Old Man's War Boxed Set 1 (94 page)

“And neither was I,” I said.

“You remember a long time ago I complained that being an object of worship for an entire race of people wasn’t even good enough to get me out of homework,” Zoë said.

“Vaguely,” I said.

“Well, while I was away I decided to find out what it
was
actually good for,” Zoë said.

“I still don’t get it,” I said.

Zoë took my hand, and then reached out to Jane for hers. “Come on,” she said. “Hickory and Dickory are still inside the ship. They’re keeping an eye on something for me. I want to show it to you.”

“What is it?” Jane asked.

“It’s a surprise,” Zoë said. “But I think you’re going to like it.”

Jane woke me up by pushing me out of bed.

“What the hell?” I said, groggily, from the floor.

“The satellite feed just went down,” she said. Jane was up, grabbed a pair of high-powered binoculars from the dresser, and went outside. I woke up quick and followed her.

“What do you see?” I said.

“The satellite’s gone,” she said. “There’s a ship not too far from where the satellite should be.”

“This Eser is not one for subtlety,” I said.

“He doesn’t think he has to be,” Jane said. “It wouldn’t suit his purposes anyway.”

“Are we ready for this?” I said.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re ready,” Jane said, and dropped her binoculars to look at me. “It’s time.”

To be fair, after Zoë returned, we let the Department of Colonization know that we believed we were under imminent threat of attack and that our defenses against such an attack were almost nil. We begged for more support. What we got was a visit from General Rybicki.

“You two must have swallowed a handful of pills,” Rybicki said, without preamble, when he walked into the administrator’s office. “I’m beginning to be sorry I suggested you for colony leaders.”

“We’re not the colony leaders anymore,” I said, and pointed at Manfred Trujillo, who was seated behind my former desk. “He is.”

This threw Rybicki off stride; he looked at Trujillo. “You have no authorization to be colony leader.”

“The colonists would disagree with you,” Trujillo said.

“The colonists don’t get a vote,” Rybicki said.

“They’d disagree with you on that, too,” Trujillo said.

“Then
they’ve
swallowed stupid pills along with you three,” Rybicki said, and turned back to me and Jane. “What the hell is going on here?”

“I thought our message to the Department of Colonization was pretty clear,” I said. “We have reason to believe we’re about to be attacked, and those who are going to attack us are planning to wipe us out. We need defenses or we’re going to die.”

“You sent the message
in the clear
,” Rybicki said. “Anyone could have picked it up.”

“It was encrypted,” I said. “Military encryption.”

“It was encrypted with a protocol that’s compromised,” Rybicki said. “It’s been compromised for years.” He looked up at Jane. “
You
of all people should have known that, Sagan. You’re responsible for this colony’s safety. You know which encryption to use.”

Jane said nothing.

“So you’re saying that now anyone who cares to hear knows we’re vulnerable,” I said.

“I’m saying that you might as well have taped bacon to your head and walked into a tiger pit,” Rybicki said.

“Then all the more reason for the Colonial Union to defend us,” Trujillo said.

Rybicki glanced back over to Trujillo. “I’m not talking anymore with him around,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what sort of cozy agreement you have going here, the fact of the matter is you two are on the hook for the colony, not him. It’s time to get serious, and what we need to talk about is classified.
He
doesn’t rate.”

“He’s still colony leader,” I said.

“I don’t care if you’ve crowned him King of Siam,” Rybicki said. “He needs to go.”

“Your call, Manfred,” I said.

“I’ll go,” Trujillo said, standing up. “But you need to know this, General Rybicki. We know here how the Colonial Union has used us, played with our destiny and toyed with the lives of all of us. Our lives, the lives of our families and the lives of our children. If the Colonial Union doesn’t defend us now, we’ll know who really killed us. Not some other species and not the Conclave. The Colonial Union. Pure and simple.”

“That’s a nice speech, Trujillo,” Rybicki said. “It doesn’t make it true.”

“General, at the moment, I wouldn’t place you as an authority on truth,” Trujillo said. He nodded to me and Jane and left before the general could retort.

“We’re going to tell him everything you say to us,” I said, after Trujillo left.

“Then you’ll be treasonous as well as incompetent,” Rybicki said, sitting at the desk. “I don’t know what you two think you’re doing, but whatever it is, it’s insane. You,” he looked up at Jane, “I
know
you know that encryption protocol had been compromised. You had to know that you were broadcasting your vulnerability. I can’t even begin to fathom why you did it.”

“I have my reasons,” Jane said.

“Fine,” Rybicki said. “Tell me.”

“No,” Jane said.

“Excuse me?” The general asked.

“I said no,” Jane said. “I don’t trust you.”

“Oh, that’s
rich
,” Rybicki said. “You’ve just painted a big fat target on your colony and
I
can’t be trusted.”

“There are a lot of things the Colonial Union did with Roanoke they didn’t bother to tell us about,” I said. “Turnabout is fair play.”

“Christ,” Rybicki said. “We’re not in a goddamn
schoolyard
. You’re gambling with the lives of these colonists.”

“And this is different from what the CU did how?” I asked.

“Because you don’t have the authority,” Rybicki said. “You don’t have the right.”

“The Colonial Union has the
right
to gamble with the lives of these colonists?” I asked. “It has the right to place them in the path of an enemy military who means to destroy them? These aren’t soldiers, General. They’re civilians. Some of our people are religious pacifists.
You
made sure of that. The Colonial Union may have had the
authority
to put these people in harm’s way. But it sure as hell didn’t have the
right
.”

“Have you ever heard of Coventry?” Rybicki said.

“The English city?” I asked.

Rybicki nodded. “In the Second World War, the British learned through intelligence that their enemies were going to bomb the town. They knew when it was going to happen. But if they evacuated the town they’d reveal that they knew the enemies’ secret code, and they would lose their ability to listen in on the enemies’ plans. For the good of all of Britain they let the bombing happen.”

“You’re saying Roanoke is the Colonial Union’s Coventry,” Jane said.

“I’m saying that we have an implacable enemy who wants us all dead,” Rybicki said. “And that we have to look at what’s best for humanity.
All
of humanity.”

“This assumes that what the Colonial Union does is what’s best for all of humanity,” I said.

“Not to put too fine a point on it, but what it does is better than what anyone else has planned for humanity,” Rybicki said.

“But
you
don’t think that what the Colonial Union is doing is what’s best for all humanity,” Jane said.

“I didn’t say that,” Rybicki said.

“You’re thinking it,” Jane said.

“You have no idea what I’m thinking,” Rybicki said.

“I know precisely what you’re thinking,” Jane said. “I know you’re here to tell us that the Colonial Union doesn’t have ships or soldiers to defend us. I know you know that there are ships and soldiers for our defense but that they’ve been assigned to roles you find redundant or nonessential. I know you’re supposed to deliver a convincing lie to us about that. That’s why you’re here personally, to give the lie a personal touch. And I know it disgusts you that you’re being made to do this, but that it disgusts you even more that you’ve allowed yourself to do it.”

Rybicki stared at Jane, mouth open. So did I.

“I know you think the Colonial Union is acting stupidly in sacrificing Roanoke to the Conclave. I know you know that there are already plans to use our loss for recruiting among the colonies. I know you think that recruiting from the colonies makes them more vulnerable to attack, not less, because now the Conclave will have a reason to target civilian populations in order to cut down the number of potential soldiers. I know you see this as an endgame for the Colonial Union. I know you think the Colonial Union will lose. I know you fear for me and John, for this colony, and for yourself, and for all of humanity. I know you think there’s no way out.”

Rybicki sat in silence for a long moment. “You seem to know a lot,” he said, finally.

“I know enough,” Jane said. “But now we need to hear all of this from you.”

Rybicki looked over to me, and back to Jane. He sagged and shifted uncomfortably. “What can I tell you that you don’t seem to know already?” he said. “The Colonial Union has nothing for you. I argued for them to give you something,
anything
”—he looked over to Jane to see if she would acknowledge the truth of this, but she only stared impassively—“but they’ve made the decision to hold the line at the more developed colonies. I was told it was a more strategic use of our military strength. I don’t agree, but it’s not an indefensible argument to make. Roanoke isn’t the only newer colony left exposed.”

“We’re just the one that’s known to be targeted,” I said.

“I’m supposed to give you a reasonable story for the lack of defenses,” Rybicki said. “The one I settled on was that your sending your plea for help with compromised encryption put our ships and soldiers at risk. This has the advantage of possibly being true”—he looked sharply at Jane when he said this—“but it’s primarily a cover story. I didn’t come just to give it a convincing touch. I came because I felt I owed it to you to say it to your faces.”

“I don’t know how to feel about the fact you’re more comfortable lying to us up close than far away,” I said.

Rybicki smiled a bitter smile. “In retrospect, it appears not to have been one of my best decisions.” He turned back to Jane. “I still want to know how you knew all this.”

“I have my sources,” Jane said. “And you’ve told us what we need to know. The Colonial Union has cut us loose.”

“It wasn’t my decision,” Rybicki said. “I don’t think it’s right.”

“I know,” Jane said. “But that doesn’t really matter at this point.”

Rybicki looked to me for a more sympathetic view. He didn’t get one.

“What do you plan to do now?” he asked.

“We can’t tell you,” Jane said.

“Because you don’t trust me,” Rybicki said.

“Because the same source that lets me know what you’re thinking will let someone else know what we’re planning,” Jane said. “We can’t afford that.”

“But you’re planning
something
,” Rybicki said. “You used a cracked encryption to send us a message. You wanted it to be read. You’re trying to draw
someone
here.”

“It’s time for you to go, General,” Jane said.

Rybicki blinked, unused to being dismissed. He got up and went to the door, turning back to us as he got to it. “Whatever you two are doing, I hope it works,” he said. “I don’t know how it will all turn out if you manage to save this colony. But it’s got to be better than how it turns out if you don’t.” He left.

I turned to Jane. “You need to tell me how you did that,” I said. “How you got that information. You didn’t share that with me before.”

“I didn’t have it before,” she said, and tapped her temple. “You told me that General Szilard said that he gave me the full range of command functions. One of those command functions, in the Special Forces at least, is the ability to read minds.”

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Think about it,” Jane said. “When you have a BrainPal, it learns to read your thoughts. That’s how it works. Using it to read
other
people’s thoughts is just a software issue. Generals in the Special Forces have access to their soldiers’ thoughts, although Szilard told me most of the time it’s not very useful, since people are thinking about pointless things. This time, it came in handy.”

“So anyone who has a BrainPal can have their thoughts read,” I said.

Jane nodded. “And now you know why I couldn’t come to Phoenix Station with you. I didn’t want to give anything away.”

I motioned toward the door Rybicki had just stepped out of. “You just gave it away to him,” I said.

“No,” Jane said. “He doesn’t know I’ve been enhanced. He’s just wondering who on his staff leaked, and how it got to me.”

“You’re still reading his mind,” I said.

“Haven’t stopped since he landed,” Jane said. “Won’t stop until he’s gone.”

“What’s he thinking now?” I asked.

“He’s still thinking about how I knew that information,” Jane said. “And he’s thinking about us. He’s hoping we succeed. That part wasn’t a lie.”

“Does he think we will?” I asked.

“Of course not,” Jane said.

The beam turrets focused on the incoming missiles and fired, but there were too many missiles to focus on; the turrets went up in excessive blast that flung debris across the fields in which they were located, some distance from Croatoan.

“I’m getting a message,” Jane said, to me and Trujillo. “It’s an order to stop fighting and to prepare for a landing.” She paused. “I’m being told that any further resistance will result in a complete carpet-bombing of the colony. I’m being asked to acknowledge the message. Failure to reply within about a minute will be taken as defiance and bombing will proceed.”

“What do you think?” I asked Jane.

“We’re as ready as we’re going to be for this,” Jane said.

“Manfred?” I said.

“We’re ready,” he said. “And I hope to God this works.”

“Kranjic? Beata?” I turned back to where Jann Kranjic and
Beata stood, the two of them fully decked out in reporter gear. Beata nodded; Kranjic gave a thumbs-up.