You could see the stars thin out and the blinks became longer and the worst was over. Ahead was the blackness of intergalactic space and behind the glow of the core, a sky full of brightness. In the relative safety of the rim, Wal called a rest and they slept for twenty hours, woke to toast their success in the Captain's best. Lex, Form and Jakkes were in full uniform and theGrus was undergoing one of her cooling crises. Wal grinned at them. "Gentlemen, since we are no longer in the Emperor's service, if you'd like to let a bit of air to your hides—"
Lex sighed and, with a feeling of freedom and luxury, shed his T-top and wiped sweat from his chest with it.
Wal's charts showed the positions of Empire blink beacons. Lex scoured his memory. He couldn't be sure, because space was big and he hadn't been all that attentive, but he knew that the route of the first trading mission went within range of one of about a dozen blink stations. He wrote a blinkstat and put it on the machine and then Wal began positioning theGrus on a line with the blinkstat beacons and started sending the message into empty space, beamed as if it had originated from the stations.
"For Texas and Zed." That was the content of the message. The beep on the end meant reply along receiving beam within a half hour. The theory was that if Texas were still trading with the Empire there would be Texican ships out there, blinking random patterns. And if there were Texican ships monitoring the Empire blink beacons sooner or later one of them would pick up the message from theGrus. It happened on the fifth try. From somewhere out there near the darkness the blinkstat came back just before the end of theGnu's half-hour waiting period —a longer stay in one position would expose them to Empire discovery, since, Lex reasoned, the Empire would still be interested in taking and questioning a Texican crew—and Lex felt a soaring elation.
"Zed who?" the return message read.
"A beagle flies from San Ann to Dallas City in thirty-two minutes," Lex sent, using a recognition code at least two years old.
The monitor took a message beginning with coordinates. Lex nodded. Wal, the ship fully charged, fed the numbers into the computer and the oldGrus blinked out between two far stars and waited.
"I don't see a Texican," the message read. "I see a Class-F Empire Vandy."
"Carrying Lexington Burns of Dallas City, son of Murichon Burns, with three Empire subjects seeking freedom under the skies of Texas," Lex sent.
"Kill your power, Lexington Burns. Be a dead ship when we come out or you'll be dead with two Darlene projectiles up your ass."
"Kill the ship," Lex said. Wal moved to send the appropriate orders. They waited. They donned L.S.A. and vented the air out the locks. There was just over two hours' worth of air in the suits. The Texas ship waited a full two hours and then came in slow, sending feelers to detect a flow of power, finding none, moving faster then to lock to the open port.
Lex met the Texican at the lock, holding his hands out to show he had no weapon. "Boy," he said, as a tall Texican came warily into the tube, hand weapon ready, "you're as pretty as a batgull."
The Texican ship which had made the contact worked out of New Austin, on the far East Coast of the eastern Texas land mass. The skipper was a grizzled old war-horse who took nothing on faith. Until he reached open space, outside the disc, where he could blinkstat for confirmation of Lex's identity, he kept the four men from theGrus on a tight string, always in the company of a tall, grim-faced Texican. A half-dozen blinkstats convinced the skipper that Lex was, indeed, a Texican and would be welcomed at home on his western continent by the government and his family and '.hen there was cactus juice around and some wild backslapping as Lex told his story and roars of laughter and congratulations.
Lex asked to be brought up to date on developments at home and was pleased to learn that metals were becoming more plentiful with the continuing trade agreement with the Empire. The Blink Space Works had expanded its operations threefold and was producing a new type of ship which, with its double-blink generators, would fly circles around anything else in the galaxy. With the new ships, expeditions had been sent into the distant globular cluster, there to prospect and try to establish metals sources which would make Texas independent of the two warring powers in the galaxy. Already, the child quota had been raised, allowing for a small population growth over the next fifty years. In addition to the meat trades, Texas was now doing business with the Empire in grains and other foodstuffs and any spacer who wanted to make a credit was in demand in the growing merchant fleet.
Andy Gar's term as President of Texas was running out and there was talk of drafting Billy Bob Blink's father, old Billy, for the job, although old Billy was raising hell, saying that he had ships to build. A compromise choice was a middle-aged woman on the eastern land mass who had pioneered the present methods of pre-natal inspection. Some of the spacers didn't like the idea, thinking that the woman would spend too much time trying to improve the race instead of looking after the beans and meat affairs of everyday government.
It was all good news and Lex was so fascinated, so thrilled to be hearing word of Texas again that he forgot his companions. When he surfaced from a sea of gossip about Texas in general and the upcoming Worldwide Airors Rodeo in specific he went in search of the Empireites and found them in the crew's mess. Blant Jakkes was eating a meacr steak two inches thick and Arden Wal and Form were sampling a half-dozen bottles of good Rio Grande wine.
Jakkes talked through a mouthful. "They said if my stomach wasn't used to good, solid food I'd get sick, but it'll be worth it."
When his excitement wore off Lex did his best to catch up on a few weeks of lost sleep and he seemed to be in his bunk constantly until landfall at Dallas City, where the reception was wild and woolly, with Billy Bob and all his friends on hand in addition to the family. He was tossed, pushed, pounded. His hand was squeezed until it hurt. And then he was looking into his father's face and there was a happy, little-boy grin on his face and Murichon, who seemed to have become more gray, cleared his throat and seemed unable to speak. Lex solved the problem of what to say by letting out a whoop and lifting his father off his feet in a bear hug.
"You've filled out, boy," Murichon said.
Lex was looking around for her, for Emily Lancing. There were Texas girls there, but no familiar face, not the face which had helped him through some dark hours out there in the Empire.
Then he was introducing the others and explaining to his father that without them he wouldn't be back on Texas and that the best was none too good for any of them.
"Chief Jakkes is going to be a rancher," Lex said. "And the Captain—" He paused. There still existed a gulf between him and his former commanding officer. He realized that he had not even fully discussed what Wal would do on Texas.
"There's time for that," Murichon said. "First you men rest up, then we'll talk."
On the way to the ranch Murichon talked mostly with Wal, interested in the quiet, proud-faced man. "We'll have to ask you to submit to a little bit of questioning, Captain," Murichon said, after a general discussion of things allied to the Empire fleet. "Then we'll find you something to do."
"You run a fleet," Wal said. "Actually, that's what I'm best trained for, for following orders, for taking a starship into places where others might not want to go."
"There's always room for a good man," Murichon said.
Lex rested by screaming hisZelda low over the hills in chase of Billy Bob'sClean Machine , which had been altered into something unbelievable.Zelda was left panting. Then they taught Jakkes and Form how to ride airorses and the four of them went down south and rode the beach with sudsy white surf splashing on speeding feet and after a night on the sands with plenty of brew they went back home to walk into trouble.