Old Man's War Boxed Set 1 (91 page)

“That’s my problem, not yours,” Szilard said. “I’m not worried about being branded a traitor. I’m worried about what happens if Roanoke falls.”

“If Roanoke falls, the Colonial Union gets its soldiers,” I said.

“And then it will go to war with most of the races in this part of space,” Szilard said. “And it will
lose
. And in losing, humanity will be wiped out. All of it, from Roanoke all the way up. Even Earth will die, Perry. It will be wiped out and the billions there will have no idea why they’re dying. Nothing will be saved. Humanity is on the brink of genocide. And it’s a genocide we will have inflicted on ourselves. Unless you can stop it. Unless you can save Roanoke.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” I said. “Just before I came here, Roanoke was attacked. Just five missiles, but it took everything we had to keep them from wiping us out. If a whole group of Conclave races wants to grind us into dirt I don’t know how we can stop them.”

“You need to find a way,” Szilard said.

“You’re a general,” I said. “You do it.”

“I
am
doing it,” Szilard said. “By giving the responsibility to you. I can’t do any more than that without losing my place in the Colonial Union hierarchy. And then I
would
be powerless. I’ve been doing what I can since this insane plan to attack the Conclave was formed. I used you as long as I could without letting
you know, but we’re beyond that now. Now you know. It’s your job to save humanity, Perry.”

“No pressure there,” I said.

“You did it for years,” Szilard said. “Don’t you remember what they told you the job of Colonial Defense Forces was? ‘To keep a place for humanity among the stars.’ You did it then. You need to do it now.”

“Then it was me and every other member of the CDF,” I said. “The responsibility is a little more focused now.”

“Then let me help,” Szilard said. “Again, and for the last time. My intelligence corps has told me that General Gau is going to be assassinated by a member of his own circle of advisers. Someone he trusts; indeed, someone he loves. This assassination will happen within the month. We have no other information. We have no way of informing General Gau of the assassination attempt, and even if we had a way, there’s no way we could inform him, and no chance he would accept the information as genuine even if we could. If Gau dies, then all the Conclave will reform around Nerbros Eser, who plans to destroy the Colonial Union. If Nerbros Eser takes power, it’s all over. The Colonial Union will fall. Humanity dies.”

“What am I supposed to do with this information?” I asked.

“Find a way to use it,” Szilard said. “And find it fast. And then be ready for everything that happens afterward. And one other thing, Perry. Tell Sagan that while I don’t apologize for enhancing her abilities, I do regret the necessity. Let her also know that I suspect she has not yet explored the full range of her capabilities. Tell her that her BrainPal offers the complete range of command functions. Use those words, please.”

“What does ‘complete range of command functions’ mean here?” I asked.

“Sagan can explain it to you if she likes,” Szilard said. He
reached over to the dash, pressed a button. Phoenix and Phoenix Station reappeared in the windows.

“Now,” Szilard said. “Time to get you back to Roanoke, Administrator Perry. You’ve been gone too long, and you have much to do. Time to get to it, I’d say.”

Save for Roanoke itself, the colony of Everest was the youngest human colony, settled just before the Conclave gave its warning to other races not to colonize any longer. Like Roanoke, Everest defenses were modest: a pair of defense satellites and six beam turrets, three each for the two settlements, and one CDF cruiser on rotation. When Everest was hit, it was the
Des Moines
stationed over the settlements. A good ship and a good crew, but the
Des Moines
was not enough to counter the six Arrisian ships that skipped with daring precision into Everest space, firing missiles at the
Des Moines
and the defense satellites as they arrived. The
Des Moines
sheared down its length and began the long fall toward the Everest surface; the defense satellites were rendered into so much floating junk.

The planet’s defenses collapsed, the Arrisian ships took their time searing the Everest settlements from orbit, finally dispatching a company to clean up the straggling colonists who remained. In the end 5,800 Everest colonists were dead. The Arrisians left behind no colonists or garrison and made no claim to the planet. They simply eradicated the human presence there.

Erie was no Everest—it was one of the oldest and most heavily populated of the human worlds, with a planetary defense grid and permanent CDF presence that would make it impossible for all but the most insanely ambitious races to make a play for. But even planetary defense grids can’t track every single chunk of ice or rock that falls into the gravity well. Several dozen such apparent chunks fell into Erie’s atmosphere, over the Erie city of New Cork. As they fell, the heat generated by the friction of the atmosphere was channeled and focused, powering the compact chemical lasers hidden within the rock.

Several of the beams struck strategic manufacturing concerns in New Cork, related to CDF weapons systems. Several more appeared to strike randomly, slashing through homes, schools and markets, killing hundreds. Their beams spent, the lasers burned up in the atmosphere, leaving no clue who had sent them or why.

This happened as Trujillo, Beata, Kranjic and I made our way back to Roanoke. We were unaware of it at the time, of course. We were unaware of the specific attacks that were going on around the Colonial Union, because the news was kept from us, and because we were focused on our own survival.

“You’ve offered us the protection of the Obin,” I said to Hickory within hours of my return to Roanoke. “We’d like to take advantage of that offer.”

“There are complications,” Hickory said.

I glanced over at Jane, and then back to Hickory. “Well, of course there are,” I said. “It wouldn’t be
fun
without complications.”

“I sense sarcasm,” Hickory said, with utterly no sense of humor whatsoever.

“I apologize, Hickory,” I said. “I’m having a bad week and
it’s not getting any better. Please tell what these complications might be.”

“After you left, a skip drone arrived from Obinur, and we were finally able to communicate with our government. We have been told that once the
Magellan
disappeared, the Colonial Union formally requested that the Obin not interfere with the Roanoke colony, openly or covertly.”

“Roanoke was specified,” Jane said.

“Yes,” said Hickory.

“Why?” I asked.

“The Colonial Union did not explain,” Hickory said. “We now assume it was because an Obin attempt to locate the planet could have disrupted the Colonial Union’s attack on the Conclave fleet. Our government agreed not to interfere but noted that should any harm come to Zoë, we would be greatly displeased. The Colonial Union assured our government that Zoë was reasonably safe. As she was.”

“The Colonial Union’s attack on the Conclave fleet is over,” I said.

“The agreement did not specify when it would be acceptable to interfere,” Hickory said, again with no trace of humor. “We are still bound to it.”

“So you can do nothing for us,” Jane said.

“We are charged with protecting Zoë,” Hickory said. “But we have been made to understand that the definition of
protection
extends only so far.”

“And if Zoë orders you to protect the colony?” I asked.

“Zoë may order Dickory and me as she wishes,” Hickory said. “But it is doubtful that even her intercession would be enough.”

I got up from my desk and stalked over to the window to look up at the night sky. “Do the Obin know the Colonial Union is under attack?” I asked.

“We do,” Hickory said. “There have been numerous attacks since the destruction of the Conclave fleet.”

“Then you know that the Colonial Union will have to make choices as to which colonies it needs to defend and which it will sacrifice. And that Roanoke is more likely to be in that second category.”

“We know this,” Hickory said.

“But you’ll still do nothing to help us,” I said.

“Not so long as Roanoke remains part of the Colonial Union,” Hickory said.

Jane was on this before I could open my mouth. “Explain that,” she said.

“An independent Roanoke would require a new response from us,” Hickory said. “If Roanoke declares itself independent of the Colonial Union, the Obin would feel obliged to offer support and aid on an interim basis until the Colonial Union reacquired the planet or agreed to its succession.”

“But you would risk alienating the Colonial Union,” Jane said.

“The Colonial Union has a number of other priorities at the moment,” Hickory said. “We do not feel the repercussions of aiding an independent Roanoke will be significant in the long run.”

“So you
will
help us,” I said. “You just want us to declare ourselves independent of the Colonial Union first.”

“We neither advise you to secede nor to stay,” Hickory said. “We merely note that if you should secede, we will help defend you.”

I turned to Jane. “What do you think?”

“I doubt the people of this colony are ready for us to declare their independence,” Jane said.

“If the alternative is death?” I said.

“Some of them probably would prefer death to being a traitor,”
Jane said. “Or to being permanently cut off from the rest of humanity.”

“Let’s ask them,” I said.

The attack on Wabash colony was not much of an attack at all; a few missiles to destroy the colony’s administrative offices and landmarks, and a small invading force of a few hundred Bhav soldiers to shoot up the place. But then Wabash wasn’t the target. The targets were the three CDF cruisers that skipped in to defend the colony. The skip drone that had alerted the CDF to the attack indicated one Bhav cruiser and three smaller gunboats, all of which could be easily handled by three cruisers. What the skip drone could not indicate is that shortly after it skipped away from Wabash space, six additional Bhav cruisers skipped in, destroyed the satellite that launched the skip drones, and readied themselves for an ambush.

The CDF cruisers entered Wabash space cautiously—by this time it was clear that the Colonial Union was under a general attack, and the CDF ship commanders were neither stupid nor rash. But the odds were against them from the moment they arrived in Wabash space. The CDF cruisers
Augusta, Savannah
and
Portland
took down three of the Bhav cruisers and all of the smaller gunships before they were overwhelmed and destroyed, scattering metal, air and crew into the space above the planet. It was three fewer cruisers the CDF had to defend the Colonial Union. It was also a signal that every new incident would have to be met with overwhelming force, constricting the number of colonies the CDF could defend at one time. Priorities already shifted to the new realities of war shifted once again, and not in the CU’s favor, nor in Roanoke’s.

“You’re out of your mind,” said Marie Black. “We’re under attack from this Conclave, it wants to kill us all dead, and your solution to the problem is to go it alone, with no help from the rest of the human race? That’s just insane.”

The looks up and down the Council table told me that Jane and I were all alone on this one, just like Jane suspected we would be. Even Manfred Trujillo, who knew the situation better than anyone, was taken aback by the suggestion we declare our independence. This was the original tough crowd.

“We wouldn’t be alone,” I said. “The Obin will help us if we’re independent.”

“
That
makes me feel safer,” Black said, mockingly. “Aliens are planning to murder us all, but don’t worry, we’ve got these
pet
aliens to keep us safe. That is, until they decide they’re better off siding with the other aliens.”

“That’s not a very accurate assessment of the Obin,” I said.

“But the Obin’s primary concern isn’t
our
colony,” said Lee Chen. “It’s
your
daughter. God forbid something happens to your daughter, because then where will
we
be? The Obin will have no more reason to help us. We’d be isolated from the rest of the Colonial Union.”

“We’re
already
isolated from the rest of the Colonial Union,” I said. “Planets are under attack all over the union. The CDF is already scrambling to respond. We’re not a priority. We won’t be a priority. We’ve served our purpose.”

“We have only your word for that,” Chen said. “We’re getting news reports, now that we’ve got access to our PDAs. There’s nothing in the news about anything of this.”

“You have my word for it as well,” Trujillo said. “I’m not ready to sign on to independence, either, but Perry’s not lying. The Colonial Union has its priorities right now, and we’re definitely not one of them.”

“I’m not trying to say that either of you are not as good as your word,” Chen said. “But think of what you’re asking us to do here. You’re asking us to risk everything—
everything
—on your word.”