ys, in Western publications circulated
throughout the settled galaxy, the headlines, columns and editorial
pages all expressed the same outrage, decrying the viciousness and
small-mindedness of the Palestinian attack; and the Israelis were freed
once more to expound upon the necessities of their hard-nosed,
aggressive, and completely intransigent foreign policies. They also
took it upon themselves to retaliate, destroying the remaining forces
and outer defenses of the exiled Arab planet, 'inadvertently' killing
thousands of civilians in the process.

The moral? Pointless insanity on all sides, that had gone on for three
centuries. BECAUSE IT HAD GONE UNCHALLENGED.

* * *

"The next time you start to get angry, count to ten."

ELEVEN

"Did it never strike you as just a trifle odd that the Cantons
destroyed the Laurian ore planet, instead of just taking the colonies
by force? They had the machinery."

"I don't know. I suppose I always thought that tactic psychological.
The whole affair with the gravity beam was quite impressive."

"Yes, and that was the lure of it. But think. Who stood to gain by
such an expensive side show? Who paid the bill, and why?"

"The German States? I don't understand. I thought they sided with the
Cantons out of principle." Dubcek looked at him like all the fools
that had ever been born.

"Horse-shit. They did it because they had the equipment to move in and
salvage ninety percent of the planet's high-grade ore---the Cantons
didn't---and because they could use the station again for other
purposes. The move was purely economic: they got their original
investment back three times over, and flexed their muscles a little in
the process. And (so you know you weren't completely wrong) there is
this. So long as people believe the West Germans are still Nazis at
heart, it gives them a tremendous psychological weapon: the aura of
ruthlessness."

The young man stood bewildered, turned his head from side to side as if
trying to see something through a fog. He paused, frozen it seemed,
and then spoke.

"But the Canton fleets. Who supplied them? Not the German States.
That would make them direct accomplices, and---"

"Now you are beginning to think like a socialist. The ships were, in
fact, of GS build, but they didn't just give them away. First they
were sold to the Belgian-Swiss---along with the arsenal that's