"What would
you say to a brandy?"

"I should return to duty, sir."

"A few minutes more," the general said. "The brandy is good." He moved
into the shadow and sorted bottles at his tiny cupboard. "Here." He held
the glass to the light. Amber liquid flowed softly and the general
handed across the half-filled glass. "Sit back," he said. "I'll join
you."

Glass in hand, the general stood with his back to the light. He seemed
surrounded by cold fire, and the glass sparkled as he lifted it. He
sipped. "Try it, it's good."

"It's very good, sir."

* * * * *

For a moment neither spoke. Then the general said, "This isn't my first
command, you know. I've seen men die. I've had to take chances with them
occasionally. You could say, I suppose, that I ordered some men to their
deaths. But still, the men came aboard knowing the risks. In the final
sense, they, not I, made the decision. I never sent a--"

The sentence ended as the glass slipped and fell. "I'm sorry," he said,
looking down at the sparkling fragments at his feet. The dark
liquid--the light gave it a reddish cast--puddled and flowed and its
aroma filled the room. "No, no. Let it be, David. I'll get it later."

The general went to the cupboard and poured into a new glass. Again he
was light and shadow. The spilled liquid approached the shadow and was
devoured in it as though it had never been, but still the aroma stood on
the air.

The general said: "Imagine, if you can, David, that Earth were attacked,
and the attack destroyed many of the military installations. After you
struck back, David, what would you do next?"

"I don't know, sir. I'm not a strategist, I'm afraid."

"What about your cities? The millions of people trapped without
supplies--over-running the countryside, looting, plundering in search of
food. Carrying pestilence and disease and terror. What would you do,
David?"

"Well, I guess I'd try to organize some relief organization or
something."

"But David. Anything you diverted to care for these people would limit
your ability to fight back, wouldn't it? They would be cluttering up all
your transportation, frustrating effective retaliation. Your second move
would be to take the bombs which destroy people and not property and ...
use them on your own cities."

Captain Arnold drained his glass. "That would be...." He did not finish.

"Insane, David? No. Rational. Field Commanders must be realists. The job