Old Man's War Boxed Set 1 (85 page)

“I’ll be willing to make an exception for you,” I said.

“Thank you, Administrator Perry,” Gau said. Even through his translator I could sense his dry amusement. “I don’t believe it will be necessary.”

“I hope you’ll change your mind,” I said.

“I was hoping
you
might surrender to
me
,” Gau said. “If you have seen the information on how the Conclave has handled our previous removals, then you know that when colonies surrender to us, we honor their sacrifice. No harm will come to any of your people.”

“I’ve seen how you’ve handled these before—the ones where you’ve not blown up the colony,” I said. “But I’ve heard
we
are a special case. You’ve been deceived by the Colonial Union as to where we would be. We’ve made the Conclave look foolish.”

“Yes, the disappearing colony,” Gau said. “We were waiting for you, you know. We knew when your ship was supposed to skip. You were going to be welcomed by several ships, including mine. Your people wouldn’t have even made it off the ship.”

“You were planning to destroy the
Magellan
,” I said.

“No,” Gau said. “Not unless it attempted to attack or begin colonizing. Otherwise, we would have simply escorted the ship to skip distance to return to Phoenix. But you deceived us, as you say, and it’s taken us this long to find you. You may say it made the Conclave look foolish. We believe it made the Colonial Union look desperate. And we
did
find you.”

“It only took a year,” I said.

“And it might have taken another after this,” Gau said. “Or we might have found you tomorrow. It was only an issue of
when
we would find you, Administrator Perry. Not if. And I would ask you
to consider that. Your government risked your life, and the life of every member of your colony, to make a shadow play of defiance against us. This was a futile colonization. Sooner or later we would have found you. We
have
found you. And here we are.”

“You seem irritated, General,” I said.

The general performed something with his mouth I assumed was a smile. “I
am
irritated,” he admitted. “I’ve wasted time and resources better spent building the Conclave looking for your colony. And fending off political feints by members of the Conclave who have taken your government’s insolence personally. There is a substantial group of Conclave members who want to punish your government by attacking humanity at its heart—by attacking Phoenix directly.”

I felt simultaneous washes of anxiety and relief come over me. When Gau said “attacking humanity at its heart,” I assumed he meant Earth; his mention of Phoenix reminded me that the only people who thought of Earth as the heart of humanity were those who were born there. As far as the rest of the universe was concerned, Phoenix was humanity’s home planet. “If your Conclave is as strong as you suggest, then you could attack Phoenix,” I said.

“We could,” Gau said. “And we could destroy it. We could wipe out every other human colony as well, and if I may speak frankly to you, there are not very many races out there, in the Conclave or out of it, who would complain much about it. But I’ll tell you what I’ve told those in the Conclave who want to make you extinct: The Conclave is not an engine of conquest.”

“So you say,” I said.

“I do say,” Gau said. “This has been the hardest thing to make people understand, both in the Conclave and out of it. Empires of conquest don’t last, Administrator Perry. They hollow out from within, from the greed of rulers and the endless appetite for war. The Conclave is not an empire, and I don’t want to make humanity
extinct, Administrator Perry. I want it to become
part
of the Conclave. Barring that, I’ll leave it to its own devices, on the worlds it had before the Conclave, and only those. But I’d rather have you as part of us. Humanity is strong and incredibly resourceful. It’s become immensely successful in a short period of time. There are races who have been among the stars for thousands of your years who have not accomplished as much or colonized as successfully.”

“I’ve wondered about that,” I said. “So many other races have been around and colonizing for so long, and yet
we
had to go to the stars to find any of
you
.”

“I have an answer for that,” Gau said. “But I guarantee you won’t like it.”

“Tell me anyway,” I said.

“We invested in fighting more than we did in exploring,” Gau said.

“That’s a pretty simplistic answer, General,” I said.

“Look at our civilizations,” Gau said. “We’re all the same size because we limit each other through war. We’re all at the same level of technology, because we bargain, trade and steal from each other. We all inhabit the same area of space because that is where we began, and we choose to control our colonies rather than let them develop without us. We fight over the same planets and only occasionally explore to find new ones, which we all then squabble over like carrion animals fighting over a carcass. Our civilizations are at an equilibrium, Administrator Perry. An artificial equilibrium that is sliding all of us toward entropy. This was happening before humans arrived in this part of space. Your arrival punctured that equilibrium for a while. But now you’ve settled in the same pattern of stealing and squabbling as the rest of us.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said.

“Indeed,” Gau said. “Let me ask you, Administrator Perry, how many of humanity’s planets were freshly discovered? And how
many were simply taken from other races? How many planets have humans lost to other races?”

I thought back to the day we arrived above the other planet, the fake Roanoke, and remembered the questions of journalists, asking who we took the planet from. It was assumed it was taken; it didn’t occur to them to ask if it was newly discovered. “This planet is new,” I said.

“And the reason for that is that your government was trying to
hide
you,” Gau said. “Even a culture as vital as your own now explores primarily out of desperation. You’re trapped in the same stagnant patterns as the rest of us. Your civilization will slowly run down like the rest of ours would.”

“And you think the Conclave will change this,” I said.

“In any system, there is a factor that limits growth,” Gau said. “Our civilizations operate as a system, and our limiting factor is war. Remove that factor and the system thrives. We can focus on cooperation. We can explore rather than fight. If there had been a Conclave, perhaps we
would
have met you before you came out and met us. Perhaps we’ll explore now and find new races.”

“And do what with them?” I asked. “There’s an intelligent race on this planet. Besides mine, I mean. We met them in a rather unfortunate way, and some of us ended up dead. It took some doing on my part to convince our colonists not to kill every one of them we could find. What will
you
do, General, when you meet a new race on a planet you want for the Conclave?”

“I don’t know,” General Gau said.

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Well, I don’t,” Gau said. “It hasn’t happened yet. We’ve been busy consolidating our positions with the races we know about and the worlds that have already been explored. We haven’t had time to explore. It hasn’t come up.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “That wasn’t an answer I was expecting.”

“We’re at a very sensitive moment, Administrator Perry, concerning the future of your colonists,” Gau said. “I won’t unnecessarily complicate things by lying. Especially not about something as trivial to our current situation as a hypothetical.”

“At the very least, General Gau, I’d like to believe that,” I said.

“That’s a start, then,” Gau said. He looked me up and down. “You said that you were in your Colonial Defense Forces,” he said. “From what I know about humans, that means you’re not originally from the Colonial Union. You’re from Earth. Is that right?”

“That’s right,” I said.

“Humans are really very interesting,” Gau said. “You’re the only race who has chosen to change your home world. Voluntarily, that is. You’re not the only ones to recruit your military from only one world, but you are the only ones to do it from a world that is not your primary world. I’m afraid we’ve never quite understood the relationship between Earth and Phoenix, and with the rest of the colonies. It doesn’t make much sense to the rest of us. Perhaps one day I can get you to explain it to me.”

“Perhaps,” I said, carefully.

Gau took the tone for what he thought it was. “But not today,” he said.

“I’m afraid not,” I said.

“A pity,” Gau said. “This has been an interesting conversation. We’ve done thirty-six removals. This is the last one. And in all but this and the first, the leaders of the colonies have not had much to say.”

“It’s difficult to have a casual conversation with someone who is ready to vaporize you if you don’t give in to his demands,” I said.

“This is true enough,” Gau said. “But leadership is at least a little about character. So many of these colony leaders seemed to lack
that. It makes me wonder if these colonies were begun at all seriously, or simply to see if we meant to enforce our ban on colonies. Although there was the one who tried to assassinate me.”

“Clearly not successful,” I said.

“No, not at all,” Gau said, and motioned toward his soldiers, who were attentive but kept a respectful distance. “One of my soldiers shot her before she could stab me. There’s a reason I have these meetings in the open.”

“Not just for the sunsets, then,” I said.

“Sadly, no,” Gau said. “And as you might imagine, killing the colony leader made dealing with her second-in-command a tense affair. But this was a colony we eventually evacuated. Aside from the colony leader, there was no bloodshed.”

“But you haven’t turned away from bloodshed,” I said. “If I refuse to evacuate this colony, you won’t hesitate to destroy it.”

“No,” Gau said.

“And from what I understand, none of the races whose colonies you’ve removed—violently or otherwise—have since joined the Conclave,” I said.

“That’s true,” Gau said.

“You’re not exactly winning hearts and minds,” I said.

“I’m not familiar with this term of yours,” Gau said. “But I understand it well enough. No, these races haven’t become part of the Conclave. But it’s unrealistic to assume they would. We’ve just removed their colonies, and they were unable to stop us from doing so. You don’t humiliate someone like that and expect them to come around to your way of thinking.”

“They could become a threat if they joined together,” I said.

“I’m aware your Colonial Union is trying to make that happen,” Gau said. “There’s not much that happens now that we’re not aware of, Administrator Perry, including that. But the Colonial Union has tried this before; it helped create a ‘Counter-Conclave’
while we were still forming. It didn’t work then. We’re not convinced it will work now.”

“You could be wrong,” I said.

“I could be,” Gau said. “We will see. In the meantime, however, I must come to it. Administrator Perry, I am asking you to surrender your colony to me. If you will, we will help your colonists safely return to their home worlds. Or you may choose to become part of the Conclave, independent of your government. Or you may refuse and be destroyed.”

“Let me make you a counteroffer,” I said. “Leave this colony alone. Send a drone to your fleet, which I know is at skip distance and ready to arrive. Tell it to stay where it is. Gather up your soldiers over there, return to your ship, and go. Pretend you never found us. Just let us be.”

“It’s too late for that,” General Gau said.

“I figured it would be,” I said. “But I want you to remember the offer was there.”

Gau looked at me quietly for a long moment. “I suspect I know what you are going to say to my offer, Administrator Perry,” he said. “Before you say it, let me beg you to reconsider. Remember that you have options here, true options. I know the Colonial Union has given you orders, but remember that you can be led by your own conscience. The Colonial Union is humanity’s government, but there is more to humanity than the Colonial Union. And you don’t seem to be a man who is pushed into things, by me, by the Colonial Union or by anyone else.”

“If you think I’m tough, you should meet my wife,” I said.

“I would like that,” Gau said. “I think I would like that very much.”

“I would like to say that you are right,” I said. “I would like to say that I can’t be pushed into things. But I suspect that I can be. Or perhaps I can have things pushed into me that I can’t resist.
This is one of those times. Right now, General, I have no options, except one option that I shouldn’t be offering you. And that is to ask you to leave now, before you call your fleet, and let Roanoke stay lost. Please consider it.”

“I can’t,” Gau said. “I’m sorry.”

“I can’t surrender this colony,” I said. “Do what you will, General.”

Gau looked back toward one of his soldiers and gave him a signal.

“How long will this take?” I asked.

“Not long,” Gau said.

He was right. Within minutes, the first ships arrived, new stars in the sky. Less than ten minutes later, they had all arrived.

“So many,” I said. There were tears in my eyes.

General Gau noticed. “I will give you time to return to your colony, Administrator Perry,” he said. “And I promise it will be quick and painless. Be strong for your people.”

“I’m not crying for my people, General,” I said.

The General stared at me and then looked up in time to see the first of the ships in his fleet explode.

Anything is possible, given time and the will.

The Colonial Union certainly had the will to destroy the Conclave’s fleet. The existence of the fleet was an intolerable threat; the Colonial Union decided to destroy it as soon as it learned of its existence. There was no hope that the Colonial Union could destroy the fleet in a toe-to-toe battle; with 412 battleship equivalents, it was larger than the entire CDF battle fleet. The Conclave fleet was assembled in whole only when removing the colonies, so there was the possibility of attacking each ship individually. But that would have been equally futile; each ship could be replaced in the
fleet by its government, and it meant the Colonial Union would be picking a fight with each of the more than four hundred races in the Conclave, many of whom posed no real threat to the CU.