She smiled patronizingly and looked at Sharilar. The Kurita woman returned the smile, but Focht saw her shudder as Myndo turned back to him. "Anastasius, the victors write the history. The reality of what happened on Tukayyid is not nearly as important as the symbolic nature of your victory. You have proved ComStar to be the savior of all mankind. We have stopped the barbaric hordes from overrunning the Inner Sphere and extinguishing the light of knowledge. Now the people will look to us for leadership."

Before he could question her interpretation of what had happened, the Primus again took his hand. "Now, you must come see this. Around us is history, but I will show you the future!"

She dragged him to the next gallery and his heart rose into his throat. "Yes, Anastasius, this is the future of ComStar! You are its father and I am its mother."

They studied the room's sunken floor from a catwalk encircling it. The whole room remained dark except for the glowing pinpoints of light Focht recognized as a three-dimensional display of the Inner Sphere's many worlds. The largest light sat in the center and as it pulsed gold, a cone of worlds reaching up and out toward the roof flashed in answer to it. A gold light marked every world the Clans had taken and ComStar had administered.

The worlds of the Draconis Combine were shown in red, but as he watched, a central world in that mix went gold, and with it the rest of them began to change. "Luthien," he breathed quietly. Again, below that, one of the worlds in the blue swath that cut across the sphere went gold. "New Avalon, then Sian and Atreus." Another blue world changed colors and Focht felt his chest tighten. "Tharkad, my Tharkad."

Myndo nodded, the thousands of gold pinpricks reflected in her eyes. "You thought I had forgotten?" She turned and touched one of the darkened panels behind them. "This will be Tharkad under you, Archon Frederick Steiner."

Another miniaturized model appeared, this one protectively warded by a lexan barrier. He had a nagging feeling that he recognized the city represented as the capital, Tharkad City, but strange elements confused him. He allowed himself to be mistaken because it had been more than two decades since he had seen the city, but then he realized it had been warped to conform with the Primus' insane vision of the future.

A colossal statue rose from the center of the Triad, dwarfing the trio of buildings that marked the center of the city and its government. Clutching an upraised sword, he saw himself clad in the manner of classical Roman statues. His left hand carried a book, and on it he could make out the ComStar insignia and the legend, "The Word of Blake."

Like the rays of the sun, twelve roadways soared over or through the buildings as they focused down to the Triad. On the dozen flagpoles standing over the Triad, he saw fluttering the flag with ComStar's twelve-pointed star. The buildings were painted in the white and gold favored by ComStar officials. The whole city had been made over in ComStar's image.

Suddenly the back wall of the display case opened and the cityscape withdrew as another model descended to replace it. Of a much larger scale, it showed a place he knew well. Two Griffin BattleMechs stood in the dark hall. They flanked a throne that sat beneath a ComStar banner with the Steiner armored fist beneath the gold starburst. The 'Mechs were no longer painted the blue and white that would have proclaimed them part of the Tenth Lyran Guards, but had been repainted with the colors of the Com Guards.

Focht stiffened as he saw the figure seated in the throne. Long, lean, with a shock of white hair and a black eye patch over his right eye, it was he who occupied a throne he had not desired since losing his eye. The only time I have sat in that throne was in a bad dream. Has life become a nightmare from which there is no waking?

"Yes, Anastasius, as I promised, the throne of the Lyran Commonwealth will be yours. As a ComStar protectorate, it will enjoy all we have to offer." Myndo pressed her hand against the glass. "I reward those in whom I can place my trust."

Focht brought his head up. "I must ask, Primus, how we are to take Tharkad? Your Com Guards are not in any shape for a campaign at this moment."

Myndo clapped her hands. "That is just it, Anastasius. We will not have to fight them. While you dealt with the Clans, we have brought the rest of the Inner Sphere to its knees. I ordered a total Interdiction of all communications and shipping. Though we lost control of some facilities, we will regain it again. The worlds we now administer are loyal to us and others will follow, including Tharkad. Our interdiction is crushing them."

"This is your Operation Scorpion." Focht narrowed his good eye. "I thought you trusted me."

"I did." She thrust a finger back toward the battlefields. "I trusted you to distract and hurt the Clans, but this, this was much too big to place on your shoulders. The Clans have shattered the Inner Sphere and we will rebuild it. You see, I know you very well and I know your desires. Fear not, Tharkad will be yours."

Focht began to laugh then, a low sound that began to build as bewilderment spread over Myndo's face. "You don't know me at all. You judge me by the man I once was. Yes, Frederick Steiner would have welcomed being rewarded with the Steiner throne, but even he would not have stooped so low as to conspire with ComStar to get it. But I am not Frederick Steiner, and I have not been Frederick Steiner for over twenty years."

He smashed his right fist into the lexan between him and his simulacrum. "Anastasius Focht is a name I chose so that it would remind me every day that I am just a warrior. I am not suited to dabbling in politics. I paid a dear price for having done that once and, worse yet, I nearly made my nation pay, too. If you thought you could buy me with a tarnished dream, you never understood me at all."

The Primus started to speak, but he cut her off by stabbing a finger at her. "You had no need to bribe me. I was, body and soul, a creature of ComStar. I fought on Tukayyid because I believed ComStar should devote its resources to stopping the Clans. I did not bargain with the ilKhan just to have my word undermined by you!"

"That may well be," the Primus spat back, "but the reality is that my Operation Scorpion has crippled the Successor States. The Inner Sphere has been broken and only we can mend it. It is a pity that you do not want to be part of the solution to this situation because I could haveused you." She folded her arms across her chest. "I hereby accept your resignation and will see to it that you are turned over to the Clans for whatever justice they care to administer to you for stabbing them in the back!"

Focht laughed again and his lack of fear clearly shocked her. "That will not work, Primus. ilKhan Ulric knows very well that I had nothing to do with Operation Scorpion. Furthermore, that operation has been a joke. It did nothing to the Clans but cause them to put down a few revolts. Retaking those worlds we did succeed in liberating will be a minor diversion of their might, and will likely be left to the forces they have coming in to the Inner Sphere to settle here.

"As for having crippled the Inner Sphere, I think you are mistaken. I was easily able to send an Alpha Priority message to my cousin, Melissa, on New Avalon, and she replied within the hour. It seems that in the Federated Commonwealth our facilities are functioning normally under their control."

"That is not possible!" Myndo leaned against the balcony railing and stared out at her empire of lights. "They are infidels. They cannot know the secrets of hyperpulse generators!"