Houston's World. Let me
ask you another thing: Would any Kerothi have ordered that massacre?"

"I doubt it," Tallis said slowly. "Killing that many potential slaves
would be wasteful and expensive. We are fighters, not butchers. We kill
only when it is necessary to win; the remainder of the enemy is taken
care of as the rightful property of the conqueror."

"Exactly. Prisoners were part of the loot, and it's foolish to destroy
loot. I noticed that in your history books. I noticed, too, that in
such cases, the captives recognized the right of the conqueror to
enslave them, and made no trouble. So, after Earth's forces get to
Keroth, I don't think we'll have any trouble with you."

"Not if they set us an example like Houston's World," Tallis said, "and
can prove that resistance is futile. But I don't understand the
message. What was the message and how did you send it?"

"The massacre on Houston's World was the message, Tallis. I even told
the Staff, when I suggested it. 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. The people of
each planet would think, 'It can't happen here.' And, since they felt
that nothing could be superior to anything else, they were complacently
certain that they couldn't be beat. Of course, maybe Earth couldn't
beat you, either, but that was all right; it just proved that there was
no such thing as superiority.

"But Houston's World jarred them--badly. It had to. 'Hell does more
than Heaven can to wake the fear of God in man.' They didn't recognize
beauty, but I shoved ugliness down their throats; they didn't know love
and friendship, so I gave them hatred and fear.

"The committing of atrocities has been the mistake of aggressors
throughout Earth's history. The battle cries of countless wars have
called upon the people to remember an atrocity. Nothing else hits an
Earthman as hard as a vicious, brutal, unnecessary murder.

"So I gave them the incentive to fight, Tallis. That was my message."

Tallis was staring at him wide eyed. "You _are_ insane."

"No. It worked. In six months, they found something that would enable
them to blast the devil Kerothi from the skies. I don't know what the
society of Earth