"True. But a lot of people never really retire from the Guard. Things keep coming up, and that pension begins to look more like a retainer fee." He held up a hand. "Suppose I give you a little go-around on some history that isn't in the books--at least not in the books they use in these schools. "Of course, you know about the arrival of the _Stellar Queen_. You've read all about the original trade contracts here in Oredan. And you've read a lot about the immigrations. And the border settlements. "Yes, and you know about the accession of Daniel Stern, first to the Ministry of Finance, then to the Prime Ministry, then to the Regency. Quite a success story, that. And you have read about the mixup in the royal succession." He smiled. "It all went about that way. Oh, sure, it wasn't quite as peaceable and orderly as the books make it look, but no history bothers with the minor slugfests. What they're concerned in is the big picture. "Well, when the king agreed to colonization of the outer provinces, quite a few people came crowding out here. And there was more than a little thievery and brawling and rioting. Naturally, the Federation Council was interested. And the Stellar Guard was more directly interested. [Illustration] "So, they encouraged a lot of retired guardsmen to come out here, weapons and all. And they assigned a few more people to ... well, sort of keep an eye on things. They set some people up with reasonably decent claims, saw to it that the rest of us got a good start, and left us to take it from there." He smiled. "We had some fun, now and then. Got the border pacified. Got the crooks and the tough boys calmed down. And we got the hill tribes cooled off some, too. Even made friends with them--after a while. And some guys got married and made noises like real Khlorisanu--genuine Oredanu, in fact. A few of them married Oredana girls." He laughed shortly. "The Khlorisanu are humanoid--human to as many decimals as you need to go. There's a little minor variation in superficial appearance between them and the average galactic, but there's no basic difference. Quite a few of the fellows found the local girls made good wives. "But anyway. There wasn't any real organization among us. We just ... well, sort of knew what the other fellow was about. Kind of kept our own personal policy files. And things went along pretty well. "Oh, there were some fellows who stuck to some sort of organizational structure, I suppose. You know how that is--some guys can't draw a deep breath unless the rest of the team is there to fill in the picture. * * * * * "And then, there were several people like Andy Masterson, who showed up from nowhere. That was none of my business. Happened to know Andy, but I've never talked to him here. Those people had complete new backgrounds. No Guard experience--it says here. And they joined the economy--took out Oredan citizenship. Some of them got into government work.