board of Strategy is willing to meet my terms." Tallis chuckled. "They are.
As Tallis climbed out of the car, chuffing windily into the kerchief, MacMaine snapped an order to the sergeant behind the wheel. "That's all. We're taking off almost immediately, so get that car out of here." Then he walked rapidly over to the captain, who had snapped to attention. There was a definite look of relief on his face, now that he knew his commander was on time.
Or," he added musingly, "perhaps even at the hands of the Kerothi, if someone decides that a scapegoat is needed to atone for the loss of the war." "If you are guilty of treason," Hokotan barked, "you will die as a traitor! If you are not, there is no need for your death. The Kerothi do not need scapegoats!" "Talk, talk, talk!" Tallis said with a sudden bellow.
It was a standard opening for breaking the pause of adjustment, but it presaged good news rather than bad. "I await your word," MacMaine said. Even after all this time, he still felt vaguely proud of his ability to handle the subtle idioms of Kerothic. "I think," Tallis said carefully, "that you may be offered a commission in the Kerothi Space Forces."
"Good morning, General Tallis," MacMaine said. "Sit down. How do you feel this morning?" The general sat again on the hard bunk that, aside from the single chair, was the only furniture in the small cell. "Ass well ass coot pe expectet. I ket ferry little exercisse. I ... how iss it set? ... I pecome soft? Soft? Iss correct?" "Correct. You've learned our language very well for so short a time."
I said that such an act would strike terror into the minds of Earthmen. "And it did, Tallis; it did. But that terror was just the goad they needed to make them fight. They had to sit up and take notice. If the Kerothi had gone on the way they were going, taking one planet after another, as they planned, the Kerothi would have won.
You will not be punished for mistakes only for crimes. If you are planning no crimes, this worry of yours is needless." "I ceased to worry about myself long ago," MacMaine said coolly. "I do not fear personal death, not even by Excommunication. My sole worry is about the ultimate outcome of the war if I should fail. That, and nothing more." "I believe you," Tallis said.
"Again," said MacMaine, "I swear to you that I know nothing of any third intelligent race in the galaxy." "If there were such allies," Tallis said, "isn't it odd that they should wait so long to aid their friends?" "No odder than that the Earthmen should suddenly develop superweapons that we cannot understand, much less fight against," Hokotan said, with a touch of anger.
Hokotan's laugh was a short, hard bark. "Oh, we'll watch him, all right, Ossif. But, as Tallis has pointed out, MacMaine is not a fool, and he would certainly be a fool to return to Earth if his leaving it was a genuine act of desertion.
As the guards reached the cell door, MacMaine unholstered his pistol from his sleeve and brought it down hard on the head of the nearest youth. At the same time, Tallis stepped from behind the door and clouted the other. Quickly, MacMaine disarmed the fallen men and dragged them into the open cell. He came out again and locked the door securely. Their guns were tossed into an empty cell nearby.
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