"It is a great opportunity," Jordan said, and he meant it.
"What do you think about what we do to them after we capture them?"
The new man shrugged. "I suppose it's the only thing to do. It's not as though they were human."
"Yeah," the chief said. "I guess so. Anyway, good luck."
Jordan arose and shook the chief's hand. However, just as he was stepping through the door, his superior asked him another question. "Did you know that one of them stutters?"
He turned back, puzzled. "Stutters? Why should he stutter? How could that be?"
The chief shook his head and started cleaning out his pipe.
"I don't know for sure. You'd better get started." He sat back in his seat and watched the back of the new man as he disappeared through the doorway.
That young fellow has a lot to learn, he thought to himself. But even so, maybe he's better off than I am. Maybe I've had too much experience. Maybe too much experience puts you back where you started from. You've done the wrong thing so many times and profited so many times from your mistakes that you see errors and tragedies in everything.
He was depressed, and he did something that usually made him feel better again. He reached under the edge of his desk and pulled a little switch that made the galactic map on the wall light up in three-dimensional depth, then he swung around in his chair so he could see it. Eight thousand planets that his race had conquered, eight thousand planets hundreds of light-years apart. Looking at the map gave him a sense of accomplishment and pride in humanity which even a stupid war and its aftermath could not completely destroy.