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The fleetlord Atvar had convened a great s of his shiplords since the Race’s conquest fleet cas had been imperfectly happy; the Tosevites were far more numerous and far ined when the conquest fleet set out fro like this

He used one eye turret to watch his leading officers as they gathered in the great hall of his bannership, the127th Emperor Hetto The other eye turret swiveled down to review the i to those officers

Kirel, shiplord of the127th Emperor Hetto and a staunch ally, stood beside hiood odor to what happened in the SSSR won’t be easy”

One of Kirel’s eye turrets swung toward a hologra from the nuclear explosion that had halted-worse, had vaporized-the Race’s drive on Moskva “Exalted Fleetlord, the odor is anything but good,” he said “We knew the Big Uglies were engaged in nuclear research, yes, but we did not expect any of their little empires and not-empires-especially the SSSR-to develop and deploy a bomb so soon”

“Especially the SSSR,” Atvar agreed heavily TheSoyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialesticheskikh Respublik sent a frisson of horror through any right-thinking male of the Race A short span of years before, its people had not only overthrown their emperor but killed hiinable back on Home, where e the Big Uglies, though, ily common

The gas-tight doors to the great hall hissed closed That meant all the shiplords were here Atvar knew it, but was still less than eager to begin theAt last, Kirel had to prompt him: “Exalted Fleetlord-”

“Yes, yes,” Atvar said with a hissing sigh He turned on the podiu impatiently in their seats: “Assembled shiplords, you are already aware, I am certain, of the reason for which I have summoned you here today”

He touched a button Two i behind hiht northeast of the Soviet city of Kaluga captured by an observation satellite, then that ground-level shot of the cloud created by the SSSR’s atomic bomb

The shiplords, no doubt, had already seen the ies tens of times All the same, hisses of dismay and fury rose from every throat The tailstue that they could not stay in their seats, but had to stand until their tempers eased

“Assembled shiplords, we have taken a heavy blow,” Atvar said “Not only did this explosion take with it e quantity of irreplaceable landcruisers and other colies into a new phase, one whose outcomes are not easily foreseen”

To the Race, feords could have beento chance, was not only inherent in the tehood The Race had sent a probe to Tosev 3 sixteen hundred years before (only half so many of this planet’s slow revolution around its star), decided it orth having, and un to prepare But for those preparations, little in the Race’s three-world eed in that time

The Big Uglies,swords to riding jet aircraft, launching short-rangeradio… and now to atoating and explaining how a species could move forward so fast Neither the Race itself nor its subjects, the Hallessi and the Rabotevs, had ever shown such a pattern To thee came in slow, tiny, meticulously considered steps

Atvar, unfortunately, did not have lies worked Circumstances forced hie a measure of their do-it-noorry-later philosophy He said, “In this entire sorry episode, I take co”

“Permission to speak, Exalted Fleetlord?” a male called from near the front of the hall: Straha, shiplord of the206th Emperor Yower, next senior in the fleet after Kirel-and no ally of Atvar’s To Atvar’s way of thinking, he was so rash and ily himself

But at a“Speak,” Atvar said resignedly

“Exalted Fleetlord-” Straha used the proper deferential title, but sounded anything but properly deferential “Exalted Fleetlord, how can any part of this fiasco cause you comfort?”

Soe Straha used; hest rank, were expected to show-and to feel-respect for their superiors at all ti number of officers-and not just those of his faction-seeree with Straha