The story of the Tin Star, the Marshall, who is never actually named... He's been appointed as an officer of the law for the sparsely populated Landon County out west. The land is still untamed. Few buildings or roads. He has to ride a horse the whole way there, he'll be more or less the only enforcer of the Law within a hundred and fifty miles, with little chance for backup.

Trouble starts immediately. The Marshall finds a miner and a herder who are at each others throats, holding weapons up and shouting accusations. He does his duty and defuses the tension, questioning each side and determining that both men had been careless and neither was more at fault for the dead calf or thrashed mining gear. He convinced them to apologize and become friends.

The Marshall was the only force of law in the land, and he was put to the test again and again. Facing down a terrifying bear and killing it before anyone could be hurt. Refusing a generous bribe and then destroying a mining company's dam that threatened the whole area with flooding when they would not listen to reason. Tracking down and rooting out a brutal and violent gang dozens strong that would stop at nothing to rob and steal as much money as possible.

Gathering evidence and studying law before having a legal showdown with a fake Marshall that tried to take over the town. Riding out to track down missing people, make peace between settlers and tribes of Indians in the area, a dramatic showdown over a heavy stagecoach loaded with gold (no sun mages, it was worth millions of rings). Meeting, allying with, and defending an exotic Mexican countess and her band of monks.

And finally, uncovering a conspiracy that reached all the way up to the halls of the government, a desperate attempt by powerful business interests to destroy the rail-road being built at any cost because the competition would cost them money. After a pitched battle at a makeshift fortress and a wild train chase, the Marshall marched right back to the big city and arrested the whole family responsible for it all and saw them put to trial and sentenced to death.

The Law came to Landon County... And for a lot of people, this was good. They built homes and businesses and were safe and prospering. But for the Native Americans, this represented the slow, inexorable conquering of their lands by the settlers.

How would it have gone if the Marshall were not such an incorruptible agent of the law? Nobody would have known if he had taken a bribe or two, arranged to 'forget' about a couple of crimes. What if he hadn't made his narrow escape, any one of the dozens of times he was imperiled? What would the fate of Landon County have been instead. Probably poorer and more dangerous, perhaps abandoned entirely when the valuable mines dried up.

There would have been other Marshalls, coming in twos and fours as more people settled out west. But The Marshall was the first, and a shining example of law enforcement in the face of impossible odds for decades to come.

"What a close call, good thing he wanted order more than he wanted those bribes!" says Mahan.

"I guess that's a good use of that thing, you know the thing I mean," says Valanda. "It's good how having that helped them conquer the land."

"Yes, morality was very helpful in that case. It keeps people together, like the Mormon settlement I mentioned. Though I do sort of pity the natives. They weren't bad people. History is written by the victors."

"Yeah, it sounds pretty awful to be them, but they did get conquered eventually. Oh. Wait. Did they get conquered or just killed to make room?"

"Mostly killed or displaced to make room. They were given partitions of land to live on, but those partitions kept getting smaller... And smaller... And smaller. And American soldiers kept finding any excuse to go in and attack them. The Marshall helped them as best he could, even though he was ordered not to by his superiors... The one black mark on his record, and the reason he was fired from the job, though we think it was a noble and brave thing to do today. There are only a few million native Americans today, and most of them are citizens of America and not their old tribes."

"That's really sad what happened to them. At least the ones left are citizens of an empire now."

"Only a few million?" says Mahan. "Only more people than our entire world?"

"The natives numbered about fifty million before the settlers came. Today, America has three hundred and thirty million citizens. The whole world has about seven billion."

"That's a lot of people," says Mahan.

"Don't worry, if they ever figure out how to get here I'll just conquer them all," says Valanda.

"You'll have a hard time of it. America in particular would have unholy fits about liberty and freedom. And they're doing well enough on their own. Not perfect by any means, but well enough that conquering might not improve things."

"I'm not trying to get our worlds in contact! I don't want a war with your people. I'm just saying that if we did meet then I would win the war."

"I'm saying I doubt that. How would you go about winning a war?"

"I would make their soldiers stop doing things forever."

He makes a disbelieving-sounding snort and shakes his head and turns away.

"Why do you think I couldn't do that?"

"I do not actually want to describe the capabilities of the United States Military, lest you find some way around them, O Prospective Conquerer."

"How much don't you want to be sure your enemies won't be able to go through me to get to you?"

"My enemies are not the United States Military. Conquering America would be bad. And probably impossible without a huge army of your very own."

"So if the worlds connect somehow you hope Har falls, got it."

"Well, a nice peace treaty and some trade would be better for all involved, it sounds like. But if everyone thinks conquering America is the thing to do, they're gonna have a bad time of it, yes."

"How do you have a peace treaty and some trade?"

"Your diplomats meet with the other guy's diplomats and bluster at each other about your military capabilities for a while and then agree not to attack each other? Agreeing on and codifying some international law helps. I mean, we managed it. Mostly. But I'm not a diplomat."

"I guess it makes sense that that could work for a while but eventually you'll disagree about something enough to fight over it, won't you? Didn't you have a war in your lifetime?"

"Well, yes, several actually - America is kind of warlike - and they're kind of terrible, but wars are happening less often lately and many of them ended without any governments falling and without too much widespread damage."

Sigh. "I hope they don't find us."

It'd probably turn out fine. Cultural exposure would give the slave empire a shakeup, possibly for the better. But it's not his problem. "They're not likely to, at any rate."