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“But–the evidence! Those tapes. The documents. They all seemed genuine. They seemed so convincing.”

“They should be convincing, Jon,” said Lord Senesin in his smooth oratorical baritone. “You see, they are perfectly true.”

Jon Senesin looked at his father as though the older man had suddenly sprouted an extra set of ears. “Y … You’ve been brainwashed?”

The Prime Portfolio shook his head. “No, son, not that. Did you see anything like that on the tapes?”

“N-no. But the others. Fileman Brenner, Portfolio for Defense Vane, General Finster–all of them. I thought–“

“You thought wrong, son,” said Lord Senesin. “I am and always have been working loyally with His Majesty. He gives the orders, and I carry them out.”

Jon’s voice became taut. “You mean you’re helping him? You’re trying to get the Empire into a war with the Gehan Federation so that he can become another dictator, like Jerris the First?” He kept his eyes carefully averted from the Emperor as he spoke.

Thus he didn’t notice that His Majesty looked at Colonel Sorban with an expression that said, “You’re right. He does have guts.”

Lord Senesin said: “No, son; I’m not working toward that at all. Neither is His Majesty. There would be no point in it.”

Then, for the first time, the Emperor spoke. His voice was soft, but commanding. “Mr. Senesin, let me explain something to you.”

Jon Senesin’s head jerked around. There was a confused mixture of fear and determination on his face.

“Mr. Senesin, I no more want war than you do. I am trying to avoid it with every power at my command. I have that duty to my people. But I have another duty, too. A duty, not just to the Empire, but to the human race as a whole. And that duty is to establish, not a Terran Empire, but a Galactic Empire–a single, consolidated government for every planet in the galaxy. Man can’t go on this way, divided, split up, warring with himself. Man can’t live in isolation, cut off from other worlds, other types of societies.

“We can’t have a part of the human race living in constant fear of another part. We can’t allow the conditions that exist at this moment in the Gehan Federation. To paraphrase Lincoln, ‘The galaxy cannot exist half slave and half free.’

“Right now, there is evidence that the Gehan Federation will collapse internally within less than five years. The only way for the President of the Federation to avert that collapse will be to declare war on the Empire. We have had to take certain risks in order to insure that when and if war does come, we will win it.

“Bairnvell was one of those risks. Not too great a one, as it turns out; evidently the Federation government doesn’t see that our possession of that base is a vital factor in our own defense. Strategy in three dimensions isn’t easy to reason out.

“Mr. Senesin, I have no desire for power in a personal way. Any power I have is used for the good of my people. I have no police system for terrorizing the people; I don’t suppress the freedom of every man to say or print what he wants. To call your Sovereign a fatheaded slob in a newsfac might be considered bad taste, but it isn’t illegal. I can’t even bring a civil suit against you, the way an ordinary citizen could.

“Now, I’ll grant that I sometimes use illegal means to control the Empire. But there are reasons for that. I–“

He was interrupted by a soft chime. He pressed a button on his armchair. “Yes?”

“You go on the interstellar hookup in twenty minutes, Sire. The File has assembled,” said a voice from a speaker.

“I’ll be right there.” He stood up and glanced apologetically at the other three men. “Sorry. Political announcement, you know. You two go ahead and explain to Mr. Senesin.” Then he looked directly at the Prime Portfolio. “I’ll tell them you’re slightly ill.” He reached out, took Lord Senesin’s hand, and grasped it firmly. “I’ll make it look good, old friend, don’t worry. I’ll need your help with Lord Evondering when he gets the Primacy.”