Read Imperial Stars 2-Republic and Empire for Free Online

he's so calm.
    "I don't see why a man like you should be afraid," said the captain deliberately, hating what he was doing.
    "Captain?"
    "Well, it seems to me that a man who's being chased across the Galaxy by Jacob ben Ezra, and still refuses to tell me why , must have a surplus of guts."
    For a moment, Ching trembled. Then he smiled slowly. "I thought you knew," he said. "Why else would you be so interested in me?"
    "Why don't you tell me what this is all about, Ching? What are you on to? Why is Earth so concerned? I don't expect you to believe that we're your friends , but surely you must realize that it's in our interest as traders to protect you if you're working on something important."
    Ching sighed heavily. "Captain Reed," he said, "Earth is not after me because they want what I'm working on. I'm really not working on anything practical at all. Just a mathematical and physical concept."
    "And yet, they're chasing farther than they've ever chased a fugitive before."
    "Yes," said Ching. "Captain, some day you may know why I must keep my secret. If Jacob ben Ezra catches up to us, you will be glad that I've remained silent."
    "Why, man, why?"
    "Because," said Ching, "I'm fairly certain that ben Ezra has orders to kill anyone who knows what I know."
    The captain frowned. "Perhaps you will change your mind when we come out of Deep Sleep at Nuova Italia."
    "Perhaps, captain, you will change yours ."
    Peter Reed shrugged irritably. "Let's get on with it," he said to the attendant.
    He climbed into his cubicle, and settled himself on the foam-rubber mattress. The attendant secured him with clamps. The ship's spin would stop when the crew was in Deep Sleep. There would be no gravity.
    The soft, lined mask was fitted over his face. He inhaled the soothing tranquilizer vapor. He was comfortable, content. He vaguely felt the prick of a needle, then his senses began to dull, first sight, then sound, then feel, then smell. The last sensation was a dry taste in his mouth, and then that was gone, and he was an entity within himself, in his own private universe . . . a mote swimming in the sea of himself . . . and then, even the sense of mind began to dull . . . to fade . . . to softly melt away, like a mouthful of cotton candy.
     
    A blinding redness which pervaded the universe . . . a pins-and-needles feeling . . . then warmth, overwhelming, welcome warmth, motion, smell, sound.
    Jacob ben Ezra sat up in his Deep Sleep cubicle, slowly, patiently teaching his old eyes to focus.
    You never get really used to it, he thought. What year is this? Let's see . . . Maxwell to Nuova Italia means fourteen years in Deep Sleep, and when we left Maxwell, it was 3297 A.D., or '98? On Earth . . .
    Ben Ezra gave a dry little laugh. Time! What is time? Does it matter? I am eighty years old, I am eight hundred years old, or maybe a thousand.
    This life means giving up many things. A firm sense of time is one of them. The people who've sent me after Ching, back on Earth, are all dead. I'm a ghost, a shade, the expression of the will of a group of men, all of whom are dead—in a sense.
    Man was not meant for this kind of life, thought Jacob ben Ezra sourly. This is a poor way to command the stars, a poor and pitiful way.
    He laughed bitterly. This is a life fit only for Gypsies and Jews. Come to think of it, Gypsies don't have a sufficient sense of history, in the long run.
    Maybe that's why so many in the Fleet are Jews. To a Jew, a thousand years is supposed to be a reasonable length of time. Or so the legends say. So they say.
    But what is a Jew? There is no such thing as Judaism, anymore. There is hardly such a thing as race.
    A Jew, thought Jacob ben Erza, nowadays is anyone who thinks of himself as one. Homo interstellarus.
    Ben Ezra leaned on the shoulders of a waiting attendant, and climbed down from the cubicle. His legs were a bit rubbery, but he was used to it.
    Homo interstellarus , he thought, as he made his way